Nor dread nor hope attend
A dying animal;
A man awaits his end
Dreading and hoping all …
He knows death to the bone –
Man has created death.
(W. B. Yeats, “Death”)
If Yeats is right by saying that man has created death, or rather the idea of death, then it is not surprising that what people thought about death in the past differs from the attitudes we have today and even across different cultures, the feelings concerning death and its representation vary. As Neill states in his study, Renaissance tragic drama is about “the discovery of death and the mapping of its meanings” and he mentions that Hamlet is a play “whose action is obsessively concerned with the exploration of mortality” (1997: 1). According to Zimmerman the play creates an “unsettling atmosphere of existence on the margins, of half-states in which neither life nor death holds sway” (2005: 172). This in–betweenness is also something that Julia Kristeva investigates in her influential study The powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (1980). She develops the theory of the abject, which is primarily concerned with the state of something that is between subject and object and therefore, arouses a feeling of uncanniness.
This paper is concerned with the exploration of these margins and half-states concerning death in Hamlet. The investigation has two main aims. First, it wants to identify occurrences of death in Hamlet, which are marked by ambiguity and uncertainty, i.e. with an abject death according to Julia Kristeva’s theory. Second, it tries to answer the questions why a particular appearance of death in the play is abject and whether cultural conventions and the religious development of the Reformation in England at that time influenced the effects and affects evoked with the Elizabethan audience.
“Shakespeare’s plays are works that live as much in their written/printed as in their performative re-productions and that [...] are therefore most fruitfully examined in both forms side by side” (Aebischer 2004: 13). Taking this assumption as a preliminary, the analysis in this paper focuses on the text of the play, as well as on practical questions concerning performance and stage conventions in the Elizabethan time.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Theoretical background
- What is abject/abjection?
- Death and all his friends
- The skull
- Mourning and funeral rites
- The corpse
- Ghosts
- Analysis of the scenes
- The first appearance of the ghost: Act 1 Scene 4
- The encounter between Hamlet and the ghost: Act 1 Scene 5
- The second appearance of the ghost: Act 3 Scene 4
- The grave-yard scene: Act 5 Scene 1
- Enter two Clowns
- Hamlet's reflections at the grave
- Ophelia's funeral and the struggle between Hamlet and Laertes
- Conclusion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This paper examines the concept of abjection, as defined by Julia Kristeva, in relation to representations of death in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The aim is to identify instances where death in the play is ambiguous and uncertain, aligning with Kristeva's theory of abject death. The paper explores the reasons behind this phenomenon, considering cultural conventions and the impact of the Reformation on Elizabethan audiences.
- Abjection and its relationship to death in Hamlet.
- The significance of cultural conventions and religious context in shaping the representation of death.
- The analysis of specific scenes where abject death manifests in the play.
- The impact of abject death on the characters and the overall narrative.
- The influence of Elizabethan performance practices on the understanding of abject death.
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
The introduction sets the stage by exploring the concept of death in the Renaissance, referencing works by W.B. Yeats and Neill. It highlights the play's focus on mortality and the “unsettling atmosphere of existence on the margins” as defined by Zimmerman. It then introduces Kristeva's theory of the abject, which explores the “in-betweenness” of states between subject and object, and its relevance to the study of death in Hamlet.
The theoretical background chapter elaborates on Kristeva's theory of abjection, explaining the “twisted braid of affects and thoughts” associated with the abject. It contrasts this with the Freudian concept of the uncanny, highlighting their similarities and differences. The chapter delves into the development of the proto-subject and the role of abjection in establishing boundaries between self and other.
The analysis of the scenes focuses on the appearance of the ghost of King Hamlet in Act 1 Scene 4, Scene 5, and the Closet Scene in Act 4 Scene 4. This chapter also examines the graveyards scene in Act 5 Scene 1, exploring the various elements related to death within the play. The chapter examines the significance of these scenes in relation to the concept of abject death.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
This paper focuses on the concept of abjection, specifically as it relates to death in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Key concepts include: abject death, cultural conventions, Elizabethan performance, Reformation, uncanny, proto-subject, and the "in-betweenness" of states between subject and object.
- Quote paper
- André Valente (Author), 2010, "The Abject of Desire" in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/160161
