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Hamlet and Mythical Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

André Lorant*
Affiliation:
Université de Paris X

Extract

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The survival of some masterpieces of literature across the ages is still an unexplained mystery. Deeply rooted in their time, they reflect the preoccupations of a given historical period and have an impact, by means of their testimony, on future generations. They bring into play images, drives and phantoms which have remained unchanged from prehistoric time to our day. The perfection of their form has remained unequaled; their examples incite us to meditation and creativity.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1 G. Gusdorf, Mythe et Métaphysique, Flammarion, 1953, p. 12.

2 C. G. Jung, Métamorphose de l'âme et ses symboles, Geneva, Georg et Cie., 1973, p. 84.

3 Mary Douglas, De la souillure, Maspero, 1971, p. 25.

4 See E. M. W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan Picture, Penguin Books, 1974; and C. S. Lewis, The Discarded Image, Cambridge Univ. Press, 1974.

5 J. G. Frazer, Le Rameau d'Or. Etude sur la magie et la religion, Schleicher Frères et Cie, 1903, Vol. I, p. 3.

6 H. Frankfort, La royauté et les dieux, Payot, 1951, p. 36; and Frazer, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 165-166.

7 Marc Bloch, Les Rois Thaumaturges, Publications of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Strasbourg, No. 19, p. 50 et seq.

8 PA, II, 4.3, 1020.

9 PA, I, 4.1, 470.

10 PA, I, 4.1, 470.

11 PA, 3.2, 462.

12 See Maynard Mack, Jr., Killing the King, Yale Studies in English, No. 180, 1973.

13 PA, 5.3, 744-45.

14 DW, 3.3, 79.

15 DW, 4.5, 102.

16 Quoted by Freud in Totem et Tabou, Petite Bibl. Payot, No. 77, p. 31.

17 PA, 2.3, 1009.

18 DW, 1.1, 5 and 1.5, 29

19 L. Lévy-Bruhl, L'âme primitive, Félix Alcan, 1927, pp. 275 and 280.

20 See Freud, op. cit.; and Otto Rank, Don Juan et le double, Petite Bibl. Payot, No. 211, especially Ch. 4 and 5 of the study on Don Juan.

21 Mary Douglas, op. cit., p. 131.

22 DW, 1.5, 28.

23 DW, 1.1, 4.

24 DW, 1.2, 15.

25 DW, 2.2, 56.

26 DW, 3.2, 65.

27 DW, 3.4, 86.

28 DW, 4.5, 101.

29 PA, 1.2, 448. On the theme of royal blood, in Richard II, see Nicholas Brooke, Shakespeare's Early Tragedies, Methuen, 1973, p. 113 et seq.

