Shakespeare’s Hamlet treats the age-old conflict between pagan and Christian morality and the spiritual tension in which it long kept Western man. But it does so in a decidedly modern context. The landscape of Denmark is changing. Its feudal orders, the Church, and imperial wars have begun to slip into the past, as an international order, with its markets, universities, leisure travel, and technology, assumes their place.

Caught in the middle of this transition is the impressive young man Hamlet, “th’observed of all observers”—all eyes are on him: heir to throne of Denmark, he is fiercely intelligent and quick with a witticism, but also proud, daring, and often shockingly rash. And now he’s troubled. Early on, he finds himself tasked by the ghostly apparition of his dead father, still stinging under the pain of hellfire, to seek pagan-style revenge against his Machiavellian uncle. Hamlet is thus forced to settle that age-old conflict, yet as it gives way to the modern, Machiavellian order, and he must do so using the one tool available to him: the meticulous care indicative of his studies at Wittenberg. Hamlet must act rightly, yet what is right and good, long a matter of conflict, has now become a matter of academic debate. Hamlet is faced with an urgent political crisis, but the tools he’s been given seem wholly anathema to decisive action.

Readers often accuse Hamlet of navel-gazing to the point of unconscionable delay. But Hamlet accuses himself of this no less. His situation is very much our own, as we find ourselves heir to multiple traditions whose authority has waned and access to which is granted primarily through books. As is our way, we will try to address this dilemma by reading Hamlet.

Image: Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V (Ophelia Before The King And Queen), Benjamin West, 1792.

 

Hamlet with Alex Priou

This course takes place weekly on Mondays, via Zoom, from 6 PM to 8 PM ET. Fellows will receive a $150 stipend contingent upon participation in the course and completion of a brief response paper. All course materials will be provided.

Faculty

Alex Priou

Alex Priou is an Associate Professor of Political Theory at UATX. His research and teaching both focus on the history of political philosophy, with specialization in Plato and the Pre-Socratic poets and philosophers. He often writes for a broader audience on his Substack and Public Discourse and is the co-host of a weekly podcast The New Thinkery where he discusses a broad array of texts philosophical, historical, political, and literary.

Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session

Readings:

  • Hamlet, Act I

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does Hamlet open with the words, “Who’s there?” That is, why does Shakespeare begin the play with a scene in which recognition is so prominent? How does Shakespeare develop this theme in Act I and even through the play as a whole?
  2. What do we learn about Horatio? How would you characterize him? What’s his backstory, both as an individual and in relation to Hamlet? Why did the guards consult Horatio about the ghost? What sort of authority does he have? And what does that tell us about the current social structure in Denmark?
  3. Sight and speech play a prominent role in Act I. Which is more reliable? How do you know a person? How do you know what sort of a person they are or their interior? Is it through the speeches you hear or the deeds you see? Both?
  4. Describe the political situation in Denmark. What sort of a regime is it? What are its domestic institutions? What foreign policy situation is it facing at the moment?
  5. We get a glimpse at Polonius’ family in Scene 3. What is your impression of Polonius, Laertes, and Ophelia? What advice do Laertes and Polonius give Ophelia? Do you think it’s good advice?
  6. Why does the ghost want revenge? That is, what specific injustice on Claudius’ part motivates the ghost’s desire for revenge? What predicament does this put Hamlet in?
  7. What is your impression of Hamlet from his first appearance in Scene 2, and from the rest of Act I? Why is he so out of sorts? How would you characterize him?  How does he react to the ghost, and why? What is he going to do? What does this tell us about him?

Readings:

  • Hamlet, Act II

Discussion Questions:

  1. How much time has passed since Act I ended? What has occurred in the meantime? That is, how have the issues presented in Act I changed or developed?
  2. Scene 1 features Polonius prominently. How would you characterize him? Do you approve or disapprove of the advice he gave Ophelia? What about his plan with Laertes? Consider his role in Scene 2, as well.
  3. What does Claudius hope to accomplish with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? How do they react to the King and Queen? What does their reaction suggest about the social dynamics in Denmark? Keep in mind that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s names suggest that they are of noble descent.
  4. Both the foreign policy situation with Norway and the domestic policy situation with Hamlet have developed. How? And what is Claudius’ reaction to these developments?  Which is he more concerned with, and why? What should he be more concerned with, and why?
  5. Analyze Hamlet’s interactions with Polonius and then with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Is he going mad, or is he in control of himself and the situation—or is it both? Consider, as well, his longish speech in lines 316 ff. of Scene 2.
  6. At the end of Act II, Hamlet comes up with the plot to use the players to reveal Claudius’ guilt, yet this is only after he has asked the players to perform a modified version of a play. Why did Hamlet initially want them to perform a modified version of a play, if not to expose Claudius? Consider his third soliloquy, especially lines 576–617.

