diff --git "a/output_topic_details.txt" "b/output_topic_details.txt" --- "a/output_topic_details.txt" +++ "b/output_topic_details.txt" @@ -898,4 +898,4161 @@ The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg are a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes paint Overview The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald was published in 1925 during the Roaring Twenties, a period of economic prosperity and social change in the United States. Set in the summer of 1922, the novel unfolds in the fictional town of West Egg on Long Island and follows the life of Nick Carraway. Nick, the narrator, becomes entangled in the lives of his cousin, Daisy Buchanan, and his mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a wealthy and enigmatic man known for his extravagant parties and his unrequited love for Daisy. The novel explores themes of wealth and class, with Gatsby’s pursuit of success and love serving as a symbol of the elusive and often unattainable nature of the American Dream. -The story is layered with symbolism and explores the moral and social decay hidden beneath the surface of the glittering Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the excesses and moral bankruptcy of the era offers a critique of the American society of his time. The Great Gatsby remains relevant today as a commentary on the pursuit of wealth and the corruption of the American Dream. Significant film adaptations include the 1974 film starring Robert Redford as Gatsby and the 2013 adaptation featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. These adaptations—along with the endless memes inspired by the 2013 version—have contributed to the enduring popularity and cultural impact of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. \ No newline at end of file +The story is layered with symbolism and explores the moral and social decay hidden beneath the surface of the glittering Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s portrayal of the excesses and moral bankruptcy of the era offers a critique of the American society of his time. The Great Gatsby remains relevant today as a commentary on the pursuit of wealth and the corruption of the American Dream. Significant film adaptations include the 1974 film starring Robert Redford as Gatsby and the 2013 adaptation featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. These adaptations—along with the endless memes inspired by the 2013 version—have contributed to the enduring popularity and cultural impact of Fitzgerald’s masterpiece. + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Synopsis +Toggle Synopsis subsection +Act One +Act Two +Act Three +Act Four +Characters (in order of appearance) +Notable casts +Originality +Historical accuracy +Toggle Historical accuracy subsection +Language of the period +Title +Adaptations +Toggle Adaptations subsection +Film +Stage +Television +Awards and nominations +Toggle Awards and nominations subsection +Original Broadway production +2002 Broadway revival +2016 Broadway revival +Editions +See also +References +Further reading +External links +The Crucible + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Page semi-protected +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +For the 1914 film, see The Crucible (1914 film). For the 1957 film, see The Crucible (1957 film). For the 1996 film, see The Crucible (1996 film). For the 2011 South Korean film, see Silenced (film). +For other uses, see The Crucible (disambiguation). +The Crucible + +Written by Arthur Miller +Characters +Abigail Williams +Reverend John Hale +Reverend Samuel Parris +John Proctor +Elizabeth Proctor +Thomas Danforth +Mary Warren +John Hathorne +Giles Corey +Rebecca Nurse +Date premiered January 22, 1953 +Place premiered Martin Beck Theatre, New York City +Original language English +Subject Salem witch trials, McCarthyism +Genre Tragedy +Setting Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony +The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized[1] story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists.[2] Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.[3] + +The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953, starring E. G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight and Madeleine Sherwood. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold, and the reviews for it were largely hostile (although The New York Times noted "a powerful play [in a] driving performance").[4] The production won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play.[5] A year later, a new production succeeded and the play became a classic.[6] It is regarded as a central work in the canon of American drama.[7] + +Synopsis +Act One +The opening narration explains the context of Salem and the Puritan colonists of Massachusetts, which the narrator depicts as an isolated theocratic society in constant conflict with Native Americans. The narrator speculates that the lack of civil liberties, isolation from civilization, and lack of stability in the colony caused latent internal tensions which would contribute to the events depicted in the play. + +The remainder of Act One is set in the attic of local preacher Reverend Samuel Parris. His ten-year-old daughter, Betty Parris, lies motionless. The previous evening, Reverend Parris discovered Betty, some other girls, and his Barbadian slave, Tituba, dancing naked in the forest and engaged in some sort of pagan ritual. The village is rife with rumors of witchcraft and a crowd gathers outside Rev. Parris' house. Parris becomes concerned that the event will cause him to be removed from his position as the town's preacher. He questions the girls' apparent ringleader, his niece Abigail Williams, whom Parris has been forced to adopt after her parents were brutally killed in King Philip's War. Abigail denies they were engaged in witchcraft, claiming that they had been dancing. Afterwards, the wealthy and influential Thomas Putnam and his wife, Ann arrive. At the Putnams' urging, Parris reluctantly reveals that he has invited Reverend John Hale, an expert in witchcraft and demonology, to investigate and leaves to address the crowd. + +The other girls involved in the incident join Abigail and a briefly roused Betty, who attempts to jump out of the window. Abigail coerces and threatens the others to "stick to their story" of merely dancing in the woods. The other girls are frightened of the truth being revealed (in actuality, they tried to conjure a curse against Elizabeth Proctor) and being labelled witches, so they go along with Abigail. Betty then faints back into unconsciousness. + +John Proctor, a local farmer and husband of Elizabeth, enters. He sends the other girls out (including Mary Warren, his family's maid) and confronts Abigail, who tells him that she and the girls were not performing witchcraft. It is revealed that Abigail once worked as a servant for the Proctors, and that she and John had an affair, for which she was fired. Abigail still harbors feelings for John and believes they are reciprocated, but John denies this. Abigail angrily mocks John for denying his true feelings for her. As they argue, a psalm is sung in the room downstairs. Betty bolts upright and begins screaming. + +Rev. Parris runs back into the bedroom and various villagers arrive: Thomas and his wife, Ann, respected local woman Rebecca Nurse, and the Putnams' neighbor, farmer Giles Corey. The villagers, who had not heard the argument, assume that the singing of the psalm by the villagers in a room below had caused Betty's screaming. Tensions between them soon emerge. Mrs. Putnam is a bereaved parent seven times over; she blames witchcraft for her losses and Betty's ailment. The much more reasonable Rebecca suggests a doctor be called instead. Mr. Putnam and Corey have been feuding over land ownership. Parris is unhappy with his salary and living conditions as minister, and accuses Proctor of heading a conspiracy to oust him from the church. Abigail, standing quietly in a corner, witnesses all of this. + +Reverend Hale arrives and begins his investigation. Before leaving, Giles fatefully remarks that he has noticed his wife reading unknown books and asks Hale to look into it. Hale questions Rev. Parris, Abigail and Tituba closely over the girls' activities in the woods. As the facts emerge, Abigail claims Tituba forced her to drink blood. Tituba counters that Abigail begged her to conjure a deadly curse. Parris threatens to whip Tituba to death if she does not confess to witchcraft. Tituba breaks down and falsely claims that the Devil is bewitching her and others in town. With prompting from Hale and Putnam, Tituba accuses Sarah Osborne and Sarah Good of witchcraft. Mrs. Putnam identifies Osborne as her former midwife and asserts that she must have killed her children. Abigail decides to play along with Tituba in order to prevent others from discovering her affair with Proctor, whose wife she had tried to curse out of jealousy. She leaps up, begins contorting wildly, and names Osborne and Good, as well as Bridget Bishop as having been "dancing with the devil". Betty suddenly rises and begins mimicking Abigail's movements and words, and accuses George Jacobs. As the curtain closes, the three continue with their accusations as Hale orders the arrest of the named people and sends for judges to try them. + +Act Two +In a second narration, the narrator compares the Colony to post-World War II society, presenting Puritan fundamentalism as being similar to cultural norms in both the United States and the Soviet Union. Additionally, fears of Satanism taking place after incidents in Europe and the colonies are compared to fears of Communism following its implementation in Eastern Europe and China during the Cold War. (Again, narration not present in all versions). + +The remainder of Act Two is set in the Proctors‘ home. John and Elizabeth are incredulous that nearly forty people have been arrested for witchcraft based on the pronouncements of Abigail and the other girls. John knows their apparent possession and accusations of witchcraft are untrue, as Abigail told him as much when they were alone together in the first act, but is unsure of how to confess without revealing the affair. Elizabeth is disconcerted to learn her husband was alone with Abigail. She believes John still lusts after Abigail and tells him that as long as he does, he will never redeem himself. + +Mary Warren enters and gives Elizabeth a 'poppet' (doll-like puppet) that she made in court that day while sitting as a witness. Mary tells that thirty-nine have been arrested so far accused as witches, and they might be hanged. Mary also tells that Goody Osborne will be hanged, but Sarah Good's life is safe because she confessed that she made a compact with Lucifer (Satan) to torment Christians. Angered that Mary is neglecting her duties, John threatens to beat her. Mary retorts that she is now an official in the court, she must have to go there on daily basis and she saved Elizabeth's life that day, as Elizabeth was accused of witchcraft and was to be arrested until Mary spoke in her defense. Mary refuses to identify Elizabeth's accuser, but Elizabeth surmises accurately that it must have been Abigail. She implores John to go to court and tell the judges that Abigail and the rest of the girls are pretending. John is reluctant, fearing that doing so will require him to publicly reveal his past adultery. + +Reverend Hale arrives, stating that he is interviewing all the people named in the proceedings, including Elizabeth. He mentions that Rebecca Nurse was also named, but admits that he doubts her a witch due to her extreme piousness, though he emphasizes that anything is possible. Hale is skeptical about the Proctors' devotion to Christianity, noting that they do not attend church regularly and that one of their three sons has not yet been baptized; John replies that this is because he has no respect for Parris. Challenged to recite the Ten Commandments, John fatefully forgets "thou shalt not commit adultery". When Hale questions her, Elizabeth is angered that he does not question Abigail first. Unsure of how to proceed, Hale prepares to take his leave. At Elizabeth's urging, John tells Hale he knows that the girls' afflictions are fake. When Hale responds that many of the accused have confessed, John points out that they were bound to be hanged if they did not; Hale reluctantly acknowledges this point. + +Suddenly, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse enter the house and inform John and Hale that both of their wives have been arrested on charges of witchcraft; respectively, Martha Corey for reading suspicious books and Rebecca Nurse has been suspected of sacrificing children. A posse led by clerk Ezekiel Cheever and town marshal George Herrick arrive soon afterwards and present a warrant for Elizabeth's arrest, much to Hale's surprise. Cheever picks up the poppet on Elizabeth's table and finds a needle inside. He informs John that Abigail had a pain-induced fit earlier that evening and a needle was found stuck into her stomach; Abigail claimed that Elizabeth stabbed her with the needle through witchcraft, using a poppet as a conduit. John brings Mary into the room to tell the truth; Mary asserts that she made the doll and stuck the needle into it, and that Abigail saw her do so. Cheever is unconvinced and prepares to arrest Elizabeth. + +John becomes greatly angered, tearing the arrest warrant to shreds and threatening Herrick and Cheever with a musket until Elizabeth calms him down and surrenders herself. He calls Hale a coward and asks him why the accusers' every utterance goes unchallenged. Hale is conflicted, but suggests that perhaps this misfortune has befallen Salem because of a great, secret crime that must be brought to light. Taking this to heart, John orders Mary to go to court with him and expose the other girls' lies, and she protests vehemently. Aware of John's affair, she warns him that Abigail is willing to expose it if necessary. John is shocked but determines the truth must prevail, whatever the personal cost. + +Act Three +The third act takes place thirty-seven days later in the General Court of Salem, during the trial of Martha Corey. Francis and Giles desperately interrupt the proceedings, demanding to be heard. The court is recessed and the men thrown out of the main room, reconvening in an adjacent room. John Proctor arrives with Mary Warren and they inform Deputy Governor Danforth and Judge Hathorne about the girls' lies. Danforth then informs an unaware John that Elizabeth is pregnant, and promises to spare her from execution until the child is born, hoping to persuade John to withdraw his case. John refuses to back down and submits a deposition signed by ninety-one locals attesting to the good character of Elizabeth, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey. Herrick also attests to John's truthfulness as well. + +The deposition is dismissed by Parris and Hathorne as illegal. Rev. Hale criticizes the decision and demands to know why the accused are forbidden to defend themselves. Danforth replies that given the "invisible nature" of witchcraft, the word of the accused and their advocates cannot be trusted. He then orders that all ninety-one persons named in the deposition be arrested for questioning. Giles Corey submits his own deposition, accusing Thomas Putnam of forcing his daughter to accuse George Jacobs in order to buy up his land (as convicted witches have to forfeit all of their property). When asked by Hathorne to reveal the source of his information, Giles refuses, fearing that he or she will also be arrested. When Danforth threatens him with arrest for contempt, Giles argues that he cannot be arrested for "contempt of a hearing." Danforth then declares the court in session and Giles is arrested. + +John submits Mary's deposition, which declares that she was coerced to accuse people by Abigail. Abigail denies Mary's assertions that they are pretending, and stands by her story about the poppet. When challenged by Parris and Hathorne to 'pretend to be possessed', Mary is too afraid to comply. John attacks Abigail's character, revealing that she and the other girls were caught dancing naked in the woods by Rev. Parris on the night of Betty Parris' alleged 'bewitchment'. When Danforth begins to question Abigail, she claims that Mary has begun to bewitch her with a cold wind and John loses his temper, calling Abigail a whore. He confesses their affair, says Abigail was fired from his household over it and that Abigail is trying to murder Elizabeth so that she may "dance with me on my wife's grave." + +Danforth brings Elizabeth in to confirm this story, beforehand forbidding anyone to tell her about John's testimony. Unaware of John's public confession, Elizabeth fears that Abigail has revealed the affair in order to discredit John and lies, saying that there was no affair, and that she fired Abigail out of wild suspicion. Hale begs Danforth to reconsider his judgement, now agreeing Abigail is "false", but to no avail; Danforth throws out this testimony based solely upon John's earlier assertion that Elizabeth would never tell a lie. + +Confusion and hysteria begin to overtake the room. Abigail and the girls run about screaming, claiming Mary's spirit is attacking them in the form of a yellow bird, which nobody else is able to see. When Danforth tells the increasingly distraught Mary that he will sentence her to hang, she joins with the other girls and recants all her allegations against them, claiming John Proctor forced her to turn her against the others and that he harbors the devil. John, in despair and having given up all hope, declares that "God is dead", and is arrested. Furious, Reverend Hale denounces the proceedings and quits the court. + +Act Four +Act Four takes place three months later in the town jail, early in the morning. Tituba, sharing a cell with Sarah Good, appears to have gone insane from all of the hysteria, hearing voices and now actually claiming to talk to Satan. Marshal Herrick, depressed at having arrested so many of his neighbors, has turned to alcoholism. Many villagers have been charged with witchcraft; most have confessed and been given lengthy prison terms and their property seized by the government; twelve have been executed; seven more are to be hanged at sunrise for refusing to confess, including John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey. Giles Corey was tortured to death by pressing as the court tried in vain to extract a plea; though by holding out, Giles ensured that his sons would receive his land and possessions. The village has become dysfunctional with so many people in prison or dead, and with the arrival of news of rebellion against the courts in nearby Andover, whispers abound of an uprising in Salem. Abigail, fearful of the consequences, steals Parris's life savings and disappears on a ship to England with Mercy Lewis. + +Danforth and Hathorne have returned to Salem to meet with Parris, and are surprised to learn that Hale has returned and is meeting with the condemned. Parris, who has lost everything to Abigail, reports that he has received death threats. He begs Danforth to postpone the executions in order to secure confessions, hoping to avoid executing some of Salem's most highly regarded citizens. Hale, deeply remorseful and blaming himself for the hysteria, has returned to counsel the condemned to falsely confess and avoid execution. He presses Danforth to pardon the remaining seven and put the entire affair behind them. Danforth refuses, stating that pardons or postponement would cast doubt on the veracity of previous confessions and hangings. + +Danforth and Hale summon Elizabeth and ask her to persuade John to confess. She is bitter towards Hale, both for doubting her earlier and for wanting John to give in and ruin his good name, but agrees to speak with her husband, if only to say goodbye. She and John have a lengthy discussion, during which she commends him for holding out and not confessing. John says he is refusing to confess not out of religious conviction but through contempt for his accusers and the court. The two finally reconcile, with Elizabeth forgiving John and saddened by the thought that he cannot forgive himself and see his own goodness. Knowing in his heart that it is the wrong thing for him to do, John agrees to falsely confess to engaging in witchcraft, deciding that he has no desire or right to be a martyr. + +Danforth, Hathorne, and a relieved Parris ask John to testify to the guilt of the other hold-outs and the executed. John refuses, saying he can only report on his own sins. Danforth is disappointed by this reluctance, but at the urging of Hale and Parris, allows John to sign a written confession, to be displayed on the church door as an example. John is wary, thinking his verbal confession is sufficient. As they press him further John eventually signs, but refuses to hand the paper over, stating he does not want his family and especially his three sons to be stigmatized by the public confession. The men argue until Proctor renounces his confession entirely, ripping up the signed document. Danforth calls for the sheriff and John is led away, to be hanged. Facing an imminent rebellion, Putnam and Parris frantically run out to beg Proctor to confess. Hale, guilty over John's death, pleads with Elizabeth to talk John around but she refuses, stating John has "found his goodness". + +Characters (in order of appearance) +Reverend Samuel Parris +The minister of Salem. A former merchant, Parris is obsessed with his reputation and frequently complains that the village does not pay him enough, earning him a great deal of scorn. When the trials begin, he is appointed as a prosecutor and helps convict the majority of those accused of witchcraft. Towards the end of the play, he is betrayed by his niece Abigail and begins receiving death threats from angry relatives of the condemned. (In real life, Parris left Salem in 1696, the year his wife, Elizabeth, died. He found his situation untenable. Records in the Suffolk Deeds indicate it likely he returned to business in Boston in 1697. He preached two or three years at Stow. He moved to Concord in 1704 or 1705. He also preached six months in Dunstable in 1711. He died on February 27, 1720, in Sudbury, where he had spent his last years. In 1699 he had remarried, to Dorothy Noyes, in Sudbury.) +Tituba +The Parris family slave, Tituba was brought by Parris from Barbados when he moved to Salem and has served him since. Using her knowledge of herbs and magic, she has been secretly helping Abigail and her friends make love potions, and even conducts a seance on behalf of Ann Putnam. After being framed for witchcraft, she confesses and is subsequently imprisoned with Sarah Good. By the fourth act, she has been driven mad by the harsh conditions and her ending is unknown. +Abigail Williams +The main antagonist of the play.[8] Abigail previously worked as a maid for Elizabeth Proctor. After Elizabeth suspected Abigail of having an illicit relationship with John Proctor, Williams was fired and disgraced. Using her status as Parris's niece to her advantage, she accuses countless citizens of witchcraft, becoming one of the most powerful people in Salem. Eventually, she flees Salem with her uncle's fortune rather than face the consequences of her actions. +Susanna Walcott +A servant girl and part of Abigail's inner circle. +Ann Putnam +A rich and well-connected member of Salem's elite. She has one daughter, Ruth (in real life, Ann Putnam Jr.), but has lost seven other children to illness. Believing witches to be responsible, she eagerly sides with Abigail. (In real life, Ann Putnam (née Carr) had twelve children, ten of whom survived their parents, who both died in 1699). +Thomas Putnam +One of the richest men in Salem. He is greedy and conniving, using the accusations as cover to purchase land seized from convicted witches. +Betty Parris +The ten-year-old daughter of Samuel Parris and one of the primary accusers. +Mercy Lewis +Another primary accuser. In the fourth act, she flees with Abigail to avoid arrest for deceiving the court. +Mary Warren +The Proctor family's servant. She initially helps John, but later turns on him to save herself. +John Proctor +The play's protagonist and husband of Elizabeth Proctor. A local farmer, John is known for his independence and temper, which often gets him into trouble with the authorities. Contemporary notes describe him as a "strong-willed beast of a man".[9] Shamed by an affair with Abigail, John tries to stay out of the trials, but when Elizabeth is charged, he tries to reveal Abigail's deception in court. Betrayed by his maid Mary Warren, John is accused of witchcraft and sentenced to hang. He refuses to confess out of anger towards the court, but ultimately relents. After learning that his confession will likely drive his wife and children into disrepute, he decides to instead admit guilt. He is finally hanged along with several other convicted witches. +(The real John Proctor was also an innkeeper as well as a farmer, and was aged 60 when executed; Elizabeth was his third wife. He was strongly and vocally opposed to the witch trials from their beginning, being particularly scornful of spectral evidence used in the trials. As in the play, Elizabeth was accused of practicing witchcraft and arrested before John. Unlike the play, John maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal. He was hanged in August, 1692.)[9] +Giles Corey +A close friend of Proctor's. He becomes convinced that the trials are being used to steal land from the guilty and presents evidence to prove his claim. When the court demands to know where he obtained it, he refuses to cooperate and is sentenced to be pressed to death. (The character is based on a real person of the same name, who was also pressed when he would not plead guilty to charges of witchcraft.) +Rebecca Nurse +Although an elderly, respected member of the community, she is sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft (and, in the play, infanticide). (In real life, the jury initially acquitted Nurse but were ordered by William Stoughton to deliberate further. One of her two sisters, Mary Easty (or Eastey), was also hanged for witchcraft in real life, and the other, Sarah Cloyce, narrowly escaped.) +Reverend John Hale +A young minister from Beverly, Massachusetts, known for his knowledge of witchcraft. He starts out as a fervent and devoted servant of the court, using his position to investigate and charge suspected witches. Disillusioned with the corruption and abuses of the trials, he later tries to save as many suspects as possible by getting them to confess. (In reality, Hale was in his mid-fifties when the witch trials commenced.) +Elizabeth Proctor +John's wife. She is also accused of witchcraft, but is spared the death penalty due to being pregnant. She distrusts her husband for his adultery, but eventually chooses to forgive him when he refuses to confess to false charges. +Ezekiel Cheever +The clerk of Salem's General Court. He is responsible for crafting the warrants used to arrest suspected witches. +George Herrick/John Willard +Herrick is the town marshal of Salem, and leads the effort to find and arrest those accused of witchcraft until he falls into despair and turns to alcoholism. Willard is one of his deputies until he refuses to carry out any more arrests, at which point he is charged with witchcraft and hanged. +Judge John Hathorne +One of the two judges presiding over the court. Hathorne is a deeply pious man whose blind faith in Abigail's trustworthiness is largely responsible for the destruction wrought by the trials. +Deputy Governor Thomas Danforth +The chief judge of the court. He views the proceedings as an opportunity to cement his power and influence, eagerly convicting anyone brought before him. His refusal to suspend the trials even as they tear Salem apart makes him, according to Miller,[verification needed] the true villain of the play.[citation needed] (Most of the characterization of Danforth actually comes from the real life Magistrate William Stoughton, who accepted spectral evidence, and as chief judge inclined to believe that all the accused were guilty. In fact, the real Danforth opposed the use of "spectral evidence" and was much more inclined to believe the accused.)[original research?] +Notable casts +Character Broadway debut +(1953) Broadway revival +(2002) 2nd Broadway revival +(2016) +John Proctor Arthur Kennedy Liam Neeson Ben Whishaw +Abigail Williams Madeline Sherwood Angela Bettis Saoirse Ronan +Governor Thomas Danforth Walter Hampden Brian Murray Ciarán Hinds +Elizabeth Proctor Beatrice Straight Laura Linney Sophie Okonedo +Reverend Samuel Parris Fred Stewart Christopher Evan Welch Jason Butler Harner +Reverend John Pale E. G. Marshall John Benjamin Hickey Bill Camp +Thomas Putnam Raymond Bramley Paul O'Brien Thomas Jay Ryan +Giles Corey Joseph Sweeney Tom Aldredge Jim Norton +Mary Warren Jennie Egan Jennifer Carpenter Tavi Gevinson +Tituba Jacqueline Andre Patrice Johnson Jenny Jules +Susanna Walcott Barbara Stanton Kristen Bell Ashlei Sharpe Chestnut +Mercy Lewis Dorothy Joliffe Sevrin Anne Mason Erin Wilhelmi +Betty Parris Boo Alexander Betsy Hogg Elizabeth Teeter +Ann Putnam Jane Hoffman Jeanna Paulsen Tina Benko +Rebecca Nurse Jean Adair Helen Stenborg Brenda Wehle +Francis Nurse Graham Velsey Frank Raiter Ray Anthony Thomas +Judge Hathorne Philip Coolidge J.R. Horne Teagle F. Bougere +Ezekiel Cheever Don McHenry Henry Stram Michael Braun +Marshall Herrick George Mitchell Jack Willis — +Sarah Good Adele Fortin Dale Soules Tina Benko +Hopkins Donald Marye Stephen Lee Anderson — +Original 1953 Broadway cast:The production was directed by Jed Harris and produced by Kermit Bloomgarden. +In June 1953 Miller recast the production, simplified the "pitiless sets of rude buildings" and added a scene.[10][11][12] +2002 Broadway revival cast: This production was directed by Richard Eyre.[13] +2016 Broadway revival cast: This production was directed by Ivo van Hove and featured an original score composed by Philip Glass.[14] +Originality +During the McCarthy era, German-Jewish novelist and playwright Lion Feuchtwanger became the target of suspicion as a left-wing intellectual during his exile in the US. In 1947, Feuchtwanger wrote a play about the Salem witch trials, Wahn oder der Teufel in Boston (Delusion, or The Devil in Boston), as an allegory for the persecution of communists, thus anticipating the theme of The Crucible by Arthur Miller; Wahn premiered in Germany in 1949.[15] It was translated by June Barrows Mussey and performed in Los Angeles in 1953 under the title The Devil in Boston.[15]p.374 (note 6) + +Historical accuracy +In 1953, the year the play debuted, Miller wrote, "The Crucible is taken from history. No character is in the play who did not take a similar role in Salem, 1692."[16] This does not appear to be accurate as Miller made both deliberate changes and incidental mistakes. Abigail Williams' age was increased from 11 or 12[17] to 17, probably to add credence to the backstory of Proctor's affair with Abigail. John Proctor himself was 60 years old in 1692, but portrayed as much younger in the play, for the same reason.[1][18] + +Miller claimed, in A Note on the Historical Accuracy of this Play,[19] that "while there were several judges of almost equal authority, I have symbolized them all in Hathorne and Danforth".[1] However, this conflates Danforth with the historical and extremely influential figure of William Stoughton, who is not a character and is only briefly mentioned in the play. Both men were subsequent Deputy Governors, but it was Stoughton (who, alone among the judges, was a bachelor who never married[20]) who ordered further deliberations after the jury initially acquitted Rebecca Nurse. He refused to ever acknowledge that the trials had been anything other than a success, and was infuriated when Governor Phips (whose own wife, somehow, had been named as a possible witch) ended the trials for good and released the prisoners.[21][page needed] + +Danforth did not sit on the Court of Oyer and Terminer. In fact he is recorded as being critical of the conduct of the trials, and played a role in bringing them to an end.[22] In the play, Thomas and especially Ann Putnam are disconsolate over the fact that only one of their children has survived to adolescence. In real life, the Putnams (who both died in 1699) were survived by ten of their twelve children, including Ann Jr. Thomas Putnam's conduct during the witch trial hysteria has been amply documented to have been almost entirely due to financial motivations and score-settling, something the play only makes reference to after introducing the Putnams' fictional deceased offspring as part of the plot narrative.[23][24] + +In the 1953 essay, "Journey to The Crucible", Miller writes of visiting Salem and feeling like the only one interested in what really happened in 1692.[16] Many of Miller's characters were based on people who had little in the public record other than their statements from the trials, but others survived to expand, recant, or comment on the role they played at Salem, including jurors, accusers, survivors, and judges.[22] Rev. Parris issued his first in a series of apologies on November 26, 1694, and was removed from his position in 1697.[25] In 1698, Hale finished composing a lengthy essay about Salem that was reprinted by George Burr in 1914.[26] + +Language of the period +The play's action takes place 70 years after the community arrived as settlers from Britain. The people on whom the characters are based would have retained strong regional dialects from their home country. Miller gave all his characters the same colloquialisms, such as "Goody" or "Goodwife", and drew on the rhythms and speech patterns of the King James Bible to achieve the effect of historical perspective he wanted.[2] + +Title +Miller originally called the play Those Familiar Spirits[27] before renaming it as The Crucible. The word "crucible" is defined as a severe test or trial; alternately, a container in which metals or other substances are subjected to high temperatures. The characters whose moral standards prevail in the face of death, such as John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, symbolically refuse to sacrifice their principles or to falsely confess. + +Adaptations +Film +1957 – The Crucible (also titled Hexenjagd or Les Sorcières de Salem), a joint Franco-East German film production by Belgian director Raymond Rouleau with a screenplay adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre. +1996 – The Crucible with a screenplay by Arthur Miller himself. The cast included Paul Scofield, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Winona Ryder. This adaptation earned Miller an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published, his only nomination. +2014 – The Old Vic's production of The Crucible which starred Richard Armitage and directed by Yaël Farber was filmed and distributed to cinemas across the UK, Ireland, and the United States.[28] +Stage +The play was adapted by composer Robert Ward as an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the 1962 Pulitzer Prize for Music[29] and the New York Music Critics' Circle Award.[30] + +William Tuckett presented a ballet at The Royal Ballet in London in 2000 to a collage of music by Charles Ives with designs by Ralph Steadman.[31] A production by Helen Pickett for the Scottish Ballet was first performed in 2019 at the Edinburgh International Festival; its American premiere was in May 2020 at The Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theater in Washington, D.C.[32] + +Television +The play has been presented several times on television. A 1968 production starred George C. Scott as John Proctor, Colleen Dewhurst (Scott's wife at the time) as Elizabeth Proctor, Melvyn Douglas as Thomas Danforth, and Tuesday Weld as Abigail Williams. A production by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End in 2006 was recorded for the Victoria and Albert Museum's National Video Archive of Performance.[33] + +Awards and nominations +Original Broadway production +Year Award Category Nominee Result +1953 New York Drama Critics' Circle Best American Play Arthur Miller Nominated +Tony Awards Best Play Won +Best Author Won +Best Producer of a Play Kermit Bloomgarden Won +Best Featured Actress in a Play Beatrice Straight Won +2002 Broadway revival +Year Award Category Nominee Result +2002 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play The Crucible Nominated +Best Actor in a Play Liam Neeson Nominated +Best Actress in a Play Laura Linney Nominated +Best Featured Actor in a Play Brian Murray Nominated +Best Direction of a Play Richard Eyre Nominated +Best Lighting Design Paul Gallo Nominated +Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival of a Play The Crucible Nominated +Outstanding Actor in a Play Liam Neeson Nominated +Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Brian Murray Nominated +Outstanding Direction of a Play Richard Eyre Nominated +Drama League Award Distinguished Production of a Revival Won +Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Revival of a Play The Crucible Nominated +Outstanding Actor in a Play Liam Neeson Nominated +Outstanding Actress in a Play Laura Linney Nominated +2016 Broadway revival +Year Award Category Nominee Result +2016 Tony Award Best Revival of a Play The Crucible Nominated +Best Actress in a Play Sophie Okonedo Nominated +Best Featured Actor in a Play Bill Camp Nominated +Best Lighting Design of a Play Jan Versweyveld Nominated +Drama Desk Award Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Bill Camp Nominated +Outstanding Music in a Play Philip Glass Won +Drama League Award Distinguished Revival of a Play Nominated +Outer Critics Circle Award Outstanding Revival of a Play The Crucible Nominated +Outstanding Actor in a Play Ben Whishaw Nominated +Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play Jim Norton Nominated +Theater World Award Ben Whishaw Won +Editions +Miller, Arthur The Crucible (Harmondsworth: Viking Press, 1971); ISBN 0-14-02-4772-6 (edited; with an introduction by Gerald Weales. Contains the full text based on the Collected Plays, and various critical essays) +Miller, Arthur The Crucible Drama in Two Acts (Dramatists Play Service, Inc., © 1954, by Arthur Miller (Acting Edition) +See also +The Devils +References +Notes + + The Crucible, full text, p. 3 Archived May 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, marshfield.k12.wi.us; accessed October 29, 2015. + Miller 1992, p. xv + Loftus 1957. + Abbotson 2005, p. 78 and Atkinson 1953 + ​The Crucible​ (Broadway premiere) at the Internet Broadway Database + Roudané 1987, p. 24. + Wilmeth & Bigsby 2000, p. 415. + Bloom 2008, p. 10. + Important Persons in the Salem Court Records Archived May 24, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Salem Witch Trial Archive, University of Virginia, 2002. + Abbotson, Susan C. W. (2007). "The Crucible—First Performance". Critical companion to Arthur Miller: a literary reference to his life and work. New York: Infobase. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-8160-6194-5. Retrieved December 18, 2019. + Atkinson 1953. + Atkinson, Brooks (July 2, 1953). "At the Theatre; Arthur Miller's The Crucible in a New Edition With Several New Actors and One New Scene". The New York Times. + ​The Crucible​ (2002 Broadway revival, Virginia Theatre) at the Internet Broadway Database + "The Crucible, Walter Kerr Theatre". Archived from the original on June 5, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2016. + Maierhofer, Waltraud (Fall 2009). "'Another Play on Salem Witch Trials': Lion Feuchtwanger, Communists, and Nazis". Comparative Drama. 43 (3): 355–378. doi:10.1353/cdr.0.0068. JSTOR 23038097. S2CID 161541246. + Miller, Arthur (February 8, 1953). "Journey to The Crucible". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 24, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2015. + Lawson, Deodat. Further Account of the Tryals. (appended to Cotton Mather's Wonders of the Invisible World in a subsequent edition published in London in 1693) + "Abigail's Age Has Been Raised" Archived May 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, hoydenabouttown.com, June 26, 2012; accessed September 7, 2015. + See Miller 1992, p. xvii + Clapp, David (1883). The Ancient Proprietors of Jones's Hill, Dorchester. Boston: self-published. OCLC 13392454. Retrieved March 6, 2018. + Mather, Cotton (October 1693). "Introduction". Wonders of the Invisible World. Boston. + Calef, Robert (1700). More Wonders of the Invisible World. London, UK. Retrieved November 15, 2019. + Bower, Glenn. Just a Family History, books.google.com; accessed December 25, 2014. + Boyer, Paul S. (1974), Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard University Press, pp. 133–40, ISBN 9780674785267, archived from the original on June 30, 2014, retrieved March 24, 2013 + Upham, Charles W. Salem Witchcraft, Volumes=I and II, Appendix IV. + Burr, George (1914). Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases. Retrieved November 15, 2019. + The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York: Viking. 1954. OCLC 894314554. + "HOME - the Crucible on Screen". Archived from the original on December 24, 2014. Retrieved February 18, 2020., thecrucibleonscreen.com; accessed December 23, 2014. + "Pulitzer Prize Winners by Year". Archived from the original on July 14, 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2016. + Obituaries Archived August 18, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Opera News, vol. 78, no. 1, July 2013 + "The devil's in the detail" by Jann Parry, The Guardian, 17 April 2000 + "Scottish Ballet: The Crucible", The Kennedy Center + List of titles Archived July 12, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, National Video Archive of Performance +Sources + +Abbotson, Susan C. W. (2005). Masterpieces of 20th-century American Drama. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. ISBN 0-313-33223-1. +Atkinson, Brooks (January 23, 1953). "At the Theatre (review of The Crucible)". The New York Times. +Bloom, Harold (2008). Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Chelsea House. ISBN 978-0-7910-9828-8. +Loftus, Joseph A. (June 2, 1957). "Miller Convicted in Contempt Case". The New York Times. +Miller, Arthur (1992). The Crucible, a Play in Four Acts. Heinemann Plays series. Notes and questions by Maureen Blakesley. Oxford: Heinemann. ISBN 0-435-23281-9. +Roudané, Matthew, ed. (1987). Conversations with Arthur Miller. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 978-0-87805-323-0. +Wilmeth, Don Burton; Bigsby, Christopher, eds. (2000). The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Vol. 3. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521669597. ISBN 978-0-521-67985-5. +Further reading +Hale, Rev. John (1702). A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft. +Nilan, Jack. "McCarthyism and the Movies". Retrieved February 16, 2016. +Ram, Atma (1988). Perspectives on Arthur Miller. Abhinav. ISBN 978-81-7017-240-6. +External links + +Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Crucible. + +Wikiquote has quotations related to The Crucible. +​The Crucible​ (list of Broadway productions) at the Internet Broadway Database +​The Crucible​ (1953 original production) at the Internet Broadway Database +The Crucible (1957 film) at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata +The Crucible (1996 film) at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata +The Crucible study guide, SparkNotes +"The Crucible (Study Guide)". Shmoop. +vte +Arthur Miller +vte +Arthur Miller's The Crucible (1953) +vte +Salem witch trials (1692–93) +Awards for The Crucible +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: 1953 playsPlays by Arthur MillerPlays about adulteryBroadway playsOff-Broadway playsPlays about McCarthyismPlays based on actual eventsSalem witch trials in fictionTony Award-winning playsAmerican plays adapted into filmsPlays adapted into operasPlays adapted into television showsPlays set in MassachusettsPlays set in the 17th centuryPlays set in courtroomsTragedy playsAllegory +This page was last edited on 9 June 2024, at 18:40 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Historical and biographical context +Plot summary +Toggle Plot summary subsection +Characters +Title +Writing and development +Toggle Writing and development subsection +Publication history +Toggle Publication history subsection +Reception +Toggle Reception subsection +Themes +Predictions for the future +Adaptations +Toggle Adaptations subsection +Cultural references +See also +Notes +References +Further reading +External links +Fahrenheit 451 + +Article +Talk +Read +Edit +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Color (beta) + +Automatic + +Light + +Dark +Report an issue with dark mode +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Fahrenheit 451 (disambiguation). +Fahrenheit 451 +This original cover shows a drawing of a man, who appears to be made of newspaper and is engulfed in flames, standing on top of some books. His right arm is down and holding what appears to be a fireman's hat made of paper while his left arm is as if wiping sweat from the brow of his bowed head. The title and author's name appear in large text over the images and there is a small caption in the upper left-hand corner that reads, "Wonderful stories by the author of The Golden Apples of the Sun". +First edition cover (clothbound) +Author Ray Bradbury +Illustrator Joseph Mugnaini[1] +Language English +Genre Dystopian[2] +Published October 19, 1953 (Ballantine Books)[3] +Publication place United States +Pages 156 +ISBN 978-0-7432-4722-1 (current cover edition) +OCLC 53101079 +Dewey Decimal 813.54 22 +LC Class PS3503.R167 F3 2003 +Fahrenheit 451 is a 1953 dystopian novel by American writer Ray Bradbury.[4] It presents a future American society where books have been outlawed and "firemen" burn any that are found.[5] The novel follows in the viewpoint of Guy Montag, a fireman who soon becomes disillusioned with his role of censoring literature and destroying knowledge, eventually quitting his job and committing himself to the preservation of literary and cultural writings. + +Fahrenheit 451 was written by Bradbury during the Second Red Scare and the McCarthy era, inspired by the book burnings in Nazi Germany and by ideological repression in the Soviet Union.[6] Bradbury's claimed motivation for writing the novel has changed multiple times. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury said that he wrote the book because of his concerns about the threat of burning books in the United States.[7] In later years, he described the book as a commentary on how mass media reduces interest in reading literature.[8] In a 1994 interview, Bradbury cited political correctness as an allegory for the censorship in the book, calling it "the real enemy these days" and labeling it as "thought control and freedom of speech control."[9] + +The writing and theme within Fahrenheit 451 was explored by Bradbury in some of his previous short stories. Between 1947 and 1948, Bradbury wrote "Bright Phoenix", a short story about a librarian who confronts a "Chief Censor", who burns books. An encounter Bradbury had in 1949 with the police inspired him to write the short story "The Pedestrian" in 1951. In "The Pedestrian", a man going for a nighttime walk in his neighborhood is harassed and detained by the police. In the society of "The Pedestrian", citizens are expected to watch television as a leisurely activity, a detail that would be included in Fahrenheit 451. Elements of both "Bright Phoenix" and "The Pedestrian" would be combined into The Fireman, a novella published in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1951. Bradbury was urged by Stanley Kauffmann, an editor at Ballantine Books, to make The Fireman into a full novel. Bradbury finished the manuscript for Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, and the novel was published later that year. + +Upon its release, Fahrenheit 451 was a critical success, albeit with notable outliers. The novel's subject matter led to its censorship in apartheid South Africa and various schools in the United States. In 1954, Fahrenheit 451 won the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and the Commonwealth Club of California Gold Medal.[10][11][12] It later won the Prometheus "Hall of Fame" Award in 1984[13] and a "Retro" Hugo Award in 2004.[14] Bradbury was honored with a Spoken Word Grammy nomination for his 1976 audiobook version.[15] The novel has also been adapted into films, stage plays, and video games. Film adaptations of the novel include a 1966 film directed by François Truffaut starring Oskar Werner as Guy Montag and a 2018 television film directed by Ramin Bahrani starring Michael B. Jordan as Montag, both of which received a mixed critical reception. Bradbury himself published a stage play version in 1979 and helped develop a 1984 interactive fiction video game of the same name, as well as a collection of his short stories titled A Pleasure to Burn.[16] Two BBC Radio dramatizations were also produced. + +Historical and biographical context +Further information: Second Red Scare, Nazi book burnings, and ideological repression in the Soviet Union + +The Nazi book burnings horrified Ray Bradbury and inspired him to write Fahrenheit 451 +Shortly after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the conclusion of World War II, the United States focused its concern on the Soviet atomic bomb project and the expansion of communism. