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Sigma Alpha ElsinoreThe Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Sigma Alpha ElsinoreThe Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but is not an aberration. Hamlet says that Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared that Denmark had taught their own nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicts in Hamlet. Our window into these early modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities plus social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with ethnicity, wealth, masculinity, and tragedy. Thus alcohol imagistically reappears in key moments of Hamlet—the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png English Language Notes Duke University Press

Sigma Alpha ElsinoreThe Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Wilson, Jeffrey R.; Lemon, Rebecca
English Language Notes , Volume 60 (1) – Apr 1, 2022
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Copyright
Copyright © 2022 Regents of the University of Colorado
ISSN
0013-8282
eISSN
2573-3575
DOI
10.1215/00138282-9560210
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but is not an aberration. Hamlet says that Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared that Denmark had taught their own nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicts in Hamlet. Our window into these early modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities plus social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with ethnicity, wealth, masculinity, and tragedy. Thus alcohol imagistically reappears in key moments of Hamlet—the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Journal

English Language Notes – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2022

References

  • The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013)
    Biddix, J. Patrick Matney, Malinda Norman, Eric Martin, Georgianna
  • Manly Drunkenness: Binge Drinking as Disciplined Play
    Bloom, Gina Bailey, Amanda Hentschell, Roze
  • Alcohol Use in the Greek System, 1999–2009: A Decade of Progress
    Borsari, Brian Hustad, John T. P. Capone, Christy
  • HD Hamlet—Determined Relevance
    Breuer, Joann Green
  • Circe’s Cup: Wine and Women in Early Modern Drama
    Britland, Karen Smyth, Adam
  • Sons of Beer and Sons of Ben: Drink as a Social Marker in Seventeenth-Century England
    Brown, Cedric C. Smyth, Adam
  • ‘Your Only Emperor for Diet’: Hamlet and the Dangers of Perilous Eating and Drinking
    Brown, Eric C.
  • Hamlet and the Moment of Brazilian Cinema
    Burnett, Mark Thornton
  • Binge Drinking in and out of College: An Examination of Social Control and Differential Association on Binge Drinking Behaviors between College Students and Their Non-college Peers
    Byrd, Kaitland M.
  • Binge Drinking among College Students: A Partial Test of Akers’ Social Structure-Social Learning Theory
    Capece, Michael Lanza-Kaduce, Lonn
  • Fraternity and Sorority Involvement, Social Influences, and Alcohol Use among College Students: A Prospective Examination
    Capone, Christy Wood, Mark D. Borsari, Brian Laird, Robert D.
  • Hamlet without Words
    Charney, Maurice
  • Social Norms and Motivations Associated with College Binge Drinking
    Chauvin, Chantel D.
  • Hanging in a Park with Danish Royalty
    Collins-Hughes, Laura
  • Protestant Evangelicals and Addiction in Early Modern English
    Cree, Jose Murgatroyd
  • Shakespeare on Alcohol
    Dalrymple, Theodore
  • An Applied Test of the Social Learning Theory of Deviance to College Alcohol Use
    DeMartino, Cynthia H. Rice, Ronald E. Saltz, Robert
  • College Students and Binge Drinking: An Evaluation of Social Learning Theory
    Durkin, Keith F. Wolfe, Timothy W. Clark, Gregory A.
  • The Falstaffian State
    Earnshaw, Steven
  • A Note on Shakespeare
    Egge, Albert E.
  • Ranking the Plays at Stratford Festival 2015
    Fischer, Mike
  • Race and Racism in Fraternity and Sorority Life: A Historical Overview
    Gillon, Kathleen E. Beatty, Cameron C. Jr, Cristobal Salinas
  • Was Hamlet a Drunkard?
    Gledhill, Bobbie
  • Fortinbras Gets Drunk (1985)
    Glowacki, Janusz
  • ‘The Cause of This Defect’: The Dram of Eale
    Haley, David Anderson, Linda Lull, Janis
  • The Artistic Process: Learning from Campbell Scott’s Hamlet
    Henderson, Diana E. Henderson, Diana E.