Readings:

  • Hamlet, Act III

Discussion Questions:

  1. Polonius outlines a plan with Claudius and Ophelia. Claudius feels pangs of guilt. How might Ophelia react to it? Does Claudius overhear Hamlet’s soliloquy in lines 64 ff.? How might he react to it, if he does? That is, what is Hamlet’s predicament, according to the third soliloquy, and how is it similar to and different from Claudius’? How do Claudius, Polonius, and Ophelia each react to Ophelia’s tense exchange with Hamlet?
  2. What is “the purpose of playing” according to Hamlet? What does this reveal about his intentions with staging a performance within the play? What does it reveal about Shakespeare’s intention with his plays? Is Shakespeare successful in “hold[ing]…the mirror up to nature” with Hamlet? Do you see yourself at all in Hamlet or the other characters?
  3. Horatio is taken aback by Hamlet’s fond words for him. Why is Hamlet suddenly so attached to Horatio, so much so that Horatio is surprised by Hamlet’s affection?
  4. After the play is completed, Claudius storms out. Why? What do subsequent events in Scenes 2 and 3 suggest about how the play has affected him?
  5. What moves Claudius to pray in Scene 3? And why does he struggle to pray? Why doesn’t Hamlet kill him? Was he right in his decision? That is, should he have killed Claudius, and why or why not?
  6. At the end of Scene 2, Hamlet says, in reference to his mother, “Let me be cruel, not unnatural. I will speak daggers to her, but use none.” After speaking to his mother in Scene 4, he says, “I must be cruel only to be kind.” How does Hamlet “speak daggers” to his mother in Scene 4, and how might speaking daggers be an act of kindness?

Readings:

  • Hamlet, Act IV

Discussion Questions:

  1. Act IV begins with Claudius saying, “There’s matter in these sighs.” What does he mean? And how does the rest of the scene bring out the matter? What is the relationship between an inarticulate sigh and articulate speech? How does it affect the distinctions between private and public and between interior and exterior?
  2. Claudius remarks that Hamlet is “loved of the distracted multitude.” What does this suggest about the political circumstances in Denmark? That is, what does it suggest about changing political dynamics in general and about Claudius’ hold on rule in particular?
  3. Hamlet makes a number of comments on Polonius’ body and bodies in general. What worldview is Hamlet espousing, perhaps even adopting, here? Why has he adopted it?
  4. Hamlet then encounters Fortinbras’ army, leading to his seventh and final soliloquy. Why does Hamlet no longer need to speak with himself—that is, to think—after this speech? What impresses him about the army? Has he properly understood the phenomenon he’s commenting on?
  5. Why has Ophelia gone mad? Can you make sense of Ophelia’s apparently nonsensical songs? Do you think she commits suicide? Or was it an accident? Why does Shakespeare make it difficult for us to disentangle the intentional and the accidental?
  6. In Scene 7, Claudius is about to articulate a plan to Laertes when he hears that Hamlet is returning, after which he develops a new plan with Laertes. What might the original plan have been? What is the new plan? Can you identify any flaws?

Readings:

  • Hamlet, Act V

Discussion Questions:

  1. Why does Act V begin with comic relief? How does the gravedigger view his work? What is his worldview? Why is he able to joke so easily about death? And why isn’t Hamlet able to do the same?
  2. Why does Hamlet jump into Ophelia’s grave? How does this act in Scene 1, and his escape as described to Horatio in Scene 2, reflect his newfound resolve from his last soliloquy? Do these acts expose any problems in his new path to decisive action?
  3. How would you characterize Osric? What role does he play in Denmark? What do Hamlet and Horatio think of him? Are they correct in their judgment? How might they underestimate Osric and people like him?
  4. Why does each character die the way he or she does? Why does Laertes have a change of heart at the end? Why does Hamlet force Claudius to drink? What is the meaning of Hamlet’s final words? Why does Horatio try to commit suicide?
  5. Why does the play end the way it does? That is, why all the references to theater? And why do we only hear from Osric, Horatio, and Fortinbras at the end? In other words, why are they the only ones to survive and speak in the new world that will take the place of the one that produced Hamlet?

Readings:

  • Review Hamlet in its entirety

Discussion Questions:

  1. Hamlet changes his understanding of the world a number of times during the play. What are some of them? And what events lead him to change his views?
  2. What does Ophelia mean in describing Hamlet as “th’observed of all observers, quite, quite down”? How could this be understood as a distillation of the problem Hamlet represents? How are we like Hamlet, how not? Do you admire him, loathe him, or have mixed feelings about him? How might we be in a position similar to Horatio’s?

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Biography Image

Ryan P. Hanley

Ryan Patrick Hanley is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. His research in the history of political philosophy focuses on the Enlightenment. He is the author of Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living a Better Life and Love’s Enlightenment: Rethinking Charity in Modernity.