When I was in the school I had the benefit of what is referred to as a classical education. I have always been grateful for this, despite the tedium of the detail that was sometimes involved. Perchance, six weeks studying Hamlet seemed like too long to a 16 year old? Yes. Yes it did. Hamlet is an infinite onion of meaning and metaphor. I watched two different movie version of Hamlet. We read each verse and pulled it apart for meaning, and sub meaning. We looked at failures in the cadence, or brilliance in the turn of speech. We examined how meanings had changed, and what dual meanings existed so that coarse phrases could be turned in polite company.

My next year in school I signed up for a different Shakespeare class, promising three plays in six weeks. I was delighted. I wanted to learn more, I was excited to grow my catalog of Shakespeare’s characters. The first day of class our teacher excitedly announced a change in syllabus, we’d be doing HAMLET for the first six weeks. Continue reading →