Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays eBook David P Gontar
Download As PDF : Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays eBook David P Gontar 
The single greatest contribution to Shakespeare scholarship in recent memory.
Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays;
1. Presents the most compelling and original reading of Hamlet since A.C. Bradley;
2. Dispenses once and for all with the psychoanalytic interpretation of the play;
3. Explains the actual meaning of the Oedipus myth;
4. Provides the "smoking gun" which establishes Shakespeare's true identity;
5. Explodes the fable of Shakespeare's appearance; and
6. In the process of correcting misreadings of Shakespeare's poetry and drama devised by a cross section of ideologies, offers vital insights and indispensable guidance on how this most challenging of writers can be fairly and productively read today.
Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays is the definitive exposition of Shakespeare in our time. Nothing else compares.
Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays eBook David P Gontar
First, so that you know where I'm coming from: 1) I read Shakespeare because I love him for his poetry and philosophy and the way he enriches my life, i.e., I read Shakespeare because he is important to me. 2) I read literary criticism because it helps illuminate blind spots and augment what (I think) is my (humble) understanding of Shakespeare's work, i.e., it helps me clarify what it important to me.Here is Dr. David Gontar, from Hamlet Made Simple:
"In an age in which literature itself is evaporating in the wake of video games and text messaging, there may be a lesson in all this: SHAKESPEARE IS IMPORTANT. He is our citadel, the bulwark shielding all that is good and genuinely sane in the west." (375, emphasis added...)
David Gontar marshals his readers (and the "renegades of intelligentsia") with this vigorous and audacious series of essays that deals with the plays, poems and life of William Shakespeare, as well as a good deal of more recent literary criticism.
The essays are lucid, insightful, provocative, full-blooded, muscular and often as playful as they are serious. Dr. Gontar, who "does not stoop to genteel patronizing," will likely challenge most readers in one way or another. When reading Hamlet Made Simple I found myself returning constantly to the poems and plays themselves and always marveling at the new and exciting paths illuminated by him, whether exegetical, psychological, historical, etc. "We must hearken with a philosophic ear," (115) he advises, and then proceeds, often painstakingly, to show us how.
Most immediately astonishing for me were two things. First was Dr. Gontar's assertion that "the theory advanced in these pages represents an attempt at [...] a paradigm shift in our understanding of Shakespeare's text based on a radical alteration in our perception of his identity" (19). Second was his remarkable eloquence in his exploration of Shakespeare's poetry: "the nacreous visions for which we hanker." (12) Despite being invigoratingly polemical, razor-sharp at regular intervals, and now and then even saucy, the general tone of the essays is regularly an impressive balance between shrewd, incisive thought and something calm, patient and wise; one senses a pervasive "largeness of spirit" throughout, that can only be described as benevolent and ancient.
As with many who have (likely) found their way to this review, I have been guided for many years by the great Professor Harold Bloom. Dr. Gontar's tenth essay in Hamlet Made Simple is boldly titled "Woodstock and the Invention of the Human." I sincerely urge anyone who considers him- or herself a disciple of Bloom to acquire this text and read it, after first reading the play "Thomas of Woodstock" or "Richard II, Part One." Dr. Gontar's bottom line here is that it was not Faulconbridge the Bastard who first revealed Shakespeare's "Invention of the Human," but rather Plain Thomas (in the above play). All I can say here is this: read the play and read Dr. Gontar's essay, which, like the text of "Woodstock", "commends itself, then, not just to specialists, but to those who may take an interest in the scope of Shakespeare's art and the significance of dramatic character." (204) Lastly, at the start of this essay's concluding paragraph, Dr. Gontar's compelling argument and poetic force combine, and are made manifest:
"In Woodstock we witness not talent, but the birth of genius. A Promethean figure, hewn from the cliffs of feudal England, dormant for centuries, re-awakens, and steps forth. Though the textual remnants are occasionally naive, abbreviated, or left fallow, these imperfections are to be expected in what is, after all, the tattered draft of an apprentice poet. Understanding here is not provoked by channeling a mysterious "social energy," but by discovering and acknowledging the true primal character who was to serve as model for all Shakespeare's "free artists of themselves," and, at the last, for us, who in our sad strivings are sometimes touched with genuine humanity." (204)
To conclude this review, acclaimed literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye remarked that "the teaching of literature is a militant activity. It's carried on in the teeth of ignorance and stupidity and prejudice" (Literary Theory in The Classroom). I employ this quotation only as a final disclaimer to the unsuspecting adventurer. Almost a kind of literary gunslinger (I hope the author doesn't take offense), Dr. Gontar will take you deep into dark forests and morasses of incest, cuckoldry and bastardy, bogs and swamps which paradoxically invert and double as majestic vistas and peaks from which Shakespeare's art is illuminated as never before. In the end, Dr. Gontar believes, and effectively persuades, that "Shakespeare's art is significant and valuable because it reflects the wisdom of life." (317) You can't go wrong by buying and reading this book.
