Hamlet and Germany

In 1848 the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath wrote a poem in which he wrote that "Germany is Hamlet", referring to the famous Shakespearean play, which toured Germany within five years of Shakespeare's death.  It seems that play never left.  
Ever since his famous poem, scholars have debated back and forth, looking for and finding or not finding themselves within the text.  Freiligrath's original poem describes Hamlet as being serious, and overly thoughtful, yet inactive.  He thinks too much and does too little, which Freiligrath saw in Germany of the 19th century, though he later wrote, "To the German Shakespeare Society of Weimar, Representative of a People  Whose Recent history has proved Once for all that "Germany is Not Hamlet."  (Look for a future post where I take a look more closely at that poem)

Where do we go from here?

LONow that we are halfway through the semester and we have read through quite a few plays, it is time to slow down a bit and think about where things are going.  Since we are no longer reading a play every week, I will have more time to reread some of the plays and go more in depth with a textual analysis and applying literary criticisms.
I will also start doing more research into Shakespeare and Germany.  I don't really know where I'm going with this, but there are quite a few resources out there, almost as many as there are in English.

Hamlet in English and German

1. Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft -- The German Shakesepeare Society is the oldest Shakespeare society in the world, founded in 1864.  They hold conferences and publish articles.  This could be a great resource not only for Shakespeare within Germany, but for Shakespeare in general.  (Their webpage is also translated into English, for those of you who don't speak German)

Ken Larson

2. Ken Larson --Ken Larson is a professor of German at Wells College in Aurora, NY.  He has written some papers on Shakespeare's reception in Germany.  Once I get a better idea what specifically I want to study about Shakespeare in Germany, I may contact him and ask a few questions, see what he has already researched and what further resources he knows.

Not a pretty cover, but I'll read it

3.There is a book I found that I would like to get my hands on and see if I find it interesting.  The Nazi Appropriation of Shakespeare: Cultural Politics in the Third Reich.  I know that Hitler and the Nazis used Richard Wagner and Norse mythology to buoy up their ideals of the Aryan Nation and the Teutonic ideal, but I had no clue that they used Shakespeare as well.  I have read several articles written about The Merchant of Venice as it has been performed in Germany, with it's portrayal of Jews.





This is a start.  As I do some more cursory research into the topics of Shakespeare and Germany I will form a more clear idea of what specific topic I would like to pursue.

Any thoughts, suggestions, comments?

King Lear / König Lear

Once again I am reading this play in both English and German, but this time it's a little easier.  I have a copy of this play that has the original English text on the left side of the page and a German translation (from Raimund Borgmeier, Barbara Puschmann-Nalenz, Bernd Santesson, and Dieter Wessels).  This makes it easier to go back and forth and see just how the German text compares to the English.

The first thing I noticed is that the German translation abandoned the poetic structure of the English text, not even attempting to have a meter or a rhyme.  This is most evident in Lear's opening speech, which looks organized and separated by lines on the left hand of my book, but is a big, long paragraph of text on the right.

The other thing I noticed is the many footnotes in my German text.  Most of these, especially in the opening scene with Gloucester and Kent, explain the wordplay and puns which do not translate well, as anybody who has tried to tell a joke in a foreign language knows.   One of my favorite German jokes makes absolutely no sense in English.

Zwei Jäger treffen sich im Wald.  Beide sind tot.

The joke here is in the double meaning of 'sich treffen' which can mean either to meet or to hit (as in with ammunition). Thus the joke is that two hunters meet or hit each other in the forest.  Both are dead.  As I said, it doesn't work well in English, but there you go.

New thoughts to Taming of the Shrew and Gender Roles

I just finished reading the play, and though I rather enjoyed it, laughing at the wordplays and the puns, I find myself rethinking what I thought about how Katherina is treated by Petruchio.


Until this latest reading of the play, my strongest connection to it was acting in a production in high school.  The actress that we had playing Kate played her very well, in my opinion, but mostly it seemed like she was humoring Petruchio the entire time.  Especially in Act 4 Scene 5, when they are travelling and Petruchio calls the sun the moon and gets Kate to agree that it is the moon, only to ridicule her for her mistake. In our production of this scene, the actress playing Kate said the lines as they appear in the script:

"Then, God be bless'd, it is the blessed sun; But sun it is not, when you say it is not; And the moon changes even as your mind. What you will have it nam'd, even that it is, And so it shall be so for Katherine."