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), formed in 1938 to investigate American citizens and organizations suspected of having communist ties, held hearings in 1947 to investigate alleged communist influence in Hollywood movie-making. These hearings resulted in the blacklisting of the so-called "Hollywood Ten",[17] a group of influential screenwriters and directors. + +The year that HUAC began investigating Hollywood is often considered the beginning of the Cold War, as in March 1947, the Truman Doctrine was announced. By about 1950, the Cold War was in full swing, and the American public's fear of nuclear warfare and communist influence was at a feverish level. + +The government's interference in the affairs of artists and creative types infuriated Bradbury;[18] he was bitter and concerned about the workings of his government, and a late 1949 nighttime encounter with an overzealous police officer would inspire Bradbury to write "The Pedestrian", a short story which would go on to become "The Fireman" and then Fahrenheit 451. The rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy's McCarthyism persecution of accused communists, beginning in 1950, deepened Bradbury's contempt for government overreach.[19][20] + +The Golden Age of Radio occurred between the early 1920s to the late 1950s, during Bradbury's early life, while the transition to the Golden Age of Television began right around the time he started to work on the stories that would eventually lead to Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury saw these forms of media as a threat to the reading of books, indeed as a threat to society, as he believed they could act as a distraction from important affairs. This contempt for mass media and technology would express itself through Mildred and her friends and is an important theme in the book.[21] + +Bradbury's lifelong passion for books began at an early age. After he graduated from high school, his family could not afford for him to attend college, so Bradbury began spending time at the Los Angeles Public Library where he educated himself.[22] As a frequent visitor to his local libraries in the 1920s and 1930s, he recalls being disappointed because they did not stock popular science fiction novels, like those of H. G. Wells, because, at the time, they were not deemed literary enough. Between this and learning about the destruction of the Library of Alexandria,[23] a great impression was made on Bradbury about the vulnerability of books to censure and destruction. Later, as a teenager, Bradbury was horrified by the Nazi book burnings[24] and later by Joseph Stalin's campaign of political repression, the "Great Purge", in which writers and poets, among many others, were arrested and often executed.[6] + +Plot summary +"The Hearth and the Salamander" +In a distant future,[note 1][25] Guy Montag is a fireman employed to burn outlawed books, along with the houses they are hidden in. One fall night while returning from work, he meets his new neighbor Clarisse McClellan, a teenage girl whose free-thinking ideals and liberating spirit cause him to question his life and perceived happiness. Montag returns home to find that his wife Mildred has overdosed on sleeping pills, and he calls for medical attention. Two EMTs later pump her stomach and change her blood. After they leave to rescue another overdose victim, Montag overhears Clarisse and her family talking about their illiterate society. Shortly afterward, Montag's mind is bombarded with Clarisse's subversive thoughts and the memory of Mildred's near-death. Over the next few days, Clarisse meets Montag each night as he walks home. Clarisse's simple pleasures and interests make her an outcast among her peers, and she is forced to go to therapy for her behavior. Montag always looks forward to the meetings, but one day, Clarisse goes missing.[26] + +In the following days, while he and other firemen are ransacking the book-filled house of an old woman and drenching it in kerosene, Montag steals a book. The woman refuses to leave her house and her books, choosing instead to light a match and burn herself alive. Jarred by the suicide, Montag returns home and hides the book under his pillow. Later, Montag asks Mildred if she has heard anything about Clarisse. She reveals that Clarisse's family moved away after Clarisse was hit by a speeding car and died four days ago. Dismayed by her failure to mention this earlier, Montag uneasily tries to fall asleep. Outside he suspects the presence of "The Mechanical Hound", an eight-legged[27] robotic dog-like creature that resides in the firehouse and aids the firemen in hunting book hoarders. + +Montag awakens ill the next morning. Mildred tries to care for her husband but finds herself more involved in the "parlor wall" entertainment in the living room – large televisions filling the walls. Montag suggests he should take a break from being a fireman, and Mildred panics over the thought of losing the house and her parlor wall "family". Captain Beatty, Montag's fire chief, visits Montag to see how he is doing. Sensing his concerns, Beatty recounts the history of how books had lost their value and how the firemen were adapted for their current role: over decades, people began to embrace new media (like film and television), sports, and an ever-quickening pace of life. Books were abridged or degraded to accommodate shorter attention spans. At the same time, advances in technology resulted in nearly all buildings being made with fireproof materials, and firemen preventing fires were no longer necessary. The government then instead turned the firemen into officers of society's peace of mind: instead of putting out fires, they were charged with starting them, specifically to burn books, which were condemned as sources of confusing and depressing thoughts that complicated people's lives. After an awkward exchange between Mildred and Montag over the book hidden under his pillow, Beatty becomes suspicious and casually adds a passing threat before leaving; he says that if a fireman had a book, he would be asked to burn it within the following twenty-four hours. If he refused, the other firemen would come and burn it for him. The encounter leaves Montag utterly shaken. + +Montag later reveals to Mildred that, over the last year, he has accumulated books that are hidden in their ceiling. In a panic, Mildred grabs a book and rushes to throw it in the kitchen incinerator, but Montag subdues her and says they are going to read the books to see if they have value. If they do not, he promises the books will be burned and their lives will return to normal. + +"The Sieve and the Sand" +Mildred refuses to go along with Montag's plan, questioning why she or anyone else should care about books. Montag goes on a rant about Mildred's suicide attempt, Clarisse's disappearance and death, the woman who burned herself, and the imminent war that goes ignored by the masses. He suggests that perhaps the books of the past have messages that can save society from its own destruction. Even still, Mildred remains unconvinced. + +Conceding that Mildred is a lost cause, Montag will need help to understand the books. He remembers an old man named Faber, an English professor before books were banned, whom he once met in a park. Montag visits Faber's home carrying a copy of the Bible, the book he stole at the woman's house. Once there, after multiple attempts to ask, Montag forces the scared and reluctant Faber into helping him by methodically ripping pages from the Bible. Faber concedes and gives Montag a homemade earpiece communicator so that he can offer constant guidance. + +At home, Mildred's friends, Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps, arrive to watch the "parlor walls". Not interested in this entertainment, Montag turns off the walls and tries to engage the women in meaningful conversation, only for them to reveal just how indifferent, ignorant, and callous they truly are. Enraged, Montag shows them a book of poetry. This confuses the women and alarms Faber, who is listening remotely. Mildred tries to dismiss Montag's actions as a tradition firemen act out once a year: they find an old book and read it as a way to make fun of how silly the past is. Montag proceeds to recite a poem (specifically Dover Beach), causing Mrs. Phelps to cry. Soon, the two women leave. + +Montag hides his books in the backyard before returning to the firehouse late at night. There, Montag hands Beatty a book to cover for the one he believes Beatty knows he stole the night before, which is tossed into the trash. Beatty reveals that, despite his disillusionment, he was once an enthusiastic reader. A fire alarm sounds and Beatty picks up the address from the dispatcher system. They drive in the fire truck to the unexpected destination: Montag's house. + +"Burning Bright" +Beatty orders Montag to destroy his house with a flamethrower, rather than the more powerful "salamander" that is usually used by the fire team, and tells him that his wife and her friends reported him. Montag watches as Mildred walks out of the house, too traumatized about losing her parlor wall 'family' to even acknowledge her husband's existence or the situation going on around her, and catches a taxi. Montag complies, destroying the home piece by piece, but Beatty discovers his earpiece and plans to hunt down Faber. Montag threatens Beatty with the flamethrower and, after Beatty taunts him, Montag burns Beatty alive. As Montag tries to escape the scene, the Mechanical Hound attacks him, managing to inject his leg with an anesthetic. He destroys the Hound with the flamethrower and limps away. While escaping, Montag concludes that Beatty wanted to die a long time ago, having goaded him and provided him with a weapon. + +Montag runs towards Faber's house. En route, he crosses a road as a car attempts to run him over, but he manages to evade the vehicle, almost suffering the same fate as Clarisse and losing his knee. Faber urges him to make his way to the countryside and contact a group of exiled book-lovers who live there. Faber plans to leave on a bus heading to St. Louis, Missouri, where he and Montag can rendezvous later. Meanwhile, another Mechanical Hound is released to track down and kill Montag, with news helicopters following it to create a public spectacle. After wiping his scent from around the house in hopes of thwarting the Hound, Montag leaves. He escapes the manhunt by wading into a river and floating downstream, where he meets the book-lovers. They predicted Montag's arrival while watching the TV. + +The drifters are all former intellectuals. They have each memorized books should the day arrive that society comes to an end, with the survivors learning to embrace the literature of the past. Wanting to contribute to the group, Montag finds that he partially memorized the Book of Ecclesiastes, discovering that the group has a special way of unlocking photographic memory. While discussing about their learnings, Montag and the group watch helplessly as bombers fly overhead and annihilate the city with nuclear weapons: the war has begun and ended in the same night. While Faber would have left on the early bus, everyone else (possibly including Mildred) is killed. Injured and dirtied, Montag and the group manage to survive the shockwave. + +When the war is over, the exiles return to the city to rebuild society. + +Characters +Guy Montag is the protagonist and a fireman who presents the dystopian world in which he lives first through the eyes of a worker loyal to it, then as a man in conflict about it, and eventually as someone resolved to be free of it. Throughout most of the book, Montag lacks knowledge and believes only what he hears. Clarisse McClellan inspires Montag's change, even though they do not know each other for very long. +Clarisse McClellan is a teenage girl one month short of her 17th birthday[note 2] who is Montag's neighbor.[28] She walks with Montag on his trips home from work. A modern critic has described her as an example of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl,[29] as Clarisse is an unusual sort of person compared to the others inhabiting the bookless, hedonistic society: outgoing, naturally cheerful, unorthodox, and intuitive. She is unpopular among peers and disliked by teachers for asking "why" instead of "how" and focusing on nature rather than on technology. A few days after her first meeting with Montag, she disappears without any explanation; Mildred tells Montag (and Captain Beatty confirms) that Clarisse was hit by a speeding car and that her family moved away following her death. It is implied that Beatty may have assassinated Clarisse. In the afterword of a later edition, Bradbury notes that the film adaptation changed the ending so that Clarisse (who, in the film, is now a 20-year-old schoolteacher who was fired for being unorthodox) was living with the exiles.[note 3] Bradbury, far from being displeased by this, was so happy with the new ending that he wrote it into his later stage edition. +Mildred "Millie" Montag is Guy Montag's wife. She is addicted to sleeping pills, absorbed in the shallow dramas played on her "parlor walls" (large, flat-panel televisions), and indifferent to the oppressive society around her. She is described in the book as "thin as a praying mantis from dieting, her hair burnt by chemicals to a brittle straw, and her flesh like white bacon." Despite her husband's attempts to break her from the spell society has on her, Mildred continues to be shallow and indifferent. After Montag scares her friends away by reading Dover Beach, and finding herself unable to live with someone who has been hoarding books, Mildred betrays Montag by reporting him to the firemen and abandoning him, and presumably dies when the city is bombed. +Captain Beatty is Montag's boss and the book's main antagonist. Once an avid reader, he has come to hate books due to their unpleasant content and contradicting facts and opinions. After he forces Montag to burn his own house, Montag kills him with a flamethrower. In a scene written years later by Bradbury for the Fahrenheit 451 play, Beatty invites Montag to his house where he shows him walls of books left to molder on their shelves. +Stoneman and Black are Montag's coworkers at the firehouse. They do not have a large impact on the story and function only to show the reader the contrast between the firemen who obediently do as they are told and someone like Montag, who formerly took pride in his job but subsequently realizes how damaging it is to society. Black is later framed by Montag for possessing books. +Faber is a former English professor. He has spent years regretting that he did not defend books when he saw the moves to ban them. Montag turns to him for guidance, remembering him from a chance meeting in a park sometime earlier. Faber at first refuses to help Montag and later realizes Montag is only trying to learn about books, not destroy them. He secretly communicates with Montag through an electronic earpiece and helps Montag escape the city, then gets on a bus to St. Louis and escapes the city himself before it is bombed. Bradbury notes in his afterword that Faber is part of the name of a German manufacturer of pencils, Faber-Castell but it is also the name of a famous publishing company, Faber and Faber. +Mrs. Ann Bowles and Mrs. Clara Phelps are Mildred's friends and representative of the anti-intellectual, hedonistic mainstream society presented in the novel. During a social visit to Montag's house, they brag about ignoring the bad things in their lives and have a cavalier attitude towards the upcoming war, their husbands, their children, and politics. Mrs. Phelps' husband Pete was called in to fight in the upcoming war (and believes that he'll be back in a week because of how quick the war will be) and thinks having children serves no purpose other than to ruin lives. Mrs. Bowles is a three-times-married single mother. Her first husband divorced her, her second died in a jet accident, and her third committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. She has two children who do not like or respect her due to her permissive, often negligent and abusive parenting; Mrs. Bowles brags that her kids beat her up, and she's glad she can hit back. When Montag reads Dover Beach to them, he strikes a chord in Mrs. Phelps, who starts crying over how hollow her life is. Mrs. Bowles chastises Montag for reading "silly awful hurting words". +Granger is the leader of a group of wandering intellectual exiles who memorize books in order to preserve their contents. +Title +The title page of the book explains the title as follows: Fahrenheit 451—The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.... On inquiring about the temperature at which paper would catch fire, Bradbury had been told that 451 °F (233 °C) was the autoignition temperature of paper.[30][31] In various studies, scientists have placed the autoignition temperature at a range of temperatures between 424 and 475 °F (218 and 246 °C), depending on the type of paper.[32][33] + +Writing and development +Fahrenheit 451 developed out of a series of ideas Bradbury had visited in previously written stories. For many years, he tended to single out "The Pedestrian" in interviews and lectures as sort of a proto-Fahrenheit 451. In the Preface of his 2006 anthology Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451 he states that this is an oversimplification.[34] The full genealogy of Fahrenheit 451 given in Match to Flame is involved. The following covers the most salient aspects.[35] + +Between 1947 and 1948,[36] Bradbury wrote the short story "Bright Phoenix" (not published until the May 1963 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction[37][38]) about a librarian who confronts a book-burning "Chief Censor" named Jonathan Barnes. + +In late 1949,[39] Bradbury was stopped and questioned by a police officer while walking late one night.[40][41] When asked "What are you doing?", Bradbury wisecracked, "Putting one foot in front of another."[40][41] This incident inspired Bradbury to write the 1951 short story "The Pedestrian".[note 4][40][41] + +In "The Pedestrian", Leonard Mead is harassed and detained by the city's only remotely operated police cruiser for taking nighttime walks, something that has become extremely rare in this future-based setting, as everybody else stays inside and watches television ("viewing screens"). Alone and without an alibi, Mead is taken to the "Psychiatric Center for Research on Regressive Tendencies" for his peculiar habit. Fahrenheit 451 would later echo this theme of an authoritarian society distracted by broadcast media.[citation needed] + +Bradbury expanded the book-burning premise of "Bright Phoenix"[42] and the totalitarian future of "The Pedestrian"[43] into "The Fireman", a novella published in the February 1951 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction.[44][45] "The Fireman" was written in the basement of UCLA's Powell Library on a typewriter that he rented for a fee of ten cents per half hour.[46] The first draft was 25,000 words long and was completed in nine days.[47] + +Urged by a publisher at Ballantine Books to double the length of his story to make a novel, Bradbury returned to the same typing room and made the story 25,000 words longer, again taking just nine days.[46] The title "Fahrenheit 451" came to him on January 22. The final manuscript was ready in mid-August, 1953.[48] The resulting novel, which some considered as a fix-up[49] (despite being an expanded rewrite of one single novella), was published by Ballantine in 1953.[50] + +Supplementary material +Bradbury has supplemented the novel with various front and back matter, including a 1979 coda,[51] a 1982 afterword,[52] a 1993 foreword, and several introductions. + +Publication history +The first U.S. printing was a paperback version from October 1953 by The Ballantine Publishing Group. Shortly after the paperback, a hardback version was released that included a special edition of 200 signed and numbered copies bound in asbestos.[53][54][55] These were technically collections because the novel was published with two short stories, "The Playground" and "And the Rock Cried Out", which have been omitted from later printings.[1][56] A few months later, the novel was serialized in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of nascent Playboy magazine.[10][57] + +Expurgation +Starting in January 1967, Fahrenheit 451 was subject to expurgation by its publisher, Ballantine Books, with the release of the "Bal-Hi Edition" aimed at high school students.[58][59] Among the changes made by the publisher were the censorship of the words "hell", "damn", and "abortion"; the modification of seventy-five passages; and the changing of two incidents.[59][60] + +In the first incident, a drunk man is changed to a "sick man", while the second involves cleaning fluff out of a human navel, which instead becomes "cleaning ears" in the other.[59][61] For a while, both the censored and uncensored versions were available concurrently, but by 1973, Ballantine was publishing only the censored version.[61][62] That continued until 1979, when it came to Bradbury's attention:[61][62] + +In 1979, one of Bradbury's friends showed him an expurgated copy of the book. Bradbury demanded that Ballantine Books withdraw that version and replace it with the original, and in 1980 the original version once again became available. In this reinstated work, in the Author's Afterword, Bradbury relates to the reader that it is not uncommon for a publisher to expurgate an author's work, but he asserts that he himself will not tolerate the practice of manuscript "mutilation". + +The "Bal-Hi" editions are now referred to by the publisher as the "Revised Bal-Hi" editions.[63] + +Non-print publications +An audiobook version read by Bradbury himself was released in 1976 and received a Spoken Word Grammy nomination.[15] Another audiobook was released in 2005 narrated by Christopher Hurt.[64] The e-book version was released in December 2011.[65][66] + +Reception +In 1954, Galaxy Science Fiction reviewer Groff Conklin placed the novel "among the great works of the imagination written in English in the last decade or more."[67] The Chicago Sunday Tribune's August Derleth described the book as "a savage and shockingly prophetic view of one possible future way of life", calling it "compelling" and praising Bradbury for his "brilliant imagination".[68] Over half a century later, Sam Weller wrote, "upon its publication, Fahrenheit 451 was hailed as a visionary work of social commentary."[69] Today, Fahrenheit 451 is still viewed as an important cautionary tale about conformity and the evils of government censorship.[70] + +When the novel was first published, there were those who did not find merit in the tale. Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas were less enthusiastic, faulting the book for being "simply padded, occasionally with startlingly ingenious gimmickry, ... often with coruscating cascades of verbal brilliance [but] too often merely with words."[71] Reviewing the book for Astounding Science Fiction, P. Schuyler Miller characterized the title piece as "one of Bradbury's bitter, almost hysterical diatribes," while praising its "emotional drive and compelling, nagging detail."[72] Similarly, The New York Times was unimpressed with the novel and further accused Bradbury of developing a "virulent hatred for many aspects of present-day culture, namely, such monstrosities as radio, TV, most movies, amateur and professional sports, automobiles, and other similar aberrations which he feels debase the bright simplicity of the thinking man's existence."[73] + +Fahrenheit 451 was number seven on the list of "Top Check Outs OF ALL TIME" by the New York Public Library[74] + +Censorship/banning incidents +In the years since its publication, Fahrenheit 451 has occasionally been banned, censored, or redacted in some schools at the behest of parents or teaching staff either unaware of or indifferent to the inherent irony in such censorship. Notable incidents include: + +In Apartheid South Africa, the book was burned along with thousands of banned publications between the 1950s and 1970s.[75] +In 1987, Fahrenheit 451 was given "third tier" status by the Bay County School Board in Panama City, Florida, under superintendent Leonard Hall's new three-tier classification system. Third tier was meant for books to be removed from the classroom for "a lot of vulgarity". After a resident class-action lawsuit, a media stir, and student protests, the school board abandoned their tier-based censorship system and approved all the currently used books.[76] +In 1992, Venado Middle School in Irvine, California, gave copies of Fahrenheit 451 to students with all "obscene" words blacked out.[77] Parents contacted the local media and succeeded in reinstalling the uncensored copies.[77] +In 2006, parents of a 10th-grade high school student in Montgomery County, Texas, demanded the book be banned from their daughter's English class reading list.[78] Their daughter was assigned the book during Banned Books Week, but stopped reading several pages in due to what she considered the offensive language and description of the burning of the Bible. In addition, the parents protested the violence, portrayal of Christians, and depictions of firemen in the novel.[78] +Themes +Discussions about Fahrenheit 451 often center on its story foremost as a warning against state-based censorship. Indeed, when Bradbury wrote the novel during the McCarthy era, he was concerned about censorship in the United States. During a radio interview in 1956,[79][80] Bradbury said + +I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. And of course, things have changed a lot in four years. Things are going back in a very healthy direction. But at the time I wanted to do some sort of story where I could comment on what would happen to a country if we let ourselves go too far in this direction, where then all thinking stops, and the dragon swallows his tail, and we sort of vanish into a limbo and we destroy ourselves by this sort of action. + +As time went by, Bradbury tended to dismiss censorship as a chief motivating factor for writing the story. Instead he usually claimed that the real messages of Fahrenheit 451 were about the dangers of an illiterate society infatuated with mass media and the threat of minority and special interest groups to books. In the late 1950s, Bradbury recounted + +In writing the short novel Fahrenheit 451, I thought I was describing a world that might evolve in four or five decades. But only a few weeks ago, in Beverly Hills one night, a husband and wife passed me, walking their dog. I stood staring after them, absolutely stunned. The woman held in one hand a small cigarette-package-sized radio, its antenna quivering. From this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone plugged into her right ear. There she was, oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers and soap-opera cries, sleep-walking, helped up and down curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been there. This was not fiction.[81] + +This story echoes Mildred's "Seashell ear-thimbles" (i.e., a brand of in-ear headphones) that act as an emotional barrier between her and Montag. In a 2007 interview, Bradbury maintained that people misinterpret his book and that Fahrenheit 451 is really a statement on how mass media like television marginalizes the reading of literature.[8] Regarding minorities, he wrote in his 1979 Coda + +'There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. [...] Fire-Captain Beatty, in my novel Fahrenheit 451, described how the books were burned first by minorities, each ripping a page or a paragraph from this book, then that, until the day came when the books were empty and the minds shut and the libraries closed forever. [...] Only six weeks ago, I discovered that, over the years, some cubby-hole editors at Ballantine Books, fearful of contaminating the young, had, bit by bit, censored some seventy-five separate sections from the novel. Students, reading the novel, which, after all, deals with censorship and book-burning in the future, wrote to tell me of this exquisite irony. Judy-Lynn del Rey, one of the new Ballantine editors, is having the entire book reset and republished this summer with all the damns and hells back in place.[82] + +Book-burning censorship, Bradbury would argue, was a side-effect of these two primary factors; this is consistent with Captain Beatty's speech to Montag about the history of the firemen. According to Bradbury, it is the people, not the state, who are the culprit in Fahrenheit 451.[8] Fahrenheit's censorship is not the result of an authoritarian program to retain power, but the result of a fragmented society seeking to accommodate its challenges by deploying the power of entertainment and technology. As Captain Beatty explains (p. 55) + +...The bigger your market, Montag, the less you handle controversy, remember that! All the minor minorities with their navels to be kept clean."[...] "It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God. + +A variety of other themes in the novel besides censorship have been suggested. Two major themes are resistance to conformity and control of individuals via technology and mass media. Bradbury explores how the government is able to use mass media to influence society and suppress individualism through book burning. The characters Beatty and Faber point out that the American population is to blame. Due to their constant desire for a simplistic, positive image, books must be suppressed. Beatty blames the minority groups, who would take offense to published works that displayed them in an unfavorable light. Faber went further to state that, rather than the government banning books, the American population simply stopped reading on their own. He notes that the book burnings themselves became a form of entertainment for the general public.[83] + +In a 1994 interview, Bradbury stated that Fahrenheit 451 was more relevant during this time than in any other, stating that, "it works even better because we have political correctness now. Political correctness is the real enemy these days. The black groups want to control our thinking and you can't say certain things. The homosexual groups don't want you to criticize them. It's thought control and freedom of speech control."[9] + +Predictions for the future +Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unspecified city and time, though it is written as if set in a distant future.[note 1][25] The earliest editions make clear that it takes place no earlier than the year 2022 due to a reference to an atomic war taking place during that year.[note 5][84] + +Bradbury described himself as "a preventer of futures, not a predictor of them."[85] He did not believe that book burning was an inevitable part of the future; he wanted to warn against its development.[85] In a later interview, when asked if he believes that teaching Fahrenheit 451 in schools will prevent his totalitarian[2] vision of the future, Bradbury replied in the negative. Rather, he states that education must be at the kindergarten and first-grade level. If students are unable to read then, they will be unable to read Fahrenheit 451.[86] + +As to technology, Sam Weller notes that Bradbury "predicted everything from flat-panel televisions to earbud headphones and twenty-four-hour banking machines."[87] + +Adaptations +Television +Playhouse 90 broadcast "A Sound of Different Drummers" on CBS in 1957, written by Robert Alan Aurthur. The play combined plot ideas from Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Bradbury sued and eventually won on appeal.[88][89] + +Film +Main articles: Fahrenheit 451 (1966 film) and Fahrenheit 451 (2018 film) +A film adaptation written and directed by François Truffaut and starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie was released in 1966.[90][91] + +A film adaptation directed by Ramin Bahrani and starring Michael B. Jordan, Michael Shannon, Sofia Boutella, and Lilly Singh was released in 2018 for HBO.[92][93] + +Theater +In the late 1970s Bradbury adapted his book into a play. At least part of it was performed at the Colony Theatre in Los Angeles in 1979, but it was not in print until 1986 and the official world premiere was only in November 1988 by the Fort Wayne, Indiana Civic Theatre. The stage adaptation diverges considerably from the book and seems influenced by Truffaut's movie. For example, fire chief Beatty's character is fleshed out and is the wordiest role in the play. As in the movie, Clarisse does not simply disappear but in the finale meets up with Montag as a book character (she as Robert Louis Stevenson, he as Edgar Allan Poe).[94] + +The UK premiere of Bradbury's stage adaptation was not until 2003 in Nottingham,[94] while it took until 2006 before the Godlight Theatre Company produced and performed its New York City premiere at 59E59 Theaters.[95] After the completion of the New York run, the production then transferred to the Edinburgh Festival where it was a 2006 Edinburgh Festival Pick of the Fringe.[96] + +The Off-Broadway theatre The American Place Theatre presented a one man show adaptation of Fahrenheit 451 as a part of their 2008–2009 Literature to Life season.[97] + +Fahrenheit 451 inspired the Birmingham Repertory Theatre production Time Has Fallen Asleep in the Afternoon Sunshine, which was performed at the Birmingham Central Library in April 2012.[98] + +Radio +In 1982, Gregory Evans' radio dramatization of the novel was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 starring Michael Pennington as Montag.[99][100][101] It was broadcast eight more times on BBC Radio 4 Extra, twice each in 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2015.[102] + +BBC Radio's second dramatization, by David Calcutt, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2003, starring Stephen Tomlin in the same role.[103] + +Music +In 1984 the new wave band Scortilla released the song Fahrenheit 451 inspired by the book by R. Bradbury and the film by F. Truffaut. + +Computer games +Main article: Fahrenheit 451 (video game) +In 1984, the novel was adapted into a computer text adventure game of the same name by the software company Trillium,[104] serving as a sequel to the events of the novel, and co-written by Len Neufeld and Bradbury himself. + +Comics +In June 2009, a graphic novel edition of the book was published. Entitled Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation,[105] the paperback graphic adaptation was illustrated by Tim Hamilton.[106][107] The introduction in the novel is written by Bradbury himself.[108] + +Cultural references + +A protester against the Bhagavad Gita trial in Russia showing a quote from the novel: "– Do you ever read any of the books you burn? – That's against the law". +Michael Moore's 2004 documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 refers to Bradbury's novel and the September 11 attacks, emphasized by the film's tagline "The temperature where freedom burns". The film takes a critical look at the presidency of George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and its coverage in the news media, and became the highest grossing documentary of all time.[109] Bradbury was upset by what he considered the appropriation of his title, and wanted the film renamed.[110][111] Moore filmed a subsequent documentary about the election of Donald Trump called Fahrenheit 11/9 in 2018.[112] + +In 2015, the Internet Engineering Steering Group approved the publication of An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles, now RFC 7725, which specifies that websites forced to block resources for legal reasons should return a status code of 451 when users request those resources.[113][114][115][116] + +Guy Montag (as Gui Montag) is used in the 1998 real-time strategy game StarCraft as a terran firebat hero.[117] + +See also +1953 in science fiction +Brave New World +Burning of books and burying of scholars +Dystopia +Firefighter arson +Nineteen Eighty-Four +Notes + During Captain Beatty's recounting of the history of the firemen to Montag, he says, "Out of the nursery into the college and back to the nursery; where there's your intellectual pattern for the past five centuries or more." The text is ambiguous regarding which century he is claiming began this pattern. One interpretation is that he means the 20th century, which would place the novel in at least the 24th century. "The Fireman" novella, which was expanded to become Fahrenheit 451, is set in October 2052. + Clarisse tells Montag she is "seventeen and crazy", later admitting that she will actually be seventeen "next month". + Bradbury is referring to the 1966 adaptation of the book, for he died five years before the next film adaptation ever released in 2018, and therefore would not be aware of it. + "The Pedestrian" would go on to be published in The Reporter magazine on August 7, 1951, that is, after the publication in February 1951 of its inspired work "The Fireman". + In early editions of the book, Montag says, "We've started and won two atomic wars since 1960", in the first pages of The Sieve and the Sand. This sets a lower bound on the time setting. In later decades, some editions have changed this year to 1990 or 2022. +References +Jerrin, Neil Beeto, and G. Bhuvaneswari. "Distortion of 'Self-Image': Effects of Mental Delirium in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury." Theory & Practice in Language Studies, vol. 12, no. 8, Aug. 2022, pp. 1634–40. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1208.21 + + Crider, Bill (Fall 1980). Laughlin, Charlotte; Lee, Billy C. (eds.). "Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451". Paperback Quarterly. III (3): 22. ISBN 978-1-4344-0633-0. The first paperback edition featured illustrations by Joe Mugnaini and contained two stories in addition to the title tale: 'The Playground' and 'And The Rock Cried Out'. + Gerall, Alina; Hobby, Blake (2010). "Fahrenheit 451". In Bloom, Harold; Hobby, Blake (eds.). Civil Disobedience. Infobase Publishing. p. 148. ISBN 978-1-60413-439-1. While Fahrenheit 451 begins as a dystopic novel about a totalitarian government that bans reading, the novel concludes with Montag relishing the book he has put to memory. + "Books Published Today". The New York Times: 19. October 19, 1953. + Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. Fahrenheit 451 is considered one of Bradbury's best works. + Seed, David (September 12, 2005). A Companion to Science Fiction. Blackwell Companions to Literature and Culture. Vol. 34. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publications. pp. 491–98. ISBN 978-1-4051-1218-5. + Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 audio guide. The Big Read. Archived from the original on May 24, 2017. Retrieved August 18, 2013. Well, we should learn from history about the destruction of books. When I was fifteen years old, Hitler burned books in the streets of Berlin. And it terrified me because I was a librarian and he was touching my life: all those great plays, all that great poetry, all those wonderful essays, all those great philosophers. So, it became very personal, didn't it? Then I found out about Russia burning the books behind the scenes. But they did it in such a way that people didn't know about it. They killed the authors behind the scenes. They burned the authors instead of the books. So I learned then how dangerously [sic] it all was. + "Ticket to the Moon (tribute to SciFi)" (mp3). Biography in Sound. Narrated by Norman Rose. NBC Radio News. December 4, 1956. 27:10–27:30. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2017. I wrote this book at a time when I was worried about the way things were going in this country four years ago. Too many people were afraid of their shadows; there was a threat of book burning. Many of the books were being taken off the shelves at that time. + Johnston, Amy E. Boyle (May 30, 2007). "Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Misinterpreted". LA Weekly website. Archived from the original on July 9, 2019. Retrieved July 9, 2019. Bradbury still has a lot to say, especially about how people do not understand his most famous literary work, Fahrenheit 451, published in 1953 ... Bradbury, a man living in the creative and industrial center of reality TV and one-hour dramas, says it is, in fact, a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature. + Bradbury Talk Likely to Feature the Unexpected Archived July 10, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Dayton Daily News, 1 October 1994, City Edition, Lifestyle/Weekendlife Section, p. 1C. + Aggelis, Steven L., ed. (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. xxix. ISBN 1-57806-640-9. ...[in 1954 Bradbury received] two other awards—National Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature and Commonwealth Club of California Literature Gold Medal Award—for Fahrenheit 451, which is published in three installments in Playboy. + Davis, Scott A. "The California Book Awards Winners 1931-2012" (PDF). Commonwealth Club of California. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 28, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2014. + Nolan, William F. (May 1963). "BRADBURY: Prose Poet In The Age Of Space". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 24 (5). Mercury: 20. Then there was the afternoon at Huston's Irish manor when a telegram arrived to inform Bradbury that his first novel, Fahrenheit 451, a bitterly-satirical story of the book-burning future, had been awarded a grant of $1,000 from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. + "Libertarian Futurist Society: Prometheus Awards, A Short History". Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved August 9, 2013. + "1954 Retro Hugo Awards". July 26, 2007. Archived from the original on July 30, 2013. Retrieved August 9, 2013. + "19th Annual Grammy Awards Final Nominations". Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 3. Nielsen Business Media Inc. January 22, 1976. p. 110. ISSN 0006-2510. + Genzlinger, Neil (March 25, 2006). "Godlight Theater's 'Fahrenheit 451' Offers Hot Ideas for the Information Age". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2013. + Kelley, Ken (May 1996). "Playboy Interview: Ray Bradbury". Playboy. raybradbury.com. Archived from the original on August 17, 2019. Retrieved August 24, 2013. In the movie business the Hollywood Ten were sent to prison for refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and in the Screen Writers Guild Bradbury was one of the lonely voices opposing the loyalty oath imposed on its members. + Beley, Gene (2007). Ray Bradbury uncensored!. Lincoln, NE: iUniverse. ISBN 978-0-595-37364-2. 'I was angry at Senator Joseph McCarthy and the people before him, like Parnell Thomas and the House Un-American Activities Committee and Bobby Kennedy, who was part of that whole bunch', Bradbury told Judith Green, San Joe Mercury News theatre critic, in the October 30, 1993, edition. 'I was angry about the blacklisting and the Hollywood 10. I was a $100 a week screenwriter, but I wasn't scared—I was angry.' + Beley, Gene (2006). Ray Bradbury Uncensored!: The Unauthorized Biography. iUniverse. pp. 130–40. ISBN 9780595373642. + Eller, Jonathan R.; Touponce, William F. (2004). Ray Bradbury: The Life of Fiction. Kent State University Press. pp. 164–65. ISBN 9780873387798. + Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 59. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. + Orlean, Susan (2018). The Library Book. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 103. ISBN 978-1-4767-4018-8. + Cusatis, John (2010). Research Guide to American Literature: Postwar Literature 1945–1970. Facts on File Library of American Literature. Vol. 6 (New ed.). New York, NY: Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-3405-5. He 'wept' when he learned at the age of nine that the ancient library of Alexandria had been burned. + Westfahl, Gary (2005). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders. Vol. 3. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 1029. ISBN 9780313329531. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. Inspired by images of book burning by the Nazis and written at the height of Army-McCarthy 'Red Scare' hearings in America, Fahrenheit 451... + Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature (2001). Greasley, Philip A. (ed.). Dictionary of Midwestern Literature. Vol. 1, The Authors. Indiana University Press. p. 78. ISBN 9780253336095. Archived from the original on September 30, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2014. Fahrenheit 451 is not set in any specific locale... + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 35. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. Montag does not realize at first that she is gone, or that he misses her; he simply feels that something is the matter. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 32. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. The Mechanical Hound is an eight-legged glass and metal contraption that serves as a surveillance tool and programmable killing machine for the firemen, to track down suspected book hoarders and readers. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 31. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. Montag's new neighbor, the sixteen-year-old Clarisse, appears in only a few scenes at the beginning of the novel. + Maher, Jimmy (September 23, 2013). "Fahrenheit 451: The Book". The Digital Antiquarian. Archived from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved July 10, 2014. + Rogers, John (June 6, 2012). "Author of 'Fahrenheit 451', Ray Bradbury, Dies at 91". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press. Archived from the original on August 17, 2013. Retrieved August 3, 2013. (451 degrees Fahrenheit, Bradbury had been told, was the temperature at which texts went up in flames) + Gaiman, Neil (May 31, 2016). "Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, and what science fiction is and does". The View from the Cheap Seats. HarperCollins. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-06-226226-4. He called the Los Angeles fire department and asked them at what temperature paper burned. Fahrenheit 451, somebody told him. He had his title. It didn't matter if it was true or not. + Cafe, Tony. "PHYSICAL CONSTANTS FOR INVESTIGATORS". tcforensic.com.au. TC Forensic P/L. Archived from the original on January 27, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2015. + Forest Products Laboratory (1964). "Ignition and charring temperatures of wood" (PDF). Forest Service U. S. Department of Agriculture. Archived (PDF) from the original on February 18, 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2018. + Bradbury, Ray (2006). "Preface". In Albright, Donn; Eller, Jon (eds.). Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451 (1st ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Publications. p. 9. ISBN 1-887368-86-8. For many years I've told people that Fahrenheit 451 was the result of my story 'The Pedestrian' continuing itself in my life. It turns out that this is a misunderstanding of my own past. Long before 'The Pedestrian' I did all the stories that you'll find in this book and forgot about them. + Bradbury, Ray (2007). Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451. USA: Gauntlet Pr. ISBN 978-1887368865. + "FAHRENHEIT 451". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 24 (5). Mercury: 23. May 1963. Ray Bradbury calls this story, the first of the tandem, 'a curiosity. I wrote it [he says] back in 1947–48 and it remained in my files over the years, going out only a few times to quality markets like Harper's Bazaar or The Atlantic Monthly, where it was dismissed. It lay in my files and collected about it many ideas. These ideas grew large and became ... + Bradbury, Ray (May 1963). "Bright Phoenix". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. 24 (5). Mercury: 23–29. + "About the Book: Fahrenheit 451". The Big Read. National Endowment for the Arts. Archived from the original on May 11, 2012. + Eller, Jon (2006). Albright, Donn; Eller, Jon (eds.). Writing by Degrees: The Family Tree of Fahrenheit 451 (1st ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Publications. p. 68. ISBN 1-887368-86-8. The specific incident that sparked 'The Pedestrian' involved a similar late-night walk with a friend along Wilshire Boulevard near Western Avenue sometime in late 1949. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help) + Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 audio guide. The Big Read. When I came out of a restaurant when I was thirty years old, and I went walking along Wilshire Boulevard with a friend, and a police car pulled up and the policeman got up and came up to us and said, 'What are you doing?'. I said, 'Putting one foot in front of the other' and that was the wrong answer but he kept saying, you know, 'Look in this direction and that direction: there are no pedestrians' but that give me the idea for 'The Pedestrian' and 'The Pedestrian' turned into Montag! So the police officer is responsible for the writing of Fahrenheit 451. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 26. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 158. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. He writes 'The Phoenix [sic],' which he will later develop into the short story 'The Fireman,' which will eventually become Fahrenheit 451. + Eller, Jon (2006). Albright, Donn; Eller, Jon (eds.). Writing by Degrees: The Family Tree of Fahrenheit 451 (1st ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Publications. p. 68. ISBN 1-887368-86-8. As Bradbury has often noted, 'The Pedestrian' marks the true flashpoint that exploded into 'The Fireman' and Fahrenheit 451. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help) + Bradbury, Ray (February 1951). "The Fireman". Galaxy Science Fiction. 5. 15 (1): 4–61. