/lit/ - Literature

>reading plays
Great idea, but only after you finish with that novel you're singing.

>>4237053
Watched the Tennant version. He makes being a half mad existential prince look so bloody fun.

A small plot loophole i have is how Hamlet can make the to be or not to be speech abot deaths uncertainty when a ghost literally tells him purgatory and afterlife exists. The ghost obviously isnt a delusion since Horatio sees it too.

>>4237085
This.

Although, Hamlet's pretty unclear weather the ghost is being a master ruse-man or not, at least around his friends.

>>4237053
Also, avoid the Laurence Olivier version if you can. It's cited as one of the best, but misses out on some pretty huge themes. The best versions are the BBC ones; both Tennent and Jacobi.

>>4237085
>>4237093
The scene always struck me as Hamlet acting the fool. Ophelia is there in the room, he just supposedly doesnt notice until the end. Difficult to tell

>>4237053
OP, its the best ghost story I've ever read, and probably my favorite of Shakespeare's

>>4237161
Actually, what other ghost stories are worth mentioning /lit/?

The Turn of the Screw was ok, and Poe is ok, but nothing really touches Hamlet

>>4237085
>>4237093
Ghosts are not alive. It is not his father that appeared to him, but the ghost of his father, you know?

While some people struggle with this afterlife or no-life, God vs no-God, etc. Shakespeare is just giving us one more example to see this under a different light. Afterlife is a no-life, a non-being. Ghosts are real as far as they are evidence of the absence of life, in this case, of king Hamlet. His apparition gives no certainty, no light. Ghosts will always be hanging to life and Hamlet's father only spoke about living matters: that he was killed, that there is murderer as king, etc. And what should Hamlet do about it? His quest will not only silent Claudius and perhaps others (as it happened), but also the ghost of his father. So the "to be or not to be" question serves not only to Hamlet's actions, but all action in the face of meaninglessness. What good is a throne? What good is honor? What good was his father's life? And his?

The ghost works as a revelation. It haunts the castle, like the murder of a king haunts its kingdom, so everyone can see it, but it speaks only to prince Hamlet. It is perhaps Hamlet's ignorance surrounding his father's death that made the ghost appear. I believe Hamlet knew, all along, that his father was murdered, but the ghost made him realize it.

And the afterlife is still a no life, it is a "dream of death". It is an uncertain and empty sleep.

What's interesting is that Hamlet was controlled by the Devil. In the end of the play he starts speaking in third person. "Hamlet made many mistakes" "Hamlet did this" Showing that it is the devil speaking.

Also the ghost is the devil, not his father

>>4237320
Im talking about the part where the ghost says he's "confined to fast in fires, till foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away"

>>4237085
1) He doesn't know whether the ghost is actually his father's spirit or the Devil playing tricks on him
2) He's not worried about what happens after death in terms of "is there an afterlife?", he's worried in terms of "what's the afterlife like?" In fact you get the impression that if he was confident there *wasn't* an afterlife he'd off himself straight away; more than anything he wants to stop existing but if there's an afterlife that's impossible.

>>4237097
>avoid the Laurence Olivier

>>4237334

>Showing that it is the devil speaking
>Also the ghost is the devil, not his father

I assume you're being le excellent troll, but there is literally no evidence for the latter claim. Also, how does 'devil' follow from 'third person'?

>>4237347
in other words, when Hamlet's like
>but in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?
he isn't worried that he *won't* (metaphorically) dream, he's worried that he *will*.

>>4237228
Strindberg's "A Ghost Sonata"

>>4237334
>what is ambiguity

>>4237347
See
>>4237346

Which seems to be the ghost admitting of a hell of sorts.

This by the way goes against >>4237334
Since why would the Devil remind him how much suffering hell is like?

>>4237368
>Which seems to be the ghost admitting of a hell of sorts.
Exactly, but just because Hamlet knows that the afterlife exists doesn't mean he knows what it would be like for him to actually be there. It's still an undiscovered country. You could easily interpret his trepidation about the afterlife as simply worrying whether the pains of hell (which he would go to if he killed himself, the everlasting having fix'd his cannon gainst self slaughter and all that) would outweigh the slings and arrows and thousand natural shocks etc. of his life. Hamlet seeks an escape from pain, Hell is not an escape from pain. Pretty simple.

>>4237359
I'm not him and I don't subscribe to the idea that it is the devil, but the doubt stands and he has a good point. The devil always speaks through, it is always a voice from somewhere, so to address oneself in the third person makes sense.

>Reading a play
Just watch it.

>>4237363
How about something that isnt a play?

I know I listed Hamlet, im just curious

Can this be a ghost story thread now /lit/? I didnt see any coming up to and during halloween