  • ‘Now ’mongst This Flock of Drunkards’: Drunk Shakespeare’s Polytemporal Theater
    Holl, Jennifer
  • To My Lord Viscount S. from Hamburgh
    Howell, James
  • A Paradox of Participation: Nonwhites in White Sororities and Fraternities
    Hughey, Matthew W.
  • Hamlet: Voice, Music, Sound
    Johnson, Bruce
  • Ode
    Jonson, Ben Holland, Hugh
  • Perceptions of Race and Fit in the Recruitment Process of Traditionally, Predominantly White Fraternities
    Joyce, S. Brian
  • Shakespeare’s Addictions
    Kezar, Dennis
  • ‘The Delightful Logic of Intoxication’: Fictionalising Alcoholism
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • Drink and Alcohol Literature: Two Critical Perspectives
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • ‘From Jubilation to Despair’: Representations of Drink in British and Irish Literature
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • Review of Hamlet, dir. Bill Rauch
    Kolkovich, Elizabeth Zeman
  • Wine for Comfort: Drinking and the Royalist Exile Experience, 1642–1660
    Kublesek, Marika Smyth, Adam
  • An Individual in Context: Predictors of Alcohol Use and Drinking Problems among Greek and Residence Hall Students
    Larimer, Mary E. Anderson, Britt K. Baer, John S. Marlatt, G. Alan
  • Compulsory Conviviality in Early Modern England
    Lemon, Rebecca
  • Incapacitated Will
    Lemon, Rebecca Loughnane, Rory Semple, Edel
  • Sacking Falstaff
    Lemon, Rebecca Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • The Rising Gorge: Poison, Hamlet, and Sin
    Mahalik, Christa
  • Was Shakespeare ‘Not a Company Keeper’? William Beeston and MS Aubrey 8, fol. 45v
    Matusiak, Christopher
  • A Natural Drink for an English Man: National Stereotyping in Early Modern Culture
    McBride, Charlotte Smyth, Adam
  • Selection and Socialization Effects of Fraternities and Sororities on U.S. College Student Substance Use: A Multi-cohort National Longitudinal Study
    McCabe, Sean Esteban Schulenberg, John E. Johnston, Lloyd D. O’Malley, Patrick M. Bachman, Jerald G. Kloska, Deborah D.
  • How Collegiate Fraternity and Sorority Involvement Relates to Substance Use during Young Adulthood and Substance Use Disorders in Early Midlife: A National Longitudinal Study
    McCabe, Sean Esteban Veliz, Philip Schulenberg, John E.
  • Relationships between Collective Fraternity Chapter Masculine Norm Climates and the Alcohol Consumption of Fraternity Men
    McCready, Adam M.
  • The Poisoned Chalice: Wine as a Vehicle of Death in Women Beware Women, The Tragedy of Mariam, and Hamlet
    McGlone, Kathleen
  • Roaring Royalists and Ranting Brewers: The Politicization of Drink and Drunkenness in Political Broadside Ballads from 1640 to 1689
    McShane, Angela Smyth, Adam
  • Dressed in Drunk Hope: Alcoholism in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
    Nguyen, Brooke
  • Drink, Sex, and Power in Restoration Comedy
    Owen, Susan J. Smyth, Adam
  • Risky Drinking in College Changes as Fraternity/Sorority Affiliation Changes: A Person-Environment Perspective
    Park, Aesoon Sher, Kenneth J. Krull, Jennifer L.
