At the grave yard Hamlet
does not manifest any feelings towards his late father who according to the traditional interpretation, must have
been buried there only a couple of months before that. Hamlet's
behavior remains the same even when the grave-digger mentions king
Hamlet. There appears an impression as if Hamlet had two different fathers: the one whose death he mourns, and the other one whom he does not remember. This is not strange because in the text, there are
According to the applied version of the Literary Theory, the only possible explanation is that Shakespeare created Hamlet as a menippeah containing several full-scale plots based on the same text. In every such work, there always exists an 'inner story' — in this case, in a form of a drama reflecting the events in Elsinore, while its characters should correspond to 'real' persons with altered biographies.
An attentive reading reveals that the 'now living King' married Gertrude not a couple of months before the described events began but rather more than twenty years earlier, when prince Hamlet was a baby. This conclusion is supported with multiple facts scattered over the text of Hamlet. By employing them, several strictly logical conclusions are made:
King Hamlet and king Fortinbras were brothers; King Hamlet won Denmark by having killed his brother. (That is only too obvious. 'King Claudius' mentions the Norway as his brother. The Norway and the late king Fortinbras were brothers as well. Therefore, 'King Claudius' and Fortinbras were brothers. Further, 'King Claudius' assassinated king Hamlet who was his brother. Therefore, king Hamlet and king Fortinbras were brothers.) — Well, is not that obvious, indeed? Did we really need four centuries to reveal that?
Prince Hamlet is king Hamlet's son only within the 'inner drama'; in 'reality' he is the last son to king Fortinbras. (Queen Gertrude delivered prince Hamlet in Elsinore on the very day of the battle. The castle was still in the possession of Fortinbras, therefore only his spouse could deliver Hamlet there.) (2)
Prince Hamlet and young Fortinbras were brothers as they were both the children to the same king Fortinbras—queen Gertrude couple. That explains why before his death prince Hamlet gives his vote for the throne in favor of prince Fortinbras.
In 'reality', King Hamlet was never poisoned by his brother. On the contrary, having killed his brother Fortinbras, he has been living with Gertrude for thirty years. We see him 'alive' for all five Acts, until his nephew Hamlet kills him. The act of poisoning took place only within the plot of the inner drama.
In 'reality', king Claudius does not exist at all; that is merely a character of the inner drama.
As Hamlet appears to be a menippeah with an 'inner story', there follows the necessity to perform certain steps:
Within the menippeah, there should exist a special character narrating the text. He must be the main object at whom Shakespeare's satire is aimed. The hidden intention of that character is the most important composition element of Hamlet.
Within the main plot of Shakespeare's work, it is necessary to define the identity of the 'proxy author' who has created the inner story. That might be the Narrator himself or some other person, but in any case that must be one of the characters of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
It is imperative that the borders delimiting the 'main' body of Hamlet and the inner story should be defined.
It has been established that the prosaic part of Hamlet is the carrier of the main plot (featuring the 'real' events) while the versed portion presents the text of the Mousetrap staged in Elsinore. There follows a conclusion that the prosaic passages are not technical flaws but rather important composition elements intended by Shakespeare. The composition importance of the prosaic parts has been testified by comparing the texts of Q1, Q2, and F1. It happened that a sound pentameter passage of the 'bad quarto' was substituted in Q2 and F1 with a prosaic text. It is the scene in which Hamlet instructs the actors how they should perform (Act III).
1. The term of menippeah is attributed to the works containing hidden content thus consisting of several plots and subjects. Shakespeare's Hamlet is a multiple-level menippea.
(Back)2. It was openly stated in the first edition of Hamlet that prince Hamlet was a son to Fortinbras defeated by king Hamlet:
Quarto 1:
Ham. And why a tanner?
Clowne Why his hide is so tanned with his trade,
That it will holde out water, that's a parlous
Deuourer of your dead body, a great soaker.
Looke you, heres a scull hath bin here this dozen yeare,
Let me see, I euer since our last king Hamlet
Slew Fortenbrasse in combat, yong Hamlets father,
Hee that's mad.
In Q2 and Folio editions of Hamlet, that explicit statement was substituted with one demanding some logical work.
(Back)Chapter II: Shakespeare, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Eliot: no lack of objective correlative
Copyright © Alfred Barkov 2000, 2003