So, Harold Bloom is THE expert on Shakespeare. If Harold Bloom says something, people listen. And now you'll know to pay attention to him, too. He's taught at Yale, Harvard, and NYU. Not too shabby of a resume, huh? I'd say that he's probably the most celebrated literary critic in the United States. Okay, fine, Frank Kermode said that, but, you know, whatever.
Tomorrow in class, we shall handle a few discussion topics that you received TODAY, said by Bloom. However, in the blog, TONIGHT, I'd like you to handle this idea that he presented about Hamlet:
“Part of the definitive Hamlet’s mystery is why the audience and readership, rather like the common people of Denmark in the play, should love him. Until Act V, Hamlet loves the dead father (or rather, his image) but does not persuade us that he loves (or ever loved) anyone else. The prince has no remorse for his manslaughter of Polonius, or for his vicious badgering of Ophelia into madness and suicide, or for his gratuitous dispatch of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their undeserved deaths. We do not believe Hamlet when he blusters to Laertes that he loved Ophelia, since the charismatic nature seems to exclude remorse, except for what has not yet been done. The skull of poor Yorick evokes not grief, but disgust, and the son’s farewell to his dead mother is the heartless ‘Wretched Queen, adieu.’ There is the outsize tribute to the faithful and loving Horatio, but it is subverted when Hamlet angrily restrains his grieving follower from suicide, not out of affection but so as to assign him the task of telling the prince’s story, lest Hamlet bear forever a wounded name. There is indeed a considerable ‘case against Hamlet,’ urged most recently by Alistair Fowler, but even if Hamlet is a hero-villain, he remains the Western hero of consciousness” (409).
Do you agree with Harold Bloom? Make sure to look at those scenes that Bloom references, and to
reference them in your discussion. Remember the existing blog rules as well--interact with at least one of
your classmates' thoughts. And a simple "I agree with Sparkles" is NOT sufficient. Really evaluate what
Sparkles, or Mits, or Pink Chucks, or Banana, or Deanielle said about it.
Do a good job here--you're playing in Bloom's park.
As long as they're posted before our class tomorrow (BEFORE LUNCH, AHEM!) you're golden.
Thanks, kiddos!