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 164. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. The short story which Bradbury later expanded into the novel Fahrenheit 451, was originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, vol. 1, no. 5 (February 1951), under the title 'The Fireman.' + Eller, Jon (2006). Albright, Donn; Eller, Jon (eds.). Writing by Degrees: The Family Tree of Fahrenheit 451 (1st ed.). Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Publications. p. 57. ISBN 1-887368-86-8. In 1950 Ray Bradbury composed his 25,000-word novella 'The Fireman' in just this way, and three years later he returned to the same subterranean typing room for another nine-day stint to expand this cautionary tale into the 50,000-word novel Fahrenheit 451. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help) + Bradbury, Ray (2003). Fahrenheit 451 (50th anniversary ed.). New York, NY: Ballantine Books. pp. 167–68. ISBN 0-345-34296-8. + Weller, Sam. Bradbury Chronicles. + Liptak, Andrew (August 5, 2013). "A.E. van Vogt and the Fix-Up Novel". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on January 12, 2018. Retrieved January 12, 2018. + Baxter, John (2005). A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict. Macmillan. p. 393. ISBN 9781466839892. When it published the first edition in 1953, Ballantine also produced 200 signed and numbered copies bound in Johns-Manville Quintera, a form of asbestos. + Brier, Evan (2011). A Novel Marketplace: Mass Culture, the Book Trade, and Postwar American Fiction. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 65. ISBN 9780812201444. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. Bradbury closes his 1979 'Coda' to Fahrenheit 451, one of numerous comments on the novel he has published since 1953, ... + Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. In a 1982 afterword... + Tuck, Donald H. (March 1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Vol. 1: Who's Who, A–L. Chicago, Illinois: Advent. p. 62. ISBN 0-911682-20-1. LCCN 73091828. Special edition bound in asbestos—200 copies ca. 1954, $4.00 [probably Ballantine text] + "Fahrenheit 451". Ray Bradbury Online. spaceagecity.com. Archived from the original on May 16, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2013. 200 copies were signed and numbered and bound in 'Johns-Manville Quinterra,' an asbestos material. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 164. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. A special limited-edition version of the book with an asbestos cover was printed in 1953. + Weller, Sam (2006). The Bradbury Chronicles: The Life of Ray Bradbury. HarperCollins. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-06-054584-0. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. To fulfill his agreement with Doubleday that the book be a collection rather than a novel, the first edition of Fahrenheit 451 included two additional short stories—'The Playground' and 'And the Rock Cried Out.' (The original plan was to include eight stories plus Fahrenheit 451, but Ray didn't have time to revise all the tales.) 'The Playground' and 'And the Rock Cried Out' were removed in much later printings; in the meantime, Ray had met his contractual obligation with the first edition. Fahrenheit 451 was a short novel, but it was also a part of a collection. + De Koster, Katie, ed. (2000). Readings on Fahrenheit 451. Literary Companion Series. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press. p. 159. ISBN 1-56510-857-4. A serialized version of Fahrenheit 451 appears in the March, April, and May 1954 issues of Playboy magazine. + Crider, Bill (Fall 1980). Lee, Billy C.; Laughlin, Charlotte (eds.). "Reprints/Reprints: Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451". Paperback Quarterly. III (3): 25. ISBN 9781434406330. Archived from the original on May 4, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. The censorship began with a special 'Bal-Hi' edition in 1967, an edition designed for high school students... + Karolides, Nicholas J.; Bald, Margaret; Sova, Dawn B. (2011). 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (Second ed.). Checkmark Books. p. 488. ISBN 978-0-8160-8232-2. In 1967, Ballantine Books published a special edition of the novel to be sold in high schools. Over 75 passages were modified to eliminate such words as hell, damn, and abortion, and two incidents were eliminated. The original first incident described a drunk man who was changed to a sick man in the expurgated edition. In the second incident, reference is made to cleaning fluff out of the human navel, but the expurgated edition changed the reference to cleaning ears. + Burress, Lee (1989). Battle of the Books: Literary Censorship in the Public Schools, 1950–1985. Scarecrow Press. p. 104. ISBN 0-8108-2151-6. + Greene, Bill (February 2007). "The mutilation and rebirth of a classic: Fahrenheit 451". Compass: New Directions at Falvey. III (3). Villanova University. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved August 3, 2013. + Karolides, Nicholas J.; Bald, Margaret; Sova, Dawn B. (2011). 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (Second ed.). Checkmark Books. p. 488. ISBN 978-0-8160-8232-2. After six years of simultaneous editions, the publisher ceased publication of the adult version, leaving only the expurgated version for sale from 1973 through 1979, during which neither Bradbury nor anyone else suspected the truth. + Crider, Bill (Fall 1980). Lee, Billy C.; Laughlin, Charlotte (eds.). "Reprints/Reprints: Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451". Paperback Quarterly. III (3): 25. ISBN 9781434406330. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2020. There is no mention anywhere on the Bal-Hi edition that it has been abridged, but printing histories in later Ballantine editions refer to the 'Revised Bal-Hi Editions'. + Bradbury, Ray (2005). Fahrenheit 451. Read by Christopher Hurt (Unabridged ed.). Ashland, OR: Blackstone Audiobooks. ISBN 0-7861-7627-X. + "Fahrenheit 451 becomes e-book despite author's feelings". BBC News. November 30, 2011. Archived from the original on January 6, 2013. Retrieved August 24, 2013. + Flood, Alison (November 30, 2011). "Fahrenheit 451 ebook published as Ray Bradbury gives in to digital era". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 2, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2013. + Conklin, Groff (February 1954). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction: 108. + Derleth, August (October 25, 1953). "Vivid Prophecy of Book Burning". Chicago Sunday Tribune. + Weller, Sam (2010). Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House. p. 124. + McNamee, Gregory (September 15, 2010). "Appreciations: Fahrenheit 451". Kirkus Reviews. 78 (18): 882. + "Recommended Reading", F&SF, December 1953, p. 105. + "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction, April 1954, pp. 145–46 + "Nothing but TV". The New York Times. November 14, 1953. + "These Are the NYPL's Top Check Outs OF ALL TIME". January 13, 2020. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2020. + "How the apartheid regime burnt books -- in their tens of thousands". October 24, 2018. + Karolides, Nicholas J.; Bald, Margaret; Sova, Dawn B. (2011). 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (Second ed.). Checkmark Books. pp. 501–02. ISBN 978-0-8160-8232-2. + Karolides, Nicholas J.; Bald, Margaret; Sova, Dawn B. (2011). 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Literature (Second ed.). Checkmark Books. p. 489. ISBN 978-0-8160-8232-2. In 1992, students of Venado Middle School in Irvine, California, were issued copies of the novel with numerous words blacked out. School officials had ordered teachers to use black markers to obliterate all of the 'hells', 'damns', and other words deemed 'obscene' in the books before giving them to students as required reading. Parents complained to the school and contacted local newspapers, who sent reporters to write stories about the irony of a book that condemns bookburning and censorship being expurgated. Faced with such an outcry, school officials announced that the censored copies would no longer be used. + Wrigley, Deborah (October 3, 2006). "Parent files complaint about book assigned as student reading". ABC News. Archived from the original on September 27, 2013. Retrieved March 2, 2013. + "Ticket to the Moon (tribute to SciFi)" (mp3). Biography in Sound. Narrated by Norman Rose. NBC Radio News. December 4, 1956. 27:10–27:57. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2017. + "The Definitive Biography in Sound Radio Log". Archived from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved March 1, 2013. + Quoted by Kingsley Amis in New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction (1960). Bradbury directly foretells this incident early in the work: "And in her ears the little Seashells, the thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talking coming in." p.12 + Bradbury, Ray (2003). Fahrenheit 451 (50th anniversary ed.). New York, NY: Ballantine Books. pp. 175–79. ISBN 0-345-34296-8. + Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. + Reid, Robin Anne (2000). Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion. Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-313-30901-9. Fahrenheit 451 is set in an unnamed city in the United States, possibly in the Midwest, in some undated future. + Aggelis, Steven L., ed. (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Interview by Shel Dorf. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 99. ISBN 1-57806-640-9. I am a preventor of futures, not a predictor of them. I wrote Fahrenheit 451 to prevent book-burnings, not to induce that future into happening, or even to say that it was inevitable. + Aggelis, Steven L., ed. (2004). Conversations with Ray Bradbury. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi. p. 189. ISBN 1-57806-640-9. + Weller, Sam (2010). Listen to the Echoes: The Ray Bradbury Interviews. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House. p. 263. + Nolan, William F. (May 1963). "Bradbury: Prose Poet in the Age of Space". The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction: 7–21. + Bowie, Stephen (August 17, 2010). "The Sound of a Single Drummer". The Classic TV History Blog. wordpress.com. Archived from the original on August 31, 2013. Retrieved August 29, 2013. + Fahrenheit 451 at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata + Frey, James N. (2010). How to Write a Damn Good Thriller: A Step-by-Step Guide for Novelists and Screenwriters (1st ed.). Macmillan. p. 255. ISBN 978-0-312-57507-6. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved March 5, 2014. FAHRENHEIT 451* (1966); written by François Truffaut from the novel by Ray Bradbury; starring Oskar Werner and Julie Christie; directed by François Truffaut. + Hipes, Patrick (April 19, 2017). "HBO's 'Fahrenheit 451' Movie: Michael B. Jordan & Michael Shannon To Star". Deadline. Archived from the original on January 21, 2020. Retrieved May 8, 2017. + Ford, Rebecca (June 6, 2017). "'Mummy' Star Sofia Boutella Joins Michael B. Jordan in 'Fahrenheit 451'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020. + Fahrenheit 451 (play) Archived April 20, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, BradburyMedia; accessed September 17, 2016. + Genzlinger, Neil (March 25, 2006). "Godlight Theater's 'Fahrenheit 451' Offers Hot Ideas for the Information Age". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved March 2, 2013. + "The Edinburgh festival 2006 – Reviews – Theatre 'F' – 8 out of 156". Edinburghguide.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2013. + "Literature to Life – Citizenship & Censorship: Raise Your Civic Voice in 2008–09". The American Place Theatre. Archived from the original on November 10, 2009. + Edvardsen, Mette. "Time Has Fallen Asleep In The Afternoon Sunshine Presented at Birmingham Central Library". Archived from the original on May 31, 2012. Retrieved March 22, 2013. + Nichols, Phil (October 17, 2007). "A sympathy with sounds: Ray Bradbury and BBC Radio, 1951–1970". The Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast and Audio Media. 4 (1, 2, 3): 111–123. doi:10.1386/rajo.4.1,2,3.111_1 (inactive January 31, 2024). hdl:2436/622705. ISSN 1476-4504. Archived from the original on November 16, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021 – via ResearchGate. + "Ray Bradbury Radio Plays & Readings". Diversity Website. Compiled by Nigel Deacon. Archived from the original on June 13, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2012. + Bradbury, Ray (November 13, 1982). Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. Retrieved November 16, 2021 – via Internet Archive. + "BBC Radio 4 Extra - Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451". BBC. Archived from the original on November 16, 2021. Retrieved November 16, 2021. + "The Saturday Play: Fahrenheit 451". BBC Programme Index. July 5, 2003. Archived from the original on March 11, 2021. Retrieved July 23, 2021. + Merciez, Gil (May 1985). "Fahrenheit 451". Antic's Amiga Plus. 5 (1): 81. + "Macmillan: Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation Ray Bradbury, Tim Hamilton: Books". Us.macmillan.com. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2009. + Neary, Lynn (July 30, 2009). "Reimagining 'Fahrenheit 451' As A Graphic Novel". All Things Considered. NPR. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014. + Maury, Laurel (July 30, 2009). "Bradbury Classic In Vivid, 'Necessary' Graphic Form". NPR. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014. + Minzesheimer, Bob (August 2, 2009). "Graphic novel of 'Fahrenheit 451' sparks Bradbury's approval". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015. Retrieved December 18, 2017. + "Fahrenheit 9/11". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 15, 2011. Retrieved October 2, 2011. + ""Fahrenheit 451" author wants title back". Hardball with Chris Matthews. NBC News. June 29, 2004. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved April 16, 2020. + "Call it a tale of two 'Fahrenheits'". MSNBC. June 29, 2004. Archived from the original on November 5, 2012. Retrieved August 15, 2016. + France, Lisa Respers (May 17, 2017). "Michael Moore's surprise Trump doc: What we know". cnn.com. CNN. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2018. + Nottingham, Mark (December 21, 2015). "mnot's blog: Why 451?". Archived from the original on December 29, 2015. Retrieved December 21, 2015. + "An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles". Internet Engineering Steering Group. December 21, 2015. Archived from the original on February 29, 2016. Retrieved December 21, 2015. + T. Bray (February 2016). An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC7725. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7725. Proposed Standard. Thanks also to Ray Bradbury. + "What is Error 451?". Open Rights Group. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2015. + Blizzard Entertainment. "Starcraft" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 22, 2014. +Further reading +McGiveron, R. O. (1996). "What 'Carried the Trick'? Mass Exploitation and the Decline of Thought in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451". Extrapolation. 37 (3). Liverpool University Press: 245–256. doi:10.3828/extr.1996.37.3.245. ISSN 0014-5483. +McGiveron, R. O. (1996). "Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451". Explicator. 54 (3): 177–180. doi:10.1080/00144940.1996.9934107. ISSN 0014-4940. +Smolla, Rodney A. (April 2009). "The Life of the Mind and a Life of Meaning: Reflections on Fahrenheit 451" (PDF). Michigan Law Review. 107 (6): 895–912. ISSN 0026-2234. +External links + Quotations related to Fahrenheit 451 at Wikiquote + Media related to Fahrenheit 451 at Wikimedia Commons +Fahrenheit 451 title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database +vte +Ray Bradbury +vte +Hugo Award for Best Novel +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: 1953 American novels1953 science fiction novelsAmerican novels adapted into filmsAmerican philosophical novelsBallantine Books booksBooks about bibliophiliaBooks about booksNovels about freedom of speechBooks about televisionDystopian novelsTotalitarianism in fictionHugo Award for Best Novel-winning worksMetafictional novelsAmerican novels adapted into television showsObscenity controversies in literatureNovels about consumerismNovels about totalitarianismNovels by Ray BradburyNovels set in the futureScience fiction novels adapted into filmsSocial science fictionBooks about censorshipWorks about readingWorks originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction +This page was last edited on 13 July 2024, at 22:13 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki +You can donate at any time from this menu. + + +Culture is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups. Culture is often originated from or attributed to a specific region or location. + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Plot +Characters +Themes +Development +Reception +Adaptations +Toggle Adaptations subsection +Stage +Film +Radio +References +Toggle References subsection +Notes +Bibliography +External links +Of Mice and Men + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Page semi-protected +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +"Mice and Men" redirects here. For the unrelated 1916 film, see Mice and Men (film). For other uses, see Of Mice and Men (disambiguation). +Of Mice and Men +Book cover illustration of two men walking along a dirt path between grass and a few trees +First edition cover +Author John Steinbeck +Cover artist Ross MacDonald +Language English +Genre Tragedy +Publisher Covici Friede +Publication date 1937 +Publication place United States +Pages 107 +Of Mice and Men is a 1937 novella written by American author John Steinbeck.[1][2] It narrates the experiences of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant ranch workers, who move from place to place in California in search of new job opportunities during the Great Depression in the United States. + +Steinbeck based the novella on his own experiences working alongside migrant farm workers as a teenager in the 1910s, before the arrival of the Okies that he would describe in his novel The Grapes of Wrath. The title is taken from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" ("The best laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry"). + +While it is a book taught in many schools,[3] Of Mice and Men has been a frequent target of censorship and book bans for vulgarity, and what some consider offensive and racist language; consequently, it appears on the American Library Association's list of the Most Challenged Books of the 21st Century.[4] + +Plot +During the Great Depression in California, two migrant field workers – George Milton, an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie Small, a bulky, strong but mentally disabled man – are on their way from Soledad to another part of the state. They hope to one day attain the dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream is merely to care for and pet rabbits on the farm, as he loves touching soft animals, although he always accidentally kills them by petting them too hard. This dream is one of Lennie's favorite stories, which George constantly retells. They had fled from Weed after Lennie grabbed a young woman's skirt because he thought it was pretty, and would not let go because of his tendency to hold on tighter when stressed. This led to an accusation of rape. Throughout this introduction, it becomes clear that Lennie is dependent on George as he is unable to function independently. + +After being hired at a farm, the pair are confronted by Curley, the Boss's small, aggressive son with a Napoleon complex who dislikes larger men. Curley starts to target Lennie. Curley's flirtatious and provocative wife, to whom Lennie is instantly attracted, poses a problem as well. In contrast, the pair also meets Candy, an elderly ranch handyman with one hand and a loyal dog, and Slim, an intelligent and gentle jerkline-skinner whose dog has recently had a litter of puppies. Slim gives a puppy to Lennie and Candy, whose loyal, accomplished sheep dog was put down by fellow ranch-hand Carlson. + +In spite of problems, their dream leaps towards reality when Candy offers to pitch in $350 with George and Lennie so that they can buy a farm at the end of the month, in return for permission to live with them. The trio are ecstatic, but their joy is overshadowed when Curley attacks Lennie, who defends himself by easily crushing Curley's fist while urged on by George. + +Nevertheless, George feels more relaxed, to the extent that he even leaves Lennie behind on the ranch while he goes into town with the other ranch hands. Lennie wanders into the stable, and chats with Crooks, the bitter, yet educated stable buck, who is isolated from the other workers due to being black. Candy finds them and they discuss their plans for the farm with Crooks, who cannot resist asking them if he can hoe a garden patch on the farm, even though he scorns the possibility of the farm happening. Curley's wife makes another appearance and flirts with the men, especially Lennie. However, her spiteful side is shown when she belittles them and threatens to have Crooks lynched. They then hear the ranch hands returning, which prompts her to leave. + +The next day, Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while stroking it. Curley's wife enters the barn and tries to speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star have been crushed. After finding out about Lennie's habit, she offers to let him stroke her hair, but panics and begins to scream when she feels his strength. Lennie becomes frightened, and unintentionally breaks her neck. He then runs away. When the other ranch hands find the corpse, they form into a lynch mob intent on killing him, then send for the police before beginning the search. George quickly realizes that their dream is at an end and hurries to find Lennie, hoping he will be at the meeting place they designated in case he got into trouble. + +George meets Lennie at the meeting spot, and the two sit together while George retells the beloved story of the dream, despite knowing it is something that will never happen. Upon hearing the lynch mob near them, George shoots Lennie, knowing it to be a more merciful death than that at the hands of a mob. Curley, Slim, and Carlson arrive seconds after. Only Slim understands what has happened and consolingly leads George away. Curley and Carlson look on, neither understanding why Slim and George are feeling the way they are. + +Characters +George Milton: A quick-witted man who is Lennie's guardian and best friend. His friendship with Lennie helps sustain his dream of a better future. He has been friends with Lennie since they were children. He is described by Steinbeck in the novel as "small and quick", every part of him being "defined", with small strong hands on slender arms. He has a dark face and "restless eyes" and "sharp, strong features" including a "thin, bony nose". +Lennie Small: A gigantic, physically strong imbecile who travels with George and is his constant companion.[5] He dreams of "living off the fatta' the lan'" and being able to tend to rabbits. His love for soft things is a weakness, mostly because he does not know his own strength, and eventually becomes his undoing. Steinbeck defines his appearance as George's "opposite", writing that he is a "huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes" and "wide, sloping shoulders". Lennie walks heavily, dragging his feet a little, "the way a bear drags his paws", adding that his arms do not swing at his sides, but hang loosely. +Candy: An aging ranch handyman, Candy lost his hand in an accident and worries about his future on the ranch. Fearing that his age is making him useless, he seizes on George's description of the farm he and Lennie will have, offering his life's savings if he can join George and Lennie in owning the land. +Slim: A "jerkline skinner", the main driver of a mule team and the "prince of the ranch". Slim is greatly respected by many of the characters and is the only character whom Curley treats with respect. His insight, intuition, kindness and natural authority draw the other ranch hands automatically towards him, and he is significantly the only character to fully understand the bond between George and Lennie. Slim is considered the "übermensch"[6] of this story by the god-like descriptions of Slim that he is the one that knows best out of the novel’s characters. +Curley: The Boss's son, a young, pugnacious character, once a semi-professional boxer. He is described by others, with some irony, as "handy", partly because he likes to keep a glove filled with vaseline on his left hand. He is very jealous and protective of his wife and immediately develops a dislike toward Lennie. At one point, Curley loses his temper after he sees Lennie appear to laugh at him, and ends up with his hand horribly damaged after Lennie fights back against him. +Curley's wife: A young, pretty woman, who is mistrusted by her husband. The other characters refer to her only as "Curley's wife". Steinbeck explained that she is "not a person, she's a symbol. She has no function, except to be a foil – and a danger to Lennie."[5] Curley's wife's preoccupation with her own beauty eventually helps precipitate her death: She allows Lennie to stroke her hair as an apparently harmless indulgence, only for her to upset Lennie when she yells at him to stop him "mussing it". Lennie tries to stop her yelling and eventually kills her accidentally by breaking her neck. +Crooks: Crooks, the black stable-hand, gets his name from his crooked back. Proud, bitter, and cynical, he is isolated from the other men because of the color of his skin. Despite himself, Crooks becomes fond of Lennie, and though he claims to have seen countless men following empty dreams of buying their own land, he asks Lennie if he can go with them and hoe in the garden. Crooks is a more relatable individual who sees things from a more rational and human perspective. +Candy's dog: A blind dog who is described as "old", "stinky", and "crippled", and is killed by Carlson. +Carlson: A "thick bodied" ranch hand, he kills Candy's dog with little sympathy. +The Boss: Curley's father, the superintendent of the ranch. The ranch is owned by "a big land company" according to Candy. +Whit: A young ranch hand. +Themes +In every bit of honest writing in the world there is a base theme. Try to understand men, if you understand each other you will be kind to each other. Knowing a man well never leads to hate and nearly always leads to love. There are shorter means, many of them. There is writing promoting social change, writing punishing injustice, writing in celebration of heroism, but always that base theme. Try to understand each other. + +— John Steinbeck in his 1938 journal entry[7] +Steinbeck emphasizes aspirations throughout the book. George aspires to become independent, to be his own boss, to have a homestead, and, most important, to be "somebody". Lennie aspires to be with George on his independent homestead, and to quench his fixation on soft objects. Candy aspires to reassert his responsibility lost with the death of his dog, and for security for his old age—on George's homestead. Crooks aspires to a small homestead where he can express self-respect, security, and most of all, acceptance. Curley's wife dreams to be an actress, to satisfy her desire for fame lost when she married Curley, and an end to her loneliness. + +Loneliness is a significant factor in several characters' lives. Candy is lonely after his dog is gone. Curley's wife is lonely because her husband is not the friend she hoped for—she deals with her loneliness by flirting with the men on the ranch, which causes Curley to increase his abusiveness and jealousy. The companionship of George and Lennie is the result of loneliness. Crooks states the theme candidly as "A guy goes nuts if he ain't got anybody. Don't make any difference who the guy is, long's he's with you."[8] The author further reinforces this theme through subtle methods by situating the story near the town of Soledad, which means "solitude" in Spanish.[9] + +Despite the need for companionship, Steinbeck emphasizes how loneliness is sustained through the barriers established from acting inhuman to one another. The loneliness of Curley's wife is upheld by Curley's jealousy, which causes all the ranch hands to avoid her. Crooks's barrier results from being barred from the bunkhouse by restraining him to the stable; his bitterness is partially broken, however, through Lennie's ignorance. + +Steinbeck's characters are often powerless, due to intellectual, economic, and social circumstances. Lennie possesses the greatest physical strength of any character, which should therefore establish a sense of respect as he is employed as a ranch hand. However, his intellectual handicap undercuts this and results in his powerlessness. Economic powerlessness is established as many of the ranch hands are victims of the Great Depression. As George, Candy and Crooks are positive, action-oriented characters, they wish to purchase a homestead, but because of the Depression, they are unable to earn enough money to fulfill their dream. Lennie is the only one who is basically unable to take care of himself, but the other characters would do this in the improved circumstances they seek. Since they cannot do so, the real danger of Lennie's mental handicap comes to the fore. + +Regarding human interaction, the evil of oppression and abuse is a theme that is illustrated through Curley and Curley's wife. Curley uses his aggressive nature and superior position in an attempt to take control of his father's farm. He constantly reprimands the farm hands and accuses some of fooling around with his wife. Curley's Napoleon complex is evidenced by his threatening of the farm hands for minuscule incidents. Curley's wife, on the other hand, is not physically but verbally manipulative. She uses her sex appeal to gain some attention, flirting with the farm hands. According to the Penguin Teacher's Guide for Of Mice and Men, Curley and Curley's wife represent evil in that both oppress and abuse the migrants in different ways.[10] + +Fate is felt most heavily as the characters' aspirations are destroyed when George is unable to protect Lennie (who is a real danger). Steinbeck presents this as "something that happened" or as his friend coined for him "non-teleological thinking" or "is thinking", which postulates a non-judgmental point of view.[7] + +Of Mice and Men can be associated with the idea that inherent limitations exist and despite all the squirming and struggling, sometimes the circumstances of one's existence limits their capacity to live the fairy tale lives they wish to. Even the title of the novel itself references this "the title is, of course, a fragment from the poem lay Robert Burns, which gives emphasis to the idea of the futility of human endeavor or the vanity of human wishes".[11] + +Animals play a role in the story as well; the heron shifts from a beautiful part of the scenery from the beginning of the novel to a predator near the end. The ending chapter has the heron return, preying upon snakes that get too curious in a repetitive nature, symbolic of the dreams of men constantly being snatched away. + +Development +Of Mice and Men was Steinbeck's first attempt at writing in the form of novel-play termed a "play-novelette" by one critic. Structured in three acts of two chapters each, it is intended to be both a novella and a script for a play. It is only 30,000 words in length. Steinbeck wanted to write a novel that could be played from its lines, or a play that could be read like a novel.[12][13] + +Steinbeck originally titled it Something That Happened (referring to the events of the book as "something that happened" because nobody can be really blamed for the tragedy that unfolds in the story). However, he changed the title after reading Robert Burns's poem "To a Mouse".[13] Burns's poem tells of the regret the narrator feels for having destroyed the home of a mouse while plowing his field.[14] + +Steinbeck wrote this book and The Grapes of Wrath in what is now Monte Sereno, California. An early draft of Of Mice and Men was eaten by Steinbeck's dog. As he explained in a 1936 letter:[15] + +My setter pup [Toby], left alone one night, made confetti of about half of my [manuscript] book. Two months [sic] work to do over again. It sets me back. There was no other draft. I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically. + +In the introduction to Penguin's 1994 edition of the book, Susan Shillinglaw writes that Steinbeck, after dropping out of Stanford University, spent almost two years roaming California, finding work on ranches for Spreckels Sugar where he harvested wheat and sugar beets.[16] Steinbeck told The New York Times in 1937:[5] + +I was a bindlestiff myself for quite a spell. I worked in the same country that the story is laid in. The characters are composites to a certain extent. Lennie was a real person. He's in an insane asylum in California right now. I worked alongside him for many weeks. He didn't kill a girl. He killed a ranch foreman. Got sore because the boss had fired his pal and stuck a pitchfork right through his stomach. I hate to tell you how many times. I saw him do it. We couldn't stop him until it was too late. + +Reception +Attaining the greatest positive response of any of his works up to that time, Steinbeck's novella was chosen as a Book of the Month Club selection before it was published. Praise for the work came from many notable critics, including Maxine Garrard (Enquirer-Sun),[17] Christopher Morley, and Harry Thornton Moore (New Republic).[18] New York Times critic Ralph Thompson described the novella as a "grand little book, for all its ultimate melodrama".[19][20] In the UK, it was listed at number 52 of the "nation's best loved novels" on the BBC's 2003 survey The Big Read.[21] + +The novella has been banned from various US public and school libraries or curricula for allegedly "promoting euthanasia", "condoning racial slurs", being "anti-business", containing profanity, and generally containing "vulgar", "offensive language", and containing racial stereotypes, as well as the negative impact of these stereotypes on students.[22][23] Many of the bans and restrictions have been lifted and it remains required reading in many other American, Australian, Irish, British, New Zealand and Canadian high schools. + +As a result of being a frequent target of censors, Of Mice and Men appears on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000–2009 (number five)[24] and Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2010–2019 (number 28).[25] Of Mice and Men has been proposed for censorship 54 times since it was published in 1936.[26] However, scholars including Thomas Scarseth have fought to protect the book by arguing its literary value. According to Scarseth "in true great literature the pain of Life is transmuted into the beauty of Art".[27] + +Adaptations +Stage +Main articles: Of Mice and Men (play) and Of Mice and Men (opera) +As a "playable novel", it was performed by the Theater Union of San Francisco as written. This version opened on May 21, 1937 – less than three months after the novel's publication – and ran for about two months.[16] + +To create a Broadway production, Steinbeck adapted and slightly revised his original text and this version, produced by Sam H. Harris and directed by George S. Kaufman, opened on November 23, 1937, in the Music Box Theatre on Broadway and ran for 207 performances.[28] It starred Wallace Ford as George and Broderick Crawford as Lennie.[28] The role of Crooks was performed by Leigh Whipper, the first African-American member of the Actors' Equity Association.[29] (Whipper repeated this role in the 1939 film version.[30]) The production was chosen as Best Play in 1938 by the New York Drama Critics' Circle.[31] + +In 1939 the production was moved to Los Angeles, still with Wallace Ford in the role of George, but with Lon Chaney, Jr., taking on the role of Lennie. Chaney's performance in the role resulted in his casting in the movie. + +In 1958, a musical theater adaptation by Ira Bilowit (1925–2016) was produced Off-Broadway in New York City. The cast included several in-demand performers of their day, including Art Lund and Jo Sullivan, re-teamed after performing together in the hit musical The Most Happy Fella, as well as Leo Penn.[32] However, a newspaper strike negatively affected the production and it closed after six weeks.[33] A revival of the work was mounted at the Western Stage in Salinas, California in 2019.[33] + +The play was revived in a 1974 Broadway production in the Brooks Atkinson Theatre starring Kevin Conway as George and James Earl Jones as Lennie.[34] Noted stage actress Pamela Blair played Curley's Wife in this production. + +In 1970 Carlisle Floyd wrote an opera based on this novella. One departure between Steinbeck's book and Floyd's opera is that the opera features The Ballad Singer, a character not found in the book.[35] + +A new version of the play opened on Broadway at The Longacre Theater on March 19, 2014 for a limited 18-week engagement, starring James Franco, Chris O'Dowd, Leighton Meester and Jim Norton.[36][37] + +A ballet adaptation was created by Cathy Marston with original music by Thomas Newman. It debuted on April 27, 2022 at the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago.[38] + +Film + +Poster for the 1939 film +The first film adaptation was released in 1939, two years after the publication of the novella, and starred Lon Chaney Jr. as Lennie, with Burgess Meredith as George, and was directed by Lewis Milestone.[30] It was nominated for four Academy Awards.[30] + +A TV version, produced by David Susskind in 1968, starred George Segal as George, Nicol Williamson as Lennie, Will Geer as Candy, Moses Gunn as Crooks, and Don Gordon and Joey Heatherton as Curley and his wife, respectively.[39] + +In 1981, a TV movie version was released, starring Randy Quaid as Lennie, and Robert Blake as George, and directed by Reza Badiyi.[40] + +Another theatrical film version was made in 1992, directed by Gary Sinise, who was nominated for the Palme d'Or at Cannes.[41] Sinise played George, and the role of Lennie was played by John Malkovich, both reprising their roles from the 1980 Steppenwolf Theatre Company stage production.[42] + +The 1992 Malayalam film Soorya Manasam directed by Viji Thampi is also based on the novel.[43] + +Radio +Of Mice and Men was adapted by Donna Franceschild as a radio play directed by Kirsty Williams starring David Tennant and Liam Brennan broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 7 March 2010.[44] Earlier BBC productions were aired in 1966 and 1992. + +References +Notes + "Of Mice and Men Summary". OxNotes GCSE Revision. Retrieved 2018-10-10. + Who, what, why: Why do children study Of Mice and Men? on BBC + Stephen Maunder (March 25, 2011). "Who, what, why: Why do children study Of Mice and Men?". BBC News. Retrieved March 26, 2011. + "American Library Association Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000–2009". web page. American Library Association. 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011. + Parini, Jay (1992-09-27). "FILM; Of Bindlestiffs, Bad Times, Mice and Men". The New York Times. Retrieved June 17, 2008. + Barden, Tom (May 2017). Of Mice and Meaning in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men. Critical Insights: Of Mice & Men. + Tracy Barr; Greg Tubach, eds. (2001) [2001]. Cliff Notes: On Steinbeck's Of Mice and men. New York City, New York: Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-8676-9. + Of Mice and Men, p. 71 + Van Kirk, Susan (2001) [2001]. Tracy Barr; Greg Tubach (eds.). Cliff Notes: On Steinbeck's Of Mice and men. New York City, New York: Wiley Publishing. ISBN 0-7645-8676-9. + Reed, Arthea J.S. A Teacher's Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (PDF). Penguin Group (USA). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-16. Retrieved 2013-06-11. + Goldhurst, William (October 2017). "Of Mice and Men : John Steinbeck's Parable Of The Curse Of Cain". Western American Literature. 6 (2): 123–135. doi:10.1353/wal.1971.0038. JSTOR 43017590. S2CID 160522986. + Burning Bright – in the foreword Steinbeck states that Of Mice and Men and The Moon Is Down were his first two play novelettes', and Burning Bright is the third. + Dr. Susan Shillinglaw (January 18, 2004). "John Steinbeck, American Writer". The Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies. Archived from the original on September 8, 2006. Retrieved December 28, 2006. + Coyer, Megan. "More About This Poem". Robert Burns - To a Mouse. BBC. Retrieved 26 May 2014. + Steinbeck, John (1976). Steinbeck : a life in letters. New York: Penguin Books. p. 124. ISBN 0-14-004288-1. OCLC 2511315. + Steinbeck, John (1994). Of mice and men. New York, N.Y., U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-101-65980-9. OCLC 873818443. + Joseph r. Mcelrath, Jr; Crisler, Jesse S.; Shillinglaw, Susan (18 June 2009). John Steinbeck – The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521114097. + "Harry Thornton Moore: John Steinbeck and His Novels - an appreciation by Harry Thronton Moore". www.goldenbooksgroup.co.uk. Archived from the original on June 10, 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2017. + McElrath, Joseph R.; Jesse S. Crisler; Susan Shillinglaw (1996). John Steinbeck: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge University Press. pp. 71–94. ISBN 978-0-521-41038-0. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + CliffNotes: Of Mice and Men : About the Author. Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2000–2007. pp. 71–94. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "The Big Read", BBC, April 2003. Retrieved January 12, 2014 + "Banned and/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century". American Library Association. 2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. 2013-03-26. Retrieved 2021-05-04. + "American Library Association list of the Most Challenged Books of 21st Century". American Library Association. 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2009. + "Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. 2020-09-09. Retrieved 2021-05-04. + Doyle, Robert. "Banned And/or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century". ALA.org. American Library Association, 2010. Web. "Banned and/Or Challenged Books from the Radcliffe Publishing Course Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century | American Library Association". Archived from the original on 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2012-04-25.. + Scarseth, Thomas. "A Teachable Good Book: Of Mice and Men." Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints. Ed. Nicholas J. Karolides, Lee Burress, and John M. Kean. Scarecrow Press, 1993. 388–394. Rpt. in Novels for Students. Ed. Diane Telgen. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. + "Internet Broadway Database: Of Mice and Men". The League of American Theatres and Producers. 2001–2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Internet Broadway Database: Leigh Whipper". 2001–2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Of Mice and Men (1939)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "National Steinbeck Center: About John Steinbeck : Facts, Awards, & Honors". National Steinbeck Center. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "The Western Stage and The National Steinbeck Center present Rare Musical Adaptation of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, Archived for 60 Years". Latino Edge. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 3 January 2019. + Ponce, Cristian (3 May 2018). "Rare 'Of Mice and Men' reading to be performed for first time on West Coast". The Californian. Retrieved 3 January 2019. + "Internet Broadway Database: Of Mice and Men (1974)". The League of American Theatres and Producers. 2001–2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + Henahan, Donal (October 14, 1983). "NY Times Review of 1983 City Opera production". The New York Times. Retrieved July 17, 2009. + Dzieemianowicz, Joe (March 6, 2013). "James Franco Says He's Coming to Broadway to Star in 'Of Mice and Men'". Daily News. New York City. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved March 10, 2013. + "Leighton Meester on Broadway". Yahoo! Philippines. December 8, 2013. Archived from the original on December 15, 2013. Retrieved December 8, 2013. + Warnecke, Lauren (April 28, 2022). "Review: The Joffrey brings 'Of Mice and Men' to the ballet stage in a world premiere; plus Balanchine's 'Serenade'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 29 May 2022. + "Of Mice and Men (1968)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved January 21, 2012. + "Of Mice and Men (1981)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Of Mice and Men (1992)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Of Mice and Men (1992)". Rotten Tomatoes / IGN Entertainment. Retrieved October 8, 2007. + "Sooryam Manasam". Archived from the original on 29 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2015. + BBC – Classic Serial – Of Mice and Men +Bibliography +"Of Mice and Men Factsheet". English Resources. 2002. Archived from the original on September 16, 2007. Retrieved October 8, 2007. +External links +icon Novels portal +Of Mice and Men at Faded Page (Canada) +Photos of the first edition of Of Mice and Men +1953 Best Plays radio adaptation of play version at Internet Archive +vte +John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (1937) +Film +Of Mice and Men (1939)Of Mice and Men (1992)Best Laid Plans (2012) +Stage +Of Mice and Men (1937 play)Of Mice and Men (1969 opera) +Related +Hoppy Go Lucky +vte +John Steinbeck +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: 1937 American novelsAmerican novellasAmerican novels adapted into filmsAmerican novels adapted into playsGreat Depression novelsNovels adapted into operasNovels by John SteinbeckNovels set in CaliforniaNovels set on farmsOf Mice and MenSalinas ValleyCovici-Friede books +This page was last edited on 24 June 2024, at 03:24 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. 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Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Biographical background and publication +Plot summary +Autobiographical elements +Style +Toggle Style subsection +Genres +Themes +Toggle Themes subsection +Southern life and racial injustice +Class +Courage and compassion +Gender roles +Laws, written and unwritten +Loss of innocence +Reception +Toggle Reception subsection +Atticus Finch and the legal profession +Social commentary and challenges +Honors +Go Set a Watchman +Other media +Toggle Other media subsection +1962 film +Plays +Graphic novel +See also +Notes +References +Toggle References subsection +Bibliography +Further reading +External links +To Kill a Mockingbird + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Featured article +Page semi-protected +Listen to this article +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +For other uses, see To Kill a Mockingbird (disambiguation). +To Kill a Mockingbird +Cover of the book showing title in white letters against a black background in a banner above a painting of a portion of a tree against a red background +First edition cover – late printing +Author Harper Lee +Language English +Genre +Southern GothicBildungsroman +Published July 11, 1960 +Publisher J. B. Lippincott & Co. +Publication place United States +Pages 281 +To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by the American author Harper Lee. It was published in July 1960 and became instantly successful. In the United States, it is widely read in high schools and middle schools. To Kill a Mockingbird has become a classic of modern American literature; a year after its release, it won the Pulitzer Prize. The plot and characters are loosely based on Lee's observations of her family, her neighbors and an event that occurred near her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, in 1936, when she was ten. + +Despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality, the novel is renowned for its warmth and humor. Atticus Finch, the narrator's father, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. The historian Joseph Crespino explains, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its main character, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."[1] As a Southern Gothic novel and Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the Deep South. Lessons from the book emphasize tolerance and decry prejudice.[2] Despite its themes, To Kill a Mockingbird has been subject to campaigns for removal from public classrooms, often challenged for its use of racial epithets. In 2006, British librarians ranked the book ahead of the Bible as one "every adult should read before they die".[3] + +Reaction to the novel varied widely upon publication. Despite the number of copies sold and its widespread use in education, literary analysis of it is sparse. Author Mary McDonough Murphy, who collected individual impressions of To Kill a Mockingbird by several authors and public figures, calls the book "an astonishing phenomenon".