Hamlet (Vol. 44) | Lawrence Danson (essay date 1993)
Lawrence Danson (essay date 1993)
SOURCE: "Gazing at Hamlet, or the Danish Cabaret," in Shakespeare Survey: An Annual Survey of Shakespearian Study & Production, Vol. 45, 1993, pp. 37-51.
[In the following essay, Danson reviews points in the cultural history of Hamlet when Hamlet's gender has "been defined in unusual ways." Danson discusses in particular three different portrayals of Hamlet in which his feminine nature is a central aspect of his characterization.]
'A was a man. Take him for all in all, / I shall not look upon his like again'(1.2.186-7).1 Among all the doubts, fears, uncertainties attendant on his father's death, there's this for Hamlet to contend with too, this hinted anxiety about keeping up the old gender-roles. Where once men were men, and women—hanging upon them as if increase of appetite did grow where it did feed—women, there now rules an ambiguous queen-king: bidding Claudius...
[The entire page is 10112 words long]
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