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He's referring to Hamlet's starting situation, which is same as Cinderella's (despondent girl, mother dead) except that the sexes are reversed (despondent boy,
by CodeMage 17y ago
He's referring to Hamlet's starting situation, which is same as Cinderella's (despondent girl, mother dead) except that the sexes are reversed (despondent boy, father dead). From there on, the story is different.
- run4yourlives 17y agoActually, what he is saying is that the the stories are exactly the same, but Hamlet has a realistic outcome (truth) whereas Cinderella is all about the story graph. Hamlet makes the mistake of killing Polonius, and getting killed himself, because there really is no shoe fitting happily ever after in life, and that's why the story works.
- andrewcooke 17y agothanks; that makes more sense. i need to go back + read it again, i think. [edit: hmm; that's not completely right either. need to get back to work.]
- TeHCrAzY 17y agoCuriously, I wonder if Hamlet is reliant on this effect to actually be a good story, and if so, are we hardwired to have it, or is it learnt.
- CodeMage 17y agoWait, I don't get it. How are they "exactly the same" if Hamlet's is realistic and there's no magic "shoe fitting happily ever after" and the "graph" is completely different? I mean, I've read both Cinderella and Hamlet and the only thing they really have in common is the starting situation. What's the difference between a crocodile and a camel? One ends with "rocodile" and other with "amel"...
- trevelyan 17y agoHamlet makes the mistake of killing the king. Of course, so does his uncle.
- BearOfNH 17y agoHamlet makes the mistake of killing Polonius I'm not sure I agree that was a mistake. Unexpected, maybe. Only real problem is that Shakespeare, master of pithy phrases, missed a golden opportunity to coin the term "You dirty rat!".