But as she said these lines there was overt sarcasm in her voice.  And later, as she apologizes to Vincentio for calling him a woman, she glared at Petruchio, blaming him silently for making her look foolish.


That is how I have always read this play, as Kate simply playing along with Petruchio and his madness, because she got tired of fighting him and suffering the consequences.  Which I guess means that Petruchio did indeed tame her. But even as she recited the last speech, there was still a little hint of defiance.  And maybe it helped that our Petruchio (one of the nicest, kindest guys I have ever met) did not play the part as mean or as angry as he could have, from the text alone. I have never seen this play as oppressive to women, but this latest reading I was struck by just how blatant the spousal abuse really is.

I have tried to justify Petruchio's behaviour in light of his line, "This is a way to kill a wife with kindness",

The Authorship question, thanks to Twitter

There was a fun thing going on yesterday on Twitter, the hashtag #askshakespeare being sponsored by Blogging Shakespeare.  Some prominent Shakespeare scholars were answering questions about Shakespeare.  This is fun, and I got involved as well, asking a few questions that I have been thinking about, and I got some great responses.

One of the biggest things that I have always had a problem with when people discuss Shakespeare is the Authorship question.  For me, it doesn't really matter.  I am very much of the school of thought that "the author is dead."  Once an author has written the text, and released it to the public, his involvement with it is over.  At that point, all meaning that can be found in the text must be found in the text.  If an author makes a statement about anything, I usually ignore it, unless it can be found in the text.  For example, J.K. Rowling has said that Dumbledore was gay.  I'm sorry, but I find no textual evidence for that, so I do not believe it.  If Ms. Rowling wanted Dumbledore to be gay, then she should have put something in the text that would lead to that.

So, with all of this in mind, and seeing that several people had asked about who really wrote Shakespeare, I asked, "#askshakespeare Does it really matter who wrote the text, if we can find deep themes and enjoyment in the plays themselves?"

Taming of the Shrew Act 1 / Erste Akt

I have read the first act of the play, including the induction.  I really like the induction, and I'm sad that it's cut out of most productions as unnecessary.  Partly this is because, when my high school did this I played the part of Christopher Sly, but mostly because I think it sheds light on one of the main themes of the play:  Identity and how  people act when they are treated a certain way.  
Sly is a drunkard found asleep in the streets, and a passing Lord decides to have some fun and dress him up and pretend that he's noble.  The servants take him and dress him and serve him as if he were a Lord, until Christopher Sly believes he is a lord.  The line is "Would not the beggar then forget himself?", "Würde der Bettler nicht sein selbst vergessen?" and the servant says, "he shall think by our true diligence he is no less than what we say he is."  "er soll es glauben daß er nichts anders ist, als wir ihn nennen".


I see the same theme played out in the play, with Katherina.  She is a shrew and as others keep calling her a shrew she continues to be a shrew. But when Petruchio treats her like a lady, like a respectable wife, she begins to believe that she can be that.  For me, the play is not about "taming" a woman, making her subservient. but allowing her to be something more than others allow her to be.  It's the medieval version of Johnny Lingo -- he calls her an 8-cow wife so she begins to believe that she is worth 8 cows.  More on this as I continue to read the play and find lines that speak to this point.

Kate and Petruchio in the Polynesian islands?

Taming of the Shrew: An Overview

This week we are taking a look at Shakespeare's comedies.  I originally signed up for Twelfth Night, but after today's class discussion, and talking about Taming of the Shrew, I am thinking that I will read this play.
I have read this play before, but not really all that well.  I was in this play in High School, but I just memorized my part and was done with it.  I am looking forward to a more involved reading of this play, especially looking at the ideas of feminism and gender roles and family relationships in the play.  I will also be reading this play in English and German, comparing the language and the phrases used to see if there are any distinct differences in the play in these two languages.

First: The title in German is Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung, which is Taming of the Unruly, Rebellious, Wayward, Stubborn.
I don't know if that changes the meaning or interpretation of the play at all, but it at least makes it a little more understandable.  I remember the first time I heard about the Taming of the Shrew I thought it was about an actual shrew, the little vole-like animal.

Wouldn't be hard to tame, honestly.

Well, we'll see what else I find as I study this play in depth.  Stay tuned.