[4] It was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1962 by director Robert Mulligan, with a screenplay by Horton Foote. Since 1990, a play based on the novel has been performed annually in Harper Lee's hometown. + +To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's only published book until Go Set a Watchman, an earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, was published on July 14, 2015. Lee continued to respond to her work's impact until her death in February 2016, although she had refused any personal publicity for herself or the novel since 1964. + +Biographical background and publication +Born in 1926, Harper Lee grew up in the Southern town of Monroeville, Alabama, where she became a close friend of soon-to-be-famous writer Truman Capote. She attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery (1944–45), and then studied law at the University of Alabama (1945–49). While attending college, she wrote for campus literary magazines: Huntress at Huntingdon and the humor magazine Rammer Jammer at the University of Alabama. At both colleges, she wrote short stories and other works about racial injustice, a rarely mentioned topic on such campuses at the time.[5] In 1950, Lee moved to New York City, where she worked as a reservation clerk for British Overseas Airways Corporation; there, she began writing a collection of essays and short stories about people in Monroeville. Hoping to be published, Lee presented her writing in 1957 to a literary agent recommended by Capote. An editor at J. B. Lippincott, who bought the manuscript, advised her to quit the airline and concentrate on writing. + +Donations from friends allowed her to write uninterrupted for a year.[6] After finishing the first draft and returning it to Lippincott, the manuscript, at that point titled "Go Set a Watchman",[7] fell into the hands of Therese von Hohoff Torrey, known professionally as Tay Hohoff. Hohoff was impressed, "[T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line," she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott,[7] but as Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication. It was, as she described it, "more a series of anecdotes than a fully conceived novel." During the following two and a half years, she led Lee from one draft to the next until the book finally achieved its finished form.[7] + +After the "Watchman" title was rejected, it was re-titled Atticus but Lee renamed it To Kill a Mockingbird to reflect that the story went beyond a character portrait. The book was published on July 11, 1960.[8] The editorial team at Lippincott warned Lee that she would probably sell only several thousand copies.[9] In 1964, Lee recalled her hopes for the book when she said, + +I never expected any sort of success with 'Mockingbird.' ... I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers but, at the same time, I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement. Public encouragement. I hoped for a little, as I said, but I got rather a whole lot, and in some ways this was just about as frightening as the quick, merciful death I'd expected.[10] + +Instead of a "quick and merciful death", Reader's Digest Condensed Books chose the book for reprinting in part, which gave it a wide readership immediately.[11] Since the original publication, the book has never been out of print.[12] + +Plot summary +See also: List of To Kill a Mockingbird characters +The story, told by Jean Louise Finch, takes place during three years (1933–35) of the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, the seat of Maycomb County. Nicknamed Scout, the narrator, who is six years old at the beginning of the book, lives with her older brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and their widowed father Atticus, a middle-aged lawyer. They also have a black cook, Calpurnia, who has been with the family for many years and helps Atticus raise the two children. + +Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who visits Maycomb to stay with his aunt each summer. The three children are terrified, yet fascinated, by their neighbor, the reclusive Arthur "Boo" Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about Boo, and many of them have not seen him for many years. The children feed one another's imagination with rumors about his appearance and reasons for remaining hidden, and they fantasize about how to get him out of his house. After two summers of friendship with Dill, Scout and Jem find that someone is leaving them small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place. Several times the mysterious Boo makes gestures of affection to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person. + +Judge Taylor appoints Atticus to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although many of Maycomb's citizens disapprove, Atticus agrees to defend Tom to the best of his ability. Other children taunt Jem and Scout for Atticus's actions, calling him a "nigger-lover". Scout is tempted to stand up for her father's honor by fighting, even though he has told her not to. One night, Atticus faces a group of men intent on lynching Tom. Scout, Jem, and Dill unexpectedly show up, and Scout inadvertently breaks the mob mentality by recognizing and talking to a classmate's father, causing the would-be lynchers to disperse. + +Atticus does not want Jem and Scout to be present at Tom Robinson's trial. No seat is available on the main floor, but the Rev. Sykes, the pastor of Calpurnia's church, invites Jem, Scout and Dill to watch from the colored balcony. Atticus establishes that Mayella Ewell and her father, Bob, are lying. It is revealed that Mayella made sexual advances toward Tom, resulting in her being beaten by her father. The townspeople refer to the Ewells as "white trash" who are not to be trusted, but the jury convicts Tom regardless. Jem's faith in justice is badly shaken. Atticus is hopeful that he can get the verdict overturned, but Tom is shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. + +Despite Tom's conviction, Bob Ewell is humiliated by the events of the trial. Atticus explains that he destroyed Ewell's last shred of credibility. Ewell vows revenge, spitting in Atticus' face, trying to break into the judge's house and menacing Tom Robinson's widow. Finally, he attacks Jem and Scout while they are walking home on a dark night after the school Halloween pageant. Jem suffers a broken arm and is knocked unconscious in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone comes to the children's rescue. The mysterious man carries Jem home, where Scout realizes that he is Boo Radley. + +Sheriff Tate arrives and discovers Ewell dead from a knife wound. Atticus believes that Jem was responsible, but Tate is certain it was Boo. The sheriff tells Atticus that, to protect Boo's privacy, he will report that Ewell simply fell on his own knife during the attack. Boo asks Scout to walk him home. After she says goodbye to him at his front door, he disappears, never to be seen again by Scout. While standing on the Radley porch, Scout imagines life from Boo's perspective. + +Autobiographical elements +Lee said that To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography, but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully".[13] Nevertheless, several people and events from Lee's childhood parallel those of the fictional Scout. Amasa Coleman Lee, Lee's father, was an attorney similar to Atticus Finch. In 1919, he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated,[14] he never took another criminal case. Lee's father was also the editor and publisher of the Monroeville newspaper. Although more of a proponent of racial segregation than Atticus, he gradually became more liberal in his later years.[15] Though Scout's mother died when she was a baby, Lee was 25 when her mother, Frances Cunningham Finch, died. Lee's mother was prone to a nervous condition that rendered her mentally and emotionally absent.[16] Lee's older brother Edwin was the inspiration for Jem. + +Lee modeled the character of Dill on Truman Capote, her childhood friend known then as Truman Persons.[17][18] Just as Dill lived next door to Scout during the summer, Capote lived next door to Lee with his aunts while his mother visited New York City.[19] Like Dill, Capote had an impressive imagination and a gift for fascinating stories. Both Lee and Capote loved to read, and were atypical children in some ways: Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, and Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter that Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people".[20] In 1960, Capote and Lee traveled to Kansas together to investigate the multiple murders that were the basis for Capote's nonfiction novel In Cold Blood.[21] + +Down the street from the Lees lived a family whose house was always boarded up; they served as the models for the fictional Radleys. The son of the family got into some legal trouble and the father kept him at home for 24 years out of shame. He was hidden until virtually forgotten; he died in 1952.[22] + +The origin of Tom Robinson is less clear, although many have speculated that his character was inspired by several models. When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. The story and the trial were covered by her father's newspaper, which reported that Lett was convicted and sentenced to death. After a series of letters appeared claiming Lett had been falsely accused, his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died there of tuberculosis in 1937.[23] Scholars believe that Robinson's difficulties reflect the notorious case of the Scottsboro Boys,[24][25] in which nine black men were convicted of raping two white women on negligible evidence. However, in 2005, Lee stated that she had in mind something less sensational, although the Scottsboro case served "the same purpose" to display Southern prejudices.[26] Emmett Till, a black teenager who was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman in Mississippi in 1955, and whose death is credited as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, is also considered a model for Tom.[27] + +Style +The narrative is very tough, because [Lee] has to both be a kid on the street and aware of the mad dogs and the spooky houses and have this beautiful vision of how justice works and all the creaking mechanisms of the courthouse. Part of the beauty is that she... trusts the visual to lead her, and the sensory. + +—Allan Gurganus[28] + +The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in Time was called "tactile brilliance".[29] Writing a decade later, another scholar noted, "Harper Lee has a remarkable gift of story-telling. Her art is visual, and with cinematographic fluidity and subtlety we see a scene melting into another scene without jolts of transition."[30] Lee combines the narrator's voice of a child observing her surroundings with a grown woman's reflecting on her childhood, using the ambiguity of this voice combined with the narrative technique of flashback to play intricately with perspectives.[31] This narrative method allows Lee to tell a "delightfully deceptive" story that mixes the simplicity of childhood observation with adult situations complicated by hidden motivations and unquestioned tradition.[32] However, at times the blending causes reviewers to question Scout's preternatural vocabulary and depth of understanding.[33] Both Harding LeMay and the novelist and literary critic Granville Hicks expressed doubt that children, as sheltered as Scout and Jem, could understand the complexities and horrors involved in the trial for Tom Robinson's life.[34][35] + +Writing about Lee's style and use of humor in a tragic story, scholar Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states: "Laughter ... [exposes] the gangrene under the beautiful surface but also by demeaning it; one can hardly ... be controlled by what one is able to laugh at."[36] Scout's precocious observations about her neighbors and behavior inspired National Endowment of the Arts director David Kipen to call her "hysterically funny".[37] To address complex issues, however, Tavernier-Courbin notes that Lee uses parody, satire, and irony effectively by using a child's perspective. After Dill promises to marry her, then spends too much time with Jem, Scout reasons the best way to get him to pay attention to her is to beat him up, which she does several times.[38] Scout's first day in school is a satirical treatment of education; her teacher says she must undo the damage Atticus has wrought in teaching her to read and write, and forbids Atticus from teaching her further.[39] Lee treats the most unfunny situations with irony, however, as Jem and Scout try to understand how Maycomb embraces racism and still tries sincerely to remain a decent society. Satire and irony are used to such an extent that Tavernier-Courbin suggests one interpretation for the book's title: Lee is doing the mocking—of education, the justice system, and her own society—by using them as subjects of her humorous disapproval.[36] + +Critics also note the entertaining methods used to drive the plot.[40] When Atticus is out of town, Jem locks a Sunday school classmate in the church basement with the furnace during a game of Shadrach. This prompts their black housekeeper Calpurnia to escort Scout and Jem to her church, which allows the children a glimpse into her personal life, as well as Tom Robinson's.[41] Scout falls asleep during the Halloween pageant and makes a tardy entrance onstage, causing the audience to laugh uproariously. She is so distracted and embarrassed that she prefers to go home in her ham costume, which saves her life.[42] + +Genres +Scholars have characterized To Kill a Mockingbird as both a Southern Gothic and a Bildungsroman. The grotesque and near-supernatural qualities of Boo Radley and his house, and the element of racial injustice involving Tom Robinson, contribute to the aura of the Gothic in the novel.[43][44] Lee used the term "Gothic" to describe the architecture of Maycomb's courthouse and in regard to Dill's exaggeratedly morbid performances as Boo Radley.[45] Outsiders are also an important element of Southern Gothic texts and Scout and Jem's questions about the hierarchy in the town cause scholars to compare the novel to Catcher in the Rye and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[46] Despite challenging the town's systems, Scout reveres Atticus as an authority above all others, because he believes that following one's conscience is the highest priority, even when the result is social ostracism.[47] However, scholars debate about the Southern Gothic classification, noting that Boo Radley is, in fact, human, protective, and benevolent. Furthermore, in addressing themes such as alcoholism, incest, rape, and racial violence, Lee wrote about her small town realistically rather than melodramatically. She portrays the problems of individual characters as universal underlying issues in every society.[44] + +As children coming of age, Scout and Jem face hard realities and learn from them. Lee seems to examine Jem's sense of loss about how his neighbors have disappointed him more than Scout's. Jem says to their neighbor Miss Maudie the day after the trial, "It's like bein' a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon ... I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like".[48] This leads him to struggle with understanding the separations of race and class. Just as the novel is an illustration of the changes Jem faces, it is also an exploration of the realities Scout must face as an atypical girl on the verge of womanhood. As one scholar writes, "To Kill a Mockingbird can be read as a feminist Bildungsroman, for Scout emerges from her childhood experiences with a clear sense of her place in her community and an awareness of her potential power as the woman she will one day be."[49] + +Themes +Despite the novel's immense popularity upon publication, it has not received the close critical attention paid to other modern American classics. Don Noble, the editor of a book of essays about the novel, estimates that the ratio of sales to analytical essays may be a million to one. Christopher Metress writes that the book is "an icon whose emotive sway remains strangely powerful because it also remains unexamined".[50] Noble suggests it does not receive academic attention because of its consistent status as a best-seller ("If that many people like it, it can't be any good.") and that general readers seem to feel they do not require analytical interpretation.[51] + +Harper Lee had remained famously detached from interpreting the novel since the mid-1960s. However, she gave some insight into her themes when, in a rare letter to the editor, she wrote in response to the passionate reaction her book caused: + +Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners.[52] + +Southern life and racial injustice +In the 33 years since its publication, [To Kill a Mockingbird] has never been the focus of a dissertation, and it has been the subject of only six literary studies, several of them no more than a couple of pages long. + +—Claudia Johnson in To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries, 1994[53] + +When the book was released, reviewers noted that it was divided into two parts, and opinion was mixed about Lee's ability to connect them.[54] The first part of the novel concerns the children's fascination with Boo Radley and their feelings of safety and comfort in the neighborhood. Reviewers were generally charmed by Scout and Jem's observations of their quirky neighbors. One writer was so impressed by Lee's detailed explanations of the people of Maycomb that he categorized the book as Southern romantic regionalism.[55] This sentimentalism can be seen in Lee's representation of the Southern caste system to explain almost every character's behavior in the novel. Scout's Aunt Alexandra attributes Maycomb's inhabitants' faults and advantages to genealogy (families that have gambling streaks and drinking streaks),[56] and the narrator sets the action and characters amid a finely detailed background of the Finch family history and the history of Maycomb. This regionalist theme is further reflected in Mayella Ewell's apparent powerlessness to admit her advances toward Tom Robinson, and Scout's definition of "fine folks" being people with good sense who do the best they can with what they have. The South itself, with its traditions and taboos, seems to drive the plot more than the characters.[55] + +The second part of the novel deals with what book reviewer Harding LeMay termed "the spirit-corroding shame of the civilized white Southerner in the treatment of the Negro".[34] In the years following its release, many reviewers considered To Kill a Mockingbird a novel primarily concerned with race relations.[57] Claudia Durst Johnson considers it "reasonable to believe" that the novel was shaped by two events involving racial issues in Alabama: Rosa Parks' refusal to yield her seat on a city bus to a white person, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott, and the 1956 riots at the University of Alabama after Autherine Lucy and Polly Myers were admitted (Myers eventually withdrew her application and Lucy was expelled, but reinstated in 1980).[58] In writing about the historical context of the novel's construction, two other literary scholars remark: "To Kill a Mockingbird was written and published amidst the most significant and conflict-ridden social change in the South since the Civil War and Reconstruction. Inevitably, despite its mid-1930s setting, the story told from the perspective of the 1950s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition."[59] + +Scholar Patrick Chura, who suggests Emmett Till was a model for Tom Robinson, enumerates the injustices endured by the fictional Tom that Till also faced. Chura notes the icon of the black rapist causing harm to the representation of the "mythologized vulnerable and sacred Southern womanhood".[27] Any transgressions by black males that merely hinted at sexual contact with white females during the time the novel was set often resulted in a punishment of death for the accused. Tom Robinson's trial was juried by poor white farmers who convicted him despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, as more educated and moderate white townspeople supported the jury's decision. Furthermore, the victim of racial injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird was physically impaired, which made him unable to commit the act he was accused of, but also crippled him in other ways.[27] Roslyn Siegel includes Tom Robinson as an example of the recurring motif among white Southern writers of the black man as "stupid, pathetic, defenseless, and dependent upon the fair dealing of the whites, rather than his own intelligence to save him".[60] Although Tom is spared from being lynched, he is killed with excessive violence during an attempted escape from prison, being shot seventeen times. + +The theme of racial injustice appears symbolically in the novel as well. For example, Atticus must shoot a rabid dog, even though it is not his job to do so.[61] Carolyn Jones argues that the dog represents prejudice within the town of Maycomb, and Atticus, who waits on a deserted street to shoot the dog,[62] must fight against the town's racism without help from other white citizens. He is also alone when he faces a group intending to lynch Tom Robinson and once more in the courthouse during Tom's trial. Lee even uses dreamlike imagery from the mad dog incident to describe some of the courtroom scenes. Jones writes, "[t]he real mad dog in Maycomb is the racism that denies the humanity of Tom Robinson ... When Atticus makes his summation to the jury, he literally bares himself to the jury's and the town's anger."[62] + +Class +One of the amazing things about the writing in To Kill a Mockingbird is the economy with which Harper Lee delineates not only race—white and black within a small community—but class. I mean different kinds of black people and white people both, from poor white trash to the upper crust—the whole social fabric. + +—Lee Smith[63] + +In a 1964 interview, Lee remarked that her aspiration was "to be ... the Jane Austen of South Alabama."[44] Both Austen and Lee challenged the social status quo and valued individual worth over social standing. When Scout embarrasses her poorer classmate, Walter Cunningham, at the Finch home one day, Calpurnia, their black cook, chastises and punishes her for doing so.[64] Atticus respects Calpurnia's judgment, and later in the book even stands up to his sister, the formidable Aunt Alexandra, when she strongly suggests they fire Calpurnia.[65] One writer notes that Scout, "in Austenian fashion", satirizes women with whom she does not wish to identify.[66] Literary critic Jean Blackall lists the priorities shared by the two authors: "affirmation of order in society, obedience, courtesy, and respect for the individual without regard for status".[44] + +Scholars argue that Lee's approach to class and race was more complex "than ascribing racial prejudice primarily to 'poor white trash' ... Lee demonstrates how issues of gender and class intensify prejudice, silence the voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans' conception of the causes of racism and segregation."[59] Lee's use of the middle-class narrative voice is a literary device that allows an intimacy with the reader, regardless of class or cultural background, and fosters a sense of nostalgia. Sharing Scout and Jem's perspective, the reader is allowed to engage in relationships with the conservative antebellum Mrs. Dubose; the lower-class Ewells, and the Cunninghams who are equally poor but behave in vastly different ways; the wealthy but ostracized Mr. Dolphus Raymond; and Calpurnia and other members of the black community. The children internalize Atticus' admonition not to judge someone until they have walked around in that person's skin, gaining a greater understanding of people's motives and behavior.[59] + +Courage and compassion +The novel has been noted for its poignant exploration of different forms of courage.[67][68] Scout's impulsive inclination to fight students who insult Atticus reflects her attempt to stand up for him and defend him. Atticus is the moral center of the novel, however, and he teaches Jem one of the most significant lessons of courage.[69] In a statement that both foreshadows Atticus' motivation for defending Tom Robinson and describes Mrs. Dubose, who is determined to break herself of a morphine addiction, Atticus tells Jem that courage is "when you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what".[70] + +External videos +video icon After Words interview with Shields on Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, July 11, 2015, C-SPAN +Charles J. Shields, who wrote the first book-length biography of Harper Lee, offers the reason for the novel's enduring popularity and impact is that "its lessons of human dignity and respect for others remain fundamental and universal".[71] Atticus' lesson to Scout that "you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view—until you climb around in his skin and walk around in it" exemplifies his compassion.[68][72] She ponders the comment when listening to Mayella Ewell's testimony. When Mayella reacts with confusion to Atticus' question if she has any friends, Scout offers that she must be lonelier than Boo Radley. Having walked Boo home after he saves their lives, Scout stands on the Radley porch and considers the events of the previous three years from Boo's perspective. One writer remarks, "... [w]hile the novel concerns tragedy and injustice, heartache and loss, it also carries with it a strong sense [of] courage, compassion, and an awareness of history to be better human beings."[68] + +Gender roles +Just as Lee explores Jem's development in coming to grips with a racist and unjust society, Scout realizes what being female means, and several female characters influence her development. Scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to describe the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider.[49] Scout's primary female models are Calpurnia and her neighbor Miss Maudie, both of whom are strong-willed, independent, and protective. Mayella Ewell also has an influence; Scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her desire for him. The female characters who comment the most on Scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view.[66] For example, Mrs. Dubose chastises Scout for not wearing a dress and camisole, and indicates she is ruining the family name by not doing so, in addition to insulting Atticus' intentions to defend Tom Robinson. By balancing the masculine influences of Atticus and Jem with the feminine influences of Calpurnia and Miss Maudie, one scholar writes, "Lee gradually demonstrates that Scout is becoming a feminist in the South, for with the use of first-person narration, she indicates that Scout/Jean Louise still maintains the ambivalence about being a Southern lady she possessed as a child."[66] + +Absent mothers and abusive fathers are another theme in the novel. Scout and Jem's mother died before Scout could remember her, Mayella's mother is dead, and Mrs. Radley is silent about Boo's confinement to the house. Apart from Atticus, the fathers described are abusers.[73] Bob Ewell, it is hinted, molested his daughter,[74] and Mr. Radley imprisons his son in his house to the extent that Boo is remembered only as a phantom. Bob Ewell and Mr. Radley represent a form of masculinity that Atticus does not, and the novel suggests that such men, as well as the traditionally feminine hypocrites at the Missionary Society, can lead society astray. Atticus stands apart as a unique model of masculinity; as one scholar explains: "It is the job of real men who embody the traditional masculine qualities of heroic individualism, bravery, and an unshrinking knowledge of and dedication to social justice and morality, to set the society straight."[73] + +Laws, written and unwritten +Allusions to legal issues in To Kill a Mockingbird, particularly in scenes outside of the courtroom, have drawn the attention of legal scholars. Claudia Durst Johnson writes that "a greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals".[75] The opening quote by the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb reads: "Lawyers, I suppose, were children once." Johnson notes that even in Scout and Jem's childhood world, compromises and treaties are struck with each other by spitting on one's palm, and laws are discussed by Atticus and his children: is it right that Bob Ewell hunts and traps out of season? Many social codes are broken by people in symbolic courtrooms: Mr. Dolphus Raymond has been exiled by society for taking a black woman as his common-law wife and having interracial children; Mayella Ewell is beaten by her father in punishment for kissing Tom Robinson; by being turned into a non-person, Boo Radley receives a punishment far greater than any court could have given him.[58] Scout repeatedly breaks codes and laws and reacts to her punishment for them. For example, she refuses to wear frilly clothes, saying that Aunt Alexandra's "fanatical" attempts to place her in them made her feel "a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on [her]".[76] Johnson states, "[t]he novel is a study of how Jem and Scout begin to perceive the complexity of social codes and how the configuration of relationships dictated by or set off by those codes fails or nurtures the inhabitants of (their) small worlds."[58] + +Loss of innocence +A color photograph of a northern mockingbird +Lee used the mockingbird to symbolize innocence in the novel +Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. Their family name Finch is also Lee's mother's maiden name. The titular mockingbird is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird".[77] Confused, Scout approaches her neighbor Miss Maudie, who explains that mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. She points out that mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."[77] Writer Edwin Bruell summarized the symbolism when he wrote in 1964, "'To kill a mockingbird' is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson."[56] Scholars have noted that Lee often returns to the mockingbird theme when trying to make a moral point.[30][78][79] + +Tom Robinson is the chief example, among several in the novel, of innocents being carelessly or deliberately destroyed. However, scholar Christopher Metress connects the mockingbird to Boo Radley: "Instead of wanting to exploit Boo for her own fun (as she does in the beginning of the novel by putting on gothic plays about his history), Scout comes to see him as a 'mockingbird'—that is, as someone with an inner goodness that must be cherished."[80] The last pages of the book illustrate this as Scout relates the moral of a story Atticus has been reading to her, and, in allusions to both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson,[27] states about a character who was misunderstood, "when they finally saw him, why he hadn't done any of those things ... Atticus, he was real nice," to which he responds, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them."[81] + +The novel exposes the loss of innocence so frequently that reviewer R. A. Dave claims that because every character has to face, or even suffer defeat, the book takes on elements of a classical tragedy.[30] In exploring how each character deals with his or her own personal defeat, Lee builds a framework to judge whether the characters are heroes or fools. She guides the reader in such judgments, alternating between unabashed adoration and biting irony. Scout's experience with the Missionary Society is an ironic juxtaposition of women who mock her, gossip, and "reflect a smug, colonialist attitude toward other races" while giving the "appearance of gentility, piety, and morality".[66] Conversely, when Atticus loses Tom's case, he is last to leave the courtroom, except for his children and the black spectators in the colored balcony, who rise silently as he walks underneath them, to honor his efforts.[82] + +Reception +Despite her editors' warnings that the book might not sell well, it quickly became a sensation, bringing acclaim to Lee in literary circles, in her hometown of Monroeville, and throughout Alabama.[83] The book went through numerous subsequent printings and became widely available through its inclusion in the Book of the Month Club and editions released by Reader's Digest Condensed Books.[84] + +Initial reactions to the novel were varied. The New Yorker declared Lee "a skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenuous writer",[85] and The Atlantic Monthly's reviewer rated the book "pleasant, undemanding reading", but found the narrative voice—"a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult"—to be implausible.[33] Time magazine's 1960 review of the book states that it "teaches the reader an astonishing number of useful truths about little girls and about Southern life" and calls Scout Finch "the most appealing child since Carson McCullers' Frankie got left behind at the wedding".[29] The Chicago Sunday Tribune noted the even-handed approach to the narration of the novel's events, writing: "This is in no way a sociological novel. It underlines no cause ... To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel of strong contemporary national significance."[86] + +Not all reviewers were enthusiastic. Some lamented the use of poor white Southerners, and one-dimensional black victims,[87] and Granville Hicks labeled the book "melodramatic and contrived".[35] When the book was first released, Southern writer Flannery O'Connor commented, "I think for a child's book it does all right. It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is."[50] Carson McCullers apparently agreed with the Time magazine review, writing to a cousin: "Well, honey, one thing we know is that she's been poaching on my literary preserves."[88] + +One year after its publication To Kill a Mockingbird had been translated into ten languages. In the years since, it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages.[89] The novel has never been out of print in hardcover or paperback, and has become part of the standard literature curriculum. A 2008 survey of secondary books read by students between grades 9–12 in the U.S. indicates the novel is the most widely read book in these grades.[90] A 1991 survey by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress Center for the Book found that To Kill a Mockingbird was fourth in a list of books that are "most often cited as making a difference".[91][note 1] It is considered by some to be the "Great American Novel".[92] + +The 50th anniversary of the novel's release was met with celebrations and reflections on its impact.[93] Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune praises Lee's "rich use of language" but writes that the central lesson is that "courage isn't always flashy, isn't always enough, but is always in style".[94] Jane Sullivan in the Sydney Morning Herald agrees, stating that the book "still rouses fresh and horrified indignation" as it examines morality, a topic that has recently become unfashionable.[95] Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie writing in The Guardian states that Lee, rare among American novelists, writes with "a fiercely progressive ink, in which there is nothing inevitable about racism and its very foundation is open to question", comparing her to William Faulkner, who wrote about racism as an inevitability.[96] Literary critic Rosemary Goring in Scotland's The Herald notes the connections between Lee and Jane Austen, stating the book's central theme, that "one's moral convictions are worth fighting for, even at the risk of being reviled" is eloquently discussed.[97] + +Native Alabamian sports writer Allen Barra sharply criticized Lee and the novel in The Wall Street Journal calling Atticus a "repository of cracker-barrel epigrams" and the novel represents a "sugar-coated myth" of Alabama history. Barra writes, "It's time to stop pretending that To Kill a Mockingbird is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature. Its bloodless liberal humanism is sadly dated".[98] Thomas Mallon in The New Yorker criticizes Atticus' stiff and self-righteous demeanor, and calls Scout "a kind of highly constructed doll" whose speech and actions are improbable. Although acknowledging that the novel works, Mallon blasts Lee's "wildly unstable" narrative voice for developing a story about a content neighborhood until it begins to impart morals in the courtroom drama, following with his observation that "the book has begun to cherish its own goodness" by the time the case is over.[99][note 2] Defending the book, Akin Ajayi writes that justice "is often complicated, but must always be founded upon the notion of equality and fairness for all." Ajayi states that the book forces readers to question issues about race, class, and society, but that it was not written to resolve them.[100] + +Many writers compare their perceptions of To Kill a Mockingbird as adults with when they first read it as children. Mary McDonagh Murphy interviewed celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Rosanne Cash, Tom Brokaw, and Harper's sister Alice Lee, who read the novel and compiled their impressions of it as children and adults into a book titled Scout, Atticus, and Boo.[101] + +External videos +video icon Interview with Mary McDonagh Murphy on Scout, Atticus & Boo, June 26, 2010, C-SPAN +The New York Times announced To Kill a Mockingbird as the best book of the past 125 years on December 28, 2021.[102] + +Atticus Finch and the legal profession +Main article: Atticus Finch +I promised myself that when I grew up and I was a man, I would try to do things just as good and noble as what Atticus had done for Tom Robinson. + +—Scott Turow[103] + +One of the most significant impacts To Kill a Mockingbird has had is Atticus Finch's model of integrity for the legal profession. As scholar Alice Petry explains, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person."[104] Morris Dees of the Southern Poverty Law Center cites Atticus Finch as the reason he became a lawyer, and Richard Matsch, the federal judge who presided over the Timothy McVeigh trial, counts Atticus as a major judicial influence.[105] One law professor at the University of Notre Dame stated that the most influential textbook he taught from was To Kill a Mockingbird, and an article in the Michigan Law Review claims, "No real-life lawyer has done more for the self-image or public perception of the legal profession," before questioning whether "Atticus Finch is a paragon of honor or an especially slick hired gun".[106] + +In 1992, an Alabama editorial called for the death of Atticus, saying that as liberal as Atticus was, he still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. The editorial sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession because of him and esteemed him as a hero.[107] Critics of Atticus maintain he is morally ambiguous and does not use his legal skills to challenge the racist status quo in Maycomb.[50] However, in 1997, the Alabama State Bar erected a monument to Atticus in Monroeville, marking his existence as the "first commemorative milestone in the state's judicial history".[108] In 2008, Lee herself received an honorary special membership to the Alabama State Bar for creating Atticus who "has become the personification of the exemplary lawyer in serving the legal needs of the poor".[109] + +Social commentary and challenges +To Kill a Mockingbird has been a source of significant controversy since its being the subject of classroom study as early as 1963. The book's racial slurs, profanity, and frank discussion of rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms across the United States. The American Library Association reported that To Kill a Mockingbird was number 21 of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 2000–2009.[110] Following parental complaints about the racist language it contains, the novel was removed from classrooms in Virginia in 2016[111][112] and Biloxi, Mississippi, where it was described as making people "uncomfortable",[113] in 2017.[114][115] In the Mississippi case, the novel was removed from the required reading list but subsequently made available to interested students with parental consent.[116] Such decisions have been criticised: the American Civil Liberties Union noted the importance of engaging with the novel's themes in places where racial injustice persists.[117] In 2021, a group of teachers in Mukilteo, Washington proposed to take the book off the list of required reading for freshman and off the list of district-approved books to be studied and analyzed in classrooms, arguing that it "centers on whiteness". The school board approved the former but not the latter proposal.[118] Becky Little, of The History Channel, and representatives of the Mark Twain House noted that the value of classics lies in their power to "challenge the way we think about things"[119] (Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has attracted similar controversy).[120] Arne Duncan, who served as Secretary of Education under President Obama, noted that removal of the book from reading lists was evidence of a nation with "real problems".[121] In 1966, a parent in Hanover, Virginia, protested that the use of rape as a plot device was immoral. Johnson cites examples of letters to local newspapers, which ranged from amusement to fury; those letters expressing the most outrage, however, complained about Mayella Ewell's attraction to Tom Robinson over the depictions of rape.[122] Upon learning the school administrators were holding hearings to decide the book's appropriateness for the classroom, Harper Lee sent $10 to The Richmond News Leader suggesting it be used toward the enrollment of "the Hanover County School Board in any first grade of its choice".[52] The National Education Association in 1968 placed the novel second on a list of books receiving the most complaints from private organizations—after Little Black Sambo.[123] + +With a shift of attitudes about race in the 1970s, To Kill a Mockingbird faced challenges of a different sort: the treatment of racism in Maycomb was not condemned harshly enough. This has led to disparate perceptions that the novel has a generally positive impact on race relations for white readers, but a more ambiguous reception by black readers. In one high-profile case outside the U.S., school districts in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia attempted to have the book removed from standard teaching curricula in the 1990s,[note 3] stating: + +The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word 'Nigger' is used 48 times [in] the novel ... We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation ... To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction.[124] + +Furthermore, despite the novel's thematic focus on racial injustice, its black characters are not fully examined.[74] In its use of racial epithets, stereotyped depictions of superstitious blacks, and Calpurnia, who to some critics is an updated version of the "contented slave" motif and to others simply unexplored, the book is viewed as marginalizing black characters.[125][126] One writer asserts that the use of Scout's narration serves as a convenient mechanism for readers to be innocent and detached from the racial conflict. Scout's voice "functions as the not-me which allows the rest of us—black and white, male and female—to find our relative position in society".[74] A teaching guide for the novel published by The English Journal cautions, "what seems wonderful or powerful to one group of students may seem degrading to another".[127] A Canadian language arts consultant found that the novel resonated well with white students, but that black students found it "demoralizing".[128] With racism told from a white perspective with a focus on white courage and morality, some have labeled the novel as having a "white savior complex",[129] a criticism also leveled at the film adaptation with its white savior narrative.[130] Another criticism, articulated by Michael Lind, is that the novel indulges in classist stereotyping and demonization of poor rural "white trash".[131] + +The novel is cited as a factor in the success of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, however, in that it "arrived at the right moment to help the South and the nation grapple with the racial tensions (of) the accelerating civil rights movement".[132] Its publication is so closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement that many studies of the book and biographies of Harper Lee include descriptions of important moments in the movement, despite the fact that she had no direct involvement in any of them.[133][134][135] Civil Rights leader Andrew Young comments that part of the book's effectiveness is that it "inspires hope in the midst of chaos and confusion" and by using racial epithets portrays the reality of the times in which it was set. Young views the novel as "an act of humanity" in showing the possibility of people rising above their prejudices.[136] Alabama author Mark Childress compares it to the impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin, a book that is popularly implicated in starting the U.S. Civil War. Childress states the novel + +gives white Southerners a way to understand the racism that they've been brought up with and to find another way. And most white people in the South were good people. Most white people in the South were not throwing bombs and causing havoc ... I think the book really helped them come to understand what was wrong with the system in the way that any number of treatises could never do, because it was popular art, because it was told from a child's point of view.[137] + +Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Birmingham campaign, asserts that To Kill a Mockingbird condemns racism instead of racists, and states that every child in the South has moments of racial cognitive dissonance when they are faced with the harsh reality of inequality. This feeling causes them to question the beliefs with which they have been raised, which for many children is what the novel does. McWhorter writes of Lee, "for a white person from the South to write a book like this in the late 1950s is really unusual—by its very existence an act of protest."[138][note 4] Author James McBride calls Lee brilliant but stops short of calling her brave: + +I think by calling Harper Lee brave you kind of absolve yourself of your own racism ... She certainly set the standards in terms of how these issues need to be discussed, but in many ways I feel ... the moral bar's been lowered. And that's really distressing. We need a thousand Atticus Finches. + +McBride, however, defends the book's sentimentality, and the way Lee approaches the story with "honesty and integrity".[139] + +Honors +A color photograph of Harper Lee smiling and speaking to President George W. Bush while other seated Medal of Freedom recipients look on +Harper Lee and President George W. Bush at the November 5, 2007, ceremony awarding Lee the Presidential Medal of Freedom for To Kill a Mockingbird +During the years immediately following the novel's publication, Harper Lee enjoyed the attention its popularity garnered her, granting interviews, visiting schools, and attending events honoring the book. In 1961, when To Kill a Mockingbird was in its 41st week on the bestseller list, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, stunning Lee.[140] It also won the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews in the same year, and the Paperback of the Year award from Bestsellers magazine in 1962.[84][141] Starting in 1964, Lee began to turn down interviews, complaining that the questions were monotonous, and grew concerned that the attention she received bordered on the kind of publicity celebrities sought.[142] Since then, she declined to talk with reporters about the book. She also steadfastly refused to provide an introduction, writing in 1995: "Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble."[143] + +In 2001, Lee was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.[144] In the same year, Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley initiated a reading program throughout the city's libraries, and chose his favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird, as the first title of the One City, One Book program. Lee declared that "there is no greater honor the novel could receive".[145] By 2004, the novel had been chosen by 25 communities for variations of the citywide reading program, more than any other novel.[146] David Kipen of the National Endowment of the Arts, who supervised The Big Read, states "people just seem to connect with it. It dredges up things in their own lives, their interactions across racial lines, legal encounters, and childhood. It's just this skeleton key to so many different parts of people's lives, and they cherish it."[147] + +In 2006, Lee was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. During the ceremony, the students and audience gave Lee a standing ovation, and the entire graduating class held up copies of To Kill a Mockingbird to honor her.[148][note 5] Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 5, 2007, by President George W. Bush. In his remarks, Bush stated, "One reason To Kill a Mockingbird succeeded is the wise and kind heart of the author, which comes through on every page ... To Kill a Mockingbird has influenced the character of our country for the better. It's been a gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever."[149] + +After remaining at number one throughout the entire five-month-long voting period in 2018, the American public, via PBS's The Great American Read, chose To Kill A Mockingbird as America's Favorite Book.[150] + +In 2003, the novel was listed at No. 6 on the BBC's The Big Read after a year-long survey of the British public, the highest ranking non-British book on the list.