‘… draw thy breath in pain to tell my story’ : novelistic retellings of Hamlet : Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince, John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius, and Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet

Abstract

Hamlet’s timelessness relies on how it touches upon fundamental aspects of the human experience: the protagonist’s profound grief following loss, his quest for identity amid deceit and betrayal, and his obsession with avenging his father’s murder. These themes reverberate through the corridors of literary history and have tempted many authors to take on the formidable task of engaging with Shakespeare’s play by retelling it in the context of their own worlds. While much has been written about the reimagining of Shakespeare’s plays, this dissertation attempts to bring together three texts which transform these themes into creative literature. The selected novels span three decades and each one approaches the source text differently. Iris Murdoch’s The Black Prince (1973), discussed in Chapter 1, explores the intricate theme of identity through its protagonist Bradley Pearson, an indecisive narrator who grapples with selfhood and authenticity in a world of artifice brimming with pretence. John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius (2000) imagines the backstory of two of Hamlet’s most enigmatic characters, Gertrude and Claudius. In the discussion around it in the second chapter, particular attention is given to how the seeds of the revenge which engulfs Hamlet are sown. Finally, Chapter 3 engages with Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, published in 2020. Here it is the grief of O’Farrell’s protagonist Agnes, (the name in the novel for Anne Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife) that takes centre stage, but the chapter also reflects on what would have been Shakespeare’s own grief after the loss of his only son. The analysis of these three texts investigates, not only the enduring relevance of Shakespeare’s themes but also the diverse ways in which this seminal text is transformed and revisited. These novelistic retellings continue to influence contemporary understanding of literature by providing their own fresh and creative insights. This dissertation attempts to untangle some of these intricate connections between the past and the present, tradition, and innovation while celebrating the ability of Shakespeare’s works to transcend time and continue to capture the imagination.