An Apology for Richard

I have been reading and writing about Richard II lately, but today in class I sat in on a small group discussion about Richard III, a play and a character that I am very familiar with.
First, there is no relation between the two Richards, who ruled England nearly 80 years apart.  Just the briefest of history lessons: Richard II was deposed by Henry IV, whose grandson Henry VI was deposed by Edward IV, who died leaving the throne empty for his brother Richard III.  


As I mentioned, I have study Richard III quite a bit,  two years ago I wrote a 6 page paper in defense of Richard, and last year I wrote a 16 page paper defending him and comparing him to a character in a German novel who I saw as very similar.  Let me set up my defense of Richard, but with one caveat: I do not condone Richard for what he did.  He is a villain, a devil, an evil, evil man who committed many atrocities.  But, I can begin to understand him and where he came from.


The question is asked again and again, "Why is Richard the way he is?"  And for me, part of the answer has to be, That is the way society made him.

Timeline of plays

As I was doing some background research on Richard II, I was looking at the date it was written.  The following excerpt from a chart I found with the left column showing the year in which these plays were first performed and the right column showing the year these plays were first published (as well as we can tell).

1594-95	Two Gentlemen of Verona	1623
1594-95	Love's Labour's Lost	1598?
1594-95	Romeo and Juliet	1597
1595-96	Richard II	1597
1595-96	A Midsummer Night's Dream	1600
1596-97	King John	1623
1596-97	The Merchant of Venice	1600

What I find very interesting is that at the same time that Shakespeare was writing Richard II, he was also working on Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream.  What does that mean?  I don't know, but it is interesting to think that the themes and characters of these plays are all bouncing around inside Shakespeare's head at the same time.

As Shakespeare writes Richard II - with it's warring factions, Bolingbroke against Richard, did he dream up the idea of the forbidden love that makes Romeo and Juliet the classic that it is?  

One thing to consider is the staging of these plays -- Any theatre will tell you that you have to have variety in your repertoire, you cannot perform only tragedies or only comedies.  So maybe the fact that these plays were performed in the same year is only a reflection of the practicality of running a theatre as a business.  

But still, it begs the question, are there common themes that cross these plays?  Is Shakespeare dealing with similar issues in these plays?

A few final words to Hamlet: Staging

I have some experience with theatre, being the technical director for New Play Project and a producer for Zion Theatre Company.  When I think about staging hypothetical productions I generally think of one of two theatres where I have worked: my high school auditorium, a really nice space that was built for us while I was in high school, a large space with really nice lights and sound system; and the Provo Theatre space, this is a tiny theatre, fitting only 125 people, with a stage I can cross in three large steps, and an even smaller backstage.

Thinking about these two very different spaces gives a very different production, for I am very much of the opinion that productions need to be altered to fit the space.  You cannot do the same thing in two different theatres.

As I read Hamlet, I thought about how I would stage it at the Provo Theatre.  I am a fan of very simplistic sets, letting the audience help you build the scenery, getting them involved with the production.  If your actors and your script are god enough to get your audience involved, you don't need distracting elaborate sets and costumes, especially when this causes scene changes to be extremely long.

If I were to stage Hamlet at Provo Theatre, I would have to do some script edits.  I would probably edit out a few of the extraneous characters, since there is not a whole lot of space on stage for some of those court scenes where everybody's on stage.   I would probably either cut Rosencrantz and Guildenstern completely, or combine them into just one character (Rosenstern?  Guildencrantz?).  I don't really see these characters as very necessary to the overall plot of the play.  
I might also combine the two clowns into one, and have their dialog spoken between the one clown and Hamlet or Horatio.  That might change some of the meaning of the lines, that would be interesting to see.

Ophelia's madness

I will admit, there is one thing that has always bothered me about most productions of Hamlet:  Ophelia.  I have never really understood her character, her purpose.  We first see her as her brother and then her father tell her that she cannot love Hamlet.  Then we see her as she tells her father of Hamlet's antic behaviour.  Then there is the strange scene between Hamlet and Ophelia after the "to be, or not to be" speech, which concludes with Hamlet telling her, essentially, to buzz off.  But despite this, Hamlet makes some pretty suggestive comments as he flirts with her while watching the play-within-the-play.  We next see Ophelia after Hamlet has killed her father, and she is completely mad, child-like and nonsensical.