  • ‘The Poor Creature Small Beer’: Princely Autonomy and Subjection in 2 Henry IV
    Parolin, Peter Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Fluid Mechanics: Shakespeare’s Subversive Liquors
    Raber, Karen Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Shakespeare on the Screen: Brazilian Cinema and TV
    Resende, Aimara da Cunha
  • Sour Beer at the Boar’s Head: Salvaging Shakespeare’s Alewife, Mistress Quickly
    Romanelli, Christina
  • Drunkard
    Rowlands, Samuel
  • ‘Wine and Sugar of the Best and the Fairest’: Canary, the Canaries, and the Global in Windsor
    Sebek, Barbara Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Bryant Park Inaugurated a New Shakespeare Program with the Drilling Company’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Production of ‘Hamlet’ May 15–31, 2014
  • Short- and Long-Term Effects of Fraternity and Sorority Membership on Heavy Drinking: A Social Norms Perspective
    Sher, Kenneth J. Bartholow, Bruce D. Nanda, Shivani
  • Splendid Prince, Worthy Production of ‘Hamlet.’
    Shirley, Don
  • ‘It Were Far Better to Be a Toad, or a Serpant, Then a Drunkard’: Writing about Drunkenness
    Smyth, Adam Smyth, Adam
  • David Tennant: Thrills Abound in Doctor Who Hamlet
    Spencer, Charles
  • Hamlet, National Theatre, Review
    Spenser, Charles
  • ‘Heavy-Headed Revel East and West’: Hamlet and Christian IV of Denmark
    Srigley, Michael Sorelius, Gunnar
  • ‘Well Grubbed, Old Mole’: Marx, Hamlet, and the (Un)fixing of Representation
    Stallybrass, Peter
  • Gertrude
    Stubbs, Imogen Dobson, Michael
  • Social and Cultural Contexts of Alcohol Use: Influences in a Social-Ecological Framework
    Sudhinaraset, May Wigglesworth, Christina Takeuchi, David T.
  • Shakespeare Studies: Part IV. Drunkenness in Shakespeare
    Tolman, Albert H.
  • Fraternities, Sororities, and Binge Drinking: Results from a National Study of American Colleges
    Wechsler, Henry Kuh, George Davenport, Andrea E.
  • Mixing Memory with Desire: The Family of the Alcoholic in Three Mid-century Plays
    Wedge, George F.
  • Alimentary Metaphors and Their Political Context in Shakespeare’s Plays
    Winkler, Elisabeth Gymnich, Marion Lennartz, Norbert
  • Intoxicants and Society in Early Modern England
    Withington, Phil
  • Introduction: Cultures of Intoxication
    Withington, Phil
  • ‘Fluster’d with Flowing Cups’: Alcoholism, Humoralism, and the Prosthetic Narrative in Othello
    Wood, David Houston
  • The Influence of Fraternity and Sorority Involvement: A Critical Analysis of Research (1996–2013)
    Biddix, J. Patrick Matney, Malinda Norman, Eric Martin, Georgianna
  • Manly Drunkenness: Binge Drinking as Disciplined Play
    Bloom, Gina Bailey, Amanda Hentschell, Roze
  • Alcohol Use in the Greek System, 1999–2009: A Decade of Progress
    Borsari, Brian Hustad, John T. P. Capone, Christy
  • HD Hamlet—Determined Relevance
    Breuer, Joann Green
  • Circe’s Cup: Wine and Women in Early Modern Drama
    Britland, Karen Smyth, Adam
  • Sons of Beer and Sons of Ben: Drink as a Social Marker in Seventeenth-Century England
    Brown, Cedric C. Smyth, Adam
  • ‘Your Only Emperor for Diet’: Hamlet and the Dangers of Perilous Eating and Drinking
    Brown, Eric C.
  • Hamlet and the Moment of Brazilian Cinema
    Burnett, Mark Thornton
  • Binge Drinking in and out of College: An Examination of Social Control and Differential Association on Binge Drinking Behaviors between College Students and Their Non-college Peers
    Byrd, Kaitland M.
  • Binge Drinking among College Students: A Partial Test of Akers’ Social Structure-Social Learning Theory
    Capece, Michael Lanza-Kaduce, Lonn
  • Fraternity and Sorority Involvement, Social Influences, and Alcohol Use among College Students: A Prospective Examination
    Capone, Christy Wood, Mark D. Borsari, Brian Laird, Robert D.
