Some Necessary Questions of the Play A Stage-centered Analysis of Shakespeare's Hamlet

This study of Hamlet begins with an examination of the play's use of real space and time as elements of a narration that is, in part, about a protagonist's perception of space and time. Robert E. Wood shows that distortions in Hamlet's perceptions of space and time accompany his disillusionment with cultural values. In the next phase of the book, Wood examines how wit and soliloquy are used in the protagonist's interrogation of language. In the third phase of the book, Wood examines expectations we bring to the theater: our focus on the body as the locus of our attention; and our understanding of the generic framework which orders our experience. Wood finds in Hamlet a series of violations of generic expectation that opens up the narrow range of revenge tragedy to the fuller scope of tragedy proper. Because Hamlet problematizes genre, we become aware of the problems generated when mythic narrative is infused with self-conscious dramatic characters. The resulting ambivalence of the generic framework makes possible the play's generalized challenge to institutions of social order.