All students of the English language are introduced to the plays of William Shakespeare at some stage of their career: It could be an annotated version presented as a story, an abridged version of the play or the full play itself mostly prescribed as text for the Literature students.
I joined B.A (H.E.P) for my graduation and the most intriguing of all the plays of Shakespeare, “Hamlet Prince of Denmark” was a part of the syllabus for the Second year General English course. It was expected to be studied by all the students who were pursuing graduation. The powers that be who included this in the syllabus may have been ardent admirers of the play who wanted all readers to delight from this most difficult of all of Shakespeare’s plays or someone who wanted to detain many students in English. Many students struggled to obtain pass percentage in English. Others made a valiant attempt to cram the answers to questions like ‘Describe the character of Hamlet’ or ‘What is purpose of the play within the play?’ or annotations to lines lines like ‘Frailty thy name is woman’ The syllabus organizers certainly did not consider the background of the students many of who were from Telugu medium. Later when I could discern the difference between functional English and Literature, I could understand why the students failed in English. Without a working knowledge of the language they were expected to study a text whose language was courtly, elaborate.
But largely due to the teacher who taught us this play my interest in the tragedy took a
different turn and I fell in love with the poetry and theatricality of Hamlet.
Our teacher had a distinct way of narrating this tragedy. He would imitate
voices, intone the lines according to the mood and act certain gestures with
the feisty élan of the Prince himself. Those days Doordarshan used to telecast
classic films late in the night. I got the opportunity to see films like ‘How
Green was my valley, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Shatranj Ke Khliari, Aranyer
Din Ratri, Mahanagar, Rebecca and Hamlet on these late night telecasts. The
film version of Hamlet which I got to see was acted and directed by Laurence
Olivier and I was able to video record this film. The interpretation of Hamlet
by Olivier in this film is philosophical and theatrical. The brooding,
melancholic portrayal of the Prince with endless witticisms dancing on his
tongue made a strong impression on me. Indeed Shakespeare attains an
extraordinary, inimitable scale of linguistic prolixity in this play which is
to be understood only with minute attention to every line and phrase spoken by
the characters. I refer here
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it
so.”
“There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
– Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”
“To be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.”
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!”
“One may smile, and smile, and be a villain; at least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark.”
Perhaps one is not erring if one says Hamlet covers the range of feelings and emotions in life and has a context to many of the issues that we may come across. It is said that a lady witnessed the play and remarked that it is a play full of famous lines. Such is the power of the play that it has taken center-stage in Literature, Film, Theater, Criticism, Comparative study, Shakespearian drama and so on.
But for the purpose of us; Graduates, several guides helped us to appear for the exam. In spite of my best efforts, (which I did without guides) I could get only 44 marks in my second year English paper. I strongly suspect my examiner looked for readymade answers from the guides. On the contrary I wrote what I felt about the play with quotes here and there. This approach may not have been to their liking and I was suitably rewarded. However my fascination with the plays of Shakespeare continued and I went on to study King Lear, Julius Caesar, A Mid Summer night’s dream, The Tempest and Richard the Second. But above all the others Prince Hamlet touches a very deep chord and like Horatio (Who I strongly admire)I would say to myself at the end of the play.
“ Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!
“