Absorptions Of Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'
TRANSFORMATIONS OF TEXT
Hamlet and RAGAD
Summary Notes
-------------------------------------------------
HAMLET
Themes- fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a text.
Motifs- Recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform a responder of the texts major themes.
Symbols- Objects, character, figures or colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Caesura- Expectant atmospherical pause.
Dichotomy- The division into two different views.
Values- Qualities or characteristics which underpin the behaviour and attitudes of a society.
Humanism- Intellectual movement in which man is regarded as the centre of the universe with no dependence on a divine being. Incorporates …show more content…
The distinctive atmosphere of HAMLET is due to recurring imagery of sickness, disease and corruption that in turn reflects the state of Denmark. E.g. “the very air stinks.”
Shakespeare’s world was caught between the two conflicting philosophies of established religion dominated by the Church and the ‘new age’ humanist viewpoint that wished to explore man and his place in the world. Shakespeare created HAMLET as a product of his time- a philosophical examination of the issues that preoccupied his context.
Values in HAMLET are those present in Shakespeare’s Elizabethan context: A chivalric code, knowledge and education, belief in the Great Chain of Being and religious values of the dominant religion (Christianity) such as divine right of king, sanctity of life, humility, truth, compassion, sexual purity, etc etc. Basically anything that was deemed to be “God-pleasing”.
These values are presented in HAMLET through the use of dramatic techniques (eg soliloquy, irony), dramatic conventions such as those of Seneca, Aristotelian tragedy, revenge tragedy, plot, characterization, themes, language, …show more content…
Stoppard has crafted RAGAD as a reflection of his own society by transforming both the context and structure of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The structure of a text has an almost subliminal impact on a responder. Throughout time audiences have become familiar with certain conventions of a text, shaped by genre, plot, characters and themes- rules that great playwrights such as Shakespeare do not violate. When a playwright like Stoppard chooses to subvert such conventions through a transformed text for the purpose of suiting a new context, the predominant vehicle in which he may achieve this is through alteration of
Hamlet and RAGAD
Summary Notes
-------------------------------------------------
HAMLET
Themes- fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a text.
Motifs- Recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform a responder of the texts major themes.
Symbols- Objects, character, figures or colours used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
Caesura- Expectant atmospherical pause.
Dichotomy- The division into two different views.
Values- Qualities or characteristics which underpin the behaviour and attitudes of a society.
Humanism- Intellectual movement in which man is regarded as the centre of the universe with no dependence on a divine being. Incorporates …show more content…
The distinctive atmosphere of HAMLET is due to recurring imagery of sickness, disease and corruption that in turn reflects the state of Denmark. E.g. “the very air stinks.”
Shakespeare’s world was caught between the two conflicting philosophies of established religion dominated by the Church and the ‘new age’ humanist viewpoint that wished to explore man and his place in the world. Shakespeare created HAMLET as a product of his time- a philosophical examination of the issues that preoccupied his context.
Values in HAMLET are those present in Shakespeare’s Elizabethan context: A chivalric code, knowledge and education, belief in the Great Chain of Being and religious values of the dominant religion (Christianity) such as divine right of king, sanctity of life, humility, truth, compassion, sexual purity, etc etc. Basically anything that was deemed to be “God-pleasing”.
These values are presented in HAMLET through the use of dramatic techniques (eg soliloquy, irony), dramatic conventions such as those of Seneca, Aristotelian tragedy, revenge tragedy, plot, characterization, themes, language, …show more content…
Stoppard has crafted RAGAD as a reflection of his own society by transforming both the context and structure of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The structure of a text has an almost subliminal impact on a responder. Throughout time audiences have become familiar with certain conventions of a text, shaped by genre, plot, characters and themes- rules that great playwrights such as Shakespeare do not violate. When a playwright like Stoppard chooses to subvert such conventions through a transformed text for the purpose of suiting a new context, the predominant vehicle in which he may achieve this is through alteration of