Book Description

Hamlet kills Polonius thinking he is Claudius. Yet he cannot kill Claudius. Why? Hamlet, angry, tells Ophelia: “Take thee to a nunnery!” [nunnery: Renaissance slang for brothel] “There [in Heaven] is no shuffling; there the action lies in his true nature, and we ourselves compelled, even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, to give in evidence.” —King Claudius “Why does Hamlet attend the German university at Wittenberg? Why study at a university at all? An incorrigible symbolist, Shakespeare must secretly import what he does not openly impart.” Contrast resolute avenger Laertes, who would “cut [Hamlet’s] throat i’ the church”! Shakespeare understood the Freudian slip centuries before Dr. Freud in Vienna. Twice he employs it to give us hints. Queen Gertrude to her son Hamlet: “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? ... Alas, he’s mad!” “Prince Hamlet is a disillusioned idealist, a vital key to his generous, passionate, and tragically conscientious character.” Camelot—“Shakespeare specifically ties the assassination of Hamlet to the death of King Arthur and the collapse of the fellowship of the Round Table.”