Spare Hamlet

Abstract

The Past is never dead. It’s not even past.

William Faulkner

In 2023, the whole world eagerly awaited the release of the book Spare by Prince Harry. It is not only the prince’s admirers and the people who are interested in the British monarchy, but also academics from humanities and popular magazines express their interest in Spare, which increases Harry’s popularity in all social groups of Western society. 

Spare introduces the British Monarchy through the eyes of the insider. Probably, the most popular and tragic story in the history of English and world literature narrated by the insider is Hamlet. In Shakespeare’s times, the theatre played the same role which today is associated with mass media: television, press, cinema, soup operas etc. The audience at the theatre could listen and watch not only the performance on the stage but also get news about politics, love-affairs, religion, etc. We can find the same idea in the scene of the mousetrap, when Hamlet with players, verified the message (information) delivered by his father’s ghost  in the theatre.

Stories that take place at Buckingham, Windsor, St. James’s, Kensington and Balmoral could become a genesis of new comedies, dramas and tragedies.  It is a fact that Shakespeare’s works as if have become the “Genetic Code” of British Monarchy and the stories of the House of Windsor often remind us of the works by Great Bard, in particular Hamlet as today we are witnessing Prince Harry Hamletize himself and representing the Buckingham Palace as Elsinore in his book Spare. 

Consequently, the article explores the question of interrelation between Hamlet by Shakespeare and Spare by Prince Harry in three directions: literary-textual, socio-cultural and socio-historical (political).

References:

Maziashvili, David, (2021). “Shakespeare’s Postmodernism” (Fiction, Drama, Theatre), Publishing House 24 Hours, Tbilisi.

Prince Harry, (2023). “Spare”, Random House, New York.

Shakespeare, William, (1980) “Hamlet”, Soviet Art, Tbilisi.

Shakespeare William, Hamlet  http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/full.html