(For a more synoptic look the reader is respectfully referred to the reviews of John L. Murphy and William J. Ray.)
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Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays eBook David P Gontar Reviews
David P. Gontar's Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays is erudite, intellectually entertaining, and deliciously challenging. In this set of 19 essays, he brings established Shakespeare scholars to task, illuminates the work of the Bard in new and remarkable ways, and nudges us to pull out our Complete Shakespeare, accompanied by a good stout dictionary. I found myself chuckling with satisfaction as I savored a turn of phrase, an unknown word, or note of irony. But the best part was the new insights I gained by revisiting the familiar.
His essay on "Hamlet" is stunning. It argues convincingly that Hamlet's hesitancy... but wait! Do I want to give away the gist so easily? No. Best read it for yourself. By delving into back-story hidden in textual clues, he asks us to see the Prince in a whole new light, and cleverly helps us realize why the authorship question (or answer) is important for interpreting the plays.
His notes on feminism are provocative. I'm delighted at his uncovering of the naturalistic feminism embedded in androgyny. Shakespeare has never struck me as sexist. Kate's speech at the end of "Taming of the Shrew" is surely meant to be delivered tongue in cheek, since it satisfies the mutual interest of both her and her spouse.
As for the essays on the more obscure plays, they prompt me to take Shakespeare to the beach, to read his work with new appreciation.
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” Hamlet tells his good friend, and likewise in "Hamlet Made Simple" there are more and deeper revelations about the contents of the Shakespeare works than are dreamt of by most commentaries on them.
David Gontar’s book of essays is a real treasure. He guides us to look beneath the surface of the poems, plays and sonnets, where wondrous surprises are waiting to be discovered. In some ways his writings and insights can be compared favorably with those of Harold Bloom or Harold Goddard, but Professor Gontar also wields a powerful additional weapon, akin to a pair of goggles with night vision, resulting is a series of previously unseen and startling images.
Gontar is a Shakespeare scholar and is quite able to confront various questions within the traditional or Stratfordian context, but he is also a pioneer in being able to expand and deepen that context to include entirely new layers and levels of contemporary English history and biography. He is one of the first critics in my experience who deals with the “authorship question” after, not before, examining aspects of Shakespeare’s creations on their own terms.
In terms of the power and originality of Gontar’s insights, this book may be placed on the shelf quite near to the masterful "Shakespeare’s Lost Kingdom" by Charles Beauclerk. By stating clearly and concisely that “Hamlet” and “Shakespeare” are “ultimately two names for the same person,” Gontar begins to put on those goggles with the night vision. Meanwhile he is quite outspoken from the start
“Those who would seek to eliminate all discussion as to the identity of the author of the works of Shakespeare must rank among the most reprehensible of today’s censors. The sentimental legend of the man from Stratford who rises from humble glover’s son to become the cynosure of the literary world is a rags-to-riches saga of which many are enamored. But legends have a way of disappointing … Traditionalists, who promote the miracle of Stratford-upon-Avon, go so far as to aver that there is ‘no question’ that the author was its poetic swan. If so, there is nothing to discuss, and no reason to listen to those who would make themselves heard on the issue. And that is censorship.”
The real pioneering aspect of Gontar’s work is not only an attempt to effect “a paradigm shift in our understanding of Shakespeare’s texts based on a radical alteration in our perception of his identity,” but also to somehow reconcile and unite “the two warring factions” of Stratfordians and Oxfordians. "Hamlet Made Simple And Other Essays" marks a bold new step toward that seemingly impossible goal.
Have you wondered why Hamlet hesitates and delays his revenge? There are answers here to ensure that your perception of this play will never again be the same. Have you wondered about the author’s real purpose in the writing of "Lucrece"? The illumination here is fairly blinding. In all there are nineteen essays followed by a preface and “An Introductory Word to Students.” This is careful work, to be read, savored and re-read. I highly recommend it.
