Posted by
Mike on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 3:54:47 PM
http://westernperspective.blogspot.com/
The CliffsNotes rendition of Shakespeare's
Hamlet
apparently has Hamlet's indecisiveness as the central theme, or at
least that would appear to be the case based upon recent comparisons
to Obama's indecision on Afghanistan and acceptance of the Nobel Peace
Prize. This fits nicely with the "values free" trend in public
education.
While my expertise is not Shakespearean literature, having only once seen the play
Hamlet performed many years ago by a Los Angeles theatre arts company in conjunction with a my high school
alma mater noted for turning out highly acclaimed actors and actresses, my impression was quite different.
Shakespeare's motivation was always religious in nature, primarily stemming from the persecution of Catholics in England.
Hamlet
was a morality play about murder, based loosely on the Danish war hero
Amleth, whose legends transcribed by Saxo Grammaticus in 1185 probably
derive from a real person who lived in Denmark much earlier. To my way
of thinking, the movie trailer for
Last Action Hero featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger as Hamlet conveys Shakespeare's meaning much better.
Although ending tragically, the moral is clear. Murderers will not go unpunished.