[151] On November 5, 2019, BBC News listed To Kill a Mockingbird on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[152] In 2020, the novel was number five on the list of "Top Check Outs OF ALL TIME" by the New York Public Library.[153] + +Go Set a Watchman +Main article: Go Set a Watchman +An earlier draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, titled Go Set a Watchman, was controversially released on July 14, 2015.[154][155][156] This draft, which was completed in 1957, is set 20 years after the time period depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird but is not a continuation of the narrative.[7][154] This earlier version of the story follows an adult Scout Finch who travels from New York City to visit her father, Atticus Finch, in Maycomb, Alabama, where she is confronted by the intolerance in her community. The Watchman manuscript was believed to have been lost until Lee's lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it, but this claim has been widely disputed.[154][155][156] Watchman contains early versions of many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird.[157] According to Lee's agent Andrew Nurnberg, Mockingbird was originally intended to be the first book of a trilogy: "They discussed publishing Mockingbird first, Watchman last, and a shorter connecting novel between the two."[158] This assertion has been discredited, however,[159] by rare-books expert James S. Jaffe, who reviewed the pages at the request of Lee's attorney and found them to be only another draft of To Kill a Mockingbird.[159] Nurnberg's statement was also contrary to Jonathan Mahler's description of how Watchman was seen as just the first draft of Mockingbird.[7] Instances where many passages overlap between the two books, in some case word for word, also refute this assertion.[160] Both books were also investigated with the help of forensic linguistics and their comparative study confirmed that Harper Lee was their sole author.[161] + +Other media +1962 film +Main article: To Kill a Mockingbird (film) +A black and white photograph of Alan J. Pakula seated next to Harper Lee in director's chairs watching the filming of To Kill a Mockingbird +Film producer Alan J. Pakula with Lee; Lee spent three weeks watching the filming, then "took off when she realized everything would be fine without her"[144] +The book was made into the well-received 1962 film with the same title, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. The film's producer, Alan J. Pakula, remembered Universal Pictures executives questioning him about a potential script: "They said, 'What story do you plan to tell for the film?' I said, 'Have you read the book?' They said, 'Yes.' I said, 'That's the story.'"[162] The movie was a hit at the box office, quickly grossing more than $20 million from a $2-million budget. It won three Oscars: Best Actor for Gregory Peck, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium for Horton Foote. It was nominated for five more Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Mary Badham, the actress who played Scout.[163] At the time, she was the youngest actress nominated in the category.[164] + +Lee was pleased with the film, "In that film the man and the part met ... I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused. That film was a work of art".[165] Peck met Lee's father, the model for Atticus, before the filming. Lee's father died before the film's release. Lee was so impressed with Peck's performance that she gave him her father's pocket watch, which he had with him the evening he was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor.[166] Years later, he was reluctant to tell Lee that the watch was stolen out of his luggage in London Heathrow Airport. When Peck eventually did tell Lee, she told him, "Well, it's only a watch". He said, "Harper—she feels deeply, but she's not a sentimental person about things".[167] Lee and Peck shared a friendship long after the movie was made. Peck's grandson was named "Harper" in her honor.[168] + +In May 2005, Lee made an uncharacteristic appearance at the Los Angeles Public Library at the request of Peck's widow Veronique, who said of Lee: + +She's like a national treasure. She's someone who has made a difference ... with this book. The book is still as strong as it ever was, and so is the film. All the kids in the United States read this book and see the film in the seventh and eighth grades and write papers and essays. My husband used to get thousands and thousands of letters from teachers who would send them to him.[10] + +Plays +The book was first adapted as a play by Christopher Sergel. This adaptation debuted in 1990 in Monroeville, a town that labels itself "The Literary Capital of Alabama". The play runs every May on the county courthouse grounds and townspeople make up the cast. White male audience members are chosen at the intermission to make up the jury. During the courtroom scene, the production moves into the Monroe County Courthouse and the audience is racially segregated.[169] Author Albert Murray said of the relationship of the town to the novel (and the annual performance): "It becomes part of the town ritual, like the religious underpinning of Mardi Gras. With the whole town crowded around the actual courthouse, it's part of a central, civic education—what Monroeville aspires to be."[170] + +Sergel's play toured in the UK starting at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds in 2006,[171] and again in 2011 starting at the York Theatre Royal,[172] both productions featuring Duncan Preston as Atticus Finch. The play also opened the 2013 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London where it played to full houses and starred Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus Finch, his first London appearance in 22 years. The production returned to the venue to close the 2014 season, prior to a UK tour.[173][174] + +According to a National Geographic article, the novel is so revered in Monroeville that people quote lines from it like Scripture; however, Harper Lee herself refused to attend any performances, because "she abhors anything that trades on the book's fame".[175] To underscore this sentiment, Lee demanded that a book of recipes named Calpurnia's Cookbook not be published and sold out of the Monroe County Heritage Museum.[176] David Lister in The Independent states that Lee's refusal to speak to reporters made them desire to interview her all the more, and her silence "makes Bob Dylan look like a media tart".[177] Despite her discouragement, a rising number of tourists made Monroeville their destination, hoping to see Lee's inspiration for the book, or Lee herself. Local residents call them "Mockingbird groupies", and although Lee was not reclusive, she refused publicity and interviews with an emphatic "Hell, no!"[178] + +In 2018, a new adaptation was written by Aaron Sorkin, debuting on Broadway.[179] The Broadway production was nominated for nine Tony Awards, winning one.[180] + +Graphic novel +In October 2018, Fred Fordham adapted and illustrated the story as a graphic novel. Some of the longer descriptive and commentary passages have been left out - "the bits that children tend to skip anyway" as C. J. Lyons says in her review of the graphic novel in the New York Journal of Books[181]), who goes on to say "the heart of Lee's fictional 1933 Maycomb is faithfully recreated via the art and dialogue".[181] + +See also +Southern United States literature +Alabama literature +Timeline of the civil rights movement +To Kill a Mockingbird in popular culture +Notes + To Kill a Mockingbird has appeared on numerous other lists that describe its impact. In 1999, it was voted the "Best Novel of the 20th century" by readers of the Library Journal. It is listed as number five on the Modern Library's Reader's List of the 100 Best Novels in the English language since 1900 and number four on the rival Radcliffe Publishing Course's Radcliffe Publishing Course's 100 Best Board Picks for Novels and Nonfiction Archived 2007-09-20 at the Wayback Machine. The novel appeared first on a list developed by librarians in 2006 who answered the question, "Which book should every adult read before they die?" followed by the Bible and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The British public voted in the BBC's Big Read broadcast to rank it 6th of all time in 2003. BBC – The Big Read. Two thousand readers at Play.com voted it the 'Greatest novel of all time' in 2008. (Urmee Khan, June 6, 2008. To Kill a Mockingbird voted Greatest Novel Of All Time, The Daily Telegraph). + Mallon received hate mail for his commentary, and declined to answer challenges about his observations from professional writers, saying he did not want to be the "skunk at the garden party". (Murphy, p. 18.) + In August 2009, St. Edmund Campion Secondary School in Toronto removed To Kill a Mockingbird from the grade 10 curriculum because of a complaint regarding the language in the book. (Noor, Javed [August 12, 2009]. "Complaint prompts school to kill Mockingbird", The Star (Toronto). Retrieved on August 19, 2009.) + McWhorter went to school with Mary Badham, the actor who portrayed Scout in the film adaptation. (Murphy, p. 141) + Lee has also been awarded honorary degrees from Mount Holyoke College (1962) and the University of Alabama (1990). (Noble, p. 8.) +References + Crespino, J. (2000). "The Strange Career of Atticus Finch". Southern Cultures. 6 (2): 9–30. doi:10.1353/scu.2000.0030. S2CID 143563131. + "Mockingbird 'dropped from GCSE exam'". BBC News. May 25, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2020. Steinbeck's six-chapter novella written in 1937 about displaced ranch workers during the Great Depression + Pauli, Michelle (March 2, 2006). "Harper Lee tops librarians' must-read list", Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on February 13, 2008. + Zipp, Yvonne (July 7, 2010). "Scout, Atticus & Boo", The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Shields, pp. 79–99. + Nelle Harper Lee Archived December 18, 2007, at the Wayback Machine Alabama Academy of Honor: Alabama Department of Archives and History (2001). Retrieved on November 13, 2007. + Mahler, Jonathan (July 12, 2015). "The Invisible Hand Behind Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird'". The New York Times. + Shields, p. 129. + Shields, p. 14. + Lacher, Irene (May 21, 2005). "Harper Lee raises her low profile for a friend; The author of To Kill a Mockingbird shuns fanfare. But for the kin of Gregory Peck", Los Angeles Times, p. E.1 + Shields, p. 242. + Johnson, Casebook p. xii + "Harper Lee," in American Decades. Gale Research, 1998. + Shields, pp. 120–121. + Shields, pp. 122–125. + Shields, pp. 40–41. + Krebs, Albin. "Truman Capote Is Dead at 59; Novelist of Style and Clarity", The New York Times, August 26, 1984, p. 1. + "Truman Capote". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Advameg, Inc. 2003. Retrieved June 29, 2015. + Fleming, Anne Taylor (July 9, 1976). "The Private World of Truman Capote", The New York Times Magazine. p. SM6. + Steinem, Gloria (November 1967). "Go Right Ahead and Ask Me Anything (And So She Did): An Interview with Truman Capote", McCall's, p. 76. + Clasen, Sharon (April 29, 2016). "Exclusive: Read Harper Lee's Profile of "In Cold Blood" Detective Al Dewey That Hasn't Been Seen in More Than 50 Years". Smithsonian Magazine. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved March 22, 2017. + Hile, Kevin S. "Harper Lee" in Authors and Artists for Young Adults, Gale Research 13 (August 1994) ISBN 978-0-8103-8566-5 + Bigg, Matthew (July 23, 2007). "Novel Still Stirs Pride, Debate; 'Mockingbird' Draws Tourists to Town Coming to Grips With Its Past, The Washington Post, p. A3. + Johnson, Boundaries, pp. 7–11. + Noble, p. 13. + Shields, p. 118. + Chura, Patrick (Spring 2000). "Prolepsis and Anachronism: Emmett Till and the Historicity of To Kill a Mockingbird", Southern Literary Journal 32 (2), p. 1. + Murphy, p. 97. + About Life & Little Girls Time (August 1, 1980). Retrieved on February 15, 2008. + Dave, R.A. (1974). "Harper Lee's Tragic Vision" Indian Studies in American Fiction MacMillan Company of India, Ltd. pp. 311–323. ISBN 978-0-333-90034-5 + Graeme Dunphy, "Meena's Mockingbird: From Harper Lee to Meera Syal", Neophilologus, 88 (2004) 637–660. PDF online + Ward, L. "To Kill a Mockingbird (book review)." Commonwealth: December 9, 1960. + Adams, Phoebe (August 1960). "To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee [review]". The Atlantic Monthly. 206 (2): 98–99. Archived from the original on July 21, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2016. + LeMay, Harding (July 10, 1960). "Children Play; Adults Betray", New York Herald Tribune. + Hicks, Granville (July 23, 1970). "Three at the Outset", Saturday Review, 30. + Tavernier-Courbin, Jacqueline "Humor and Humanity in To Kill a Mockingbird" in On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections Alice Petry (ed.), University of Tennessee Press (2007). ISBN 978-1-57233-578-3. + Murphy, p. 105. + Lee, p. 46. + Lee, p. 19. + Boerman-Cornell, William "The Five Humors", The English Journal (1999), 88 (4), p. 66. doi:10.2307/822422 + Lee, p. 133. + Lee, p. 297. + Johnson, Boundaries, pp. 40–41. + Blackall, Jean "Valorizing the Commonplace: Harper Lee's Response to Jane Austen" in On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections Alice Petry (ed.). University of Tennessee Press (2007). ISBN 978-1-57233-578-3 + Johnson, Boundaries pp. 39–45. + Murphy, pp. x, 96, 149. + Fine, Laura "Structuring the Narrator's Rebellion in To Kill a Mockingbird" in On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections Alice Petry (ed.), University of Tennessee Press (2007). ISBN 978-1-57233-578-3 + Lee, p. 246. + Ware, Michele "'Just a Lady': Gender and Power in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird" in Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender Jerilyn Fisher and Ellen S. Silber (eds.), Greenwood Press (2003). ISBN 978-0-313-31346-2. + Metress, Christopher (September 2003). "The Rise and Fall of Atticus Finch", The Chattahoochee Review, 24 (1). + Noble, pp. vii–viii. + "Harper Lee Twits School Board In Virginia for Ban on Her Novel", The New York Times (January 6, 1966), p. 82 + Johnson, Boundaries, p. 20. + Johnson, Boundaries pp. 20–24 + Erisman, Fred (April 1973). "The Romantic Regionalism of Harper Lee", The Alabama Review, 27 (2). + Bruell, Edwin (December 1964). "Keen Scalpel on Racial Ills", The English Journal 51 (9) pp. 658–661. + Henderson, R. (May 15, 1960). "To Kill a Mockingbird", Library Journal. + Johnson, Claudia (Autumn 1991). "The Secret Courts of Men's Hearts", Studies in American Fiction 19 (2). + Hovet, Theodore and Grace-Ann (Fall 2001). "'Fine Fancy Gentlemen' and 'Yappy Folk': Contending Voices in To Kill a Mockingbird", Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, 40 pp. 67–78. + Siegel, Roslyn "The Black Man and the Macabre in American Literature", Black American Literature Forum (1976), 10 (4), p. 133. doi:10.2307/3041614 + Lee, pp. 107–113. + Jones, Carolyn (Summer 1996). "Atticus Finch and the Mad Dog" Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, 34 (4), pp. 53–63. + Murphy, p. 178. + Lee, p. 27. + Lee, p. 155. + Shackelford, Dean (Winter 1996–1997). "The Female Voice in To Kill a Mockingbird: Narrative Strategies in Film and Novel", Mississippi Quarterly: The Journal of Southern Cultures, 50 (1), pp. 101–113. + "Nelle Harper Lee." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2007. + Jolley, Susan "Integrating Poetry and 'To Kill a Mockingbird'", The English Journal (2002), 92 (2), p. 34. doi:10.2307/822224 + Mancini, p. 19. + Lee, p. 128. + Shields, p. 1. + Lee, p. 33. + Fine, Laura (Summer 1998). "Gender Conflicts and Their 'Dark' Projections in Coming of Age White Female Southern Novels", Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South 36 (4), pp. 121–129 + Baecker, Diane (Spring 1998). "Telling It In Black and White: The Importance of the Africanist Presence in To Kill a Mockingbird", Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South, 36 (3), pp. 124–32. + Johnson, Boundaries pp. 25–27. + Lee, p. 146. + Lee, p. 103. + Schuster, Edgar "Discovering Theme and Structure in the Novel" The English Journal (1963), 52 (7) p. 506. doi:10.2307/810774 + Johnson, Casebook p. 207. + Metress, Christopher. "Lee, Harper." Contemporary Southern Writers. St. James Press, 1999. + Lee, pp. 322–323. + Lee, p. 241. + Shields, pp. 185–188. + Bain, Robert "Harper Lee" in Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary Louisiana State University Press (1980), pp. 276–277. ISBN 0-8071-0390-X + "To Kill a Mockingbird", The New Yorker (September 10, 1960), p. 203. + Sullivan, Richard (July 17, 1960). "To Kill a Mockingbird", Chicago Sunday Times. + Johnson, Boundaries pp. 21, 24. + Kiernan, F., "Carson McCullers" (Book Review). Atlantic Monthly (1993) v. 287 no. 4 (April 2001) pp. 100–102. + Book description: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee HarperCollins (2008). Retrieved on July 20, 2008. + "What Kids Are Reading: The Book Reading Habits of Students in American Schools", Renaissance Learning, Inc., 2008. Retrieved on July 11, 2008. See also "What Kids Are Reading: The Book Reading Habits of Students in American Schools Archived 2012-03-14 at the Wayback Machine, Renaissance Learning, Inc. 2010. Retrieved on May 1, 2011. where To Kill a Mockingbird appears at number 2. + Fein, Esther B. (November 20, 1991). "Book Notes". The New York Times. + Puente, Maria (July 8, 2010). "'To Kill a Mockingbird': Endearing, enduring at 50 years". USA Today. "It is Lee's only book and one of the handful that could earn the title of Great American Novel." + "To Kill a Mockingbird" Turns 50: Fans Descend on Alabama Town to Celebrate Scout, Atticus and Boo Radley CBS News (July 11, 2010). Retrieved on July 12, 2010. + Zorn, Eric (July 9, 2010), 'Mockingbird' still sings after 50 years Archived July 12, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Sullivan, Jane (July 9, 2010). To celebrate a Mockingbird, The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi (July 10, 2010). Rereading: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Guardian. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Loxton, Rachel (July 10, 2010). America's favourite novel still vital after 50 years, The Herald (Glasgow). Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Barra, Allen (June 24, 2010). What 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Isn't, The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Mallon, Thomas (May 29, 2006). "Big Bird: A biography of the novelist Harper Lee", The New Yorker, 82 (15), p. 79. + Ajayi, Akin (July 9, 2010) To Kill a Mockingbird: the case for the defence, The Guardian. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + "Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird". HarperCollins Publishers. 2010. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2016. + "What's the Best Book of the Past 125 Years? We Asked Readers to Decide". The New York Times. December 29, 2021. + Murphy, pp. 196–197. + Petry, p. xxiii. + Petry, p. xxiv. + Lubet, Steven (May 1999). "Reconstructing Atticus Finch", Michigan Law Review 97 (6)pp. 1339–1362. doi:10.2307/1290205 + Petry, pp. xxv–xxvii. + "'Mockingbird' Hero Honored in Monroeville", The Birmingham News (Alabama) (May 3, 1997), p. 7A. + "Harper Lee Can Take a Place at the Bar", The Birmingham News (March 17, 2008). + "Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009". Archived from the original on April 8, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2022. + Kean, Danuta (December 6, 2016). "To Kill a Mockingbird removed from Virginia schools for racist language". The Guardian. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Balingit, Moriah (December 3, 2016). "School district weighs ban of Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn after complaint". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Zorthian, Julia (October 16, 2017). "People Are Not Happy That This School District Banned Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird". Time. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Nelson, Karen (October 12, 2017). "Why did Biloxi pull 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from the 8th grade lesson plan?". Sun Herald. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Selk, Avi (October 17, 2017). "The ironic, enduring legacy of banning 'To Kill a Mockingbird' for racist language". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Nelson, Karen (October 25, 2017). "Biloxi to teach To Kill A Mockingbird in class again. Parents must sign permission slip". Sun Herald. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Summers, Zakiya (October 17, 2017). "ACLU of MS Responds to Biloxi Officials' Ban of To Kill a Mockingbird" (Press release). American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Natanson, Hannah (November 3, 2023). "Students hated 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Their teachers tried to dump it". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 17, 2024. + Little, Becky (October 16, 2017). "Why 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Keeps Getting Banned". History. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Pengelly, Martin (October 29, 2017). "Mississippi students allowed to read To Kill a Mockingbird – with a parent's note". The Guardian. Retrieved October 29, 2017. + Duncan, Arne [@arneduncan] (October 14, 2017). "When school districts remove 'To Kill A Mockingbird' from the reading list, we know we have real problems. https://trib.al/2zObDXh" (Tweet). Retrieved October 29, 2017 – via Twitter. + Johnson, Casebook pp. 208–213. + Mancini, p. 56. + Saney, Isaac (July–September 2003). "The Case Against To Kill a Mockingbird" Race & Class 45 (1), pp. 99–110. doi:10.1177/0306396803045001005 + Beryle, Banfield "Commitment to Change: The Council on Interracial Books for Children and the World of Children's Books", African American Review (1998) 32 (17), pp. 17–22. doi:10.2307/3042264 + Murphy, pp. 133–134 + Suhor, Charles, Bell, Larry "Preparing to Teach To Kill a Mockingbird, The English Journal(1997) 86 (4), pp. 1–16. doi:10.2307/820996 + Martelle, Scott (June 28, 2006). "A Different Read on 'Mockingbird'; Long a classroom starting point for lessons about intolerance, the Harper Lee classic is being reexamined by some who find its perspective limited", The Los Angeles Times, p. 6. + "Q&A: Should Teachers Still Assign 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?". University of Pittsburgh. Retrieved September 7, 2020. + Ebert, Roger. "To Kill a Mockingbird". Retrieved September 7, 2020. + "White Trash Gothic". thesmartset.com. February 16, 2015. Retrieved May 19, 2015. + Flora, Joseph "Harper Lee" in Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary Louisiana State University Press (2006). + Johnson, Boundaries pp. xi–xiv + Bloom, Harold "Modern Critical Interpretations: To Kill a Mockingbird" Chelsea House Publishers (1999) + Shields, pp. 219–220, 223, 233–235 + Murphy, pp. 206–209. + Murphy, p. 30. + Murphy, pp. 141–146. + Murphy, pp. 132–139. + Shields, pp. 199–200. + Mancini, p. 15. + Murphy, p. 128. + Tabor, May (August 23, 1998). "A 'new foreword' that isn't", The New York Times, p. C11. + Bellafante, Ginia (January 20, 2006). Harper Lee, Gregarious for a Day, The New York Times. Retrieved on November 13, 2007. + "Chicago Launches City-wide Book Group", Library Journal (August 13, 2001). + "To Read a Mockingbird" Library Journal (September 1, 2004) 129 (14), p. 13. + Murphy, p. 106. + Commencement 2006 Notre Dame Magazine (July 2006). Retrieved on November 9, 2007. + President Bush Honors Medal of Freedom Recipients, White House press release (November 5, 2007). Retrieved on November 9, 2007. + "Home | The Great American Read | PBS". Home | The Great American Read | PBS. Retrieved October 24, 2018. + "BBC – The Big Read". BBC. April 2003. Retrieved June 25, 2020 + "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 10, 2019. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature. + "These Are The NYPL's Top Check Outs OF ALL TIME". Gotamist.com. Retrieved June 25, 2020 + "The Harper Lee 'Go Set a Watchman' Fraud". The New York Times. July 25, 2015. + Marja Mills (July 20, 2015). "The Harper Lee I knew". Washington Post. Retrieved September 4, 2015. + Jennifer Maloney (July 17, 2015). "What Would Gregory Peck Think of 'Go Set a Watchman'? His Son Weighs In". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 4, 2015. + Idato, Michael (February 4, 2015). "Harper Lee to release second novel 50 years after To Kill a Mockingbird". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved February 4, 2015. + Alison Flood (February 5, 2015). "Harper Lee's 'lost' novel was intended to complete a trilogy, says agent". The Guardian. + "Expert Says Manuscript Is Not Harper Lee's Third Novel". The New York Times. September 1, 2015. + Keith Collins (July 14, 2015). "See how Harper Lee's 'Go Set a Watchman' became 'To Kill a Mockingbird'". Quartz. Retrieved September 4, 2015. + "Michał Choiński Talks about Stylometry". LSU Press. Retrieved April 2, 2021. + Nichols, Peter (February 27, 1998). "Time Can't Kill 'Mockingbird' [Review]", The New York Times, p. E.1 + To Kill a Mockingbird (film) Archived 2012-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved on March 29, 2008. + Chilton, Martin (February 4, 2015). "Robert Duvall hails return of Harper Lee". The Telegraph. London, England: Telegraph Media Group Limited. Archived from the original on January 10, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2015. + Jones, Carolyn "Harper Lee", in The History of Southern Women's Literature, Carolyn Perry (ed.): Louisiana State University Press (2002). ISBN 978-0-8071-2753-7 + Bobbin, Jay (December 21, 1997). "Gregory Peck is Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird", The Birmingham News (Alabama), p. 1.F + King, Susan (December 22, 1997). "How the Finch Stole Christmas; Q & A With Gregory Peck", Los Angeles Times, p. 1. + King, Susan (October 18, 1999). "Q&A; Film Honors Peck, 'Perfectly Happy' in a Busy Retirement", Los Angeles Times, p. 4. + Noble, pp. 4–5. + Hoffman, Roy (August 9, 1998). "Long Lives the Mockingbird", The New York Times Book Review, p. 31. + Walker, Lynne (September 30, 2006). "To Kill A Mockingbird, West Yorkshire, Leeds Playhouse". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 21, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2014. + Brown, Jonathan (February 23, 2011). "To Kill a Mockingbird, Theatre Royal, York". The Independent. Archived from the original on June 21, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2014. + "To Kill A Mockingbird Returns". openairtheatre.com. Open Air Theatre. Retrieved May 6, 2016. + Lukowski, Andrzej (June 29, 2015). "Robert Sean Leonard on To Kill A Mockingbird, House and turning down Tom Stoppard". Timeout.com. Retrieved August 20, 2021. + Newman, Cathy (January 2006). To Catch a Mockingbird Archived 2006-11-17 at the Wayback Machine, National Geographic. Retrieved on November 11, 2007. + Robinson, David.The One and Only, The Scotsman. Retrieved on March 29, 2008. + Lister, David (July 10, 2010). David Lister: Those reclusive authors really know how to live, The Independent. Retrieved on July 10, 2010. + Pressley, Sue (June 10, 1996). "Quiet Author, Home Town Attract 'Groupies,' Press; To Live With 'Mockingbird'", The Washington Post p. A3 + Alter, Alexandra (February 10, 2022). "Harper Lee Estate Told to Pay $2.5 Million in Dispute Over 'Mockingbird' Plays". The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2023. + "To Kill a Mockingbird - Broadway Play - Original - Awards". ibdb.com. The Broadway League. Retrieved September 1, 2023. + C. J. Lyons. "To Kill a Mockingbird: A Graphic Novel". New York Journal of Books. Retrieved July 11, 2022. +Bibliography +Johnson, Claudia. To Kill a Mockingbird: Threatening Boundaries. Twayne Publishers: 1994. ISBN 0-8057-8068-8 +Johnson, Claudia. Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents. Greenwood Press: 1994. ISBN 0-313-29193-4 +Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. HarperCollins: 1960 (Perennial Classics edition: 2002). ISBN 0-06-093546-4 +Mancini, Candice, (ed.) (2008). Racism in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, The Gale Group. ISBN 0-7377-3904-5 +Murphy, Mary M. (ed.) Scout, Atticus, and Boo: A Celebration of Fifty Years of To Kill a Mockingbird, HarperCollins Publishers: 2010. ISBN 978-0-06-192407-1 +Noble, Don (ed.). Critical Insights: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Salem Press: 2010. ISBN 978-1-58765-618-7 +Petry, Alice. "Introduction" in On Harper Lee: Essays and Reflections. University of Tennessee Press: 1994. ISBN 1-57233-578-5 +Shields, Charles. Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Henry Holt and Co.: 2006. ISBN 0-8050-7919-X +Further reading +Santopietro, Tom (2018). Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters: What Harper Lee's Book and the Iconic American Film Mean to Us Today. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-1-250-16375-2. +External links +Listen to this article +(2 parts, 12 minutes) +Duration: 4 minutes and 54 seconds.4:54 +Duration: 7 minutes and 17 seconds.7:17 +Spoken Wikipedia icon +These audio files were created from a revision of this article dated 8 July 2008, and do not reflect subsequent edits. +(Audio help · More spoken articles) + Quotations related to To Kill a Mockingbird (novel) at Wikiquote +To Kill a Mockingbird Archived June 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine in the Encyclopedia of Alabama +Lee, Harper (1988) [1960]. To Kill a Mockingbird. In association with McIntosh and Otis, Inc. at the Internet Archive. +vte +Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) +vte +Pulitzer Prize for Fiction +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: To Kill a Mockingbird1960 American novelsAmerican bildungsromansAmerican novels adapted into filmsAmerican novels adapted into playsFiction about false allegations of sex crimesNovels about racismNovels set in AlabamaNovels set in courtroomsNovels set in the 1930sPulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning worksSouthern Gothic novelsJ. B. Lippincott & Co. booksFiction about lawNovels by Harper LeeBooks about human rights1960 debut novelsRace-related controversies in literatureFiction about wrongful convictionsAfrican-Americans in literature +This page was last edited on 14 July 2024, at 21:33 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Characters +Synopsis +Sources +Date and text +Themes and motifs +Toggle Themes and motifs subsection +Criticism and interpretation +Toggle Criticism and interpretation subsection +Legacy +Toggle Legacy subsection +Scene by scene +See also +Notes and references +Toggle Notes and references subsection +Sources +Toggle Sources subsection +External links +Romeo and Juliet + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Color (beta) + +Automatic + +Light + +Dark +Report an issue with dark mode +Featured article +Page semi-protected +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +This article is about the play by William Shakespeare. For the titular characters, see Romeo and Juliet. For other uses, see Romeo and Juliet (disambiguation). +Romeo and Juliet +An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet +An 1870 oil painting by Ford Madox Brown depicting the play's balcony scene +Written by William Shakespeare +Characters +Romeo +Juliet +Count Paris +Mercutio +Tybalt +The Nurse +Rosaline +Benvolio +Friar Laurence +Date premiered 1597[a] +Original language Early Modern English +Series First Quarto +Subject Love +Genre Shakespearean tragedy +Setting Italy (Verona and Mantua) + +"Romeo and Juliet: Act I" +Duration: 46 minutes and 16 seconds.46:16 +The opening act of Romeo and Juliet. +See also: Acts II, III, IV, V +Problems playing this file? See media help. +Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetime and, along with Hamlet, is one of his most frequently performed. Today, the title characters are regarded as archetypal young lovers. + +Romeo and Juliet belongs to a tradition of tragic romances stretching back to antiquity. The plot is based on an Italian tale written by Matteo Bandello and translated into verse as The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet by Arthur Brooke in 1562 and retold in prose in Palace of Pleasure by William Painter in 1567. Shakespeare borrowed heavily from both but expanded the plot by developing a number of supporting characters, in particular Mercutio and Paris. Believed to have been written between 1591 and 1595, the play was first published in a quarto version in 1597. The text of the first quarto version was of poor quality, however, and later editions corrected the text to conform more closely with Shakespeare's original. + +Shakespeare's use of poetic dramatic structure (including effects such as switching between comedy and tragedy to heighten tension, the expansion of minor characters, and numerous sub-plots to embellish the story) has been praised as an early sign of his dramatic skill. The play ascribes different poetic forms to different characters, sometimes changing the form as the character develops. Romeo, for example, grows more adept at the sonnet over the course of the play. + +Romeo and Juliet has been adapted numerous times for stage, film, musical, and opera venues. During the English Restoration, it was revived and heavily revised by William Davenant. David Garrick's 18th-century version also modified several scenes, removing material then considered indecent, and Georg Benda's Romeo und Julie omitted much of the action and used a happy ending. Performances in the 19th century, including Charlotte Cushman's, restored the original text and focused on greater realism. John Gielgud's 1935 version kept very close to Shakespeare's text and used Elizabethan costumes and staging to enhance the drama. In the 20th and into the 21st century, the play has been adapted to film in versions as diverse as George Cukor's Romeo and Juliet (1936), Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996), and Carlo Carlei's Romeo and Juliet (2013). + +Characters +Main article: Characters in Romeo and Juliet +Ruling house of Verona +Prince Escalus is the ruling Prince of Verona. +Count Paris is a kinsman of Escalus who wishes to marry Juliet. +Mercutio is another kinsman of Escalus, a friend of Romeo. +House of Capulet +Capulet is the patriarch of the house of Capulet. +Lady Capulet is the matriarch of the house of Capulet. +Juliet Capulet, the 13-year-old daughter of Capulet, is the play's female protagonist. +Tybalt is a cousin of Juliet, the nephew of Lady Capulet. +The Nurse is Juliet's personal attendant and confidante. +Rosaline is Lord Capulet's niece, Romeo's love in the beginning of the story. +Peter, Sampson, and Gregory are servants of the Capulet household. +House of Montague +Montague is the patriarch of the house of Montague. +Lady Montague is the matriarch of the house of Montague. +Romeo Montague, the son of Montague, is the play's male protagonist. +Benvolio is Romeo's cousin and best friend. +Abram and Balthasar are servants of the Montague household. +Others +Friar Laurence is a Franciscan friar and Romeo's confidant. +Friar John is sent to deliver Friar Laurence's letter to Romeo. +An Apothecary who reluctantly sells Romeo poison. +A Chorus reads a prologue to each of the first two acts. +Synopsis + +L'ultimo bacio dato a Giulietta da Romeo by Francesco Hayez. Oil on canvas, 1823. +The play, set in Verona, Italy, begins with a street brawl between Montague and Capulet servants who, like the masters they serve, are sworn enemies. Prince Escalus of Verona intervenes and declares that further breach of the peace will be punishable by death. Later, Count Paris talks to Capulet about marrying his daughter Juliet, but Capulet asks Paris to wait another two years and invites him to attend a planned Capulet ball. Lady Capulet and Juliet's Nurse try to persuade Juliet to accept Paris's courtship. + +Meanwhile, Benvolio talks with his cousin Romeo, Montague's son, about Romeo's recent depression. Benvolio discovers that it stems from unrequited infatuation for a girl named Rosaline, one of Capulet's nieces. Persuaded by Benvolio and Mercutio, Romeo attends the ball at the Capulet house in hopes of meeting Rosaline. However, Romeo instead meets and falls in love with Juliet. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, is enraged at Romeo for sneaking into the ball but is stopped from killing Romeo by Juliet's father, who does not wish to shed blood in his house. After the ball, in what is now famously known as the "balcony scene," Romeo sneaks into the Capulet orchard and overhears Juliet at her window vowing her love to him in spite of her family's hatred of the Montagues. Romeo makes himself known to her, and they agree to be married. With the help of Friar Laurence, who hopes to reconcile the two families through their children's union, they are secretly married the next day. + +Tybalt, meanwhile, still incensed that Romeo had sneaked into the Capulet ball, challenges him to a duel. Romeo, now considering Tybalt his kinsman, refuses to fight. Mercutio is offended by Tybalt's insolence, as well as Romeo's "vile submission",[1] and accepts the duel on Romeo's behalf. Mercutio is fatally wounded when Romeo attempts to break up the fight, and declares a curse upon both households before he dies. ("A plague on both your houses!") Grief-stricken and racked with guilt, Romeo confronts and slays Tybalt. + +Montague argues that Romeo has justly executed Tybalt for the murder of Mercutio. The Prince, now having lost a kinsman in the warring families' feud, exiles Romeo from Verona, under penalty of death if he ever returns. Romeo secretly spends the night in Juliet's chamber, where they consummate their marriage. Capulet, misinterpreting Juliet's grief, agrees to marry her to Count Paris and threatens to disown her when she refuses to become Paris's "joyful bride".[2] When she then pleads for the marriage to be delayed, her mother rejects her. + +Juliet visits Friar Laurence for help, and he offers her a potion that will put her into a deathlike coma or catalepsy for "two and forty hours".[3] The Friar promises to send a messenger to inform Romeo of the plan so that he can rejoin her when she awakens. On the night before the wedding, she takes the drug and, when discovered apparently dead, she is laid in the family crypt. + +The messenger, however, does not reach Romeo and, instead, Romeo learns of Juliet's apparent death from his servant, Balthasar. Heartbroken, Romeo buys poison from an apothecary and goes to the Capulet crypt. He encounters Paris who has come to mourn Juliet privately. Believing Romeo to be a vandal, Paris confronts him and, in the ensuing battle, Romeo kills Paris. Still believing Juliet to be dead, he drinks the poison. Juliet then awakens and, discovering that Romeo is dead, stabs herself with his dagger and joins him in death. The feuding families and the Prince meet at the tomb to find all three dead. Friar Laurence recounts the story of the two "star-cross'd lovers", fulfilling the curse that Mercutio swore. The families are reconciled by their children's deaths and agree to end their violent feud. The play ends with the Prince's elegy for the lovers: "For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Juliet and her Romeo."[4] + +Sources +Romeo and Juliet borrows from a tradition of tragic love stories dating back to antiquity. One of these is Pyramus and Thisbe, from Ovid's Metamorphoses, which contains parallels to Shakespeare's story: the lovers' parents despise each other, and Pyramus falsely believes his lover Thisbe is dead.[5] The Ephesiaca of Xenophon of Ephesus, written in the 3rd century, also contains several similarities to the play, including the separation of the lovers, and a potion that induces a deathlike sleep.[6] + +One of the earliest references to the names Montague and Capulet is from Dante's Divine Comedy, who mentions the Montecchi (Montagues) and the Cappelletti (Capulets) in canto six of Purgatorio:[7] + +Come and see, you who are negligent, +Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi +One lot already grieving, the other in fear.[8] + +However, the reference is part of a polemic against what Dante saw as moral decay of Florence, Lombardy, and the Italian states in general; through his characters, Dante aimed to chastise Albert I of Germany for neglecting what Dante felt were his responsibilities towards Italy ("you who are negligent") as "King of the Romans", as well as successive popes for their encroachment from purely spiritual affairs, thus leading to a climate of incessant bickering and warfare between rival political parties in Lombardy. History records the name of the family Montague as being lent to such a political party in Verona, but that of the Capulets as from a Cremonese family, both of whom play out their conflict in Lombardy as a whole rather than within the confines of Verona.[9] Allied to rival political factions, the parties are grieving ("One lot already grieving") because their endless warfare has led to the destruction of both parties,[9] rather than a grief from the loss of their ill-fated offspring as the play sets forth, which appears to be a solely poetic creation within this context. + + +Masuccio Salernitano, author of Mariotto & Ganozza (1476), the earliest known version of Romeo & Juliet tale +The earliest known version of the Romeo and Juliet tale akin to Shakespeare's play is the story of Mariotto and Ganozza by Masuccio Salernitano, in the 33rd novel of his Il Novellino published in 1476.[10] Salernitano sets the story in Siena and insists its events took place in his own lifetime. His version of the story includes the secret marriage, the colluding friar, the fray where a prominent citizen is killed, Mariotto's exile, Ganozza's forced marriage, the potion plot, and the crucial message that goes astray. In this version, Mariotto is caught and beheaded and Ganozza dies of grief.[11][12] + + +Frontispiece of Giulietta e Romeo by Luigi da Porto, 1530 +Luigi da Porto (1485–1529) adapted the story as Giulietta e Romeo[13] and included it in his Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti (A Newly-Discovered History of two Noble Lovers), written in 1524 and published posthumously in 1531 in Venice.[14][15] Da Porto drew on Pyramus and Thisbe, Boccaccio's Decameron, and Salernitano's Mariotto e Ganozza, but it is likely that his story is also autobiographical: He was a soldier present at a ball on 26 February 1511, at a residence of the pro-Venice Savorgnan clan in Udine, following a peace ceremony attended by the opposing pro-Imperial Strumieri clan. There, Da Porto fell in love with Lucina, a Savorgnan daughter, but the family feud frustrated their courtship. The next morning, the Savorgnans led an attack on the city, and many members of the Strumieri were murdered. Years later, still half-paralyzed from a battle-wound, Luigi wrote Giulietta e Romeo in Montorso Vicentino (from which he could see the "castles" of Verona), dedicating the novella to the bellisima e leggiadra (the beautiful and graceful) Lucina Savorgnan.[13][16] Da Porto presented his tale as historically factual and claimed it took place at least a century earlier than Salernitano had it, in the days Verona was ruled by Bartolomeo della Scala[17] (anglicized as Prince Escalus). + + +Title page of Arthur Brooke's poem, Romeus and Juliet +Da Porto presented the narrative in close to its modern form, including the names of the lovers, the rival families of Montecchi and Capuleti (Cappelletti) and the location in Verona.[10] He named the friar Laurence (frate Lorenzo) and introduced the characters Mercutio (Marcuccio Guertio), Tybalt (Tebaldo Cappelletti), Count Paris (conte (Paride) di Lodrone), the faithful servant, and Giulietta's nurse. Da Porto originated the remaining basic elements of the story: the feuding families, Romeo—left by his mistress—meeting Giulietta at a dance at her house, the love scenes (including the balcony scene), the periods of despair, Romeo killing Giulietta's cousin (Tebaldo), and the families' reconciliation after the lovers' suicides.[18] In da Porto's version, Romeo takes poison and Giulietta keeps her breath until she dies.[19] + +In 1554, Matteo Bandello published the second volume of his Novelle, which included his version of Giuletta e Romeo,[15] probably written between 1531 and 1545. Bandello lengthened and weighed down the plot while leaving the storyline basically unchanged (though he did introduce Benvolio).[18] Bandello's story was translated into French by Pierre Boaistuau in 1559 in the first volume of his Histoires Tragiques. Boaistuau adds much moralising and sentiment, and the characters indulge in rhetorical outbursts.[20] + +In his 1562 narrative poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet, Arthur Brooke translated Boaistuau faithfully but adjusted it to reflect parts of Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde.[21] There was a trend among writers and playwrights to publish works based on Italian novelle—Italian tales were very popular among theatre-goers—and Shakespeare may well have been familiar with William Painter's 1567 collection of Italian tales titled Palace of Pleasure.[22] This collection included a version in prose of the Romeo and Juliet story named "The goodly History of the true and constant love of Romeo and Juliett". Shakespeare took advantage of this popularity: The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, All's Well That Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Romeo and Juliet are all from Italian novelle. Romeo and Juliet is a dramatization of Brooke's translation, and Shakespeare follows the poem closely but adds detail to several major and minor characters (the Nurse and Mercutio in particular).[23][24][25] + +Christopher Marlowe's Hero and Leander and Dido, Queen of Carthage, both similar stories written in Shakespeare's day, are thought to be less of a direct influence, although they may have helped create an atmosphere in which tragic love stories could thrive.[21] + +Date and text + +Title page of the first edition +It is unknown when exactly Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet. Juliet's Nurse refers to an earthquake she says occurred 11 years ago.[26] This may refer to the Dover Straits earthquake of 1580, which would date that particular line to 1591. Other earthquakes—both in England and in Verona—have been proposed in support of the different dates.[27] But the play's stylistic similarities with A Midsummer Night's Dream and other plays conventionally dated around 1594–95, place its composition sometime between 1591 and 1595.[28][b] One conjecture is that Shakespeare may have begun a draft in 1591, which he completed in 1595.[29] + +Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was published in two quarto editions prior to the publication of the First Folio of 1623. These are referred to as Q1 and Q2. The first printed edition, Q1, appeared in early 1597, printed by John Danter. Because its text contains numerous differences from the later editions, it is labelled a so-called 'bad quarto'; the 20th-century editor T. J. B. Spencer described it as "a detestable text, probably a reconstruction of the play from the imperfect memories of one or two of the actors", suggesting that it had been pirated for publication.[30] An alternative explanation for Q1's shortcomings is that the play (like many others of the time) may have been heavily edited before performance by the playing company.[31] However, "the theory, formulated by [Alfred] Pollard," that the 'bad quarto' was reconstructed from memory by some of the actors is now under attack. Alternative theories are that some or all of 'the bad quartos' are early versions by Shakespeare or abbreviations made either for Shakespeare's company or for other companies."[32] In any event, its appearance in early 1597 makes 1596 the latest possible date for the play's composition.[27] + + +The title page from the First Folio, printed in 1623 +The superior Q2 called the play The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedie of Romeo and Juliet. It was printed in 1599 by Thomas Creede and published by Cuthbert Burby. Q2 is about 800 lines longer than Q1.[31] Its title page describes it as "Newly corrected, augmented and amended". Scholars believe that Q2 was based on Shakespeare's pre-performance draft (called his foul papers) since there are textual oddities such as variable tags for characters and "false starts" for speeches that were presumably struck through by the author but erroneously preserved by the typesetter. It is a much more complete and reliable text and was reprinted in 1609 (Q3), 1622 (Q4) and 1637 (Q5).[30] In effect, all later Quartos and Folios of Romeo and Juliet are based on Q2, as are all modern editions since editors believe that any deviations from Q2 in the later editions (whether good or bad) are likely to have arisen from editors or compositors, not from Shakespeare.[31] + +The First Folio text of 1623 was based primarily on Q3, with clarifications and corrections possibly coming from a theatrical prompt book or Q1.[30][33] Other Folio editions of the play were printed in 1632 (F2), 1664 (F3), and 1685 (F4).