Hamlet is a novel I’m sure you’re familiar with even if you’re not a Shakespeare aficionado. Like Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet is a tragedy, more specifically centered around vengeance, indecision, and consequence. If you can’t see past the difficult-to-decipher script and layers of symbolism, Hamlet will be hell for you (as many of Shakespeare’s works would be). If you’re a fan of the archaic and appreciated, though, Hamlet will be right up your alley. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was written in the late 16th/early 17th centuries; as such, the form of English used in the play is by our standards far from normal. A normal reader will have trouble reading it without being explained some of the grammatical and stylistic choices Shakespeare makes. That said, Hamlet centers around our title character, Hamlet. Hamlet’s father, Hamlet (hereby named ‘Old Hamlet’) has died a month or two before the play’s events, and Hamlet is clearly depressed over the matter. A shocking revelation eventually makes its way to Hamlet--that his father didn’t die of natural causes after all--and a plot imbued with violence, treachery and emotion soon follows. Needless to say that it’s a book that doesn’t skimp out on heads rolling by the end. I like Hamlet. Despite it being a massive undertaking to read more than 30 pages at a time, I still found myself attracted to the writing and plot. Shakespeare, despite the criticism he’s gathered by many irritated students, is a strong writer. The characters’ actions make sense, and when he wants to make an audience feel a certain way he does quite a good job at it. I feel as though many of the symbols that he wants to convey to us, though, are lost within centuries of translation. Words don’t carry the same weight when you need a glossary on the side of the page to understand them. Many times I found myself more captivated by passages translated to 21st-century English solely because I didn’t have to remove myself from the story to figure out what a word or expression meant. Hamlet is a good novel. I expected to be bored out of my mind for the next 6 hours of my life, but I was in actuality pleasantly surprised by what Hamlet had to offer.
Hamlet is a novel I’m sure you’re familiar with even if you’re not a Shakespeare aficionado. Like Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet is a tragedy, more specifically centered around vengeance, indecision, and consequence. If you can’t see past the difficult-to-decipher script and layers of symbolism, Hamlet will be hell for you (as many of Shakespeare’s works would be). If you’re a fan of the archaic and appreciated, though, Hamlet will be right up your alley.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was written in the late 16th/early 17th centuries; as such, the form of English used in the play is by our standards far from normal. A normal reader will have trouble reading it without being explained some of the grammatical and stylistic choices Shakespeare makes. That said, Hamlet centers around our title character, Hamlet. Hamlet’s father, Hamlet (hereby named ‘Old Hamlet’) has died a month or two before the play’s events, and Hamlet is clearly depressed over the matter. A shocking revelation eventually makes its way to Hamlet--that his father didn’t die of natural causes after all--and a plot imbued with violence, treachery and emotion soon follows. Needless to say that it’s a book that doesn’t skimp out on heads rolling by the end.
I like Hamlet. Despite it being a massive undertaking to read more than 30 pages at a time, I still found myself attracted to the writing and plot. Shakespeare, despite the criticism he’s gathered by many irritated students, is a strong writer. The characters’ actions make sense, and when he wants to make an audience feel a certain way he does quite a good job at it. I feel as though many of the symbols that he wants to convey to us, though, are lost within centuries of translation. Words don’t carry the same weight when you need a glossary on the side of the page to understand them. Many times I found myself more captivated by passages translated to 21st-century English solely because I didn’t have to remove myself from the story to figure out what a word or expression meant.
Hamlet is a good novel. I expected to be bored out of my mind for the next 6 hours of my life, but I was in actuality pleasantly surprised by what Hamlet had to offer.