  • Hamlet without Words
    Charney, Maurice
  • Social Norms and Motivations Associated with College Binge Drinking
    Chauvin, Chantel D.
  • Hanging in a Park with Danish Royalty
    Collins-Hughes, Laura
  • Protestant Evangelicals and Addiction in Early Modern English
    Cree, Jose Murgatroyd
  • Shakespeare on Alcohol
    Dalrymple, Theodore
  • An Applied Test of the Social Learning Theory of Deviance to College Alcohol Use
    DeMartino, Cynthia H. Rice, Ronald E. Saltz, Robert
  • College Students and Binge Drinking: An Evaluation of Social Learning Theory
    Durkin, Keith F. Wolfe, Timothy W. Clark, Gregory A.
  • The Falstaffian State
    Earnshaw, Steven
  • A Note on Shakespeare
    Egge, Albert E.
  • Ranking the Plays at Stratford Festival 2015
    Fischer, Mike
  • Race and Racism in Fraternity and Sorority Life: A Historical Overview
    Gillon, Kathleen E. Beatty, Cameron C. Jr, Cristobal Salinas
  • Was Hamlet a Drunkard?
    Gledhill, Bobbie
  • Fortinbras Gets Drunk (1985)
    Glowacki, Janusz
  • ‘The Cause of This Defect’: The Dram of Eale
    Haley, David Anderson, Linda Lull, Janis
  • The Artistic Process: Learning from Campbell Scott’s Hamlet
    Henderson, Diana E. Henderson, Diana E.
  • ‘Now ’mongst This Flock of Drunkards’: Drunk Shakespeare’s Polytemporal Theater
    Holl, Jennifer
  • To My Lord Viscount S. from Hamburgh
    Howell, James
  • A Paradox of Participation: Nonwhites in White Sororities and Fraternities
    Hughey, Matthew W.
  • Hamlet: Voice, Music, Sound
    Johnson, Bruce
  • Ode
    Jonson, Ben Holland, Hugh
  • Perceptions of Race and Fit in the Recruitment Process of Traditionally, Predominantly White Fraternities
    Joyce, S. Brian
  • Shakespeare’s Addictions
    Kezar, Dennis
  • ‘The Delightful Logic of Intoxication’: Fictionalising Alcoholism
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • Drink and Alcohol Literature: Two Critical Perspectives
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • ‘From Jubilation to Despair’: Representations of Drink in British and Irish Literature
    Klepuszewski, Wojciech
  • Review of Hamlet, dir. Bill Rauch
    Kolkovich, Elizabeth Zeman
  • Wine for Comfort: Drinking and the Royalist Exile Experience, 1642–1660
    Kublesek, Marika Smyth, Adam
  • An Individual in Context: Predictors of Alcohol Use and Drinking Problems among Greek and Residence Hall Students
    Larimer, Mary E. Anderson, Britt K. Baer, John S. Marlatt, G. Alan
  • Compulsory Conviviality in Early Modern England
    Lemon, Rebecca
  • Incapacitated Will
    Lemon, Rebecca Loughnane, Rory Semple, Edel
  • Sacking Falstaff
    Lemon, Rebecca Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • The Rising Gorge: Poison, Hamlet, and Sin
    Mahalik, Christa
  • Was Shakespeare ‘Not a Company Keeper’? William Beeston and MS Aubrey 8, fol. 45v
    Matusiak, Christopher
  • A Natural Drink for an English Man: National Stereotyping in Early Modern Culture
    McBride, Charlotte Smyth, Adam
  • Selection and Socialization Effects of Fraternities and Sororities on U.S. College Student Substance Use: A Multi-cohort National Longitudinal Study
    McCabe, Sean Esteban Schulenberg, John E. Johnston, Lloyd D. O’Malley, Patrick M. Bachman, Jerald G. Kloska, Deborah D.
