DDR: The Substance of Reality: Moral Perfectionism in Shakespeare's Hamlet by Dr. David Wright

Well...I thought I was going back to Jesus for my next DDR, but one of my dearest friends (20+ years) just sent me a copy of his hot off the press Ph. D. dissertation, and it's not going to read itself, so....

It's viii + 202 = 210 pages, so I'm thinking a week at most, probably less. 

Day 1 (DDRD 2,867), September 6, 2025

Read to page 21.

Dr. Wright refers to "...the desire to perceive the substance of reality through the deceptive veil of appearances." (vi)

I'm all in on the assumption that Plato got it right--that there is a fuller, "realer" world beyond this one. To be honest, I'm not seeing how that relates to Hamlet (or Hamlet), in that I see the Sweet Prince as moving in the opposite direction, from the Reality of the eternal world to the world of appearances, but we'll see what the next 209 pages has to say about that.

David is a solid Stratfordian, while I am a fervent Oxfordian. That has to result in differing interpretations of Hamlet...and there's probably no point in listing every one of them, but as of page 11 there have been three major ones, so I'm going to address those.

1. There are several references to historical evidence of Shakespeare's rigorous schooling, attendance at church, etc. In truth, all of this is assumption and stands under the banner, " Surely he MUST have...." In truth, there is very little historical evidence of anything relating to William Shakespeare's life. The majority of the existing evidence has to do with lawsuits and grain sales--nothing about education or a literary life. That is just a fact.

2. As is often the case, there is a reference to being unable to see the man behind the work. Even Virginia Woolf succumbed to this idea. However, if one is an Oxfordian, there is an abundance of Edward de Vere's life present in the works of Shakespeare--down to fine details of his biography.

3. David refers to Ben Jonson's famous line that Shakespeare had "little Latin and less Greek" as a litote.

Let's just say that I see no reason to categorize Jonson's statement in this way. From my perspective, Jonson was indicating that there was a man named William Shakespeare who was essentially uneducated, and that he was not the author of the great plays. Jonson was constrained from being overt about this, however, so he couched his criticism in this line, which implies that there is another man behind the plays--since obviously the plays reflect great learning and a knowledge of both Greek and Latin.

Day 2 (DDRD 2,868), September 7, 2025

Read to page 67.

Here's an interesting thought:

Seeing Horatio as incomplete... as, essentially, a failure...goes against my vision of the character completely. I'd previously read this line as indicating that Horatio was uncomfortable in the environment of Elsinore, which us, essentially, a Medieval city, and longed for the companionship of Hamlet, who, like himself, was a Renaissance man. In other words, there was no lack in himself, but in the stifling environment he had been dragged back into. Taking Dr. Wright's perspective adds an interesting twust, though. Instead if seeing the play as the progressive dissolution of Hamlet (moving from Renaissance man to Medieval warrior), it suggests that Horatio represents the (or at least a) failure of the intellect. I don't agree, but I will have to track this idea and see where it goes. incomplete

On the other hand, Horatio does not initially believe in the existence of Hamlet Sr.'s ghost, which I would think indicates a lack of belief in a spiritual dimension outside the realm of physical reality. That would indeed be a "failure," a "lack of completeness" in my understanding of The World & All There Is That's In It. And Hamlet would obviously agree, as in his famous statement that "There are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  So maybe I don't disagree with the vision of Horatio as essentially incomplete.

...especially since there's no doubt that he was WRONG. There's no denying that there actually IS a ghost in this scene, after all. Can this be seen as a degeneration in Horatio, too (as in my vision of the play as Hamlet's degeneration)? Perhaps.  The Horatio who existed in Wittenberg clearly did not believe in the existence of ghosts. It's almost as if Elsinore exists in a another realm--a realm in which medieval values and beliefs prevail — even though that is not true in the modern Renaissance world. Coming back to Elsinore destroys the rationality of the mind, forces it to devolve.

Hmmm. About, my brains!

P.S. Yesterday I was talking to a pretty, twenty-something girl about the the limitations of the rational mind*, and said something like, "I think my intuition is smarter than my brain." She agreed with that perspective. Here's a bit of what I read today in Dr. Wright's thesis paper:

How do you like them 🍎🍎🍎🍎🍏?

* Yes, really. That's how old I am. Sorry, boys.

P.S. Read to page 81.

Day 3 (DDRD 2,869), September 8, 2025

Read to page 111.

"Thus conscience does make cowards...." No "of us all," because the quotation is taken from the so-called "good" quarto rather than from the First Folio version.

Day 4 (DDRD 2,870), September 9, 2025

Read to page 156.

Dr. Wright suggests that The Arts provide Hamlet (and, presumably, us) "...with a great deal of hope and joy, a respite from fear and anxiety, a means of escape, humor, and a restoration of sanity — but ultimately, a way to the truth, a way to the substance of reality." (114)

Is that some hot shit or what? 

I occasionally pause in my horse bolting across the prairie style of reading and ask myself, "Do book markers REALLY measure what we've lost?"* Next time that happens, I'm going to remind myself of this (👆) line. Thanks for the dance, Dr. D!**

* "The Dangling Conversation " by Paul Fuckin' Simon

** "Dancing with Mr. D." by Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

P.S. Does this sound familiar?

Day 5 (DDRD 2,871), September 10, 2025

Read to page 202, The End.  One of the bits of new information (for me, at least) was that Aristotle defended poetry (whereas Plato offended it). Go, Aristotle.

This was an interesting work, and it's got me thinking so much about Shaje-speare that I'm thinkers by I need to take that exit on the DDR highway. Y'know, there are several books on the bard that I've been meaning to read for some time....