the pirates

[Maia]

WHAT

Really, Shakespeare?

[Jodie]

I'm unsure what you mean here...

[Emmy]

I'm just going out on a limb here, but do you mean it was silly for Shakespeare to (view spoiler)[randomly insert pirates as a deus ex machina in the play to prevent Hamlet from dying at the hands of the English king (hide spoiler)]?

[Katie]

The pirates weren't what saved Hamlet, they simply allowed him an easy route back to Denmark. He was saved when he found and switched the orders to kill him.

While the pirates may seem a little random, they probably didn't seem that way to the audience Shakespeare was writing for. To them, pirates would have seemed like a fairly obvious peril to any ship and he may have inserted it to add some spice to Hamlet's travel story. First and foremost he was trying to entertain and pirates makes for a more entertaining letter than "went on a ship, switched a letter, not going to be killed, coming home now" does.

[Emmy]

Katie wrote: "The pirates weren't what saved Hamlet, they simply allowed him an easy route back to Denmark. He was saved when he found and switched the orders to kill him.

While the pirates may seem a little r..."

You're right, Katie. I have to agree with you :)

[Emlen]

Pirates are also a very old, traditional literary device. In ancient Greek "novels" and comedies, people get kidnapped by pirates all the time -- it's usually the set up for somebody turning out to be someone else's long-lost child or sibling. I'm pretty sure they continue to turn up in Medieval and Renaissance popular literature too (though I don't know as much about this). So it's not like Hamlet running into a zombie plague or something.

[BubblesTheMonkey]

Pirates....

[Sara]

There are very few stories that couldn't be improved by pirates. Zombie pirates? Even better. ;)

[Cynthia]

Sara wrote: "There are very few stories that couldn't be improved by pirates. Zombie pirates? Even better. ;)"
:)