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The purpose of the drama is to teach a complete knowledge of human character. Suppose a man to have all other kinds of knowledge under the sun; let him possess all the bearing and grace of an angel, and the golden thoughts and musical words of a poet, and yet without this knowledge of human nature he would be the veriest fool. He would be at once a laughing stock and nuisance because he could not conduct himself properly before his fellow man. Next to the knowledge of God, indeed, the knowledge of human character is most important. “ Know thyself” was the maxim of the old Greek philosophy. “ Know thyself and all thy fellow creatures” is the truer and wider maxim of a higher philosophy. If the end of the drama be to teach human character, our aim in reading it should be to learn human character. We come now to the more practical part how to study it according to the Three Laws of Memory.

Hamlet is best studied in the way that every other play of Shakespeare is best studied, that is to say, by frequently reading it, until the whole play in all its parts stands in the mind like a personal experience. Hamlet is perhaps Shakespeare’s greatest masterpiece. The character of the hero of the play is by common consent reckoned his greatest, his most interesting creation. The play as a reading and acting play has been for nearly 300 years the most continuously popular play known. It has contributed more to the common stock of current expression than any other composition in literature, except the Bible. Words and phrases in it have become so ingrafted in our speech that they have become in very truth household words; that is to say, not merely “household words” of the usual sort or the words and phrases of culture and refinement, but “household words” in the same sense of being the words and phrases of common universal use. People quote “Hamlet” every day of their lives without knowing it.

It will readily be seen he who has his Hamlet well memorized has at his free command one of the chief storehouses of noble thought and apt expression to be found in the English language.

The play of Hamlet in gross analysis may be said to consist of but three divisions. First, the revelation to Hamlet; second, Hamlet’s disclosure to the King that his secret is known; and thirdly, and through the King’s effort to be rid of Hamlet, the culmination. The first act is devoted to and completes the part of the ghost’s revelation. The following synopsis may be used in study.

(1) Relate in your own words the story of Hamlet, bringing out as well as you can the main dramatic features of the play.

(2) Note the Associations by Likeness, by Contrast and Concurrence to be found in the play, between the characters and scenes. Note the likeness between Hamlet and Horatio, so like to each other in their devotion, nobility of soul, etc., and yet what a contrast. Horatio evenly balanced, well poised, steady, Hamlet restless, impetuous, whose imagination compassed heaven and earth. Note also the contrast between Hamlet’s humor and his melancholy, each relieving and making more impressive the other. Contrast Laertes with Hamlet. They are like to each other in one respect, each has lost his father under deplorable circumstances; but Laertes is impulsive, rash, brutal, seeking immediate revenge, while Hamlet is reflective, philosophical and calculating. Contrast the wise sayings of Hamlet’s maxims taken from life, with the copy-book maxims of the wily, garrulous, time-serving, worldly-minded old Polonius. Contrast Ophelia with Juliet; the clowns in the grave-yard scene. Note the wonderful contrast in the scene where the ghost of the murdered King appears to Hamlet, in the middle of the night upon the ramparts of the Castle, and the awful background of uproar and revelry, as the red glare of the King’s carousal shines from the palace windows.

(3) Give brief characterizations with appropriate illustrations from the play of Ophelia, Polonius, Hamlet and other principal characters.

(4) Express your own opinion in regard to Hamlet’s mental condition, whether he was sane or not, and back up your opinion with quotations from the play itself.

(5) Give a number of words, phrases and short sentences from the play, that by their frequent use have become parts of our language.

The next step in the study of Shakespeare is to try and verify his different characters and find their likeness in the people around us. The student must ask, is this character true ? Have we ever seen or heard of any person like this? We can, if at all observant, see many of Shakespeare’s characters living and moving among us. Take for example Hamlet, the highest character, and Caliban, the very lowest. A great writer has said that Germany is Hamlet, meaning that we can easily see in those men of active mind, who think much and talk much, a likeness to Hamlet; and on the other hand, we see a likeness to Caliban in the degraded masses of large cities who seem half men and half brutes.