[34] Modern versions—that take into account several of the Folios and Quartos—first appeared with Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition, followed by Alexander Pope's 1723 version. Pope began a tradition of editing the play to add information such as stage directions missing in Q2 by locating them in Q1. This tradition continued late into the Romantic period. Fully annotated editions first appeared in the Victorian period and continue to be produced today, printing the text of the play with footnotes describing the sources and culture behind the play.[35] + +Themes and motifs +Scholars have found it extremely difficult to assign one specific, overarching theme to the play. Proposals for a main theme include a discovery by the characters that human beings are neither wholly good nor wholly evil, but instead are more or less alike,[36] awaking out of a dream and into reality, the danger of hasty action, or the power of tragic fate. None of these have widespread support. However, even if an overall theme cannot be found it is clear that the play is full of several small thematic elements that intertwine in complex ways. Several of those most often debated by scholars are discussed below.[37] + +Love +"Romeo +If I profane with my unworthiest hand +This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: +My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand +To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. +Juliet +Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, +Which mannerly devotion shows in this; +For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch, +And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss." + +—Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V[38] + +Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love.[36] Romeo and Juliet have become emblematic of young lovers and doomed love. Since it is such an obvious subject of the play, several scholars have explored the language and historical context behind the romance of the play.[39] + +On their first meeting, Romeo and Juliet use a form of communication recommended by many etiquette authors in Shakespeare's day: metaphor. By using metaphors of saints and sins, Romeo was able to test Juliet's feelings for him in a non-threatening way. This method was recommended by Baldassare Castiglione (whose works had been translated into English by this time). He pointed out that if a man used a metaphor as an invitation, the woman could pretend she did not understand him, and he could retreat without losing honour. Juliet, however, participates in the metaphor and expands on it. The religious metaphors of "shrine", "pilgrim", and "saint" were fashionable in the poetry of the time and more likely to be understood as romantic rather than blasphemous, as the concept of sainthood was associated with the Catholicism of an earlier age.[40] Later in the play, Shakespeare removes the more daring allusions to Christ's resurrection in the tomb he found in his source work: Brooke's Romeus and Juliet.[41] + + +Watercolor by John Masey Wright of Act II, Scene ii (the balcony scene). +In the later balcony scene, Shakespeare has Romeo overhear Juliet's soliloquy, but in Brooke's version of the story, her declaration is done alone. By bringing Romeo into the scene to eavesdrop, Shakespeare breaks from the normal sequence of courtship. Usually, a woman was required to be modest and shy to make sure that her suitor was sincere, but breaking this rule serves to speed along the plot. The lovers are able to skip courting and move on to plain talk about their relationship—agreeing to be married after knowing each other for only one night.[39] In the final suicide scene, there is a contradiction in the message—in the Catholic religion, suicides were often thought to be condemned to Hell, whereas people who die to be with their loves under the "Religion of Love" are joined with their loves in Paradise. Romeo and Juliet's love seems to be expressing the "Religion of Love" view rather than the Catholic view. Another point is that, although their love is passionate, it is only consummated in marriage, which keeps them from losing the audience's sympathy.[42] + +The play arguably equates love and sex with death. Throughout the story, both Romeo and Juliet, along with the other characters, fantasise about it as a dark being, often equating it with a lover. Capulet, for example, when he first discovers Juliet's (faked) death, describes it as having deflowered his daughter.[43] Juliet later erotically compares Romeo and death. Right before her suicide, she grabs Romeo's dagger, saying "O happy dagger! This is thy sheath. There rust, and let me die."[44][45] + +Fate and chance +"O, I am fortune's fool!" + +—Romeo, Act III Scene I[46] + +Scholars are divided on the role of fate in the play. No consensus exists on whether the characters are truly fated to die together or whether the events take place by a series of unlucky chances. Arguments in favour of fate often refer to the description of the lovers as "star-cross'd". This phrase seems to hint that the stars have predetermined the lovers' future.[47] John W. Draper points out the parallels between the Elizabethan belief in the four humours and the main characters of the play (for example, Tybalt as a choleric). Interpreting the text in the light of humours reduces the amount of plot attributed to chance by modern audiences.[48] Still, other scholars see the play as a series of unlucky chances—many to such a degree that they do not see it as a tragedy at all, but an emotional melodrama.[48] Ruth Nevo believes the high degree to which chance is stressed in the narrative makes Romeo and Juliet a "lesser tragedy" of happenstance, not of character. For example, Romeo's challenging Tybalt is not impulsive; it is, after Mercutio's death, the expected action to take. In this scene, Nevo reads Romeo as being aware of the dangers of flouting social norms, identity, and commitments. He makes the choice to kill, not because of a tragic flaw, but because of circumstance.[49] + +Duality (light and dark) +"O brawling love, O loving hate, +O any thing of nothing first create! +O heavy lightness, serious vanity, +Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms, +Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, +Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!" + +—Romeo, Act I, Scene I[50] + +Scholars have long noted Shakespeare's widespread use of light and dark imagery throughout the play. Caroline Spurgeon considers the theme of light as "symbolic of the natural beauty of young love" and later critics have expanded on this interpretation.[49][51] For example, both Romeo and Juliet see the other as light in a surrounding darkness. Romeo describes Juliet as being like the sun,[52] brighter than a torch,[53] a jewel sparkling in the night,[54] and a bright angel among dark clouds.[55] Even when she lies apparently dead in the tomb, he says her "beauty makes / This vault a feasting presence full of light."[56] Juliet describes Romeo as "day in night" and "Whiter than snow upon a raven's back."[57][58] This contrast of light and dark can be expanded as symbols—contrasting love and hate, youth and age in a metaphoric way.[49] Sometimes these intertwining metaphors create dramatic irony. For example, Romeo and Juliet's love is a light in the midst of the darkness of the hate around them, but all of their activity together is done in night and darkness while all of the feuding is done in broad daylight. This paradox of imagery adds atmosphere to the moral dilemma facing the two lovers: loyalty to family or loyalty to love. At the end of the story, when the morning is gloomy and the sun hiding its face for sorrow, light and dark have returned to their proper places, the outward darkness reflecting the true, inner darkness of the family feud out of sorrow for the lovers. All characters now recognise their folly in light of recent events, and things return to the natural order, thanks to the love and death of Romeo and Juliet.[51] The "light" theme in the play is also heavily connected to the theme of time since light was a convenient way for Shakespeare to express the passage of time through descriptions of the sun, moon, and stars.[59] + +Time +"These times of woe afford no time to woo." + +—Paris, Act III, Scene IV[60] + +Time plays an important role in the language and plot of the play. Both Romeo and Juliet struggle to maintain an imaginary world void of time in the face of the harsh realities that surround them. For instance, when Romeo swears his love to Juliet by the moon, she protests "O swear not by the moon, th'inconstant moon, / That monthly changes in her circled orb, / Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."[61] From the very beginning, the lovers are designated as "star-cross'd"[62][c] referring to an astrologic belief associated with time. Stars were thought to control the fates of humanity, and as time passed, stars would move along their course in the sky, also charting the course of human lives below. Romeo speaks of a foreboding he feels in the stars' movements early in the play, and when he learns of Juliet's death, he defies the stars' course for him.[48][64] + +Another central theme is haste: Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet spans a period of four to six days, in contrast to Brooke's poems spanning nine months.[59] Scholars such as G. Thomas Tanselle believe that time was "especially important to Shakespeare" in this play, as he used references to "short-time" for the young lovers as opposed to references to "long-time" for the "older generation" to highlight "a headlong rush towards doom".[59] Romeo and Juliet fight time to make their love last forever. In the end, the only way they seem to defeat time is through a death that makes them immortal through art.[65] + +Time is also connected to the theme of light and dark. In Shakespeare's day, plays were most often performed at noon or in the afternoon in broad daylight.[d] This forced the playwright to use words to create the illusion of day and night in his plays. Shakespeare uses references to the night and day, the stars, the moon, and the sun to create this illusion. He also has characters frequently refer to days of the week and specific hours to help the audience understand that time has passed in the story. All in all, no fewer than 103 references to time are found in the play, adding to the illusion of its passage.[66][67] + +Criticism and interpretation +Critical history + +Portrait of the earliest recorded critic of the play, Samuel Pepys, by John Hayls. Oil on canvas, 1666. +The earliest known critic of the play was diarist Samuel Pepys, who wrote in 1662: "it is a play of itself the worst that I ever heard in my life."[68] Poet John Dryden wrote 10 years later in praise of the play and its comic character Mercutio: "Shakespear show'd the best of his skill in his Mercutio, and he said himself, that he was forc'd to kill him in the third Act, to prevent being killed by him."[68] Criticism of the play in the 18th century was less sparse but no less divided. Publisher Nicholas Rowe was the first critic to ponder the theme of the play, which he saw as the just punishment of the two feuding families. In mid-century, writer Charles Gildon and philosopher Lord Kames argued that the play was a failure in that it did not follow the classical rules of drama: the tragedy must occur because of some character flaw, not an accident of fate. Writer and critic Samuel Johnson, however, considered it one of Shakespeare's "most pleasing" plays.[69] + +In the later part of the 18th and through the 19th century, criticism centred on debates over the moral message of the play. Actor and playwright David Garrick's 1748 adaptation excluded Rosaline: Romeo abandoning her for Juliet was seen as fickle and reckless. Critics such as Charles Dibdin argued that Rosaline had been included in the play in order to show how reckless the hero was and that this was the reason for his tragic end. Others argued that Friar Laurence might be Shakespeare's spokesman in his warnings against undue haste. At the beginning of the 20th century, these moral arguments were disputed by critics such as Richard Green Moulton: he argued that accident, and not some character flaw, led to the lovers' deaths.[70] + +Dramatic structure +In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare employs several dramatic techniques that have garnered praise from critics, most notably the abrupt shifts from comedy to tragedy (an example is the punning exchange between Benvolio and Mercutio just before Tybalt arrives). Before Mercutio's death in Act III, the play is largely a comedy.[71] After his accidental demise, the play suddenly becomes serious and takes on a tragic tone. When Romeo is banished, rather than executed, and Friar Laurence offers Juliet a plan to reunite her with Romeo, the audience can still hope that all will end well. They are in a "breathless state of suspense" by the opening of the last scene in the tomb: If Romeo is delayed long enough for the Friar to arrive, he and Juliet may yet be saved.[72] These shifts from hope to despair, reprieve, and new hope serve to emphasise the tragedy when the final hope fails and both the lovers die at the end.[73] + +Shakespeare also uses sub-plots to offer a clearer view of the actions of the main characters. For example, when the play begins, Romeo is in love with Rosaline, who has refused all of his advances. Romeo's infatuation with her stands in obvious contrast to his later love for Juliet. This provides a comparison through which the audience can see the seriousness of Romeo and Juliet's love and marriage. Paris' love for Juliet also sets up a contrast between Juliet's feelings for him and her feelings for Romeo. The formal language she uses around Paris, as well as the way she talks about him to her Nurse, show that her feelings clearly lie with Romeo. Beyond this, the sub-plot of the Montague–Capulet feud overarches the whole play, providing an atmosphere of hate that is the main contributor to the play's tragic end.[73] + +Language +Shakespeare uses a variety of poetic forms throughout the play. He begins with a 14-line prologue in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, spoken by a Chorus. Most of Romeo and Juliet is, however, written in blank verse, and much of it in strict iambic pentameter, with less rhythmic variation than in most of Shakespeare's later plays.[74] In choosing forms, Shakespeare matches the poetry to the character who uses it. Friar Laurence, for example, uses sermon and sententiae forms and the Nurse uses a unique blank verse form that closely matches colloquial speech.[74] Each of these forms is also moulded and matched to the emotion of the scene the character occupies. For example, when Romeo talks about Rosaline earlier in the play, he attempts to use the Petrarchan sonnet form. Petrarchan sonnets were often used by men to exaggerate the beauty of women who were impossible for them to attain, as in Romeo's situation with Rosaline. This sonnet form is used by Lady Capulet to describe Count Paris to Juliet as a handsome man.[75] When Romeo and Juliet meet, the poetic form changes from the Petrarchan (which was becoming archaic in Shakespeare's day) to a then more contemporary sonnet form, using "pilgrims" and "saints" as metaphors.[76] Finally, when the two meet on the balcony, Romeo attempts to use the sonnet form to pledge his love, but Juliet breaks it by saying "Dost thou love me?"[77] By doing this, she searches for true expression, rather than a poetic exaggeration of their love.[78] Juliet uses monosyllabic words with Romeo but uses formal language with Paris.[79] Other forms in the play include an epithalamium by Juliet, a rhapsody in Mercutio's Queen Mab speech, and an elegy by Paris.[80] Shakespeare saves his prose style most often for the common people in the play, though at times he uses it for other characters, such as Mercutio.[81] Humour, also, is important: scholar Molly Mahood identifies at least 175 puns and wordplays in the text.[82] Many of these jokes are sexual in nature, especially those involving Mercutio and the Nurse.[83] + +Psychoanalytic criticism +Early psychoanalytic critics saw the problem of Romeo and Juliet in terms of Romeo's impulsiveness, deriving from "ill-controlled, partially disguised aggression",[84] which leads both to Mercutio's death and to the double suicide.[84][e] Romeo and Juliet is not considered to be exceedingly psychologically complex, and sympathetic psychoanalytic readings of the play make the tragic male experience equivalent with sicknesses.[86] Norman Holland, writing in 1966, considers Romeo's dream[87] as a realistic "wish fulfilling fantasy both in terms of Romeo's adult world and his hypothetical childhood at stages oral, phallic and oedipal" – while acknowledging that a dramatic character is not a human being with mental processes separate from those of the author.[88] Critics such as Julia Kristeva focus on the hatred between the families, arguing that this hatred is the cause of Romeo and Juliet's passion for each other. That hatred manifests itself directly in the lovers' language: Juliet, for example, speaks of "my only love sprung from my only hate"[89] and often expresses her passion through an anticipation of Romeo's death.[90] This leads on to speculation as to the playwright's psychology, in particular to a consideration of Shakespeare's grief for the death of his son, Hamnet.[91] + +Feminist criticism +Feminist literary critics argue that the blame for the family feud lies in Verona's patriarchal society. For Coppélia Kahn, for example, the strict, masculine code of violence imposed on Romeo is the main force driving the tragedy to its end. When Tybalt kills Mercutio, Romeo shifts into a violent mode, regretting that Juliet has made him so "effeminate".[92] In this view, the younger males "become men" by engaging in violence on behalf of their fathers, or in the case of the servants, their masters. The feud is also linked to male virility, as the numerous jokes about maidenheads aptly demonstrate.[93][94] Juliet also submits to a female code of docility by allowing others, such as the Friar, to solve her problems for her. Other critics, such as Dympna Callaghan, look at the play's feminism from a historicist angle, stressing that when the play was written the feudal order was being challenged by increasingly centralised government and the advent of capitalism. At the same time, emerging Puritan ideas about marriage were less concerned with the "evils of female sexuality" than those of earlier eras and more sympathetic towards love-matches: when Juliet dodges her father's attempt to force her to marry a man she has no feeling for, she is challenging the patriarchal order in a way that would not have been possible at an earlier time.[95] + +Queer theory + +The playbill from a 1753 production at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane starring David Garrick +A number of critics have found the character of Mercutio to have unacknowledged homoerotic desire for Romeo.[96] Jonathan Goldberg examined the sexuality of Mercutio and Romeo utilising queer theory in Queering the Renaissance (1994), comparing their friendship with sexual love.[97] Mercutio, in friendly conversation, mentions Romeo's phallus, suggesting traces of homoeroticism.[98] An example is his joking wish "To raise a spirit in his mistress' circle ... letting it there stand / Till she had laid it and conjured it down."[99][100] Romeo's homoeroticism can also be found in his attitude to Rosaline, a woman who is distant and unavailable and brings no hope of offspring. As Benvolio argues, she is best replaced by someone who will reciprocate. Shakespeare's procreation sonnets describe another young man who, like Romeo, is having trouble creating offspring and who may be seen as being a homosexual. Goldberg believes that Shakespeare may have used Rosaline as a way to express homosexual problems of procreation in an acceptable way. In this view, when Juliet says "...that which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet",[101] she may be raising the question of whether there is any difference between the beauty of a man and the beauty of a woman.[102] + +The balcony scene +The balcony scene was introduced by Da Porto in 1524. He had Romeo walk frequently by her house, "sometimes climbing to her chamber window", and wrote, "It happened one night, as love ordained, when the moon shone unusually bright, that whilst Romeo was climbing the balcony, the young lady ... opened the window, and looking out saw him".[103] After this they have a conversation in which they declare eternal love to each other. A few decades later, Bandello greatly expanded this scene, diverging from the familiar one: Julia has her nurse deliver a letter asking Romeo to come to her window with a rope ladder, and he climbs the balcony with the help of his servant, Julia and the nurse (the servants discreetly withdraw after this).[18] + +Nevertheless, in October 2014, Lois Leveen pointed out in The Atlantic that the original Shakespeare play did not contain a balcony; it just says that Juliet appears at a window.[104] The word balcone is not known to have existed in the English language until two years after Shakespeare's death.[105] The balcony was certainly used in Thomas Otway's 1679 play, The History and Fall of Caius Marius, which had borrowed much of its story from Romeo and Juliet and placed the two lovers in a balcony reciting a speech similar to that between Romeo and Juliet. Leveen suggested that during the 18th century, David Garrick chose to use a balcony in his adaptation and revival of Romeo and Juliet and modern adaptations have continued this tradition.[104] + +Legacy +Shakespeare's day + +Richard Burbage, probably the first actor to portray Romeo[106] +Romeo and Juliet ranks with Hamlet as one of Shakespeare's most performed plays. Its many adaptations have made it one of his most enduring and famous stories.[107] Even in Shakespeare's lifetime, it was extremely popular. Scholar Gary Taylor measures it as the sixth most popular of Shakespeare's plays, in the period after the death of Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd but before the ascendancy of Ben Jonson during which Shakespeare was London's dominant playwright.[108][f] The date of the first performance is unknown. The First Quarto, printed in 1597, reads "it hath been often (and with great applause) plaid publiquely", setting the first performance before that date. The Lord Chamberlain's Men were certainly the first to perform it. Besides their strong connections with Shakespeare, the Second Quarto actually names one of its actors, Will Kemp, instead of Peter, in a line in Act V. Richard Burbage was probably the first Romeo, being the company's chief tragedian; and Master Robert Goffe (a boy), the first Juliet.[106] The premiere is likely to have been at The Theatre, with other early productions at the Curtain.[109] Romeo and Juliet is one of the first Shakespeare plays to have been performed outside England: a shortened and simplified version was performed in Nördlingen in 1604.[110] + +Restoration and 18th-century theatre +All theatres were closed down by the puritan government on 6 September 1642. Upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, two patent companies (the King's Company and the Duke's Company) were established, and the existing theatrical repertoire was divided between them.[111] + + +Mary Saunderson, probably the first woman to play Juliet professionally +Sir William Davenant of the Duke's Company staged a 1662 adaptation in which Henry Harris played Romeo, Thomas Betterton Mercutio, and Betterton's wife Mary Saunderson Juliet: she was probably the first woman to play the role professionally.[112] Another version closely followed Davenant's adaptation and was also regularly performed by the Duke's Company. This was a tragicomedy by James Howard, in which the two lovers survive.[113] + +Thomas Otway's The History and Fall of Caius Marius, one of the more extreme of the Restoration adaptations of Shakespeare, debuted in 1680. The scene is shifted from Renaissance Verona to ancient Rome; Romeo is Marius, Juliet is Lavinia, the feud is between patricians and plebeians; Juliet/Lavinia wakes from her potion before Romeo/Marius dies. Otway's version was a hit, and was acted for the next seventy years.[112] His innovation in the closing scene was even more enduring, and was used in adaptations throughout the next 200 years: Theophilus Cibber's adaptation of 1744, and David Garrick's of 1748 both used variations on it.[114] These versions also eliminated elements deemed inappropriate at the time. For example, Garrick's version transferred all language describing Rosaline to Juliet, to heighten the idea of faithfulness and downplay the love-at-first-sight theme.[115][116] In 1750, a "Battle of the Romeos" began, with Spranger Barry and Susannah Maria Arne (Mrs. Theophilus Cibber) at Covent Garden versus David Garrick and George Anne Bellamy at Drury Lane.[117] + +The earliest known production in North America was an amateur one: on 23 March 1730, a physician named Joachimus Bertrand placed an advertisement in the Gazette newspaper in New York, promoting a production in which he would play the apothecary.[118] The first professional performances of the play in North America were those of the Hallam Company.[119] + +19th-century theatre + +The American Cushman sisters, Charlotte and Susan, as Romeo and Juliet in 1846 +Garrick's altered version of the play was very popular, and ran for nearly a century.[112] Not until 1845 did Shakespeare's original return to the stage in the United States with the sisters Susan and Charlotte Cushman as Juliet and Romeo, respectively,[120] and then in 1847 in Britain with Samuel Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre.[121] Cushman adhered to Shakespeare's version, beginning a string of eighty-four performances. Her portrayal of Romeo was considered genius by many. The Times wrote: "For a long time Romeo has been a convention. Miss Cushman's Romeo is a creative, a living, breathing, animated, ardent human being."[122][120] Queen Victoria wrote in her journal that "no-one would ever have imagined she was a woman".[123] Cushman's success broke the Garrick tradition and paved the way for later performances to return to the original storyline.[112] + +Professional performances of Shakespeare in the mid-19th century had two particular features: firstly, they were generally star vehicles, with supporting roles cut or marginalised to give greater prominence to the central characters. Secondly, they were "pictorial", placing the action on spectacular and elaborate sets (requiring lengthy pauses for scene changes) and with the frequent use of tableaux.[124] Henry Irving's 1882 production at the Lyceum Theatre (with himself as Romeo and Ellen Terry as Juliet) is considered an archetype of the pictorial style.[125] In 1895, Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson took over from Irving and laid the groundwork for a more natural portrayal of Shakespeare that remains popular today. Forbes-Robertson avoided the showiness of Irving and instead portrayed a down-to-earth Romeo, expressing the poetic dialogue as realistic prose and avoiding melodramatic flourish.[126] + +American actors began to rival their British counterparts. Edwin Booth (brother to John Wilkes Booth) and Mary McVicker (soon to be Edwin's wife) opened as Romeo and Juliet at the sumptuous Booth's Theatre (with its European-style stage machinery, and an air conditioning system unique in New York) on 3 February 1869. Some reports said it was one of the most elaborate productions of Romeo and Juliet ever seen in America; it was certainly the most popular, running for over six weeks and earning over $60,000 (equivalent to $1,000,000 in 2023).[127][g][h] The programme noted that: "The tragedy will be produced in strict accordance with historical propriety, in every respect, following closely the text of Shakespeare."[i] + +The first professional performance of the play in Japan may have been George Crichton Miln's company's production, which toured to Yokohama in 1890.[128] Throughout the 19th century, Romeo and Juliet had been Shakespeare's most popular play, measured by the number of professional performances. In the 20th century it would become the second most popular, behind Hamlet.[129] + +20th-century theatre +In 1933, the play was revived by actress Katharine Cornell and her director husband Guthrie McClintic and was taken on a seven-month nationwide tour throughout the United States. It starred Orson Welles, Brian Aherne and Basil Rathbone. The production was a modest success, and so upon the return to New York, Cornell and McClintic revised it, and for the first time the play was presented with almost all the scenes intact, including the Prologue. The new production opened on Broadway in December 1934. Critics wrote that Cornell was "the greatest Juliet of her time", "endlessly haunting", and "the most lovely and enchanting Juliet our present-day theatre has seen".[130] + + +John Gielgud, who was among the more famous 20th-century actors to play Romeo, Friar Laurence and Mercutio on stage +John Gielgud's New Theatre production in 1935 featured Gielgud and Laurence Olivier as Romeo and Mercutio, exchanging roles six weeks into the run, with Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet.[131] Gielgud used a scholarly combination of Q1 and Q2 texts and organised the set and costumes to match as closely as possible the Elizabethan period. His efforts were a huge success at the box office, and set the stage for increased historical realism in later productions.[132] Olivier later compared his performance and Gielgud's: "John, all spiritual, all spirituality, all beauty, all abstract things; and myself as all earth, blood, humanity ... I've always felt that John missed the lower half and that made me go for the other ... But whatever it was, when I was playing Romeo I was carrying a torch, I was trying to sell realism in Shakespeare."[133] + +Peter Brook's 1947 version was the beginning of a different style of Romeo and Juliet performances. Brook was less concerned with realism, and more concerned with translating the play into a form that could communicate with the modern world. He argued, "A production is only correct at the moment of its correctness, and only good at the moment of its success."[134] Brook excluded the final reconciliation of the families from his performance text.[135] + +Throughout the century, audiences, influenced by the cinema, became less willing to accept actors distinctly older than the teenage characters they were playing.[136] A significant example of more youthful casting was in Franco Zeffirelli's Old Vic production in 1960, with John Stride and Judi Dench, which would serve as the basis for his 1968 film.[135] Zeffirelli borrowed from Brook's ideas, altogether removing around a third of the play's text to make it more accessible. In an interview with The Times, he stated that the play's "twin themes of love and the total breakdown of understanding between two generations" had contemporary relevance.[135][j] + +Recent performances often set the play in the contemporary world. For example, in 1986, the Royal Shakespeare Company set the play in modern Verona. Switchblades replaced swords, feasts and balls became drug-laden rock parties, and Romeo killed himself by hypodermic needle. Neil Bartlett's production of Romeo and Juliet themed the play very contemporary with a cinematic look which started its life at the Lyric Hammersmith, London then went to West Yorkshire Playhouse for an exclusive run in 1995. The cast included Emily Woof as Juliet, Stuart Bunce as Romeo, Sebastian Harcombe as Mercutio, Ashley Artus as Tybalt, Souad Faress as Lady Capulet and Silas Carson as Paris.[138] In 1997, the Folger Shakespeare Theatre produced a version set in a typical suburban world. Romeo sneaks into the Capulet barbecue to meet Juliet, and Juliet discovers Tybalt's death while in class at school.[139] + +The play is sometimes given a historical setting, enabling audiences to reflect on the underlying conflicts. For example, adaptations have been set in the midst of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,[140] in the apartheid era in South Africa,[141] and in the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt.[142] Similarly, Peter Ustinov's 1956 comic adaptation, Romanoff and Juliet, is set in a fictional mid-European country in the depths of the Cold War.[143] A mock-Victorian revisionist version of Romeo and Juliet's final scene (with a happy ending, Romeo, Juliet, Mercutio, and Paris restored to life, and Benvolio revealing that he is Paris's love, Benvolia, in disguise) forms part of the 1980 stage-play The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.[144] Shakespeare's R&J, by Joe Calarco, spins the classic in a modern tale of gay teenage awakening.[145] A recent comedic musical adaptation was The Second City's Romeo and Juliet Musical: The People vs. Friar Laurence, the Man Who Killed Romeo and Juliet, set in modern times.[146] + +In the 19th and 20th centuries, Romeo and Juliet has often been the choice of Shakespeare plays to open a classical theatre company, beginning with Edwin Booth's inaugural production of that play in his theatre in 1869, the newly re-formed company of the Old Vic in 1929 with John Gielgud, Martita Hunt, and Margaret Webster,[147] as well as the Riverside Shakespeare Company in its founding production in New York City in 1977, which used the 1968 film of Franco Zeffirelli's production as its inspiration.[148] + +21st-century theatre +In 2009, Shakespeare's Globe ran a production of Romeo and Juliet which was directed by Dominic Dromgoole, and starred Adetomiwa Edun as Romeo and Ellie Kendrick as Juliet.[149] + +In 2013, Romeo and Juliet ran on Broadway at Richard Rodgers Theatre from 19 September to 8 December for 93 regular performances after 27 previews starting on 24 August with Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad in the starring roles.[150] + +A production of the play starring Tom Holland and Francesca Amewudah-Rivers is scheduled to run at the Duke of York's Theatre in London's West End from 11 May 2024 for a 12-week limited run. The production is to be directed by Jamie Lloyd.[151][152] + +A production of the play starring Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler is scheduled to run on Broadway in Fall 2024. The production is to feature music by Jack Antonoff, direction by Sam Gold, and movement by Sonya Tayeh.[153] + + +In 2018, independent theater company Stairwell Theater presented Romeo and Juliet with a basketball theme +Ballet +The best-known ballet version is Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.[154] Originally commissioned by the Kirov Ballet, it was rejected by them when Prokofiev attempted a happy ending and was rejected again for the experimental nature of its music. It has subsequently attained an "immense" reputation, and has been choreographed by John Cranko (1962) and Kenneth MacMillan (1965) among others.[155] + +In 1977, Michael Smuin's production of one of the play's most dramatic and impassioned dance interpretations was debuted in its entirety by San Francisco Ballet. This production was the first full-length ballet to be broadcast by the PBS series "Great Performances: Dance in America"; it aired in 1978.[156] + +Dada Masilo, a South African dancer and choreographer, reinterpreted Romeo and Juliet in a new modern light. She introduced changes to the story, notably that of presenting the two families as multiracial.[157] + +Music +"Romeo loved Juliet +Juliet, she felt the same +When he put his arms around her +He said Julie, baby, you're my flame +Thou givest fever ..." + +—Peggy Lee's rendition of "Fever"[158][159] + +At least 24 operas have been based on Romeo and Juliet.[160] The earliest, Romeo und Julie in 1776, a Singspiel by Georg Benda, omits much of the action of the play and most of its characters and has a happy ending. It is occasionally revived. The best-known is Gounod's 1867 Roméo et Juliette (libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré), a critical triumph when first performed and frequently revived today.[161][162] Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi is also revived from time to time, but has sometimes been judged unfavourably because of its perceived liberties with Shakespeare; however, Bellini and his librettist, Felice Romani, worked from Italian sources—principally Romani's libretto for Giulietta e Romeo by Nicola Vaccai—rather than directly adapting Shakespeare's play.[163] Among later operas, there is Heinrich Sutermeister's 1940 work Romeo und Julia[164] and Pascal Dusapin's first opera Roméo et Juliette (fr) on a libretto by Olivier Cadiot (1988).[165] + +Roméo et Juliette by Berlioz is a "symphonie dramatique", a large-scale work in three parts for mixed voices, chorus, and orchestra, which premiered in 1839.[166] Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture (1869, revised 1870 and 1880) is a 20-minute symphonic poem, containing the famous melody known as the "love theme".[167] Tchaikovsky's device of repeating the same musical theme at the ball, in the balcony scene, in Juliet's bedroom and in the tomb[168] has been used by subsequent directors: for example, Nino Rota's love theme is used in a similar way in the 1968 film of the play, as is Des'ree's "Kissing You" in the 1996 film.[169] Other classical composers influenced by the play include Henry Hugh Pearson (Romeo and Juliet, overture for orchestra, Op. 86), Svendsen (Romeo og Julie, 1876), Delius (A Village Romeo and Juliet, 1899–1901), Stenhammar (Romeo och Julia, 1922), and Kabalevsky (Incidental Music to Romeo and Juliet, Op. 56, 1956).[170] + +The play influenced several jazz works, including Peggy Lee's "Fever".[159] Duke Ellington's Such Sweet Thunder contains a piece entitled "The Star-Crossed Lovers"[171] in which the pair are represented by tenor and alto saxophones: critics noted that Juliet's sax dominates the piece, rather than offering an image of equality.[172] The play has frequently influenced popular music, including works by The Supremes, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, Lou Reed,[173] and Taylor Swift.[174] The most famous such track is Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet".[175] + +The most famous musical theatre adaptation is West Side Story with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. It débuted on Broadway in 1957 and in the West End in 1958 and was twice adapted as popular films in 1961 and in 2021. This version updated the setting to mid-20th-century New York City and the warring families to ethnic gangs.[176] Other musical adaptations include Terrence Mann's 1999 rock musical William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, co-written with Jerome Korman;[177] Gérard Presgurvic's 2001 Roméo et Juliette, de la Haine à l'Amour; Riccardo Cocciante's 2007 Giulietta & Romeo[178] and Johan Christher Schütz; and Johan Petterssons's 2013 adaptation Carnival Tale (Tivolisaga), which takes place at a travelling carnival.[179] + +Literature and art + +Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed, Henry Fuseli, 1809 +Romeo and Juliet had a profound influence on subsequent literature. Before then, romance had not even been viewed as a worthy topic for tragedy.[180] In Harold Bloom's words, Shakespeare "invented the formula that the sexual becomes the erotic when crossed by the shadow of death".[181] Of Shakespeare's works, Romeo and Juliet has generated the most—and the most varied—adaptations, including prose and verse narratives, drama, opera, orchestral and choral music, ballet, film, television, and painting.[182][k] The word "Romeo" has even become synonymous with "male lover" in English.[183] + +Romeo and Juliet was parodied in Shakespeare's own lifetime: Henry Porter's Two Angry Women of Abingdon (1598) and Thomas Dekker's Blurt, Master Constable (1607) both contain balcony scenes in which a virginal heroine engages in bawdy wordplay.[184] The play directly influenced later literary works. For example, the preparations for a performance form a major plot in Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby.[185] + +Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most-illustrated works.[186] The first known illustration was a woodcut of the tomb scene,[187] thought to be created by Elisha Kirkall, which appeared in Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition of Shakespeare's plays.[188] Five paintings of the play were commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in the late 18th century, one representing each of the five acts of the play.[189] Early in the 19th century, Henry Thomson painted Juliet after the Masquerade, an engraving. of which was published in The Literary Souvenir, 1828, with an accompanying poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon. The 19th-century fashion for "pictorial" performances led to directors' drawing on paintings for their inspiration, which, in turn, influenced painters to depict actors and scenes from the theatre.[190] In the 20th century, the play's most iconic visual images have derived from its popular film versions.[191] + +David Blixt's 2007 novel The Master Of Verona imagines the origins of the famous Capulet-Montague feud, combining the characters from Shakespeare's Italian plays with the historical figures of Dante's time.[192] Blixt's subsequent novels Voice Of The Falconer (2010), Fortune's Fool (2012), and The Prince's Doom (2014) continue to explore the world, following the life of Mercutio as he comes of age. More tales from Blixt's Star-Cross'd series appear in Varnished Faces: Star-Cross'd Short Stories (2015) and the plague anthology, We All Fall Down (2020). Blixt also authored Shakespeare's Secrets: Romeo & Juliet (2018), a collection of essays on the history of Shakespeare's play in performance, in which Blixt asserts the play is structurally not a Tragedy, but a Comedy-Gone-Wrong. In 2014 Blixt and his wife, stage director Janice L Blixt, were guests of the city of Verona, Italy for the launch of the Italian language edition of The Master Of Verona, staying with Dante's descendants and filmmaker Anna Lerario, with whom Blixt collaborated on a film about the life of Veronese prince Cangrande della Scala.[193][194] + +Lois Leveen's 2014 novel Juliet's Nurse imagined the fourteen years leading up to the events in the play from the point of view of the nurse. The nurse has the third largest number of lines in the original play; only the eponymous characters have more lines.[195] + +The play was the subject of a 2017 General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) question by the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations board that was administered to c. 14000 students. The board attracted widespread media criticism and derision after the question appeared to confuse the Capulets and the Montagues,[196][197][198] with exams regulator Ofqual describing the error as unacceptable.[199] + +Romeo and Juliet was adapted into manga format by publisher UDON Entertainment's Manga Classics imprint and was released in May 2018.[200] + +Screen +Main article: Romeo and Juliet on screen +Romeo and Juliet may be the most-filmed play of all time.[201] The most notable theatrical releases were George Cukor's multi-Oscar-nominated 1936 production, Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version, and Baz Luhrmann's 1996 MTV-inspired Romeo + Juliet. The latter two were both, in their time, the highest-grossing Shakespeare film ever.[202] Romeo and Juliet was first filmed in the silent era, by Georges Méliès, although his film is now lost.[201] The play was first heard on film in The Hollywood Revue of 1929, in which John Gilbert recited the balcony scene opposite Norma Shearer.[203] + + +Leslie Howard as Romeo and Norma Shearer as Juliet, in the 1936 MGM film directed by George Cukor +Shearer and Leslie Howard, with a combined age over 75, played the teenage lovers in George Cukor's MGM 1936 film version. Neither critics nor the public responded enthusiastically. Cinema-goers considered the film too "arty", staying away as they had from Warner's A Midsummer Night's Dream a year before: leading to Hollywood abandoning the Bard for over a decade.[204] Renato Castellani won the Grand Prix at the Venice Film Festival for his 1954 film of Romeo and Juliet.[205] His Romeo, Laurence Harvey, was already an experienced screen actor.[206] By contrast, Susan Shentall, as Juliet, was a secretarial student who was discovered by the director in a London pub and was cast for her "pale sweet skin and honey-blonde hair".[207][l] + +Stephen Orgel describes Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 Romeo and Juliet as being "full of beautiful young people, and the camera and the lush technicolour make the most of their sexual energy and good looks".[191] Zeffirelli's teenage leads, Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey, had virtually no previous acting experience but performed capably and with great maturity.[208][209] Zeffirelli has been particularly praised,[m] for his presentation of the duel scene as bravado getting out-of-control.[211] The film courted controversy by including a nude wedding-night scene[212] while Olivia Hussey was only fifteen.[213] + +Baz Luhrmann's 1996 Romeo + Juliet and its accompanying soundtrack successfully targeted the "MTV Generation": a young audience of similar age to the story's characters.[214] Far darker than Zeffirelli's version, the film is set in the "crass, violent and superficial society" of Verona Beach and Sycamore Grove.[215] Leonardo DiCaprio was Romeo and Claire Danes was Juliet. + +The play has been widely adapted for TV and film. In 1960, Peter Ustinov's cold-war stage parody, Romanoff and Juliet was filmed.[143] The 1961 film West Side Story—set among New York gangs—featured the Jets as white youths, equivalent to Shakespeare's Montagues, while the Sharks, equivalent to the Capulets, are Puerto Rican.[216] In 2006, Disney's High School Musical made use of Romeo and Juliet's plot, placing the two young lovers in different high-school cliques instead of feuding families.[217] Film-makers have frequently featured characters performing scenes from Romeo and Juliet.[218][n] The conceit of dramatising Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet has been used several times,[219][220] including John Madden's 1998 Shakespeare in Love, in which Shakespeare writes the play against the backdrop of his own doomed love affair.[221][222] An anime series produced by Gonzo and SKY Perfect Well Think, called Romeo x Juliet, was made in 2007 and the 2013 version is the latest English-language film based on the play. In 2013, Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed the Bollywood film Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, a contemporary version of the play which starred Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in leading roles. The film was a commercial and critical success.[223][224] In February 2014, BroadwayHD released a filmed version of the 2013 Broadway Revival of Romeo and Juliet. The production starred Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad.[225] + +Modern social media and virtual world productions +In April and May 2010, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Mudlark Production Company presented a version of the play, entitled Such Tweet Sorrow, as an improvised, real-time series of tweets on Twitter. The production used RSC actors who engaged with the audience as well each other, performing not from a traditional script but a "Grid" developed by the Mudlark production team and writers Tim Wright and Bethan Marlow. The performers also make use of other media sites such as YouTube for pictures and video.[226] + +Architecture +A Juliet balcony (or Juliette balcony) is a balustrade connected to the façade of a building. + +Astronomy +Two of Uranus’s moons, Juliet and Mab, are named for the play.[227] + +Scene by scene +Title page of the Second Quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1599 +Title page of the Second Quarto of Romeo and Juliet published in 1599 + +Act I prologue +Act I prologue + +Act I scene 1: Quarrel between Capulets and Montagues +Act I scene 1: Quarrel between Capulets and Montagues + +Act I scene 2 +Act I scene 2 + +Act I scene 3 +Act I scene 3 + +Act I scene 4 +Act I scene 4 + +Act I scene 5 +Act I scene 5 + +Act I scene 5: Romeo's first interview with Juliet +Act I scene 5: Romeo's first interview with Juliet + +Act II prologue +Act II prologue + +Act II scene 3 +Act II scene 3 + +Act II scene 5: Juliet intreats her nurse +Act II scene 5: Juliet intreats her nurse + +Act II scene 6 +Act II scene 6 + +Act III scene 5: Romeo takes leave of Juliet +Act III scene 5: Romeo takes leave of Juliet + +Act IV scene 5: Juliet's fake death +Act IV scene 5: Juliet's fake death + +Act IV scene 5: Another depiction +Act IV scene 5: Another depiction + +Act V scene 3: Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead +Act V scene 3: Juliet awakes to find Romeo dead +See also +Pyramus and Thisbe +Lovers of Cluj-Napoca +Lovers of Teruel +Antony and Cleopatra +Tristan and Iseult +Mem and Zin +Notes and references +Notes + see § Shakespeare's day + As well as A Midsummer Night's Dream, Gibbons draws parallels with Love's Labour's Lost and Richard II.[28] + Levenson defines "star-cross'd" as "thwarted by a malign star".[63] + When performed in the central yard of an inn and in public theaters such as the Globe Theatre the only source of lighting was daylight. When performed at Court, inside the stately home of a member of the nobility and in indoor theaters such as the Blackfriars theatre candle lighting was used and plays could be performed even at night. + Halio here quotes Karl A. Menninger's Man Against Himself (1938).[85] + The five more popular plays, in descending order, are Henry VI, Part 1, Richard III, Pericles, Hamlet and Richard II.