I’ve just finished reading a book, Henry V, War Criminal and Other Shakespearian Puzzles, which explores a number of puzzles, and apparent contradictions, in some (or in fact most) of Shakespeare’s plays. I guess when you happen to be this hugely famous author any little mistake, or apparent mistake, is suddenly scrutinised extensively, and debated over by academics of all stripes. Then we have somebody like Shakespeare, who in many cases is viewed as not just one of, but the greatest, writer that the English language has ever produced, and we are speaking of a language that has produced countless numbers of great writers. However while writers such as Charles Dickens can produce a love/hate relationship, Shakespeare seems to be loved by all (except for those high school students who are forced to study his plays).

I guess when somebody is held in such high regards, their works will tend to be studied a lot closer – there are countless libraries of books written about Shakespeare and his various works, and if you have a look at some of my previous posts you will see that a number of them are about some of Shakespeares’ plays, but then again that does have something to do with me going out to see these plays, and then writing about them when I get home (though to date I have yet to get around to writing about the production of the Scottish Play that I saw at The Globe – probably because it is The Scottish Play). Anyway, for those who are new to the blog, here is a list of the published Shakesperian posts so far:

The thing with Shakespeare is that his plays are so in-depth, and the characters so realistic, that it is hard not to be able to write, and continue to write, about his plays, and to continue to perform them in new and imaginative ways. It is also hard to see meanings and ideas that are still relevant today, whether it be in the halls of the power, in the boardrooms, or even just in the family home – in fact, Hamlet need not be performed in a castle in Denmark, but in a house in the outer suburbs of a major city.

Yet Shakespeare is also scrutinised, but that is not surprising because people do hold him in such high regard. In fact one could even consider him to have been deified by the Anglo people – he holds the position of a god of literature. Mind you, if it wasn’t for the fact that the Anglo-European world is a Christian world, Shakespeare probably would have become a god, though I do note that the great philosophers and writers of the ancient world were never deified, whereas the Roman emperors where (but then again that is probably because the Roman Emperors actually claimed to be gods).

In a way, this probably also answers the question as to why the Bible is scrutinised so much more heavily than other books. Christians are forever crying unfair that the Bible is scrutinised much than the Odyssey when we have so many more source materials that were written much closer to the original manuscripts of the Bible than we do for the Odyssey. The reason for this is because the Odyssey does not purport to be a holy book or claim to have the answers to life, the universe, and everything, whereas the Bible does. In fact, the Bible claims to be about this guy who runs around first century Palestine purporting to be God in the Flesh, and then died, and came back to life. With claims like that, of course, it is going to be scrutinised.

Each of the chapters of the book explores an aspect of one of the plays that appears to be, on the surface, quite puzzling. One of these things happens to be why time seems to be so compressed. For instance, in Richard II, we have, within a very short space of time, King Richard forming an army, crossing the Irish Sea, subduing the Irish, and then coming back home. In the meantime we have the banished Henry Bollingbrooke suddenly raise another army of supporters, cross over to England, and seize the throne. All in a matter of months (or even within a much shorter space of time).

Well, the answer to that was simply ‘warp speed’. That is that like in Star Trek, where the writers created warp speed so that the immense distances between the stars can be travelled in a reasonable amount of time to actually make the series work. If, for instance, it took hundreds, or even thousands, of years for a message to get from the Enterprise to Earth, and back again, then the show wouldn’t work. Similarly, if it took the same amount of time to get from planet A to planet B. Further, due to problems such as inertia, if the Enterprise even went from a stationary position to impulse speed, pretty much the entire crew would find themselves as splats on the back wall.

The authors suggest that this is a similar case with Shakespeare, though I have to admit that this, like a number of their suggestions, is a little disappointing. The reality is that Shakespeare is compressing quite a lot of action into what is in effect a play that would probably last between two to three hours. Furthermore, all of this action is happening on a small stage with little in the way of props. As such this whole compressing of time is actually unnecessary. Mind you, when I watch Richard II the last thought that goes through my mind was ‘gee, how did Henry Bollingbrooke raise an army in such a short amount of time’. Instead, I explore how the characters interact, and the ideas that come out of the play.

In the same way, is the question of what season it is in Denmark. It is bitterly cold up on the battlements, but King Hamlet was killed while relaxing in his garden. If it was the middle of winter, then it is highly unlikely that the king would be sleeping in the garden – he would no doubt have died of frostbite or pneumonia without Claudius even needing to raise a finger. Once again, we have poetic license, and to be honest, when I am watching Hamlet, the last thing I am asking is ‘gee, how was it that King Hamlet didn’t catch a cold’. Actually, because I have seen the play so many times, the question I’m usually asking, especially if it is a particularly bad performance, is ‘when is this going to end?’

Well, on the subject of Hamlet, let us raise the question of the infamous ghost, especially since this is something that I have queried and explored in the past. In Julius Caeser, and Macbeth, we have ghosts also appearing, but we never actually bat an eyelid at it. For instance, I have never questioned whether the ghost of Julius Caeser, when it confronts Brutus, is a demon or not, but for some reason, I do when it comes to the ghost in Hamlet. As I have since discovered I’m not the only person who raises this question, but I suspect the main reason is that Hamlet doesn’t necessarily take this ghost at his word. In fact, when we look at Hamlet and the fact that he doesn’t just rush off and lop off Claudius’ head suggests that he at least wants some further proof that Claudius is the murderer. Look, the reality is that Hamlet isn’t a big fan of Claudius anyway, and being told by a spirit that Claudius is also his father’s murderer would be just enough reason for him to do the guy in – but he doesn’t. To me, it shows that Hamlet isn’t indecisive, but quite clear-headed and willing to bide his time.

The interesting thing is that the play is set in Denmark, which at the time was clearly a protestant country. This basically means that the belief was that when somebody died they either went straight to heaven, or straight to hell. Personally, even though I’m a Protestant I don’t think it is as straight forward as that, but I won’t get too theological. Anyway, being a protestant country suggests that their view on ghosts would be that there is no possible way that they could be the deceased, and as such, the only thing that they could be would be a demon.

Except Hamlet wasn’t set in the contemporary era – this is clear when Hamlet is sent to England. There is mention of the Danelaw, which was a part of England during the medieval ages which were ruled by Denmark. The suggestion, or at least the impression, that I have had was that Hamlet was set not in 15th Century Denmark, but in Medieval Denmark. Mind you, that is also going to cause problems because medieval Denmark wasn’t Christian, or at least it didn’t become Christian until the late 900s, and Amleth, the mythological character upon which Hamlet is based, was said to have lived much earlier. Further, we also have Hamlet find Claudius praying and has the perfect opportunity to kill him, except he doesn’t due to the belief, a Catholic belief, that if somebody is killed while praying then they go straight to heaven.

 

Okay, Hamlet was also attending university at Wittemberg, and when Amleth was running around universities basically didn’t exist. Also, Wittenberg was the same town in which Martin Luther famously vandalised the doors of the Cathedral with 95 Theses. So, the question was why Hamlet, who was studying at a protestant university in a protestant country, suddenly resorting to Catholic dogma. The answer was that it was because Hamlet was too torn up with grief to think straight, but honestly, grief has nothing to do with whether you believe protestant or Catholic doctrine, rather it probably has a lot more to do with Hamlet being set prior to the protestant reformation.

Or poetic license.