  • How Collegiate Fraternity and Sorority Involvement Relates to Substance Use during Young Adulthood and Substance Use Disorders in Early Midlife: A National Longitudinal Study
    McCabe, Sean Esteban Veliz, Philip Schulenberg, John E.
  • Relationships between Collective Fraternity Chapter Masculine Norm Climates and the Alcohol Consumption of Fraternity Men
    McCready, Adam M.
  • The Poisoned Chalice: Wine as a Vehicle of Death in Women Beware Women, The Tragedy of Mariam, and Hamlet
    McGlone, Kathleen
  • Roaring Royalists and Ranting Brewers: The Politicization of Drink and Drunkenness in Political Broadside Ballads from 1640 to 1689
    McShane, Angela Smyth, Adam
  • Dressed in Drunk Hope: Alcoholism in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
    Nguyen, Brooke
  • Drink, Sex, and Power in Restoration Comedy
    Owen, Susan J. Smyth, Adam
  • Risky Drinking in College Changes as Fraternity/Sorority Affiliation Changes: A Person-Environment Perspective
    Park, Aesoon Sher, Kenneth J. Krull, Jennifer L.
  • ‘The Poor Creature Small Beer’: Princely Autonomy and Subjection in 2 Henry IV
    Parolin, Peter Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Fluid Mechanics: Shakespeare’s Subversive Liquors
    Raber, Karen Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Shakespeare on the Screen: Brazilian Cinema and TV
    Resende, Aimara da Cunha
  • Sour Beer at the Boar’s Head: Salvaging Shakespeare’s Alewife, Mistress Quickly
    Romanelli, Christina
  • Drunkard
    Rowlands, Samuel
  • ‘Wine and Sugar of the Best and the Fairest’: Canary, the Canaries, and the Global in Windsor
    Sebek, Barbara Goldstein, David B. Tigner, Amy L.
  • Bryant Park Inaugurated a New Shakespeare Program with the Drilling Company’s Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Production of ‘Hamlet’ May 15–31, 2014
  • Short- and Long-Term Effects of Fraternity and Sorority Membership on Heavy Drinking: A Social Norms Perspective
    Sher, Kenneth J. Bartholow, Bruce D. Nanda, Shivani
  • Splendid Prince, Worthy Production of ‘Hamlet.’
    Shirley, Don
  • ‘It Were Far Better to Be a Toad, or a Serpant, Then a Drunkard’: Writing about Drunkenness
    Smyth, Adam Smyth, Adam
  • David Tennant: Thrills Abound in Doctor Who Hamlet
    Spencer, Charles
  • Hamlet, National Theatre, Review
    Spenser, Charles
  • ‘Heavy-Headed Revel East and West’: Hamlet and Christian IV of Denmark
    Srigley, Michael Sorelius, Gunnar
  • ‘Well Grubbed, Old Mole’: Marx, Hamlet, and the (Un)fixing of Representation
    Stallybrass, Peter
  • Gertrude
    Stubbs, Imogen Dobson, Michael
  • Social and Cultural Contexts of Alcohol Use: Influences in a Social-Ecological Framework
    Sudhinaraset, May Wigglesworth, Christina Takeuchi, David T.
  • Shakespeare Studies: Part IV. Drunkenness in Shakespeare
    Tolman, Albert H.
  • Fraternities, Sororities, and Binge Drinking: Results from a National Study of American Colleges
    Wechsler, Henry Kuh, George Davenport, Andrea E.
  • Mixing Memory with Desire: The Family of the Alcoholic in Three Mid-century Plays
    Wedge, George F.
  • Alimentary Metaphors and Their Political Context in Shakespeare’s Plays
    Winkler, Elisabeth Gymnich, Marion Lennartz, Norbert
  • Intoxicants and Society in Early Modern England
    Withington, Phil
  • Introduction: Cultures of Intoxication
    Withington, Phil
  • ‘Fluster’d with Flowing Cups’: Alcoholism, Humoralism, and the Prosthetic Narrative in Othello
    Wood, David Houston