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Hamlet and the Norwegian King

example · cinema-art-culture · retold in 3 talks

A reading of Hamlet where Hamlet's father won independence from Norway (throwing the world 'out of joint'), and Hamlet restores the status quo by installing the Norwegian Fortinbras, making Hamlet a traitor to his father's revolutionary act.

2009: 1 talk 2017: 1 talk 2025: 1 talk
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026

As told 3

“Hamlet's father threw the world out of joint by giving independence to Denmark, Hamlet sets it straight by reinstalling Norway.”
“the true source of evil must have been Hamlet's father”
“It's absolutely clear that the true evil guy in the play is Hamlet's father. It's not Claudius.”

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

Its cast and sources

populated by
alongside works

Every retelling 3

A reading of Hamlet where Hamlet's father won independence from Norway (throwing the world 'out of joint'), and Hamlet restores the status quo by installing the Norwegian Fortinbras, making Hamlet a traitor to his father's revolutionary act., illustrating Logic of integration
A close reading of Hamlet shows Claudius is a B-level villain; the true source of evil must have been Hamlet's father, the ghost who returns, killed in the flower of his sins., illustrating the true source of evil is the father,B-level boss
Žižek argues the real evil figure in Hamlet is not Claudius but Hamlet's father, who died 'in the flower of his sins'; Updike's Gertrude and Claudius retells the story from Gertrude and Claudius's perspective showing they were sincere lovers defending themselves from a brutal king., illustrating undeadness / living dead,symbolic guilt,appearance vs. reality