First, so that you know where I'm coming from 1) I read Shakespeare because I love him for his poetry and philosophy and the way he enriches my life, i.e., I read Shakespeare because he is important to me. 2) I read literary criticism because it helps illuminate blind spots and augment what (I think) is my (humble) understanding of Shakespeare's work, i.e., it helps me clarify what it important to me.
Here is Dr. David Gontar, from Hamlet Made Simple
"In an age in which literature itself is evaporating in the wake of video games and text messaging, there may be a lesson in all this SHAKESPEARE IS IMPORTANT. He is our citadel, the bulwark shielding all that is good and genuinely sane in the west." (375, emphasis added...)
David Gontar marshals his readers (and the "renegades of intelligentsia") with this vigorous and audacious series of essays that deals with the plays, poems and life of William Shakespeare, as well as a good deal of more recent literary criticism.
The essays are lucid, insightful, provocative, full-blooded, muscular and often as playful as they are serious. Dr. Gontar, who "does not stoop to genteel patronizing," will likely challenge most readers in one way or another. When reading Hamlet Made Simple I found myself returning constantly to the poems and plays themselves and always marveling at the new and exciting paths illuminated by him, whether exegetical, psychological, historical, etc. "We must hearken with a philosophic ear," (115) he advises, and then proceeds, often painstakingly, to show us how.
Most immediately astonishing for me were two things. First was Dr. Gontar's assertion that "the theory advanced in these pages represents an attempt at [...] a paradigm shift in our understanding of Shakespeare's text based on a radical alteration in our perception of his identity" (19). Second was his remarkable eloquence in his exploration of Shakespeare's poetry "the nacreous visions for which we hanker." (12) Despite being invigoratingly polemical, razor-sharp at regular intervals, and now and then even saucy, the general tone of the essays is regularly an impressive balance between shrewd, incisive thought and something calm, patient and wise; one senses a pervasive "largeness of spirit" throughout, that can only be described as benevolent and ancient.
As with many who have (likely) found their way to this review, I have been guided for many years by the great Professor Harold Bloom. Dr. Gontar's tenth essay in Hamlet Made Simple is boldly titled "Woodstock and the Invention of the Human." I sincerely urge anyone who considers him- or herself a disciple of Bloom to acquire this text and read it, after first reading the play "Thomas of Woodstock" or "Richard II, Part One." Dr. Gontar's bottom line here is that it was not Faulconbridge the Bastard who first revealed Shakespeare's "Invention of the Human," but rather Plain Thomas (in the above play). All I can say here is this read the play and read Dr. Gontar's essay, which, like the text of "Woodstock", "commends itself, then, not just to specialists, but to those who may take an interest in the scope of Shakespeare's art and the significance of dramatic character." (204) Lastly, at the start of this essay's concluding paragraph, Dr. Gontar's compelling argument and poetic force combine, and are made manifest
"In Woodstock we witness not talent, but the birth of genius. A Promethean figure, hewn from the cliffs of feudal England, dormant for centuries, re-awakens, and steps forth. Though the textual remnants are occasionally naive, abbreviated, or left fallow, these imperfections are to be expected in what is, after all, the tattered draft of an apprentice poet. Understanding here is not provoked by channeling a mysterious "social energy," but by discovering and acknowledging the true primal character who was to serve as model for all Shakespeare's "free artists of themselves," and, at the last, for us, who in our sad strivings are sometimes touched with genuine humanity." (204)
To conclude this review, acclaimed literary critic and theorist Northrop Frye remarked that "the teaching of literature is a militant activity. It's carried on in the teeth of ignorance and stupidity and prejudice" (Literary Theory in The Classroom). I employ this quotation only as a final disclaimer to the unsuspecting adventurer. Almost a kind of literary gunslinger (I hope the author doesn't take offense), Dr. Gontar will take you deep into dark forests and morasses of incest, cuckoldry and bastardy, bogs and swamps which paradoxically invert and double as majestic vistas and peaks from which Shakespeare's art is illuminated as never before. In the end, Dr. Gontar believes, and effectively persuades, that "Shakespeare's art is significant and valuable because it reflects the wisdom of life." (317) You can't go wrong by buying and reading this book.
(For a more synoptic look the reader is respectfully referred to the reviews of John L. Murphy and William J. Ray.)
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