The following view put forward by James Hirsch highlights the dangers, 'The point of teaching the play is not to give students the final word about the play but to get them hooked on it so they will keep returning to it and exploring new features of it for the rest of their lives.'
Surely it is the very enigmatic complexity of the text that has given it such longevity. No one interpretation can hope to define it. Many dramatic qualities, dramatic devices and specific genre elements can be found but as many teachers would attest, students often fall into the trap of listing or superficially referencing such components without really engaging with the text in any depth.
While I am in quote mode, I think Helen Vendler voices one of the key reasons for it having gained such iconic status. She argues, 'Only "Hamlet," of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, is ruled by a single lyric consciousness. The Macbeths are two; Hal and Falstaff are two; Antony and Cleopatra are two; Desdemona, Othello and Iago are a triad; and "Lear" is full of doubles and triads. Hamlet has no sibling, wife or lieutenant jointly pursuing revenge with him: his reflective loneliness and his lyric status elicit his soliloquies. Hamlet is always at the centre: all the other figures in the play are there to provoke, to repudiate, to interrupt his brilliant cascades of language.' Surely it must be an appreciation for the language of the play that needs to be developed in our classes, but I would argue that trudging through the text, line by line is not the best way to do this.
Any google search for ways to teach 'Hamlet' will no doubt pull up some excellent alternatives to a student reading of the text aloud in class.
To get them in: try playing a section with them only listening to it, or showing a short video clip of a scene with the sound off and having the students try to get an idea of what is going on. When in the critical study mode, show clips from a variety of performance and interpretive styles and draw on both film and stage productions where possible. I would not show a full version of any one production but copies can be made available for students to borrow from the library or find on You Tube to view in their own time to supplement class study.Any one performance reflects a particular interpretive vision whereas we want students to form an informed personalised response of the many ways Shakespeare draws his audience in into the world of Elsinore. It retains contemporary impact due to its psychological depth and while it has many of the genre conventions of tragedy and revenge tragedy, it represents far more than any simple list of stylistic features.
To finish before I bore you, if students can gain some real appreciation for the language of the play than the critical study of text unit has been successfully taught. Shakespearean soliloquies are not ‘voice-overs’ nor private, secret musings but rather one-sided conversations between protagonist and audience. They give the audience access to information, emotions, perceptions in ways not otherwise possible. They are particularly important in the play however for soliloquies become Hamlet’s natural medium as he becomes increasingly introverted, and forced to retreat into himself. Whether he is perceived as feigning madness or actually slipping into that state, his soliloquies provide insight into his increasingly disturbed and alienated view of the world. Dramatic contrast is evident between his public statements, which are often short, jarring or ambiguous, and the anguished outpouring of his soliloquies. If as teachers we can somehow communicate how powerful the play's language is, then we have something to be proud of or as stated in the play itself, 'Thou art proved most royal'.
Adieu
workshop details - www.tta.edu.au