30 DW, 1.5, 28-9.

31 DW, 1.4, 24 and DW, 1.3, 18.

32 DW, 3.4, 85.

33 DW, 3.2, 75.

34 DW, 4.3, 95.

35 DW, 3.4, 87.

36 DW, 4.7, 111.

37 DW, 1.5, 27.

38 DW, 2.1, 37.

39 Frazer, La crainte des morts dans la religion primitive, Emile Noury, 1935, pp. 68-69.

40 Mircea Eliade, Traité d'histoire de religions, Payot, 1970-1974, p. 190.

41 DW, 1.4, 24. See also Otto Rank, op. cit., p. 147.

42 DW, 1.5, 29.

43 DW, 3.3, 81.

44 DW, 1.5, 28.

45 DW, 2.2, 45.

46 DW, 3.2, 71.

47 Ibid. and DW, 3.3, 73.

48 Frazer, Le Rameau d'Or, Vol. III: Les cultes agraires et silvestres, Libr. Schleicher Frères, 1911, pp. 86-87.

49 Ibid., p. 123.

50 DW, 1.1, 8-9.

51 Hamlet, p. 255.

52 DW, 1.1, 4.

53 DW, 1.1, 8.

54 Frazer, Le Rameau d'Or: Le bouc émissaire, Ch. V, p. 273.

55 Mircea Eliade, op. cit., p. 296.

56 Roger Caillois, L'homme et le sacré, Coll. Idées, Gallimard, p. 140 et seq.

57 B. Malinowski, Trois essais sur la vie sociale des primitifs, Petite Bibl. Payot, No. 109, p. 140.

58 Bloch, op. cit., p. 57.

59 DW, 1.1, 5.

60 DW, 1.4, 25.

61 DW, 1.5, 27 and DW, 1.3, 23

62 Frazer, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 387.

63 Ibid., p. 292.

64 DW, 3.2, 75. See also the note to line 284, pp. 205-206.

65 DW, 3.4, 86.

66 DW, 5.2, 125.

67 DW, 1.3, 23.

68 DW, 5.2, 135.

69 DW, 3.2, 78.

70 DW, 3.3, 82.

71 DW, 4.7, 113.

72 DW, 5.2, 134.

73 Mircea Eliade, op. cit., p. 539.

74 DW, 1.2, 10.

75 Mircea Eliade, Le mythe de l'eternel retour, Coll. Idées, No. 191, Galli mard, 1969, p. 39.

76 DW, 3.1, 63.

77 DW, 1.1, 7.

78 PA, 1.3, 974.

79 PA, 1.3, 793 and PA, 1.1, 589.

80 PA, 2.4, 461.

81 PA, 1.3, 974.

82 PA, 1.3, 974; and DW, 1.1, 6.

83 DW, 1.1, 7 and PA, 2.2, 980.

84 DW, 1.1, 7.

85 DW, 1.2, 11-12.

86 DW, 150. See the note to line 67.

87 DW, 2.2, 44.

88 DW, 3.1, 62.

89 DW, 1.1, 7.

90 Frazer, Le Rameau d'Or, Vol. III, p. 191.

91 Mircea Eliade, op. cit., p. 140.

92 DW, 3.4, 84.

93 PA, 5.1, 819.

94 DW, 2.2, 39. See on this subject C. S. Lewis, op. cit.; and Lawrence Babb, Elizabethan Malady, Michigan State University Press, 1951 (repr. 1965).

95 Ed. de Minuit, 1972, p. 135.

96 DW, 1.1, 6.

97 PA, 2.2, 978 and PA, 2.3, 1009.

98 PA, 5.3, 745.

99 DW, 2.2, 41.

100 PA, 2.1, 456.

101 Cassirer, La pensée mythique, p. 143.

102 DW, 1.2, 10; and DW, 1.1, 6. The sacrilegious aspect of the two feasts of which Hamlet speaks materializes, in a way, the violation committed against the right and morality. See DW, 1.2, 15.

103 DW, 1.1, 5; DW, 1.1, 8 and DW 1.2, 10.

104 DW, 3.4, 85 and 86.

105 DW, 3.3, 88 and DW, 1.5, 32.

106 Cassirer, op. cit., p. 123.

107 Mircea Eliade, Le Sacré et le Profane, Coll. Idées, No. 76, Gallimard, 1965, p. 45.

108 PA, 2.1, 454.

109 DW, 1.4, 24.

110 DW, 1.5, 29.

111 DW, 2.2, 46.

112 DW, 1.2, 14.

113 PA, 4.1, 468.

114 DW, 1.2, 10.

115 DW, 2.2, 45.

116 DW, 2.2, 53.

117 DW, 4.3, 93-94.

118 DW, 4.2, 92.

119 Ibid.

120 See the note to lines 26-27 of Scene 2, Act IV (DW, 219).

121 DW, 2.2, 39.

122 DW, 4.7, 107.

123 DW, 4.5, 105.

124 DW, 1.1, 6.

125 DW, 1.1, 6.

126 DW, 4.5, 101.

127 PA, 3.2, 463.

128 DW, 4.5, 102.

129 DW, 5.2, 125.

130 Ibid.

131 DW, 5.2, 136.

132 DW, 5.2, 131.

133 DW, 4.5, 105 and DW, 5.2, 138.