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The enigmatic mad prince of Denmark stands as one of Shakespeare's lasting and most impressive creations.
249 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2008
34 people want to read
About the author
Harold Bloom
1,717 books2,022 followersHarold Bloom was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University. In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world." After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism, several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for the Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.
Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the "school of resentment" (multiculturalists, feminists, Marxists, and others). He was educated at Yale University, the University of Cambridge, and Cornell University.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 23, 2022
Having recently read O’Farrell’s Hamnet I was tempted to revisit Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy with some new added perspective about his most complex of characters. Where does Hamlet come from? Is his conflicted nature product of circumstance, the result of being pawned in political subterfuge, or simply the puppet of greater forces to enact revenge causing more destruction than amending the initial wrongdoings of his uncle?
I’d say Hamlet is much more than that. He is the paragon of human fragility, the eternal dilemma of “being and not being” condensed in the most famous soliloquy of all times.
Knowing now that Shakespeare lost his son around the time he wrote this tragedy and having learned that The Bard himself acted as Old Hamlet Ghost in the productions I discovered a whole new universe of possible interpretation in the Prince of Denmark’s long speeches. Grief, angst, and disgust for this world pervade his discourse.
Would Shakespeare have changed his life for his son’s?
Was Hamlet the result of having pondered long and deep about the futility of action? The things we can’t control? We all become dust, like old Yorick, or Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar. We are born, we die, we become dust no matter the action we take in our lives. Would Shakespeare have felt the impotence of not being able to prevent his son’s death when he wrote Hamlet’s long lines debating whether to kill Claudius or not, whether to cease his own life or not, whether to love Ophelia or not, or to believe his mother’s involvement in King Hamlet’s death or not?
The play exists on that undefined space between knowing and not knowing. It’s a play about questions, about unsolvable dilemmas. A ghost which is both being and nonbeing, not living and yet not dead. Would Shakespeare have wanted to inhabit that same space as well in order to communicate with his son?
Every new reading of this play provides an added angle that went unnoticed before.
Shakespeare’s plays are polyhedral, alive, open to interaction with the reader across centuries. With every new reading, with every new production on a stage, the characters speak back at the audience in timely fashion, addressing questions that won’t ever get old.
That’s why I won’t ever get tired of revisiting them over and over again.
Note: I strongly recommend the podcast “Shakespeare for all” where questions about the plays and the characters are analyzed by professors in the University of Oxford using a very comprehensible language that adds light to the complexity of these well-known works making them accessible for every reader.
I’d say Hamlet is much more than that. He is the paragon of human fragility, the eternal dilemma of “being and not being” condensed in the most famous soliloquy of all times.
Knowing now that Shakespeare lost his son around the time he wrote this tragedy and having learned that The Bard himself acted as Old Hamlet Ghost in the productions I discovered a whole new universe of possible interpretation in the Prince of Denmark’s long speeches. Grief, angst, and disgust for this world pervade his discourse.
Would Shakespeare have changed his life for his son’s?
Was Hamlet the result of having pondered long and deep about the futility of action? The things we can’t control? We all become dust, like old Yorick, or Alexander the Great, or Julius Caesar. We are born, we die, we become dust no matter the action we take in our lives. Would Shakespeare have felt the impotence of not being able to prevent his son’s death when he wrote Hamlet’s long lines debating whether to kill Claudius or not, whether to cease his own life or not, whether to love Ophelia or not, or to believe his mother’s involvement in King Hamlet’s death or not?
The play exists on that undefined space between knowing and not knowing. It’s a play about questions, about unsolvable dilemmas. A ghost which is both being and nonbeing, not living and yet not dead. Would Shakespeare have wanted to inhabit that same space as well in order to communicate with his son?
Every new reading of this play provides an added angle that went unnoticed before.
Shakespeare’s plays are polyhedral, alive, open to interaction with the reader across centuries. With every new reading, with every new production on a stage, the characters speak back at the audience in timely fashion, addressing questions that won’t ever get old.
That’s why I won’t ever get tired of revisiting them over and over again.
Note: I strongly recommend the podcast “Shakespeare for all” where questions about the plays and the characters are analyzed by professors in the University of Oxford using a very comprehensible language that adds light to the complexity of these well-known works making them accessible for every reader.
April 15, 2025
Awesome. Now I got to write this paper.
December 16, 2022
Hamlet (Bloom's Major Literary Characters) by Harold Bloom
Hamlet is stronger, and more cunning than I thought
The book “Hamlet” by Harold Bloom is part of “Bloom's Major Literary Characters series.” It starts out with “An Analysis of Character” which is really an introduction to the series, not just Hamlet.
The book is a series of character analyses by different critics including Harold Bloom.
This presentation assumes you know something of the play and the life of Shakespeare and his contemporaries so the is no grand introduction or background other than what may be in the individual reviewer’s chapter.
I pretty much thought I knew a look at the background and characters from other books and versions of the play. However, with these many different critics, I could not help but learn or at least question the play and Hamlet.
Example from William Hazlitt –
“Hamlet is the most remarkable for the ingenuity, originality, and on studied development of character.”
For example, A.C. Bradley speaking of Hamlet –
“Fortinbras, a sufficiently practical man, considered that he was likely, had he been put on, to have proven most royally. He has Hamlet born by four captains ‘like a soldier’ to his grave.”
Hamlet is stronger, and more cunning than I thought
The book “Hamlet” by Harold Bloom is part of “Bloom's Major Literary Characters series.” It starts out with “An Analysis of Character” which is really an introduction to the series, not just Hamlet.
The book is a series of character analyses by different critics including Harold Bloom.
This presentation assumes you know something of the play and the life of Shakespeare and his contemporaries so the is no grand introduction or background other than what may be in the individual reviewer’s chapter.
I pretty much thought I knew a look at the background and characters from other books and versions of the play. However, with these many different critics, I could not help but learn or at least question the play and Hamlet.
Example from William Hazlitt –
“Hamlet is the most remarkable for the ingenuity, originality, and on studied development of character.”
For example, A.C. Bradley speaking of Hamlet –
“Fortinbras, a sufficiently practical man, considered that he was likely, had he been put on, to have proven most royally. He has Hamlet born by four captains ‘like a soldier’ to his grave.”
January 24, 2018
A great collection of critical essays edited by Harold Bloom. The essay by Northrop Frye was my highlight.
June 9, 2019
As with most everything -- Harold Bloom is a master in making Shakespeare more accessible and exciting.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews