The Masks of HamletIn this work, Rosenberg insists again and again that only the individual reader or actor can determine Shakespeare's design of Hamlet's character -- and of the play. To interpret Hamlet's words and actions at the many crises, the reader needs to double in the role of actor, imagining the character from the inside and observing from the outside. Winner of the Theatre Library Association Award for 1993. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 77
Page 2
... heard in the wind a curious whistle combining the sharp voice of a woman and a mu- sical instrument , that moved along the Elsinore ramparts from far away , to be felt in the theatre like a cold and icy blast . Edwin Booth's haunting ...
... heard in the wind a curious whistle combining the sharp voice of a woman and a mu- sical instrument , that moved along the Elsinore ramparts from far away , to be felt in the theatre like a cold and icy blast . Edwin Booth's haunting ...
Page 3
... heard and looked toward his rustling approach even before we saw him - Shakespeare is brilliant at turning our heads toward expected entrances . Barnardo's challenge to Francisco may be immediate ; or we may first see him creeping ...
... heard and looked toward his rustling approach even before we saw him - Shakespeare is brilliant at turning our heads toward expected entrances . Barnardo's challenge to Francisco may be immediate ; or we may first see him creeping ...
Page 6
... heard , or sensed , has demanded his attention off , or to some far corner of the stage , or to a higher observation post which he must mount . Our eyes follow him , and then return to Francisco , tracking what he has heard in this ...
... heard , or sensed , has demanded his attention off , or to some far corner of the stage , or to a higher observation post which he must mount . Our eyes follow him , and then return to Francisco , tracking what he has heard in this ...
Page 19
... heard on short - wave radio . " Olivier , in his film , also used the heartbeat ( more about this in I , iv ) , and his weird ghost - music was " painstakingly compounded . . . from superimposed recordings of fifty women shrieking ...
... heard on short - wave radio . " Olivier , in his film , also used the heartbeat ( more about this in I , iv ) , and his weird ghost - music was " painstakingly compounded . . . from superimposed recordings of fifty women shrieking ...
Page 27
... heard to call " Hamlet ! Ham- let ! " — but this gives too much away . ( Logically , he could find Hamlet inside the castle , as he finds him in III , iv : but logic is not the test now . ) How does the Ghost manifest its objective ? By ...
... heard to call " Hamlet ! Ham- let ! " — but this gives too much away . ( Logically , he could find Hamlet inside the castle , as he finds him in III , iv : but logic is not the test now . ) How does the Ghost manifest its objective ? By ...
Contents
Act III Scene i Part 2 | 463 |
Act III Scene i Part 3 | 473 |
Act III Scene i Part 4 | 484 |
Act III Scene i Part 5 | 497 |
Act III Scene i Part 6 | 508 |
Act III Scene ii Part 1 | 548 |
Act III Scene ii Part 2 | 553 |
Act III Scene ii Part 3 | 560 |
47 | |
70 | |
82 | |
Hamlet Part 1 | 92 |
Hamlet Part 2 | 118 |
Hamlet Part 3 | 155 |
Hamlet Part 4 | 167 |
Act I Scene ii Part 3 | 186 |
Act I Scene ii Part 4 | 204 |
Act I Scene ii Part 5 | 221 |
Ophelia | 236 |
Laertes | 253 |
Polonius | 257 |
Act I Scene iii | 265 |
Act I Scene iv | 281 |
Act I Scene v Part 1 | 310 |
Act I Scene v Part 2 | 328 |
Act I Scene v Part 3 | 340 |
Act II Scene i | 357 |
Act II Scene ii Part 1 | 368 |
Act II Scene ii Part 2 | 375 |
Act II Scene ii Part 3 | 386 |
Act II Scene ii Part 4 | 403 |
Act II Scene ii Part 5 | 415 |
Act II Scene ii Part 6 | 438 |
Act III Scene i Part 1 | 455 |
Act III Scene ii Part 4 | 572 |
Act III Scene ii Part 5 | 577 |
Act III Scene ii Part 6 | 594 |
Act III Scene iii | 622 |
Act III Scene iv Part 1 | 641 |
Act III Scene iv Part 2 | 673 |
Act III Scene iv Part 3 | 686 |
Act IV Scene i | 722 |
Act IV Scene ii | 729 |
Act IV Scene iii | 732 |
Act IV Scene iv | 745 |
Act IV Scene v Part 1 | 757 |
Act IV Scene v Part 2 | 776 |
Act IV Scene v Part 3 | 789 |
Act IV Scene v Part 4 | 797 |
Act IV Scene vi | 810 |
Act IV Scene vii | 812 |
Act V Scene i Part 1 | 825 |
Act V Scene i Part 2 | 845 |
Act V Scene ii Part 1 | 859 |
Act V Scene ii Part 2 | 875 |
Act V Scene ii Part 3 | 905 |
Act V Scene ii Part 4 | 911 |
Bibliography | 927 |
Index | 955 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
action actor actor-reader Alan Howard antic arms arras asks audience begins Booth Burton character Charles Kean Claudius court courtiers dangerous death Denmark Dover Wilson emotional eyes face father fear Fechter feel felt fierce Fortinbras Frances Barber G. B. Shaw Gertrude Gertrude's gesture Ghost Gielgud grief Hamlet plays hand head Horatio impulse Irving Jacobi Kachalov Kainz Kean Kemble kill kind King King's kiss Laertes later laugh lonius look Marcellus mask McKellen's mind mother Mousetrap moved murder mystery observed Olivier Ophelia passion pause perhaps physical play Player Polonius polyphony power Hamlet Prince Queen revenge role Rosencrantz and Guildenstern scene seems seen sense sexual Shakespeare shock soliloquy sometimes soul sound speak speech spies spoke stage subtext suddenly suggests sweet Hamlet sword tears tenderness theatre thought tone touch tried trying turned usually violence voice whisper Wittenberg words young
Popular passages
Page 178 - I am myself indifferent honest ; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me ; I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious ; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in.
Page 309 - What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o'er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason And draw you into madness...
Page 33 - And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and at his warning. Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine; and of the truth herein This present object made probation.
Page 79 - Such an act, That blurs the grace and blush of modesty; Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows As false as dicers...
Page 473 - To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds More relative than this: the play's the thing Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
Page 12 - Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee.
Page 168 - O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion and the mould of form, The observed of all observers, quite, quite down!
Page 284 - That for some vicious mole of nature in them, As, in their birth, wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin, By the o'ergrowth of some complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason, Or by some habit that too much o'er-leavens The form of plausive manners ; that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star, Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure...