ALL Course: A Character Alone: The Seven Soliloquies of Hamlet

A Character Alone: The Seven Soliloquies of Hamlet

With John Ford and John Miller

Date: Five sessions on Wednesdays, January 30; February 6, 13, 20, 27

Time: 1:30–3:00pm

Location: Van Lennep Auditorium, CBMM

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Course Description:

“To be or not to be…” With perhaps the most famous line written in the English language, Hamlet begins his contemplation of suicide in the play’s third soliloquy. Shakespeare’s artful use of the soliloquies in Hamlet provides insight into the play as a whole and gives extraordinary depth to the characters of Hamlet and Claudius. In an article reviewing Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Declan Fitzsimons says “…Shakespeare’s characters develop because they have the ability to overhear themselves talk, either to themselves or to others, and are thus able to reconceive themselves. By endowing his characters with complex inner worlds, Shakespeare treats us to virtuoso displays of what the modern ear sounds very much like self-discovery. There is not one Hamlet but many. We are mesmerized, not simply through the beauty of the language, but because we realize that he is hearing these things for the first time. And no matter how many times we see the play, we never tire of it because it is at such moments that Hamlet, while in real danger of unraveling, is at the same time exquisitely vulnerable and thus truly human.” Seven Soliloquies, five weeks… will there be enough time?!

Members $31.50 | Non-Members $45

About the Instructors:

John Ford majored in literature in college, and has been involved in ALL at CBMM since its beginning in 1999. He currently is Facilities Manager at CBMM and President of the Easton Town Council.

John Miller, Ph.D., is an English teacher who has taught literature at both high school and college levels. He served a VP of Advancement at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is one of the founders of ALL at CBMM. John has co-facilitated literature courses for many years with John F. Ford at CBMM’s Academy for Lifelong Learning.