[108] + 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved 29 February 2024. + Booth's Romeo and Juliet was rivalled in popularity only by his own "hundred night Hamlet" at The Winter Garden of four years before. + First page of the program for the opening night performance of Romeo and Juliet at Booth's Theatre, 3 February 1869. + Levenson provides the quote from the 1960 interview with Zeffirelli in The Times.[137] + Levenson credits this list of genres to Stanley Wells. + Brode quotes Renato Castellani. + Brode cites Anthony West of Vogue and Mollie Panter-Downes of The New Yorker as examples.[210] + McKernan and Terris list 39 instances of uses of Romeo and Juliet, not including films of the play itself. +References +All references to Romeo and Juliet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare second edition (Gibbons, 1980) based on the Q2 text of 1599, with elements from Q1 of 1597.[228] Under its referencing system, which uses Roman numerals, II.ii.33 means act 2, scene 2, line 33, and a 0 in place of a scene number refers to the prologue to the act. + + Romeo and Juliet, III.i.73. + Romeo and Juliet, III.v.115. + Romeo and Juliet, IV.i.105. + Romeo and Juliet, V.iii.308–309. + Halio 1998, p. 93. + Gibbons 1980, p. 33. + Moore 1930, pp. 264–77. + Higgins 1998, p. 223. + Higgins 1998, p. 585. + Hosley 1965, p. 168. + Gibbons 1980, pp. 33–34. + Levenson 2000, p. 4. + da Porto 1831. + Prunster 2000, pp. 2–3. + Moore 1937, pp. 38–44. + Muir 1998, pp. 86–89. + Da Porto does not specify which Bartolomeo is intended, whether Bartolomeo I (regnat 1301–1304) or Bartolomeo II (regnat 1375–1381), though the association of the former with his patronage of Dante makes him perhaps slightly more likely, given that Dante actually mentions the Cappelletti and Montecchi in his Commedia. + Scarci 1993–1994. + Da Porto, Luigi. "Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti, (A Newly-Discovered History of two Noble Lovers)". + Gibbons 1980, pp. 35–36. + Gibbons 1980, p. 37. + Keeble 1980, p. 18. + Roberts 1902, pp. 41–44. + Gibbons 1980, pp. 32, 36–37. + Levenson 2000, pp. 8–14. + Romeo and Juliet, I.iii.23. + Gibbons 1980, pp. 26–27. + Gibbons 1980, pp. 29–31. + Gibbons 1980, p. 29. + Spencer 1967, p. 284. + Halio 1998, pp. 1–2. + Wells 2013. + Gibbons 1980, p. 21. + Gibbons 1980, p. ix. + Halio 1998, pp. 8–9. + Bowling 1949, pp. 208–20. + Halio 1998, p. 65. + Romeo and Juliet, I.v.92–99. + Honegger 2006, pp. 73–88. + Groves 2007, pp. 68–69. + Groves 2007, p. 61. + Siegel 1961, pp. 371–92. + Romeo and Juliet, II.v.38–42. + Romeo and Juliet, V.iii.169–170. + MacKenzie 2007, pp. 22–42. + Romeo and Juliet, III.i.138. + Evans 1950, pp. 841–65. + Draper 1939, pp. 16–34. + Nevo 1972, pp. 241–58. + Romeo and Juliet, I.i.167–171. + Parker 1968, pp. 663–74. + Romeo and Juliet, II.ii. + Romeo and Juliet, I.v.42. + Romeo and Juliet, I.v.44–45. + Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.26–32. + Romeo and Juliet, I.v.85–86. + Romeo and Juliet, III.ii.17–19. + Halio 1998, pp. 55–56. + Tanselle 1964, pp. 349–61. + Romeo and Juliet, III.iv.8–9. + Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.109–111. + Romeo and Juliet, I.0.6. + Levenson 2000, p. 142. + Muir 2005, pp. 34–41. + Lucking 2001, pp. 115–26. + Halio 1998, pp. 55–58. + Driver 1964, pp. 363–70. + Scott 1987, p. 415. + Scott 1987, p. 410. + Scott 1987, pp. 411–12. + Shapiro 1964, pp. 498–501. + Bonnard 1951, pp. 319–27. + Halio 1998, pp. 20–30. + Halio 1998, p. 51. + Halio 1998, pp. 47–48. + Halio 1998, pp. 48–49. + Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.90. + Halio 1998, pp. 49–50. + Levin 1960, pp. 3–11. + Halio 1998, pp. 51–52. + Halio 1998, pp. 52–55. + Bloom 1998, pp. 92–93. + Wells 2004, pp. 11–13. + Halio 1998, p. 82. + Menninger 1938. + Appelbaum 1997, pp. 251–72. + Romeo and Juliet, V.i.1–11. + Halio 1998, pp. 81, 83. + Romeo and Juliet, I.v.137. + Halio 1998, pp. 84–85. + Halio 1998, p. 85. + Romeo and Juliet, III.i.112. + Kahn 1977, pp. 5–22. + Halio 1998, pp. 87–88. + Halio 1998, pp. 89–90. + Levenson 2000, pp. 25–26. + Goldberg 1994. + Halio 1998, pp. 85–86. + Romeo and Juliet, II.i.24–26. + Rubinstein 1989, p. 54. + Romeo and Juliet, II.ii.43–44. + Goldberg 1994, pp. 221–27. + da Porto 1868, p. 10. + Leveen 2014. + OED: balcony. + Halio 1998, p. 97. + Halio 1998, p. ix. + Taylor 2002, p. 18. + Levenson 2000, p. 62. + Dawson 2002, p. 176. + Marsden 2002, p. 21. + Halio 1998, pp. 100–02. + Levenson 2000, p. 71. + Marsden 2002, pp. 26–27. + Branam 1984, pp. 170–79. + Stone 1964, pp. 191–206. + Pedicord 1954, p. 14. + Morrison 2007, p. 231. + Morrison 2007, p. 232. + Gay 2002, p. 162. + Halliday 1964, pp. 125, 365, 420. + The Times 1845. + Potter 2001, pp. 194–95. + Levenson 2000, p. 84. + Schoch 2002, pp. 62–63. + Halio 1998, pp. 104–05. + Winter 1893, pp. 46–47, 57. + Holland 2002, pp. 202–03. + Levenson 2000, pp. 69–70. + Mosel 1978, p. 354. + Smallwood 2002, p. 102. + Halio 1998, pp. 105–07. + Smallwood 2002, p. 110. + Halio 1998, pp. 107–09. + Levenson 2000, p. 87. + Holland 2001, p. 207. + The Times 1960. + Halio 1998, p. 110. + Halio 1998, pp. 110–12. + Pappe 1997, p. 63. + Quince 2000, pp. 121–25. + Munro 2016, pp. 68–69. + Howard 2000, p. 297. + Edgar 1982, p. 162. + Marks 1997. + Houlihan 2004. + Barranger 2004, p. 47. + The New York Times 1977. + Dromgoole, Dominic (2009). 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Folger Shakespeare Library: 363–70. doi:10.2307/2868094. JSTOR 2868094. +Edgar, David (1982). The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. New York: Dramatists' Play Service. ISBN 0-8222-0817-2. +Ehren, Christine (3 September 1999). "Sweet Sorrow: Mann-Korman's Romeo and Juliet Closes Sept. 5 at MN's Ordway". Playbill. Archived from the original on 30 April 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2008. +Evans, Bertrand (1950). "The Brevity of Friar Laurence". PMLA. 65 (5). Modern Language Association: 841–65. doi:10.2307/459577. JSTOR 459577. S2CID 163739242. +Fowler, James (1996). Wells, Stanley (ed.). "Picturing Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Survey. 49. Cambridge University Press: 111–29. doi:10.1017/CCOL0521570476.009. ISBN 0-521-57047-6. +Gay, Penny (2002). "Women and Shakespearean Performance". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 155–73. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5. +Goldberg, Jonathan (1994). 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To make us laugh at Navy Pier". The Second City. Archived from the original on 5 May 2006. Retrieved 26 December 2017. +Howard, Tony (2000). "Shakespeare's Cinematic Offshoots". In Jackson, Russell (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 295–313. ISBN 0-521-63975-1. +Huebner, Steven (2002). "Roméo et Juliette". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O006772. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. +"Ram-leela Review Roundup: Critics Hail Film as Best Adaptation of Romeo and Juliet". International Business Times. 15 November 2013. Archived from the original on 22 November 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017. +Kahn, Coppélia (1977). "Coming of Age in Verona". Modern Language Studies. 8 (1). The Northeast Modern Language Association: 5–22. doi:10.2307/3194631. ISSN 0047-7729. JSTOR 3194631. +Keeble, N.H. (1980). Romeo and Juliet: Study Notes. York Notes. Longman. 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Queen's Quarterly. 75 (4). +Pedicord, Harry William (1954). The Theatrical Public in the Time of David Garrick. New York: King's Crown Press. +Pells, Raquel (26 May 2017). "Capulets and Montagues: UK exam board admit mixing names up in Romeo and Juliet paper". The Independent. Retrieved 27 May 2017. +da Porto, Luigi (1831) [first published c. 1531]. Istoria Novellamente Ritrovata di Due Nobili Amanti (in Italian). Venice. Archived from the original on 29 April 2015. Retrieved 28 December 2015. +da Porto, Luigi (1868). "The Original Story of Romeo and Juliet". In Pace-Sanfelice, G. (ed.). The original story of Romeo and Juliet by Luigi da Porto. From which Shakespeare evidently drew the subject of his drama. Being the Italian text of 1530, and an English translation, together with a critical preface, historical and bibliographical notes and illustrations. Translated by Pace-Sanfelice, G. Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, and co. hdl:2027/mdp.39015082232961. +Potter, Lois (2001). "Shakespeare in the Theatre, 1660–1900". In Wells, Stanley; deGrazia Margreta (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 183–98. ISBN 0-521-65881-0. +Prunster, Nicole, ed. (2000). Romeo and Juliet Before Shakespeare: Four Early Stories of Star-crossed Love. Renaissance and reformation texts in translation. Vol. 8. Translated by Prunster, Nicole. Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies. ISBN 0-7727-2015-0. ISSN 0820-750X. +Quince, Rohan (2000). Shakespeare in South Africa: Stage Productions During the Apartheid Era. New York: Peter Lang. ISBN 978-0-8204-4061-3. +Richardson, Hannah (26 May 2017). "GCSE exam error: Board accidentally rewrites Shakespeare". BBC News. Retrieved 27 May 2017. +Roberts, Arthur J. (1902). "The Sources of Romeo and Juliet". Modern Language Notes. 17 (2). Johns Hopkins University Press: 41–44. doi:10.2307/2917639. ISSN 0149-6611. JSTOR 2917639. +Rosenthal, Daniel (2007). BFI Screen Guides: 100 Shakespeare Films. London: British Film Institute. ISBN 978-1-84457-170-3. +Rubinstein, Frankie (1989). A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Sexual Puns and their Significance (Second ed.). London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-48866-0. +Sabur, Rozina (26 May 2017). "Exam board apologises after error in English GCSE paper which confused characters in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 May 2017. +Sanders, Julie (2007). Shakespeare and Music: Afterlives and Borrowings. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 978-0-7456-3297-1. +Scarci, Manuela (1993–1994). "From Mariotto and Ganozza to Romeo and Giulietta: Metamorphoses of a Renaissance Tale". Scripta Mediterranea. 14–15. Canadian Institute for Mediterranean Studies. +Schoch, Richard W. (2002). "Pictorial Shakespeare". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 62–63. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5. +Scott, Mark W., ed. (1987). Shakespearean Criticism: Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays & Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale Research. ISBN 978-0-8103-6129-4. +Shapiro, Stephen A. (1964). "Romeo and Juliet: Reversals, Contraries, Transformations, and Ambivalence". College English. 25 (7). National Council of Teachers of English: 498–501. doi:10.2307/373235. JSTOR 373235. +Siegel, Paul N. (1961). "Christianity and the Religion of Love in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly. 12 (4). Folger Shakespeare Library: 371–92. doi:10.2307/2867455. JSTOR 2867455. +Smallwood, Robert (2002). "Twentieth-century Performance: the Stratford and London companies". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 98–117. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5. +Stites, Richard, ed. (1995). Culture and Entertainment in Wartime Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20949-8. +Stone, George Winchester Jr (1964). "Romeo and Juliet: The Source of its Modern Stage Career". Shakespeare Quarterly. 15 (2). Folger Shakespeare Library: 191–206. doi:10.2307/2867891. JSTOR 2867891. +Swift, Taylor (23 April 2009). "10 Questions for Taylor Swift". Time. Archived from the original on 26 April 2009. Retrieved 9 April 2022. +Symonds, Dominic (2017). "'We're All in This Together': Being Girls and Boys in High School Musical (2006)". In Rodosthenous, George (ed.). The Disney Musical on Stage and Screen: Critical Approaches from 'Snow White' to 'Frozen'. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 169–84. ISBN 978-1-4742-3419-1. +Tanselle, G. Thomas (1964). "Time in Romeo and Juliet". Shakespeare Quarterly. 15 (4). Folger Shakespeare Library: 349–61. doi:10.2307/2868092. JSTOR 2868092. +Tatspaugh, Patricia (2000). "The tragedies of love on film". In Jackson, Russell (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 135–59. ISBN 0-521-63975-1. +Taylor, Gary (2002). "Shakespeare plays on Renaissance Stages". In Wells, Stanley; Stanton, Sarah (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Stage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-521-79711-5. +"Haymarket Theatre". The Times. 31 December 1845. p. 5. +"The Zeffirelli Way: Revealing Talk by Florentine Director". The Times. No. 54880. London. 19 September 1960. p. 4. Gale Document #CS67985203 – via Gale Group. +Wells, Stanley (2004). Looking for Sex in Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-54039-9. +Wells, Stanley (2013). An A–Z Guide to Shakespeare (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-174076-3. +Winn, Steven (24 April 2007). "Michael Smuin: 1938-2007 / Prolific dance director had showy career". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 14 October 2013. +Winter, William (1893). The Life and Art of Edwin Booth. London: MacMillan and Co. +External links +Romeo and Juliet +at Wikipedia's sister projects +Definitions from Wiktionary +Media from Commons +News from Wikinews +Quotations from Wikiquote +Texts from Wikisource +Textbooks from Wikibooks +Resources from Wikiversity +Romeo and Juliet at Standard Ebooks +Romeo and Juliet at Project Gutenberg +Romeo and Juliet at the British Library +Romeo and Juliet HTML version at MIT +Romeo and Juliet HTML Annotated Play +Easy Read Romeo and Juliet Full text with portraits and location drawings to make the play easy to follow from the printed page. + Romeo and Juliet public domain audiobook at LibriVox +vte +William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet +vte +Romeo and Juliet film adaptations +vte +William Shakespeare +vte +Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's West Side Story (1957) +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: Romeo and Juliet1590s playsBritish plays adapted into filmsEnglish Renaissance playsShakespearean tragediesFictional couplesLiterary duosLove storiesPlays about familiesPlays adapted into balletsPlays adapted into operasPlays adapted into radio programsPlays adapted into television showsPlays set in ItalyPlays set in VeronaFiction about suicideFiction about poisonings +This page was last edited on 18 June 2024, at 16:03 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. 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Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Plot +History +Writing style +Interpretations +Reception +Censorship in the United States +Violent reactions +Attempted adaptations +Toggle Attempted adaptations subsection +In film +Banned fan sequel +Legacy and use in popular culture +See also +References +Toggle References subsection +Notes +Bibliography +Further reading +External links +The Catcher in the Rye + +Article +Talk +Read +Edit +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Color (beta) + +Automatic + +Light + +Dark +Report an issue with dark mode +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +For other uses, see The Catcher in the Rye (disambiguation). +The Catcher in the Rye +Cover features a drawing of a carousel horse (pole visible entering the neck and exiting below on the chest) with a city skyline visible in the distance under the hindquarters. The cover is two-toned: everything below the horse is whitish while the horse and everything above it is a reddish-orange. The title appears at the top in yellow letters against the reddish-orange background. It is split into two lines after "Catcher". At the bottom in the whitish background are the words "a novel by J. D. Salinger". +First edition cover +Author J. D. Salinger +Cover artist E. Michael Mitchell[1][2] +Language English +Genre Realistic fiction, Coming-of-age fiction +Published July 16, 1951[3] +Publisher Little, Brown and Company +Publication place United States +Media type Print +Pages 234 (may vary) +OCLC 287628 +Dewey Decimal 813.54 +The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by American author J. D. Salinger that was partially published in serial form in 1945–46 before being novelized in 1951. Originally intended for adults, it is often read by adolescents for its themes of angst and alienation, and as a critique of superficiality in society.[4][5] The novel also deals with themes of innocence, identity, belonging, loss, connection, sex, and depression. The main character, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.[6] Caulfield, nearly of age, gives his opinion on a wide variety of topics as he narrates his recent life events. + +The Catcher in the Rye has been translated widely.[7] About one million copies are sold each year, with total sales of more than 65 million books.[8] The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923,[9] and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.[10][11][12] In 2003, it was listed at number 15 on the BBC's survey "The Big Read". + +Plot + +This section's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) +Holden Caulfield recalls the events of a long weekend, shortly before the previous year's Christmas. The story begins at Pencey Preparatory Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania, where he has been expelled after failing all his classes, except English. + +Later, Holden agrees to write an English composition for his roommate, Ward Stradlater, who is heading out on a date. He is distressed when he learns that Stradlater's date is Jane Gallagher, with whom Holden has been infatuated. When Stradlater returns, hours later, he fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden has written for him about the baseball glove of Holden's late brother, Allie, who died from leukemia years earlier, and refuses to say whether he had sex with Jane. Enraged, Holden punches and insults him, but Stradlater easily wins the fight. Fed up with the "phonies" at Pencey Prep, Holden decides to catch a train to New York, planning to stay away from his home until Wednesday, when his parents will have received notification of his expulsion. + +Holden checks into the Edmont Hotel, where he spends an evening dancing with three tourists at the lounge until he tires of them. Following a disappointing visit to a nightclub, an angst-ridden Holden agrees to have Sunny, a prostitute, visit his room. When she enters and disrobes, Holden, a virgin, experiences a change of heart, saying he only wants to talk. Annoyed, she leaves, only to return with her pimp, Maurice, who demands more money (though Holden maintains he paid the right amount). Holden insults Maurice, Sunny takes money from Holden's wallet, and Maurice punches him in the stomach. Afterward, Holden, imagining himself shot by Maurice, pictures murdering him with a pistol. + +The next morning, Holden—increasingly depressed and desperate for personal connection—calls Sally Hayes, a familiar date (despite his characterization of her as "queen of all phonies"). They agree to meet that afternoon to attend a play at the Biltmore Theater. Meanwhile, Holden shops for a special record, "Little Shirley Beans," for his 10-year-old sister, Phoebe. After the play, Holden and Sally ice skate at Rockefeller Center, where Holden rants against society and frightens Sally. He invites her to run away with him that night to live in the New England wilderness, but she declines. The conversation sours, and the two part angrily. + +He then meets his old classmate Carl Luce for drinks at the Wicker Bar. Holden annoys Carl, whom he suspects of being gay, by unrelentingly questioning him about his sex life. Luce says Holden should see a psychiatrist to understand himself better. Afterwards, Holden gets drunk, awkwardly flirts with several adults, calls an icy Sally, accidentally breaks Phoebe's record, and finds himself broke. + +Nostalgic to see Phoebe, Holden sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out and wakes her. Though happy to see him, Phoebe quickly guesses he has been expelled and chastises him for his general aimlessness and disdain. When she asks if he cares about anything, Holden shares a fantasy (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's Comin' Through the Rye), in which he imagines himself saving children running through a field of rye by catching them before they fall off a nearby cliff. Phoebe points out that the actual poem says, "when a body meet a body, comin' through the rye." Holden breaks down in tears, and his sister tries to console him. + +As his parents return home, he slips out and visits his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, who expresses concern that Holden is headed for "a terrible fall." Mr. Antolini advises him to begin applying himself and provides him with a place to sleep. Holden is upset when he awakens to find Mr. Antolini patting his head, which he interprets as a sexual advance. He leaves and spends the rest of the night in a train-waiting room at Grand Central Terminal, sinking deeper into despair. + +In the morning, having lost hope of ever finding meaningful connection in the city, he decides to head out West to live as a deaf-mute gas station attendant in a log cabin. He arranges to see Phoebe at lunchtime to explain his plan and say goodbye. When they meet up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she arrives with a suitcase and asks to go with him. Holden refuses, which upsets Phoebe. He tries to cheer her by allowing her to skip school at the Central Park Zoo, but she remains angry. They eventually reach the carousel, where they reconcile after he buys her a ticket. The sight of her riding the carousel fills him with happiness. + +He alludes to encountering his parents that night and "getting sick," mentioning that he will be attending another academy in September. The novel ends with Holden stating that he is reluctant to say more because talk of school has made him miss his former classmates. + +History +Various older stories by Salinger contain characters similar to those in The Catcher in the Rye. While at Columbia University, Salinger wrote a short story called "The Young Folks" in Whit Burnett's class; one character from this story has been described as a "thinly penciled prototype of Sally Hayes". In November 1941 he sold the story "Slight Rebellion off Madison", which featured Holden Caulfield, to The New Yorker, but it was not published until December 21, 1946, due to World War II. The story "I'm Crazy", which was published in the December 22, 1945 issue of Collier's, contained material that was later used in The Catcher in the Rye. In 1946, The New Yorker accepted a 90-page manuscript about Holden Caulfield for publication, but Salinger later withdrew it.[13] The school Holden attends is Pencey Preparatory Academy, a boarding school in Pennsylvania that Salinger may have based on the Valley Forge Military Academy and College.[14] + +Writing style +The Catcher in the Rye is narrated in a subjective style from the point of view of Holden Caulfield, following his exact thought processes. There is flow in the seemingly disjointed ideas and episodes; for example, as Holden sits in a chair in his dorm, minor events, such as picking up a book or looking at a table, unfold into discussions about experiences. + +Critical reviews affirm that the novel accurately reflected the teenage colloquial speech of the time.[15] Words and phrases that appear frequently include:[16] + +"Flitty" – homosexual +"Give her the time" – sexual intercourse +"Necking" – kissing, hugging, and caressing passionately +"Phony" – people who are dishonest or fake about who they really are[17] +"Prince" – a fine, generous, helpful fellow (often used in sarcastic fashion) +"Rubbernecks" – people who turn their heads to gaze in curiosity +"Snowing" – deceiving, misleading, or winning over by glib talk, flattery, etc. +Interpretations +Bruce Brooks held that Holden's attitude remains unchanged at story's end, implying no maturation, thus differentiating the novel from young adult fiction.[18] In contrast, Louis Menand thought that teachers assign the novel because of the optimistic ending, to teach adolescent readers that "alienation is just a phase."[19] While Brooks maintained that Holden acts his age, Menand claimed that Holden thinks as an adult, given his ability to accurately perceive people and their motives. Others highlight the dilemma of Holden's state, in between adolescence and adulthood.[20][21] Holden is quick to become emotional. "I felt sorry as hell for..." is a phrase he often uses. It is often said that Holden changes at the end, when he watches Phoebe on the carousel, and he talks about the golden ring and how it's good for kids to try to grab it.[20] + +Peter Beidler in his A Reader's Companion to J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" identified the movie that the prostitute "Sunny" refers to. In chapter 13 she says that in the movie a boy who looked like Holden fell off a boat, and from this detail, Beidler deduced that the movie was Captains Courageous (1937), with the boy played by child-actor Freddie Bartholomew.[22] + +Each Caulfield child has literary talent. D.B. writes screenplays in Hollywood;[23] Holden also reveres D.B. for his writing skill (Holden's own best subject), but he also despises Hollywood industry-based movies, considering them the ultimate in "phony" as the writer has no space for his own imagination and describes D.B.'s move to Hollywood to write for films as "prostituting himself"; Allie wrote poetry on his baseball glove;[24] and Phoebe is a diarist.[25] This "catcher in the rye" is an analogy for Holden, who admires in children attributes that he often struggles to find in adults, like innocence, kindness, spontaneity, and generosity. Falling off the cliff could be a progression into the adult world that surrounds him and that he strongly criticizes. Later, Phoebe and Holden exchange roles as the "catcher" and the "fallen"; he gives her his hunting hat, the catcher's symbol, and becomes the fallen as Phoebe becomes the catcher.[26] + +In their biography of Salinger, David Shields and Shane Salerno argue that: "The Catcher in the Rye can best be understood as a disguised war novel." Salinger witnessed the horrors of World War II, but rather than writing a combat novel, Salinger, according to Shields and Salerno, "took the trauma of war and embedded it within what looked to the naked eye like a coming-of-age novel."[27] + +Reception +The Catcher in the Rye has been consistently listed as one of the best novels of the twentieth century. Shortly after its publication, in an article for The New York Times, Nash K. Burger called it "an unusually brilliant novel,"[3] while James Stern wrote an admiring review of the book in a voice imitating Holden's.[28] George H. W. Bush called it a "marvelous book," listing it among the books that inspired him.[29] In June 2009, the BBC's Finlo Rohrer wrote that, 58 years since publication, the book is still regarded "as the defining work on what it is like to be a teenager."[30] Adam Gopnik considers it one of the "three perfect books" in American literature, along with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Great Gatsby, and believes that "no book has ever captured a city better than Catcher in the Rye captured New York in the fifties."[31] In an appraisal of The Catcher in the Rye written after the death of J. D. Salinger, Jeff Pruchnic says the novel has retained its appeal for many generations. Pruchnic describes Holden as a "teenage protagonist frozen midcentury but destined to be discovered by those of a similar age in every generation to come."[32] Bill Gates said that The Catcher in the Rye is one of his favorite books,[33] as has Aaron Sorkin.[34] + +Not all reception has been positive. The book has had its share of naysayers, including the longtime Washington Post book critic Jonathan Yardley, who, in 2004, wrote that the experience of rereading the novel after several decades proved to be "a painful experience: The combination of Salinger's execrable prose and Caulfield's jejune narcissism produced effects comparable to mainlining castor oil." Yardley described the novel as among the worst popular books in the annals of American literature. "Why," Yardley asked, "do English teachers, whose responsibility is to teach good writing, repeatedly and reflexively require students to read a book as badly written as this one?"[35] According to Rohrer, many contemporary readers, as Yardley found, "just cannot understand what the fuss is about.... many of these readers are disappointed that the novel fails to meet the expectations generated by the mystique it is shrouded in. J. D. Salinger has done his part to enhance this mystique. That is to say, he has done nothing."[30] Rohrer assessed the reasons behind both the popularity and criticism of the book, saying that it "captures existential teenage angst" and has a "complex central character" and "accessible conversational style"; while at the same time some readers may dislike the "use of 1940s New York vernacular" and the excessive "whining" of the "self-obsessed character". + +Censorship in the United States +In 1960, a teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was fired for assigning the novel in class. She was later reinstated.[36] Between 1961 and 1982, The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book in high schools and libraries in the United States.[37] The book was briefly banned in the Issaquah, Washington, high schools in 1978 when three members of the School Board alleged the book was part of an "overall communist plot".[38] This ban did not last long, and the offended board members were immediately recalled and removed in a special election.[39] In 1981, it was both the most censored book and the second most taught book in public schools in the United States.[40] According to the American Library Association, The Catcher in the Rye was the 10th most frequently challenged book from 1990 to 1999.[10] It was one of the ten most challenged books of 2005,[41] and although it had been off the list for three years, it reappeared in the list of most challenged books of 2009.[42] + +The challenges generally begin with Holden's frequent use of vulgar language;[43][44] other reasons include sexual references,[45] blasphemy, undermining of family values[44] and moral codes,[46] encouragement of rebellion,[47] and promotion of drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, and sexual abuse.[46] The book was written for an adult audience, which often forms the foundation of many challengers' arguments against it.[48] Often the challengers have been unfamiliar with the plot itself.[37] Shelley Keller-Gage, a high school teacher who faced objections after assigning the novel in her class, noted that "the challengers are being just like Holden... They are trying to be catchers in the rye."[44] Censorship of the book often causes a Streisand effect, as such incidents cause many to put themselves on the waiting list to borrow the novel, where there was no waiting list before.[49][50] + +Violent reactions +Further information: The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture § Shootings +Several shootings have been associated with Salinger's novel, including Robert John Bardo's murder of Rebecca Schaeffer and John Hinckley Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. Additionally, after fatally shooting John Lennon, Mark David Chapman was arrested with a copy of the book that he had purchased that same day, inside of which he had written: "To Holden Caulfield, From Holden Caulfield, This is my statement".[51][52] + +Commenting on the fascination of Hinckley and Chapman, Harvey Solomon-Brady wrote: + +Compared to books lauded by other killers – George Orwell's 1984 by John F. Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, C.S. Lewis's meditations on Christianity by Gianni Versace's murderer Andrew Cunanan and Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent by Unabomber Ted Kaczynski – The "Catcher in the Rye" stands out in its devastating ability to influence without explicit instruction. [53] +Attempted adaptations +In film +Early in his career, Salinger expressed a willingness to have his work adapted for the screen.[54] In 1949, a critically panned film version of his short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was released; renamed My Foolish Heart, the film took great liberties with Salinger's plot and is widely considered to be among the reasons that Salinger refused to allow any subsequent film adaptations of his work.[20][55] The enduring success of The Catcher in the Rye, however, has resulted in repeated attempts to secure the novel's screen rights.[56] + +When The Catcher in the Rye was first released, many offers were made to adapt it for the screen, including one from Samuel Goldwyn, producer of My Foolish Heart.[55] In a letter written in the early 1950s, Salinger spoke of mounting a play in which he would play the role of Holden Caulfield opposite Margaret O'Brien, and, if he couldn't play the part himself, to "forget about it." Almost 50 years later, the writer Joyce Maynard definitively concluded, "The only person who might ever have played Holden Caulfield would have been J. D. Salinger."[57] + +Salinger told Maynard in the 1970s that Jerry Lewis "tried for years to get his hands on the part of Holden,"[57] the protagonist in the novel which Lewis had not read until he was in his thirties.[49] Film industry figures including Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Ralph Bakshi, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio have tried to make a film adaptation.[58] In an interview with Premiere, John Cusack commented that his one regret about turning 21 was that he had become too old to play Holden Caulfield. Writer-director Billy Wilder recounted his abortive attempts to snare the novel's rights: + +Of course I read The Catcher in the Rye... Wonderful book. I loved it. I pursued it. I wanted to make a picture out of it. And then one day a young man came to the office of Leland Hayward, my agent, in New York, and said, "Please tell Mr. Leland Hayward to lay off. He's very, very insensitive." And he walked out. That was the entire speech. I never saw him. That was J. D. Salinger and that was Catcher in the Rye.[59] + +In 1961, Salinger denied Elia Kazan permission to direct a stage adaptation of Catcher for Broadway.[60] Later, Salinger's agents received bids for the Catcher film rights from Harvey Weinstein and Steven Spielberg, neither of which was even passed on to Salinger for consideration.[61] + +In 2003, the BBC television program The Big Read featured The Catcher in the Rye, interspersing discussions of the novel with "a series of short films that featured an actor playing J. D. Salinger's adolescent antihero, Holden Caulfield."[60] The show defended its unlicensed adaptation of the novel by claiming to be a "literary review", and no major charges were filed. + +In 2008, the rights of Salinger's works were placed in the JD Salinger Literary Trust where Salinger was the sole trustee. Phyllis Westberg, who was Salinger's agent at Harold Ober Associates in New York, declined to say who the trustees are now that the author is dead. After Salinger died in 2010, Westberg stated that nothing had changed in terms of licensing film, television, or stage rights of his works.[62] A letter written by Salinger in 1957 revealed that he was open to an adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye released after his death. He wrote: "Firstly, it is possible that one day the rights will be sold. Since there's an ever-looming possibility that I won't die rich, I toy very seriously with the idea of leaving the unsold rights to my wife and daughter as a kind of insurance policy. It pleasures me no end, though, I might quickly add, to know that I won't have to see the results of the transaction." Salinger also wrote that he believed his novel was not suitable for film treatment, and that translating Holden Caulfield's first-person narrative into voice-over and dialogue would be contrived.[63] + +In 2020, Don Hahn revealed that The Walt Disney Company had almost made an animated film titled Dufus which would have been an adaptation of The Catcher in the Rye "with German shepherds", most likely akin to Oliver & Company. The idea came from then CEO Michael Eisner who loved the book and wanted to do an adaptation. After being told that J. D. Salinger would not agree to sell the film rights, Eisner stated, "Well, let's just do that kind of story, that kind of growing up, coming of age story."[64] + +Banned fan sequel +In 2009, the year before he died, Salinger successfully sued to stop the U.S. publication of a novel that presents Holden Caulfield as an old man.[30][65] The novel's author, Fredrik Colting, commented: "call me an ignorant Swede, but the last thing I thought possible in the U.S. was that you banned books".[66] The issue is complicated by the nature of Colting's book, 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which has been compared to fan fiction.[67] Although commonly not authorized by writers, no legal action is usually taken against fan fiction, since it is rarely published commercially and thus involves no profit.[68] + +Legacy and use in popular culture +Main article: The Catcher in the Rye in popular culture +See also +Book censorship in the United States +Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century +References +Notes + "CalArts Remembers Beloved Animation Instructor E. Michael Mitchell". Calarts.edu. Archived from the original on September 28, 2009. Retrieved January 30, 2010. + "50 Most Captivating Covers". Onlineuniversities.com. Retrieved January 30, 2010. + Burger, Nash K. (July 16, 1951). "Books of The Times". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2009. + Costello, Donald P., and Harold Bloom. "The Language of 'The Catcher in the Rye:' Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations: The Catcher in the Rye (2000): 11–20. Literary Reference Center. EBSCO. Web. December 1, 2010. + "Carte Blanche: Famous Firsts". Booklist. November 15, 2000. Retrieved December 20, 2007. + Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions By Elizabeth Webber, Mike Feinsilber p. 105 + Magill, Frank N. (1991). "J. D. Salinger". Magill's Survey of American Literature. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. p. 1803. ISBN 1-85435-437-X. + According to List of best-selling books. An earlier article says more than 20 million: Yardley, Jonathan (October 19, 2004). "J. D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21, 2007. It isn't just a novel, it's a dispatch from an unknown, mysterious universe, which may help explain the phenomenal sales it enjoys to this day: about 250,000 copies a year, with total worldwide sales over – probably way over – 10 million. + Grossman, Lev; Lacayo, Richard (October 16, 2005). "All-Time 100 Novels: The Complete List". Time. + "The 100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". American Library Association. Retrieved August 13, 2009. + List of most commonly challenged books from the list of the one hundred most important books of the 20th century by Radcliffe Publishing Course + Guinn, Jeff (August 10, 2001). "'Catcher in the Rye' still influences 50 years later" (fee required). Erie Times-News. Retrieved December 18, 2007. Alternate URL + Salzman, Jack (1991). New essays on the Catcher in the Rye. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN 9780521377980. + "Hazing, Fighting, Sexual Assaults: How Valley Forge Military Academy Devolved Into "Lord of the Flies" – Mother Jones". Motherjones.com. October 30, 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2022. + Costello, Donald P. (October 1959). "The Language of 'The Catcher in the Rye'". American Speech. 34 (3): 172–182. doi:10.2307/454038. JSTOR 454038. Most critics who glared at The Catcher in the Rye at the time of its publication thought that its language was a true and authentic rendering of teenage colloquial speech. + "Study Help Full Glossary". CliffsNotes. Retrieved January 9, 2024. + "The Catcher in the Rye: Questions and Answers". SparkNotes. Retrieved January 9, 2024. + Brooks, Bruce (May 1, 2004). "Holden at sixteen". Horn Book Magazine. Archived from the original on December 21, 2007. Retrieved December 19, 2007. + Menand, Louis (September 27, 2001). "Holden at fifty". The New Yorker. Retrieved December 19, 2007. + Onstad, Katrina (February 22, 2008). "Beholden to Holden". CBC News. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. + Graham, 33. + Press, Coffeetown (June 16, 2011). "A Reader's Companion to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (Second Edition), by Peter G. Beidler". Coffeetown Press. p. 28. Retrieved August 3, 2022. + Salinger (1969, p. 67) + Salinger (1969, p. 38) + Salinger (1969, p. 160) + Yasuhiro Takeuchi (Fall 2002). "The Burning Carousel and the Carnivalesque: Subversion and Transcendence at the Close of The Catcher in the Rye". Studies in the Novel. Vol. 34, no. 3. pp. 320–337. + Shields, David; Salerno, Shane (2013). Salinger (Hardcover ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. xvi. ASIN 1476744831. The Catcher in the Rye can best be understood as a disguised war novel. Salinger emerged from the war incapable of believing in the heroic, noble ideals we like to think our cultural institutions uphold. Instead of producing a combat novel, like Norman Mailer, James Jones, and Joseph Heller did, Salinger took the trauma of war and embedded it within what looked to the naked eye like a coming-of-age novel. + Stern, James (July 15, 1951). "Aw, the World's a Crumby Place". The New York Times. Retrieved March 18, 2009. + "Academy of Achievement – George H. W. Bush". The American Academy of Achievement. Archived from the original on February 13, 1997. Retrieved June 5, 2009. + Rohrer, Finlo (June 5, 2009). "The why of the Rye". BBC News Magazine. BBC. Retrieved June 5, 2009. + Gopnik, Adam. The New Yorker, February 8, 2010, p. 21 + Pruchnic, Jeff. "Holden at Sixty: Reading Catcher After the Age of Irony." Critical Insights: ------------The Catcher in The Rye (2011): 49–63. Literary Reference Center. Web. February 2, 2015. + Gates, Bill. "The Best Books I Read in 2013". gatesnotes.com. Retrieved August 7, 2017. + "Celebrities Share With PARADE: 'The Book That Changed My Life'". Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays. June 8, 2012. + Yardley, Jonathan (October 19, 2004). "J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 2, 2022. + Dutra, Fernando (September 25, 2006). "U. Connecticut: Banned Book Week celebrates freedom". The America's Intelligence Wire. Archived from the original on February 15, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2007. In 1960 a teacher in Tulsa, Okla. was fired for assigning "The Catcher in the Rye". After appealing, the teacher was reinstated, but the book was removed from the itinerary in the school. + "In Cold Fear: 'The Catcher in the Rye', Censorship, Controversies and Postwar American Character. (Book Review)". Modern Language Review. April 1, 2003. Retrieved December 19, 2007. + Reiff, Raychel Haugrud (2008). J.D. Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye and Other Works. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Corporation. p. 80. ISBN 978-0-7614-2594-6. + Jenkinson, Edward (1982). Censors in the Classroom. Avon Books. p. 35. ISBN 978-0380597901. + Andrychuk, Sylvia (February 17, 2004). "A History of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye" (PDF). p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 28, 2007. During 1981, The Catcher in the Rye had the unusual distinction of being the most frequently censored book in the United States, and, at the same time, the second-most frequently taught novel in American public schools. + ""It's Perfectly Normal" tops ALA's 2005 list of most challenged books". American Library Association. Retrieved March 3, 2015. + "Top ten most frequently challenged books of 2009". American Library Association. Retrieved September 27, 2010. + "Art or trash? It makes for endless, unwinnable debate". The Topeka Capital-Journal. October 6, 1997. Archived from the original on June 6, 2008. Retrieved December 20, 2007. Another perennial target, J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," was challenged in Maine because of the "f" word. + Mydans, Seth (September 3, 1989). "In a Small Town, a Battle Over a Book". The New York Times. p. 2. Retrieved December 20, 2007. + MacIntyre, Ben (September 24, 2005). "The American banned list reveals a society with serious hang-ups". The Times. London. Retrieved December 20, 2007. + Frangedis, Helen (November 1988). "Dealing with the Controversial Elements in The Catcher in the Rye". The English Journal. 77 (7): 72–75. doi:10.2307/818945. JSTOR 818945. The foremost allegation made against Catcher is... that it teaches loose moral codes; that it glorifies... drinking, smoking, lying, promiscuity, and more. + Yilu Zhao (August 31, 2003). "Banned, But Not Forgotten". The New York Times. Retrieved December 20, 2007. The Catcher in the Rye, interpreted by some as encouraging rebellion against authority... + "Banned from the classroom: Censorship and The Catcher in the Rye – English and Drama blog". blogs.bl.uk. Retrieved January 30, 2019. + Whitfield, Stephen (December 1997). "Cherished and Cursed: Toward a Social History of The Catcher in the Rye" (PDF). The New England Quarterly. 70 (4): 567–600. doi:10.2307/366646. JSTOR 366646. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 12, 2012. Retrieved November 2, 2012. + J.D. Salinger. Philadelphia: Chelsea House. 2001. pp. 77–105. ISBN 0-7910-6175-2. + Weeks, Linton (September 10, 2000). "Telling on Dad". Amarillo Globe-News. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved February 12, 2011. + Doyle, Aidan (December 15, 2003). "When books kill". Salon.com. Archived from the original on November 5, 2007. + Harvey Solomon-Brady, WhyNow, "Did The Catcher in the Rye kill John Lennon?," 8 December 2020 + Hamilton, Ian (1988). In Search of J. D. Salinger. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-53468-9. p. 75. + Berg, A. Scott. Goldwyn: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989. ISBN 1-57322-723-4. p. 446. + See Dr. Peter Beidler's A Reader's Companion to J. D. Salinger's the Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 7. + Maynard, Joyce (1998). At Home in the World. New York: Picador. p. 93. ISBN 0-312-19556-7. + "News & Features". IFILM: The Internet Movie Guide. 2004. Archived from the original on September 6, 2004. Retrieved April 5, 2007. + Crowe, Cameron, ed. Conversations with Wilder. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. ISBN 0-375-40660-3. p. 299. + McAllister, David (November 11, 2003). "Will J. D. Salinger sue?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved April 12, 2007. + "Spielberg wanted to film Catcher In The Rye". Irish Examiner. December 5, 2003. Retrieved August 24, 2019. + "Slim chance of Catcher in the Rye movie – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News. ABCnet.au. January 29, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010. + Connelly, Sherryl (January 29, 2010). "Could 'Catcher in the Rye' finally make it to the big screen? Salinger letter suggests yes". Daily News. New York. Retrieved January 30, 2010. + Taylor, Drew (August 3, 2020). "Disney Once Tried to Make an Animated 'Catcher in the Rye' — But Wait, There's More". Collider. Retrieved August 3, 2020. + Gross, Doug (June 3, 2009). "Lawsuit targets 'rip-off' of 'Catcher in the Rye'". CNN. Retrieved June 3, 2009. + Fogel, Karl. Looks like censorship, smells like censorship... maybe it IS censorship?. QuestionCopyright.org. July 7, 2009. + Sutherland, John. How fanfic took over the web London Evening Standard. Retrieved July 22, 2009. + Rebecca Tushnet (1997). "Fan Fiction and a New Common Law". Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Journal. 17. +Bibliography +Graham, Sarah (2007). J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-34452-4. +Rohrer, Finlo (June 5, 2009). "The why of the Rye". BBC News Magazine. BBC. +Salinger, J. D. (1969), The Catcher in the Rye, New York: Bantam +Wahlbrinck, Bernd (2021). Looking Back after 70 Years: J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Revisited. Tumbelweed. ISBN 978-3-9821463-7-9. +Further reading +Steinle, Pamela Hunt (2000). In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character. Ohio State University Press. