Critical Approaches to "Hamlet" by Ariel H.

Hamlet is a classic Shakespeare play about an emo Danish prince who wants to get revenge on his uncle/stepdad because he killed his father, and acts crazy along the way. I chose this text because it’s one that I’ve loved since senior year of high school, and one of the only classics I brought to BYU in print form.

[Christian criticism]

• Hamlet has a Protestant point of view when he witnesses the presumed ghost of his father, who portrays himself the way a Catholic would perceive a ghost. This leads me to believe that not only is there conflict between this aspect of the story’s theology, but could mean there are many other symbols and attitudes that could identify the religious affiliations of all the characters. The way Laertes and Hamlet wrestle in the grave, how Ophelia is slut-shamed but Hamlet doesn’t get in trouble for adultery, how Claudius feels forgiven for murder by just confessing it out-loud to himself and calling it good, etc.

[Critical race]

• The play takes place in Denmark and follows the privileged characters around, but were lower-class characters (or characters never mentioned that would have existed if Hamlet was a real story) people of color? Yorick was a jester (a humiliating job), the gravedigger had a dirty job, the travelling performers sound like gypsies, and in any story involving the wealthy there would have had serfs/servants/slaves of some variety; any of them could technically have been less than “pure” Danish. 

[Archetypal]

• Hamlet always seemed to me to be a self-centered angsty teen with an anti-climatic death. But he does get revenge for his father in a way, he might have faked crazy to try to protect Ophelia (which fails, of course), and he does have great concern about the wellbeing of his nuclear family and the people of Denmark. He could actually have been a tragic hero archetype.

[New historicism]

• If Hamlet’s name shares a striking resemblance to Shakespeare’s son, and deals with death and grief, what else about the play reflected the context Shakespeare was living in? The aspects of Protestantism and Catholicism in Hamlet can be seen as Shakespeare’s internal struggle to find a true religion, the subtle reference to a pirate kidnapping Hamlet could have been mundane in his era and that’s why it’s briefly mentioned, etc.

[Queer theory] 

• There have been speculations about Shakespeare's sexual preferences, and Hamlet could be arguably homosexual or bisexual. He bashes Ophelia's feelings for him and women in general like he's not attracted to them, he's very much close to Horatio and could have romantic interest never pursued, and we know he's full of internal conflict but don't know if it's just because of Claudius or if there's more he's keeping bottled up... This one might be a stretch but it could be a fun adventure to defend.