‘Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself’ (3.4.56): mythological portraits in Hamlet’s closet scene
The article shows how Renaissance humanism — the rediscovery of classical learning — is dramatised in Hamlet to pit an idealised past against a corrupted present. It focuses on the ‘closet scene’ (3.4), that, for the benefit of Gertrude’s eyes — and the audience’s —, represents Hamlet’s father, a so...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/asf, |
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| Hlavní autor: | |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
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Arrêt sur scène / Scene Focus
2024
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| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | The article shows how Renaissance humanism — the rediscovery of classical learning — is dramatised in Hamlet to pit an idealised past against a corrupted present. It focuses on the ‘closet scene’ (3.4), that, for the benefit of Gertrude’s eyes — and the audience’s —, represents Hamlet’s father, a solar king, against Hamlet’s ‘father’s brother’, a satyr, in a vivid stage image that echoes Hamlet’s line in a previous soliloquy: ‘So excellent a king, that was to this / Hyperion a satyr’ (1.2.139-40). Such contrasting mythological portraits question Gertrude’s refusal to grieve her spouse until then, even suggesting a matricidal impulse in Hamlet. |
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