Leland Ryken. Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Crossway, 2014.
———. Homer’s Odyssey. Crossway, 2013.
These two books are like Christian Cliff Notes because they do follow the action of the two works they analyze scene by scene in Hamlet and book by book in the Odyssey. But they provide insightful commentary for any teacher or student of these two exemplary works. Ryken quotes one well-known critic that the Odyssey is the best story every told. Sandburg famously called Hamlet “the greatest play the inkfish Shakespeare ever wrote.” These two gems are cleanly dissected in these two books.
Both books have the same format: those step by step analyses come between and introduction and conclusion. In addition, there are marginal notes with specific observations about specific lines or happenings that provide a lot of the thought behind these books. The introduction includes a summary of what makes good literature, the same in both books, before it goes onto general observations about each work. There are plenty of references to other critics and opposing interpretations. There is also a short appendix defining relevant literary terms for each work.
Here are some of the observations I thought especially arresting, first about Hamlet.
If you think about it, early in the play Hamlet is being slandered by Laertes and Polonius when they both tell Ophelia to avoid Hamlet’s company. In Act 2 even though we are already seeing some of the corruption of the Danish court (Ryken does a good job of dissecting things politically), we do see some genuine grief and concern over Hamlet’s behavior. Ryken leaves the decision about whether or not Hamlet is really mad up to the audience.
Having said that, he notes that the Hamlet in the last Act is different. He is no longer acting crazy. He is no longer indecisive. Once he reads the king’s death warrant, he knows he has to take action. And he does.
Unlike some villains in Shakespeare plays, even Claudius has some conscience left. Yes, he stifles it, but the audience can see him perhaps as a little more tragic for that reason.
Ryken points out that Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy is not just about suicide, but about taking “action against a sea of troubles” and “enterprises of great pith [or pitch] and moment.” This shows that he is already thinking about taking action against the king—and the price he might have to pay.
Ryken asks an interesting rhetorical question: Why so much loyalty to Claudius? The queen, Polonius, the ambassadors, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and all the members of the court treat him with respect and as the legitimate heir. Even Laertes comes around. Part of the answer is that that is the play’s conflict, plain and simple. But it also shows us that Claudius is a skilled politician and above suspicion.
Using contemporary sources, Ryken notes that the word closet meant a small sewing room or work room, not a bedroom. In many productions, inspired by Freudian interpretations, the scene between Hamlet and the queen takes place in her bedroom. He notes that when Ophelia describes first seeing Hamlet’s madness, she was sewing in her closet. No one acts shocked about that, only about Hamlet’s odd behavior.
Sometimes Hamlet is portrayed in productions as overly sensitive. Depressed, yes, but not wimpy. Probably the worst Hamlet I ever saw was a filmed theater production of a very effeminate Hamlet who was simply not believable. Ryken notes that at least two people call him a soldier, that he practices fencing daily, and he is confident that he can outduel Laertes in spite of Laertes’ reputation in Paris.
Recent productions often portray Hamlet and Ophelia as having a premarital affair. The Branagh film production has a silent flashback to that effect. In the most recent theatrical version I saw, Ophelia had a baby bump. Ryken says this about that:
These interpretations tell us more about modern sexual aberrations than Shakespeare’s play. The play leaves the question of Ophelia’s drowning uncertain and in the burial scene Ophelia is given “virgin” rites and “maiden strewments.” (64)
Some may ask, what about those songs she sings about unfaithful men? Her father’s death triggers her madness, and it was her father who warned her about men’s dirty minds. She had insisted that Hamlet’s intentions were honorable. Many have pointed out that Hamlet is a “mirror,” a word Ophelia uses to describe him. In that sense, he reflects—not partakes in—Polonius’ own youthful lusts, as Polonius himself admits to having had.
The duel at the end, among other things, shows us that life in this world is a battle between good and evil. It also sets up a scenario which gives Hamlet a chance to achieve justice—justice, which, in Hamlet’s words, comes from the direction of Providence.
The Odyssey, of course, gets some of its direction from Athena; other direction comes from mere fate. Still, Odysseus is resourceful and usually has a good understanding of his situation as he overcomes many adversities. (For what it is worth, Ryken tells us many names like Athena are spelled in various ways when transliterated into English.)
Traditionally Odysseus has been seen as a humble hero. Unlike an Achilles or a Hector, he is willing to disguise himself, to humble himself. He sees the long game. Ryken repeatedly takes that idea a step farther. Homer in the Odyssey values domesticity. Odysseus’ faithfulness to home and family is the epic’s “overriding virtue.” “Warfare destroys domestic values.” Homer compares Odysseus’s weeping at Demodocus’s tale to a widow weeping for a husband killed in battle.
Even when Odysseus appears unfaithful with Calypso and Circe, it is because they are goddesses. There are too many stories about what happens to people who try to thwart the gods’ desires. (I recall the story of Picus and Circe. Odysseus would rather go home than be turned into a woodpecker!)
This is why his shipmates fail. They are more concerned about the here and now rather than their homes or respect for the gods. Odysseus does not pass every test, but he learns from them.
Each of Odysseus’ twelve stops on his voyage home presents a test of vice vs. virtue. Here are a few:
The Cicones—The temptation to loot and take it easy on the beach vs. going home quickly. Odysseus learns from this mistake. His shipmates do not.
The Lotus Eaters—The temptation for an easy life and forgetting home vs. faithfulness to the family and homeland.
The Cyclops—Odysseus acts here like a true epic hero, unfortunately, that includes his pride. He announces his name to Polyphemus so Poseidon knows whom to attack. He should have kept with the name of Nobody.
Calypso—Becoming immortal with a life of ease vs. living like a true man with his wife and family.
Circe—She first gives men a drug to forget their homes and then gives them a drug to turn them to animals. “Forgetting one’s humanity” makes us less than human.
The Underworld—Very elemental: fear vs. courage. Odysseus honestly experiences fear, but he can overcome it.
The Phaeacians—There is a temptation to abandon home for an admirable younger “trophy wife.”
Books 8,9, and 12 each share three adventures, two briefly and one in more detail.
Though Odysseus is a relatively humble and domestic hero, this is still an epic. Odysseus has great adventures. Homer’s subject still is the warrior class. The warrior class is also the aristocratic class. That class is also his audience. That will be true through the Middle Ages (think the Round Table) until gunpowder helps democratize society. The Odyssey, though, is unlike most epics in that it celebrates the common as well as the noble. Argus the dog is a common touch. The swineherd and drover fight heroically, too.
I wonder if Elpenor and Palinurus are anagrams in Greek or Latin. Both were shipmates who had to be buried after Odysseus and Aeneas, respectively, return from the Underworld.
The bed made out of a live tree symbolizes Odysseus’s rooted marriage and the end of his wanderings. Of course, we are reminded many times of contrasting stories, especially the two sisters Helen and Clytemnestra compared to Penelope. “Agamemnon is right: ultimately, Odysseus owes the happiness of his return to the faithfulness of his wife” (72).
Homer gets it right in regard to the ideal of faithful and permanent wedded love, the importance of a harmonious and well-ordered family, the need for self-control in the face of temptations, and reverence toward the divine. (74)