Footsteps on the Battlements

Sylvia Townsend Warner

doi:10.14324/111.444.stw.2021.5

Abstract

Writing in 1948, Sylvia Townsend Warner takes a sceptical look at recent trends in performances of Hamlet on stage and screen, and also at academic and psychoanalytic discussions of the play.

Highlights

‘Had Hamlet gone naturally to work, there would have been an end of our play.’[2]
Writing in 1948, Sylvia Townsend Warner takes a sceptical look at recent trends in performances of Hamlet on stage and screen, and at academic and psychoanalytic discussions of the play
Expressing a divided personality by being A and B on alternate evenings, a ruthless egotist full of moral sensibility wandered through neo-Byzantine halls, suffering from an Oedipus complex, wearing peg-top trousers and unable to make up his mind though relieved of the obligation to say what is expected of him. It is Hamlet; and these are some of the latest bulletins on his condition, drawn from Dr Ernest Jones, Mr Roy Walker, Senor Madariago, and reviews of two stage productions and a film.[1]

Summary

Introduction

‘Had Hamlet gone naturally to work, there would have been an end of our play.’[2]. This observation, made in 1730, shows how even at that date Hamlet was recognised as a special case. Writing in 1948, Sylvia Townsend Warner takes a sceptical look at recent trends in performances of Hamlet on stage and screen, and at academic and psychoanalytic discussions of the play.

Results

Conclusion