| Claudius murdering Old Hamlet | – Elizabethan audience consider this as blasphemous.-Religious views of audience, ‘do not kill’- make audience hate Claudius and view him as a ‘murderous villain’. |
| Treatment of Women | -Modern audience shocked at treatment on Ophelia and Gertrude. “I will obey my lord”-Feminist views of equality challenges patriarchal views of Elizabethan era. -Women viewed as property, contradict modern day society.Jacobean; normal treating of women. |
| Ophelia and Polonius | -Modern audience more critical of male dominance.-Elizabethan/Jacobean audience sympathise with Polonius as Ophelia is his possession. |
| Jacobean Theatre | -Harsh satire of their society -Playwrights focused on intense human emotions; selfishness, lust, violence, ambition.-Exaggerating renaissance forces -Audience found exciting: violence, sex, Machiavellian characters. Jacobean protagonist: ambitious, intelligent, manipulative. |
| Jacobean Theatre | “Realistic representations of society with the intent of sparking intense emotions and realisations in the audiences” |
| Supernatural | -Superstition, fear of witches.-Ghost induces intense fear on Jacobean audience. |
| Hamlet and the Malcontent. | -Hamlet is a “Malcontent”: figure of Jacobean drama.-Cynical outsider who sees the ugliness of society, a commenter, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”.-Unhappy, unsettled and displeased with their world, wants change.-Gets sucked into society for act of revenge. “Denmark’s a prison” “Fat weed”-Comments on social and political injustice, and the only character aware of corruption.-Linked to Renaissance ideas of black bile causing melancholy. |
Jacobean vs Modern Audiences: Hamlet
November 4, 2019