Still at this project.  Surprising myself with the progress I am making with it.  Currently revisiting Shakespeare's Hamlet.  This makes maybe my third time through this play.  Richard III and Midsummer Night's Dream were the other picks that Bauer has chosen from Shakespeare dramatic works.  I read them before starting Hamlet. I am trying to stay with the idea of reading through time as Bauer has suggested.

Richard III is an earlier English familial tragedy based more in history than Hamlet who is a Dane.  The English seem to be nearly vassals to that kingdom.  When would the historical setting have been? Or is this total fiction?  Good question, might have to chase that around after I finish here.


At the other pole, Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy complete with a fairy co-plot.  Is that a word? Co-plot?  It isn't subordinate to the human plot and they interact to effect the comedic aspects of the play. So I'm staying with my new word.  

Back to Hamlet.  What have I discovered from this reading?  Thus far, Hamlet is less a sympathetic figure for me, but one more deranged and vengeful in his quest to right the wrong done to his father.  Ophelia's part seems to contrast Hamlet's in that she becomes the true mad person in this work and the one most wronged. The newly minted king and stepfather to Hamlet, may have been right in his evaluation of the danger that Hamlet presented, but underestimated his craftiness to the degree that Hamlet overestimated his ability.