It wasn't until I watched Slings and Arrows, the Canadian television show based around a Shakespearean festival where they perform Hamlet, that I began to get a deeper insight into her character.  In the show there is a terrible actress who has been cast as Ophelia, who also does not fully understand her character, which leads to the following scene where the director, who has had a history with madness, tries to explain things.  I love the way he describes her.

Romeo und Julia für das Ruhrpott

As I was thinking about Shakespeare and German translations the other day, I remembered a book that I found while I was on my mission Romeo und Julia: Ruhrpott, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet taking place not only in Germany, but in this particular area of Germany known as the Ruhrgebiet or Ruhrpott.  I spent 18 months of my mission living in the Ruhrgebiet, so I really enjoy this book.


The Ruhrgebiet is the industrial heart of Germany, with coal mines, steel mills, foundries, etc.  There are a lot of large cities pretty close together, and as such industrial areas do, it attracts a lot of immigrants and foreigners.  Particularly in Germany, after WWII there was a large Guest-worker program bringing in workers from other countries since most of Germany's men did not return from the war.  


Because of the coal mines and steel mills as well as the many immigrants, the German spoken in the Ruhrgebiet is a little different from standard German.  Immigrants could not pronounce or conjugate German properly, and a lot of words get 'slanged' or shortened to facilitate work in the mines when you don't always have the luxury of time to be able to enunciate clearly.  


Not only is this book written in this dialect of German, which is mostly incomprehensible to anyone not familiar with the Ruhrgebiet, it is set in Wanne-Eickel, a town in the Ruhrgebiet and stars Rom-Jo Czervinski, whose father is Polish and runs the local Bratwurst stand, and Yülle Özmir,whose father is Turkish and runs the local Döner stand.  As members of different minority groups vying for the same market stall the two families have become rivals until .... well, you know the story.

Wilhelm Shakespeare -- Shakespeare in Germany

William Shakespeare is loved the world over, but nowhere near as much as in Germany.  From some simple Google searches on Shakespeare and Germany, I have learned that the oldest Shakespeare Society in the world is German: Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, founded in 1864, English acting troops brought the Bard to Germany in the early 1700s with performances translated into German, and there have been so many translations of Shakespeare's plays into German that most Germans actually believe that Wilhelm Shakespeare was a German!

As a student of German, who has loved this language and this culture for over a decade now,  I find this fascinating.  I have found several translations of these plays online and they have evolved as the modern German language has evolved.  Shakespeare is very much alive in German, because he is allowed to be translated and retranslated, where in English there are always those purists who frown on anything but the actual, authentic, original text.  But Shakespeare has been allowed to thrive in Germany precisely because he is a foreigner.  And yet, he is very much a German.  A poem from the German Shakespeare Society reads,

Seht, heut' gesellt, im heil'gen Bund der Dritte,
Zu Deutschlands Dioskuren sich der Brite,
Auch er ist unser...

(See, today in the holy bond joins as the third, to Germany's dioscuri (referring to Schiller and Goethe), the Brit.  He, too, is ours.)

Hamlet, Acts 2 and 3

These two acts have some more impressive speeches, including my absolute favorite - "What a piece of work is a man."   What I found very interesting with this reading is the word "a".  I have always thought the speech was "What a piece of work is man" when it really says "What a piece of work is a man." That single word "a" makes a huge difference.  Without it Hamlet seems to be speaking about mankind in general, all of us at once, collectively.  But he is really speaking about a man, an individual.  Each of us individually are "noble in reason", "infinite in faculties", "In action how like an angel", "in apprehension how like a god."  Each of us have within ourselves this immense power of potentiality.  Not just as a whole.  Sometimes I am a little cynical and find it hard to see the "Götterfunken" - spark of God, as Schiller writes it - in individuals, when it is easier to see this power collectively.  


Of course, at this point Hamlet is very much in his melancholy moment, despairing, having "lost all [his] mirth."  He speaks these wonderful words about the grandeur of humanity, only to follow them with, "to me what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me -no, nor woman either." He is fed up with the world and the injustices he sees in it. 


And then of course there is Act 3, scene 1, "To be, or not to be."  Such a famous speech, everybody and their dog knows it, it must be hard for an actor to step into the role of Hamlet knowing that he will have to perform this speech.  As Jack says in Slings and Arrows:

Cheer up, Hamlet

This little gem comes from a Canadian television show Slings and Arrows, this is their theme song from season 1.

"So your uncle is a cad who murdered dad and married mum, that's really no excuse to be as glum as you've become."