DANCEST 303 Lecture 29:
Document Summary
Hamlet is without question the most famous play in the english language. Shakespeare"s focus on this conflict was a revolutionary departure from contemporary revenge tragedies, which tended to graphically dramatize violent acts on stage, in that it emphasized the hero"s dilemma rather than the depiction of bloody deeds. The dramatist"s genius is also evident in his transformation of the play"s literary sources especially the contemporaneous ur- The ur-hamlet, or original hamlet, is a lost play that scholars believe was written mere decades before shakespeare"s hamlet, providing much of the dramatic context for the later tragedy. Numerous sixteenth-century records attest to the existence of the ur-hamlet, with some references linking its composition to thomas kyd, the author of the spanish tragedy. From these sources shakespeare created hamlet, a supremely rich and complex literary work that continues to delight both readers and audiences with its myriad meanings and interpretations.