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved March 29, 2018. +External links + +Wikiquote has quotations related to The Catcher in the Rye. +Book Drum illustrated profile of The Catcher in the Rye Archived September 28, 2016, at the Wayback Machine +Photos of the first edition of Catcher in the Rye +Lawsuit targets "rip-off" of "Catcher in the Rye" – CNN +vte +J. D. Salinger +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Categories: Fiction set in 19491951 American novelsAmerican bildungsromansBook censorship in the Republic of IrelandEnglish-language novelsFiction with unreliable narratorsLiterary realismLittle, Brown and Company booksNovels by J. D. SalingerNovels about American prostitutionNovels set in CaliforniaNovels set in New York CityNovels set in PennsylvaniaNew York City in fictionObscenity controversies in literatureControversies in the United StatesCounterculture of the 1950sCounterculture of the 1960sTrying to prevent adulthood in popular cultureCensored books1951 debut novelsFirst-person narrative novelsNovels first published in serial form +This page was last edited on 16 July 2024, at 19:41 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. +Privacy policyAbout WikipediaDisclaimersContact WikipediaCode of ConductDevelopersStatisticsCookie statementMobile viewWikimedia FoundationPowered by MediaWiki + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Plot summary +Characters +Major themes +Toggle Major themes subsection +Marriage +Wealth +Class +Self-knowledge +Style +Development of the novel +Publication history +Reception +Toggle Reception subsection +19th century +20th century +21st century +Adaptations +Toggle Adaptations subsection +Film, television and theatre +Literature +References +External links +Pride and Prejudice + +Article +Talk +Read +Edit +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Color (beta) + +Automatic + +Light + +Dark +Report an issue with dark mode +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +This article is about the novel. For other uses, see Pride and Prejudice (disambiguation). +Pride and Prejudice + +Title page of the first edition, 1813 +Author Jane Austen +Working title First Impressions +Language English +Genre Classic Regency novel +Romance novel +Set in Hertfordshire and Derbyshire +Publisher T. Egerton, Whitehall +Publication date 28 January 1813 +Publication place United Kingdom +Media type Print (hardback, 3 volumes), digitalized +OCLC 38659585 +Dewey Decimal 823.7 +LC Class PR4034 .P7 +Preceded by Sense and Sensibility +Followed by Mansfield Park +Text Pride and Prejudice at Wikisource +Duration: 4 minutes and 35 seconds.4:35 +LibriVox recording by Karen Savage. +Pride and Prejudice is the second novel by English author Jane Austen, published in 1813. A novel of manners, it follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. + +Mr Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the daughters marry well to support the others, which is a primary motivation driving the plot. + +Pride and Prejudice has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature.[1][2] For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and TV versions of Pride and Prejudice have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences.[3] + +Plot summary + +Mr Darcy says Elizabeth is "not handsome enough to tempt him" to dance. (Artist: C.E. Brock, 1895) +In the early 19th century, the Bennet family live at their Longbourn estate, situated near the village of Meryton in Hertfordshire, England. Mrs Bennet's greatest desire is to marry off her five daughters to secure their futures. + +The arrival of Mr Bingley, a rich bachelor who rents the neighbouring Netherfield estate, gives her hope that one of her daughters might contract an advantageous marriage, because "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife". + +At a ball, the family is introduced to the Netherfield party, including Mr Bingley, his two sisters and Mr Darcy, his dearest friend. Mr Bingley's friendly and cheerful manner earns him popularity among the guests. He appears interested in Jane, the eldest Bennet daughter. Mr Darcy, reputed to be twice as wealthy as Mr Bingley, is haughty and aloof, causing a decided dislike of him. He declines to dance with Elizabeth, the second-eldest Bennet daughter, as she is "not handsome enough". Although she jokes about it with her friend, Elizabeth is deeply offended. Despite this first impression, Mr Darcy secretly begins to find himself drawn to Elizabeth as they continue to encounter each other at social events, appreciating her wit and frankness. + +Mr Collins, the heir to the Longbourn estate, visits the Bennet family with the intention of finding a wife among the five girls under the advice of his patroness Lady Catherine de Bourgh, also revealed to be Mr Darcy's aunt. He decides to pursue Elizabeth. The Bennet family meet the charming army officer George Wickham, who tells Elizabeth in confidence about Mr Darcy's unpleasant treatment of him in the past. Elizabeth, blinded by her prejudice toward Mr Darcy, believes him. + +Elizabeth dances with Mr Darcy at a ball, where Mrs Bennet hints loudly that she expects Jane and Bingley to become engaged. Elizabeth rejects Mr Collins' marriage proposal, to her mother's fury and her father's relief. Mr Collins subsequently proposes to Charlotte Lucas, a friend of Elizabeth, and is accepted. + +Having heard Mrs Bennet's words at the ball and disapproving of the marriage, Mr Darcy joins Mr Bingley in a trip to London and, with the help of his sisters, persuades him not to return to Netherfield. A heartbroken Jane visits her Aunt and Uncle Gardiner in London to raise her spirits, while Elizabeth's hatred for Mr Darcy grows as she suspects he was responsible for Mr Bingley's departure. + + +Elizabeth tells her father that Darcy was responsible for uniting Lydia and Wickham, in one of the two earliest illustrations of Pride and Prejudice.[4] The clothing styles reflect the time the illustration was engraved (the 1830s), not the time in which the novel was written or set. +In the spring, Elizabeth visits Charlotte and Mr Collins in Kent. Elizabeth and her hosts are invited to Rosings Park, Lady Catherine's home. Mr Darcy and his cousin, Colonel Fitzwilliam, are also visiting Rosings Park. Fitzwilliam tells Elizabeth how Mr Darcy recently saved a friend, presumably Bingley, from an undesirable match. Elizabeth realises that the prevented engagement was to Jane. + +Mr Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, declaring his love for her despite her low social connections. She is shocked, as she was unaware of Mr Darcy's interest, and rejects him angrily, saying that he is the last person she would ever marry and that she could never love a man who caused her sister such unhappiness; she further accuses him of treating Wickham unjustly. Mr Darcy brags about his success in separating Bingley and Jane and sarcastically dismisses the accusation regarding Wickham without addressing it. + +The next day, Mr Darcy gives Elizabeth a letter, explaining that Wickham, the son of his late father's steward, had refused the "living" his father had arranged for him and was instead given money for it. Wickham quickly squandered the money and tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister, Georgiana, for her considerable dowry. Mr Darcy also writes that he separated Jane and Bingley because he believed her indifferent to Bingley and because of the lack of propriety displayed by her family. Elizabeth is ashamed by her family's behaviour and her own prejudice against Mr Darcy. + +Months later, Elizabeth accompanies the Gardiners on a tour of Derbyshire. They visit Pemberley, Darcy's estate. When Mr Darcy returns unexpectedly, he is exceedingly gracious with Elizabeth and the Gardiners. Elizabeth is surprised by Darcy's behaviour and grows fond of him, even coming to regret rejecting his proposal. She receives news that her sister Lydia has run off with Wickham. She tells Mr Darcy, then departs in haste. After an agonising interim, Wickham agrees to marry Lydia. Lydia and Wickham visit the Bennet family at Longbourn, where Lydia tells Elizabeth that Mr Darcy was at her wedding. Though Mr Darcy had sworn everyone involved to secrecy, Mrs Gardiner now feels obliged to inform Elizabeth that he secured the match, at great expense and trouble to himself. + +Mr Bingley and Mr Darcy return to Netherfield. Jane accepts Mr Bingley's proposal. Lady Catherine, having heard rumours that Elizabeth intends to marry Mr Darcy, visits her and demands she promise never to accept Mr Darcy's proposal, as she and Darcy's late mother had already planned his marriage to her daughter Anne. Elizabeth refuses and asks the outraged Lady Catherine to leave. Darcy, heartened by his aunt's indignant relaying of Elizabeth's response, again proposes to her and is accepted. + +Characters +Character genealogy + +Scenes from Pride and Prejudice, by C. E. Brock (c. 1885) + +Elizabeth and Mr Darcy by Hugh Thomson, 1894 +Elizabeth Bennet – the second-eldest of the Bennet daughters, she is attractive, witty and intelligent – but with a tendency to form tenacious and prejudiced first impressions. As the story progresses, so does her relationship with Mr Darcy. The course of Elizabeth and Darcy's relationship is ultimately decided when Darcy overcomes his pride, and Elizabeth overcomes her prejudice, leading them both to surrender to their love for each other. +Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy – Mr Bingley's friend and the wealthy owner of the estate of Pemberley in Derbyshire, said to be worth at least £10,000 a year. Although he is handsome, tall, and intelligent, Darcy lacks ease and social graces, so others frequently mistake his initially haughty reserve as proof of excessive pride. A new visitor to the Meryton setting of the novel, he is ultimately Elizabeth Bennet's love interest. Though he appears to be proud and is largely disliked by people for this reason, his servants vouch for his kindness and decency. +Mr Bennet – A logical and reasonable late-middle-aged landed gentleman of a more modest income of £2,000 per annum, and the dryly sarcastic patriarch of the Bennet family, with five unmarried daughters. His estate, Longbourn, is entailed to the male line. His affection for his wife wore off early in their marriage and is now reduced to mere toleration. He is often described as 'indolent' in the novel. +Mrs Bennet (née Gardiner) – the middle-aged wife of Mr Bennet, and the mother of their five daughters. Mrs Bennet is a hypochondriac who imagines herself susceptible to attacks of tremors and palpitations (her "poor nerves") whenever things are not going her way. Her main ambition in life is to marry her daughters off to wealthy men. Whether or not any such matches will give her daughters happiness is of little concern to her. She was settled a dowry of £4,000 from her father. + +In a letter to Cassandra dated May 1813, Jane Austen describes a picture she saw at a gallery which was a good likeness of "Mrs Bingley" – Jane Bennet. Deirdre Le Faye in The World of Her Novels suggests that "Portrait of Mrs Q" is the picture Austen was referring to. (pp. 201–203) +Jane Bennet – the eldest Bennet sister. She is considered the most beautiful young lady in the neighbourhood and is inclined to see only the good in others (but can be persuaded otherwise on sufficient evidence). She falls in love with Charles Bingley, a rich young gentleman recently moved to Hertfordshire and a close friend of Mr Darcy. +Mary Bennet – the middle Bennet sister, and the plainest of her siblings. Mary has a serious disposition and mostly reads and plays music, although she is often impatient to display her accomplishments and is rather vain about them. She frequently moralises to her family. According to James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen, Mary ended up marrying one of her Uncle Philips' law clerks and moving into Meryton with him. +Catherine "Kitty" Bennet – the fourth Bennet daughter. Though older than Lydia, she is her shadow and follows her in her pursuit of the officers of the militia. She is often portrayed as envious of Lydia and is described as a "silly" young woman. However, it is said that she improved when removed from Lydia's influence. According to James Edward Austen-Leigh's A Memoir of Jane Austen, Kitty later married a clergyman who lived near Pemberley. +Lydia Bennet – the youngest Bennet sister. She is frivolous and headstrong. Her main activity in life is socialising, especially flirting with the officers of the militia. This leads to her running off with George Wickham, although he has no intention of marrying her. Lydia shows no regard for the moral code of her society; as Ashley Tauchert says, she "feels without reasoning".[5] + +Charles Bingley – a handsome, amiable, wealthy young gentleman around the age of 22 from the north of England, who leases Netherfield Park, an estate three miles from Longbourn, with the hopes of purchasing it. He is contrasted with Mr Darcy for having more generally pleasing manners, although he is reliant on his more experienced friend for advice. An example of this is the prevention of Bingley and Jane's romance because of Bingley's undeniable dependence on Darcy's opinion.[6] He lacks resolve and is easily influenced by others; his two sisters, Miss Caroline Bingley and Mrs Louisa Hurst, both disapprove of Bingley's growing affection for Miss Jane Bennet. He inherited a fortune of £100,000.[7] + +Caroline Bingley – the vainglorious, snobbish sister of Charles Bingley, with a fortune of £20,000. Miss Bingley harbours designs upon Mr Darcy, and therefore is jealous of his growing attachment to Elizabeth. She attempts to dissuade Mr Darcy from liking Elizabeth by ridiculing the Bennet family and criticising Elizabeth's comportment. Miss Bingley also disapproves of her brother's esteem for Jane Bennet, and is disdainful of society in Meryton. Her wealth and her expensive education seem to be the two greatest sources of Miss Bingley's vanity and conceit; likewise, she is very insecure about the fact that her and her family's money all comes from trade, and is eager both for her brother to purchase an estate, elevating the Bingleys to the ranks of the gentry, and for herself to marry a landed gentleman. The dynamic between Miss Bingley and her sister, Louisa Hurst, seems to echo that of Lydia and Kitty Bennet, and of Mrs Bennet and Mrs Phillips, in that one sister of the pair is no more than a follower of the other. Louisa is married to Mr Hurst, who has a house in Grosvenor Square, London. +George Wickham – Wickham has been acquainted with Mr Darcy since infancy, being the son of Mr Darcy's father's steward. An officer in the militia, he is superficially charming and rapidly forms an attachment with Elizabeth Bennet. He later runs off with Lydia with no intention of marriage, which would have resulted in her and her family's complete disgrace, but for Darcy's intervention to bribe Wickham to marry her by paying off his immediate debts. +Mr William Collins – Mr Collins is Mr Bennet's distant second cousin, a clergyman, and the current heir presumptive to his estate of Longbourn House. He is an obsequious and pompous man, prone to making long and tedious speeches, who is excessively devoted to his patroness, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. +Lady Catherine de Bourgh – the overbearing aunt of Mr Darcy. Lady Catherine is the wealthy owner of Rosings Park, where she resides with her daughter Anne and is fawned upon by her rector, Mr Collins. She is haughty, pompous, domineering, and condescending and has long planned to marry off her sickly daughter to Darcy to 'unite their two great estates', claiming it to be the dearest wish of both her and her late sister, Lady Anne Darcy (née Fitzwilliam). +Mr Edward Gardiner and Mrs Gardiner – Edward Gardiner is Mrs Bennet's brother and a successful tradesman of sensible and gentlemanly character. Aunt Gardiner is genteel and elegant and is close to her nieces Jane and Elizabeth. The Gardiners are the parents of four children. They are instrumental in bringing about the marriage between Darcy and Elizabeth. + +Georgiana Darcy – Georgiana is Mr Darcy's quiet, amiable and shy younger sister, with a dowry of £30,000, and is aged barely 16 when the story begins. When still 15, Miss Darcy almost eloped with Mr Wickham but was saved by her brother, whom she idolises. Thanks to years of tutelage under masters, she is accomplished at the piano, singing, playing the harp, drawing, and modern languages and is therefore described as Caroline Bingley's idea of an "accomplished woman". + +Charlotte Lucas – Charlotte is Elizabeth's friend who, at 27 years old (and thus beyond what was then considered prime marriageable age), fears becoming a burden to her family and therefore readily agrees to marry Mr Collins to gain financial security, having seized the opportunity to claim his attentions after Elizabeth turns down his proposal. Though the novel stresses the importance of love and understanding in marriage, Austen never seems to condemn Charlotte's decision to marry for security. She uses Charlotte to convey how women of her time would adhere to society's expectation for women to marry even if it is not out of love, but convenience.[8] Charlotte is the daughter of Sir William Lucas and Lady Lucas, neighbours of the Bennet family. +Colonel Fitzwilliam – Colonel Fitzwilliam is the younger son of an earl and the nephew of Lady Catherine de Bourgh and Lady Anne Darcy; this makes him the cousin of Anne de Bourgh and the Darcy siblings, Fitzwilliam and Georgiana. He is about 30 years old at the beginning of the novel. He is the coguardian of Miss Georgiana Darcy, along with his cousin, Mr Darcy. According to Colonel Fitzwilliam, as a younger son, he cannot marry without thought to his prospective bride's dowry. + +Diagram showing relationships among the principal characters of Pride and Prejudice +Major themes +Many critics take the title as the start when analysing the themes of Pride and Prejudice but Robert Fox cautions against reading too much into the title (which was initially First Impressions), because commercial factors may have played a role in its selection. "After the success of Sense and Sensibility, nothing would have seemed more natural than to bring out another novel of the same author using again the formula of antithesis and alliteration for the title." + +The qualities of the title are not exclusively assigned to one or the other of the protagonists; both Elizabeth and Darcy display pride and prejudice."[9] The phrase "pride and prejudice" had been used over the preceding two centuries by Joseph Hall, Jeremy Taylor, Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson.[10][11] Austen is thought to have taken her title from a passage in Fanny Burney's Cecilia (1782), a novel she is known to have admired: + +"The whole of this unfortunate business," said Dr Lyster, "has been the result of PRIDE and PREJUDICE. […] if to PRIDE and PREJUDICE you owe your miseries, so wonderfully is good and evil balanced, that to PRIDE and PREJUDICE you will also owe their termination."[11][12] (capitalisation as in the original) + +A theme in much of Austen's work is the importance of environment and upbringing in developing young people's character and morality.[13] Social standing and wealth are not necessarily advantages in her works, and a further theme common to Austen's work is ineffectual parents. In Pride and Prejudice, the failure of Mr and Mrs Bennet as parents is blamed for Lydia's lack of moral judgment. Darcy has been taught to be principled and scrupulously honourable but he is also proud and overbearing.[13] Kitty, rescued from Lydia's bad influence and spending more time with her older sisters after they marry, is said to improve greatly in their superior society.[14] + +The American novelist Anna Quindlen observed in an introduction to an edition of Austen's novel in 1995: + +Pride and Prejudice is also about that thing that all great novels consider, the search for self. And it is the first great novel that teaches us this search is as surely undertaken in the drawing room making small talk as in the pursuit of a great white whale or the public punishment of adultery.[15] + +Marriage +The opening line of the novel announces: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."[16] This sets marriage as a motif and a problem in the novel. Readers are poised to question whether or not these single men need a wife, or if the need is dictated by the "neighbourhood" families and their daughters who require a "good fortune". + +Marriage is a complex social activity that takes political and financial economy into account. In the case of Charlotte Lucas, the seeming success of her marriage lies in the comfortable financial circumstances of their household, while the relationship between Mr and Mrs Bennet serves to illustrate bad marriages based on an initial attraction and surface over substance (economic and psychological). + +The Bennets' marriage is an example that the youngest Bennet, Lydia, re-enacts with Wickham and the results are far from felicitous. Although the central characters, Elizabeth and Darcy, begin the novel as hostile acquaintances and unlikely friends, they eventually work toward a better understanding of themselves and each other, which frees them to truly fall in love. This does not eliminate the challenges of the real differences in their technically equivalent social status as gentry and their female relations. It does however provide them with a better understanding of each other's point of view from the different ends of the rather wide scale of differences within that category. + +When Elizabeth rejects Darcy's first proposal, the argument of marrying for love is introduced. Elizabeth only accepts Darcy's proposal when she is certain she loves him and her feelings are reciprocated.[17] Austen's complex sketching of different marriages ultimately allows readers to question what forms of alliance are desirable especially when it comes to privileging economic, sexual, or companionate attraction.[18] + +Wealth +Money plays a fundamental role in the marriage market, for the young ladies seeking a well-off husband and for men who wish to marry a woman of means. George Wickham tries to elope with Georgiana Darcy, and Colonel Fitzwilliam states that he will marry someone with wealth. + +Marrying a woman of a rich family also ensured a linkage to a higher-class family, as is visible in the desires of Bingley's sisters to have their brother married to Georgiana Darcy. Mrs Bennet is frequently seen encouraging her daughters to marry a wealthy man of high social class. In chapter 1, when Mr Bingley arrives, she declares "I am thinking of his marrying one of them".[19] + +Inheritance was by descent but could be further restricted by entailment, which in the case of the Longbourn estate restricted inheritance to male heirs only. In the case of the Bennet family, Mr Collins was to inherit the family estate upon Mr Bennet's death in the absence of any closer male heirs, and his proposal to Elizabeth would have ensured her security; but she refuses his offer. + +Inheritance laws benefited males because married women did not have independent legal rights until the second half of the 19th century. For the upper-middle and aristocratic classes, marriage to a man with a reliable income was almost the only route to security for the woman and the children she was to have.[20] The irony of the opening line is that generally within this society it would be a woman who would be looking for a wealthy husband to have a prosperous life.[21] + +Class + +Lady Catherine and Elizabeth by C. E. Brock, 1895 + +Lady Catherine confronts Elizabeth about Darcy, on the title page of the first illustrated edition. This is the other of the first two illustrations of the novel. +Austen might be known now for her "romances" but the marriages in her novels engage with economics and class distinction. Pride and Prejudice is hardly the exception. + +When Darcy proposes to Elizabeth, he cites their economic and social differences as an obstacle his excessive love has had to overcome, though he still anxiously harps on the problems it poses for him within his social circle. His aunt, Lady Catherine, later characterises these differences in particularly harsh terms when she conveys what Elizabeth's marriage to Darcy will become, "Will the shades of Pemberley be thus polluted?" Although Elizabeth responds to Lady Catherine's accusations that hers is a potentially contaminating economic and social position (Elizabeth even insists she and Darcy, as gentleman's daughter and gentleman, are "equals"), Lady Catherine refuses to accept the possibility of Darcy's marriage to Elizabeth. However, as the novel closes, "…through curiosity to see how his wife conducted herself", Lady Catherine condescends to visit them at Pemberley.[22] + +The Bingleys present a particular problem for navigating class. Though Caroline Bingley and Mrs Hurst behave and speak of others as if they have always belonged in the upper echelons of society, Austen makes it clear that the Bingley fortunes stem from trade. The fact that Bingley rents Netherfield Hall – it is, after all, "to let" – distinguishes him significantly from Darcy, whose estate belonged to his father's family and who through his mother is the grandson and nephew of an earl. Bingley, unlike Darcy, does not own his property but has portable and growing wealth that makes him a good catch on the marriage market for poorer daughters of the gentry, like Jane Bennet, or of ambitious merchants. Class plays a central role in the evolution of the characters and Jane Austen's radical approach to class is seen as the plot unfolds.[23] + +An undercurrent of the old Anglo-Norman upper class is hinted at in the story, as suggested by the names of Fitzwilliam Darcy and his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh; Fitzwilliam, D'Arcy, de Bourgh (Burke), and even Bennet, are traditional Norman surnames.[24] + +Self-knowledge +Through their interactions and their critiques of each other, Darcy and Elizabeth come to recognise their faults and work to correct them. Elizabeth meditates on her own mistakes thoroughly in chapter 36: + +"How despicably have I acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities! who have often disdained the generous candour of my sister, and gratified my vanity in useless or blameable distrust. How humiliating is this discovery! yet, how just a humiliation! Had I been in love, I could not have been more wretchedly blind. But vanity, not love, has been my folly. Pleased with the preference of one, and offended by the neglect of the other, on the very beginning of our acquaintance, I have courted prepossession and ignorance, and driven reason away, where either were concerned. Till this moment I never knew myself."[25] + +Other characters rarely exhibit this depth of understanding or at least are not given the space within the novel for this sort of development. + +Tanner writes that Mrs Bennet in particular, "has a very limited view of the requirements of that performance; lacking any introspective tendencies she is incapable of appreciating the feelings of others and is only aware of material objects".[26] Mrs Bennet's behaviour reflects the society in which she lives, as she knows that her daughters will not succeed if they do not get married. "The business of her life was to get her daughters married: its solace was visiting and news."[27] This shows that Mrs Bennet is only aware of "material objects" and not of her feelings and emotions.[28] + +A notable exception is Charlotte Lucas, Elizabeth Bennet's close friend and confidant. She accepts Mr Collins's proposal of marriage once Lizzie rejects him, not out of sentiment but acute awareness of her circumstances as "one of a large family". Charlotte's decision is reflective of her prudent nature and awareness. + +Style +Pride and Prejudice, like most of Austen's works, employs the narrative technique of free indirect speech, which has been defined as "the free representation of a character's speech, by which one means, not words actually spoken by a character, but the words that typify the character's thoughts, or the way the character would think or speak, if she thought or spoke".[29] + +Austen creates her characters with fully developed personalities and unique voices. Though Darcy and Elizabeth are very alike, they are also considerably different.[30] By using narrative that adopts the tone and vocabulary of a particular character (in this case, Elizabeth), Austen invites the reader to follow events from Elizabeth's viewpoint, sharing her prejudices and misapprehensions. "The learning curve, while undergone by both protagonists, is disclosed to us solely through Elizabeth's point of view and her free indirect speech is essential ... for it is through it that we remain caught, if not stuck, within Elizabeth's misprisions."[29] + +The few times the reader is allowed to gain further knowledge of another character's feelings, is through the letters exchanged in this novel. Darcy's first letter to Elizabeth is an example of this as through his letter, the reader and Elizabeth are both given knowledge of Wickham's true character. + +Austen is known to use irony throughout the novel especially from viewpoint of the character of Elizabeth Bennet. She conveys the "oppressive rules of femininity that actually dominate her life and work, and are covered by her beautifully carved trojan horse of ironic distance."[5] Beginning with a historical investigation of the development of a particular literary form and then transitioning into empirical verifications, it reveals free indirect discourse as a tool that emerged over time as practical means for addressing the physical distinctness of minds. Seen in this way, free indirect discourse is a distinctly literary response to an environmental concern, providing a scientific justification that does not reduce literature to a mechanical extension of biology, but takes its value to be its own original form.[31] + +Development of the novel + +Page 2 of a letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra (11 June 1799) in which she first mentions Pride and Prejudice, using its working title First Impressions. +Austen began writing the novel after staying at Goodnestone Park in Kent with her brother Edward and his wife in 1796.[32] It was originally titled First Impressions, and was written between October 1796 and August 1797.[33] On 1 November 1797 Austen's father sent a letter to London bookseller Thomas Cadell to ask if he had any interest in seeing the manuscript, but the offer was declined by return post.[34] + +The militia were mobilised after the French declaration of war on Britain in February 1793, and there was initially a lack of barracks for all the militia regiments, requiring the militia to set up huge camps in the countryside, which the novel refers to several times.[35]: 57  The Brighton camp for which the militia regiment leaves in May after spending the winter in Meryton was opened in August 1793, and the barracks for all the regiments of the militia were completed by 1796, placing the events of the novel between 1793 and 1795.[35]: 56–57  + +Austen made significant revisions to the manuscript for First Impressions between 1811 and 1812.[33] As nothing remains of the original manuscript, study of the first drafts of the novel is reduced to conjecture. From the large number of letters in the final novel, it is assumed that First Impressions was an epistolary novel.[36] + +She later renamed the story Pride and Prejudice around 1811/1812, when she sold the rights to publish the manuscript to Thomas Egerton for £110[37] (equivalent to £9,300 in 2023). In renaming the novel, Austen probably had in mind the "sufferings and oppositions" summarised in the final chapter of Fanny Burney's Cecilia, called "Pride and Prejudice", where the phrase appears three times in block capitals.[13] + +It is possible that the novel's original title was altered to avoid confusion with other works. In the years between the completion of First Impressions and its revision into Pride and Prejudice, two other works had been published under that name: a novel by Margaret Holford and a comedy by Horace Smith.[34] + +Publication history + +Title page of a 1907 edition illustrated by C. E. Brock +Austen sold the copyright for the novel to Thomas Egerton from the Military Library, Whitehall in exchange for £110 (Austen had asked for £150).[38] This proved a costly decision. Austen had published Sense and Sensibility on a commission basis, whereby she indemnified the publisher against any losses and received any profits, less costs and the publisher's commission. Unaware that Sense and Sensibility would sell out its edition, making her £140,[34] she passed the copyright to Egerton for a one-off payment, meaning that all the risk (and all the profits) would be his. Jan Fergus has calculated that Egerton subsequently made around £450 from just the first two editions of the book.[39] + +Egerton published the first edition of Pride and Prejudice in three hardcover volumes on 28 January 1813.[40] It was advertised in The Morning Chronicle, priced at 18s.[33] Favourable reviews saw this edition sold out, with a second edition published in October that year. A third edition was published in 1817.[38] + +Foreign language translations first appeared in 1813 in French; subsequent translations were published in German, Danish, and Swedish.[41] Pride and Prejudice was first published in the United States in August 1832 as Elizabeth Bennet or, Pride and Prejudice.[38] The novel was also included in Richard Bentley's Standard Novel series in 1833. R. W. Chapman's scholarly edition of Pride and Prejudice, first published in 1923, has become the standard edition on which many modern published versions of the novel are based.[38] + +The novel was originally published anonymously, as were all of Austen's novels. However, whereas her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility was presented as being written "by a Lady," Pride and Prejudice was attributed to "the Author of Sense and Sensibility". This began to consolidate a conception of Austen as an author, albeit anonymously. Her subsequent novels were similarly attributed to the anonymous author of all her then-published works. + +Reception +Main article: Reception history of Jane Austen +19th century +The novel was well received, with three favourable reviews in the first months following publication.[39] Anne Isabella Milbanke, later to be the wife of Lord Byron, called it "the fashionable novel".[39] Noted critic and reviewer George Henry Lewes declared that he "would rather have written Pride and Prejudice, or Tom Jones, than any of the Waverley Novels".[42] + +Throughout the 19th century, not all reviews of the work were positive. Charlotte Brontë, in a letter to Lewes, wrote that Pride and Prejudice was a disappointment, "a carefully fenced, highly cultivated garden, with neat borders and delicate flowers; but [...] no open country, no fresh air, no blue hill, no bonny beck".[42][43] Along with her, Mark Twain was overwhelmingly negative of the work. He stated, "Everytime I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig [Austen] up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone."[44] + +Austen for her part thought the "playfulness and epigrammaticism" of Pride and Prejudice was excessive, complaining in a letter to her sister Cassandra in 1813 that the novel lacked "shade" and should have had a chapter "of solemn specious nonsense, about something unconnected with the story; an essay on writing, a critique on Walter Scott or the history of Buonaparté".[45] + +Walter Scott wrote in his journal, "Read again and for the third time at least, Miss Austen's very finely written novel of Pride and Prejudice."[46] + +20th century +You could not shock her more than she shocks me, +Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass. +It makes me most uncomfortable to see +An English spinster of the middle class +Describe the amorous effects of 'brass', +Reveal so frankly and with such sobriety +The economic basis of society. + +W. H. Auden (1937) on Austen[42] + +The American scholar Claudia L. Johnson defended the novel from the criticism that it has an unrealistic fairy-tale quality.[47] One critic, Mary Poovey, wrote that the "romantic conclusion" of Pride and Prejudice is an attempt to hedge the conflict between the "individualistic perspective inherent in the bourgeois value system and the authoritarian hierarchy retained from traditional, paternalistic society".[47] Johnson wrote that Austen's view of a power structure capable of reformation was not an "escape" from conflict.[47] Johnson wrote the "outrageous unconventionality" of Elizabeth Bennet was in Austen's own time very daring, especially given the strict censorship that was imposed in Britain by the Prime Minister, William Pitt, in the 1790s when Austen wrote Pride and Prejudice.[47] + +21st century +In 2003 the BBC conducted a poll for the "UK's Best-Loved Book" in which Pride and Prejudice came second, behind The Lord of the Rings.[48] +In a 2008 survey of more than 15,000 Australian readers, Pride and Prejudice came first in a list of the 101 best books ever written.[49] +The 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice on 28 January 2013 was celebrated around the globe by media networks such as the Huffington Post, The New York Times, and The Daily Telegraph, among others.[50][51][52][53][54][55][56] +Adaptations +Film, television and theatre +See also: Jane Austen in popular culture – Pride and Prejudice +Numerous screen adaptations have contributed in popularising Pride and Prejudice.[57] + +The first television adaptation of the novel, written by Michael Barry, was produced in 1938 by the BBC. It is a lost television broadcast.[57] Some of the notable film versions include the 1940 Academy Award-winning film, starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier[58] (based in part on Helen Jerome's 1935 stage adaptation) and that of 2005, starring Keira Knightley (an Oscar-nominated performance) and Matthew Macfadyen.[59] Television versions include two by the BBC: a 1980 version starring Elizabeth Garvie and David Rintoul and a 1995 version, starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. + +A stage version created by Helen Jerome premiered at the Music Box Theatre in New York in 1935, starring Adrianne Allen and Colin Keith-Johnston, and opened at the St James's Theatre in London in 1936, starring Celia Johnson and Hugh Williams. First Impressions was a 1959 Broadway musical version starring Polly Bergen, Farley Granger, and Hermione Gingold.[60] In 1995, a musical concept album was written by Bernard J. Taylor, with Claire Moore in the role of Elizabeth Bennet and Peter Karrie in the role of Mr Darcy.[61] A new stage production, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, The New Musical, was presented in concert on 21 October 2008 in Rochester, New York, with Colin Donnell as Darcy.[62] The Swedish composer Daniel Nelson based his 2011 opera Stolthet och fördom on Pride and Prejudice.[63] Works inspired by the book include Bride and Prejudice and Trishna (1985 Hindi TV series). + +The Lizzie Bennet Diaries – which premiered on a dedicated YouTube channel on 9 April 2012,[64] and concluded on 28 March 2013[65] – is an Emmy award-winning web-series[66] which recounts the story via vlogs recorded primarily by the Bennet sisters.[67][68] It was created by Hank Green and Bernie Su.[69] + +In 2018, part of the storyline of the Brazilian soap opera "Orgulho e Paixão", aired on TV Globo, was inspired by the book. The soap opera was also inspired by other works of Jane Austen. It features actors, Nathalia Dill, Thiago Lacerda, Agatha Moreira, Rodrigo Simas, Gabriela Duarte, Marcelo Faria [pt], Alessandra Negrini, and Natália do Vale.[70] + +Fire Island is a movie written by Joel Kim Booster that reimagines Pride and Prejudice as a gay drama set on the quintessential gay vacation destination of Fire Island. Booster describes the movie "as an unapologetic and modern twist on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice."[71] The movie was released in June 2022 and features a main cast of Asian-American actors. + +Literature +Main article: List of literary adaptations of Pride and Prejudice +The novel has inspired a number of other works that are not direct adaptations. Books inspired by Pride and Prejudice include the following: + +Mr Darcy's Daughters and The Exploits and Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy by Elizabeth Aston +Darcy's Story (a best seller) and Dialogue with Darcy by Janet Aylmer +Pemberley: Or Pride and Prejudice Continued and An Unequal Marriage: Or Pride and Prejudice Twenty Years Later by Emma Tennant +The Book of Ruth by Helen Baker +Jane Austen Ruined My Life and Mr Darcy Broke My Heart by Beth Pattillo +Precipitation – A Continuation of Miss Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice by Helen Baker +Searching for Pemberley by Mary Simonsen +Mr Darcy Takes a Wife and its sequel Darcy & Elizabeth: Nights and Days at Pemberley by Linda Berdoll +In Gwyn Cready's comedic romance novel, Seducing Mr Darcy, the heroine lands in Pride and Prejudice by way of magic massage, has a fling with Darcy and unknowingly changes the rest of the story.[72] + +Abigail Reynolds is the author of seven Regency-set variations on Pride and Prejudice. Her Pemberley Variations series includes Mr Darcy's Obsession, To Conquer Mr Darcy, What Would Mr Darcy Do and Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World. Her modern adaptation, The Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice, is set on Cape Cod.[73] + +Bella Breen is the author of nine variations on Pride and Prejudice. Pride and Prejudice and Poison, Four Months to Wed, Forced to Marry and The Rescue of Elizabeth Bennet.[74] + +Helen Fielding's 1996 novel Bridget Jones's Diary is also based on Pride and Prejudice; the feature film of Fielding's work, released in 2001, stars Colin Firth, who had played Mr Darcy in the successful 1990s TV adaptation. + +In March 2009, Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies takes Austen's work and mashes it up with zombie hordes, cannibalism, ninja and ultraviolent mayhem.[75] In March 2010, Quirk Books published a prequel by Steve Hockensmith that deals with Elizabeth Bennet's early days as a zombie hunter, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls.[76] The 2016 film of Grahame-Smith's adaptation was released starring Lily James, Sam Riley and Matt Smith. + +In 2011, author Mitzi Szereto expanded on the novel in Pride and Prejudice: Hidden Lusts, a historical sex parody that parallels the original plot and writing style of Jane Austen. + +Marvel has also published their take on this classic by releasing a short comic series of five issues that stays true to the original storyline. The first issue was published on 1 April 2009 and was written by Nancy Hajeski.[77] It was published as a graphic novel in 2010 with artwork by Hugo Petrus. + +Pamela Aidan is the author of a trilogy of books telling the story of Pride and Prejudice from Mr Darcy's point of view: Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman. The books are An Assembly Such as This,[78] Duty and Desire[79] and These Three Remain.[80] + +Detective novel author P. D. James has written a book titled Death Comes to Pemberley, which is a murder mystery set six years after Elizabeth and Darcy's marriage.[81] + +Sandra Lerner's sequel to Pride and Prejudice, Second Impressions, develops the story and imagined what might have happened to the original novel's characters. It is written in the style of Austen after extensive research into the period and language and published in 2011 under the pen name of Ava Farmer.[82] + +Jo Baker's bestselling 2013 novel Longbourn imagines the lives of the servants of Pride and Prejudice.[83] A cinematic adaptation of Longbourn was due to start filming in late 2018, directed by Sharon Maguire, who also directed Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones's Baby, screenplay by Jessica Swale, produced by Random House Films and StudioCanal.[84] The novel was also adapted for radio, appearing on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, abridged by Sara Davies and read by Sophie Thompson. It was first broadcast in May 2014; and again on Radio 4 Extra in September 2018.[85] + +In the novel Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld sets the characters of Pride and Prejudice in modern-day Cincinnati, where the Bennet parents, erstwhile Cincinnati social climbers, have fallen on hard times. Elizabeth, a successful and independent New York journalist, and her single older sister Jane must intervene to salvage the family's financial situation and get their unemployed adult sisters to move out of the house and onward in life. In the process they encounter Chip Bingley, a young doctor and reluctant reality TV celebrity, and his medical school classmate, Fitzwilliam Darcy, a cynical neurosurgeon.[86][87] + +Pride and Prejudice has also inspired works of scientific writing. In 2010, scientists named a pheromone identified in male mouse urine darcin,[88] after Mr Darcy, because it strongly attracted females. In 2016, a scientific paper published in the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease speculated that Mrs Bennet may have been a carrier of a rare genetic disease, explaining why the Bennets didn't have any sons, and why some of the Bennet sisters are so silly.[89] + +In summer 2014, Udon Entertainment's Manga Classics line published a manga adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.[90] + +References + "Monstersandcritics.com". Monstersandcritics.com. 7 May 2009. Archived from the original on 26 October 2009. Retrieved 27 January 2012. + "Austen power: 200 years of Pride and Prejudice". The Independent. 19 January 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2018. + Looser, Devoney (2017). The Making of Jane Austen. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-1421422824. + Janet M. Todd (2005), Books.Google.com, Jane Austen in Context, Cambridge University Press p. 127 + Tauchert, Ashley (2003). "Mary Wollstonecraft and Jane Austen: 'Rape' and 'Love' as (Feminist) Social Realism and Romance". Women. 14 (2): 144. doi:10.1080/09574040310107. S2CID 170233564. + No love for Lydia: The fate of desire in Pride and Prejudice Allen DW 1985. + Austen, Jane (5 August 2010). Pride and Prejudice. Oxford University Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-19-278986-0. + Rothman, Joshua (7 February 2013). "On Charlotte Lucas's Choice". The New Yorker. Retrieved 13 August 2020. + Fox, Robert C. (September 1962). "Elizabeth Bennet: Prejudice or Vanity?". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 17 (2): 185–187. doi:10.2307/2932520. JSTOR 2932520. + "pride, n.1". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.) + Dexter, Gary (10 August 2008). "How Pride And Prejudice got its name". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022. Retrieved 27 April 2015. + Burney, Fanny (1782). Cecilia: Or, Memoirs of an Heiress. T. Payne and son and T. Cadell. pp. 379–380. + Pinion, F B (1973). A Jane Austen. Companion. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-12489-5. + Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, Ch 61. + Quindlen, Anna (1995). Introduction. Pride and Prejudice. By Austen, Jane. New York: Modern Library. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-679-60168-5. + Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, Ch 1. + Gao, Haiyan (February 2013). "Jane Austen's Ideal Man in Pride and Prejudice". Theory and Practice in Language Studies. 3 (2): 384–388. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.2.384-388. + Schmidt, Katrin (2004). The role of marriage in Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' (thesis). University of Münster. ISBN 9783638849210. compare the different kinds of marriages described in the novel + Austen, Jane (1813). Pride and Prejudice. p. 3. + Chung, Ching-Yi (July 2013). "Gender and class oppression in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice". IRWLE. 9 (2). + Bhattacharyya, Jibesh (2005). "A critical analysis of the novel". Jane Austen's Pride and prejudice. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors. p. 19. ISBN 9788126905492. The irony of the opening sentence is revealed when we find Mrs Bennett needs a single man with a good fortune…for…any one of her five single daughters + Pride and Pejudice. Vol. 3 (1813 ed.). pp. 322–3. + Michie, Elsie B. "Social Distinction in Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813, edited by Donald Gray and Mary A. Favret, fourth Norton critical edition (2016). pp. 370–81. + Doody, Margaret (14 April 2015). Jane Austen's Names: Riddles, Persons, Places. University of Chicago Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780226196022. Retrieved 27 January 2018. + Austen, Jane. "36". Pride and Prejudice. + Tanner, Tony (1986). Knowledge and Opinion: Pride and Prejudice. Macmillan Education Ltd. p. 124. ISBN 978-0333323175. + Austen, Jane (2016). Pride and Prejudice. W.W. Norton & Company Inc. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-393-26488-3. + Tanner, Tony (1986). Knowledge and Opinion: Pride and Prejudice. Macmillan Education Ltd. p. 124. ISBN 978-0333323175. + Miles, Robert (2003). Jane Austen. Writers and Their Work. Tavistock: Northcote House in association with the British Council. ISBN 978-0-7463-0876-9. + Baker, Amy. "Caught in the Act Of Greatness: Jane Austen's Characterization Of Elizabeth And Darcy By Sentence Structure In Pride and Prejudice." Explicator 72.3 (2014): 169–178. Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 February 2016. + Fletcher, Angus; Benveniste, Mike (Winter 2013). "A Scientific Justification for Literature: Jane Austen's Free Indirect Style as Ethical Tool". Journal of Narrative Theory. 43 (1): 13. doi:10.1353/jnt.2013.0011. S2CID 143290360. + "History of Goodnestone". Goodnestone Park Gardens. Archived from the original on 17 February 2010. Retrieved 26 August 2010. + Le Faye, Deidre (2002). Jane Austen: The World of Her Novels. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-3285-2. + Rogers, Pat, ed. (2006). The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82514-6. + Irvine, Robert (2005). Jane Austen. London: Routledge. + This theory is defended in "Character and Caricature in Jane Austen" by DW Harding in Critical Essays on Jane Austen (BC Southam Edition, London 1968) and Brian Southam in Southam, B.C. (2001). Jane Austen's literary manuscripts: a study of the novelist's development through the surviving papers (New ed.). London: the Athlone press / Continuum. pp. 58–59. ISBN 9780826490704. + Irvine, Robert (2005). Jane Austen. London: Routledge. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-415-31435-0. + Stafford, Fiona (2004). "Notes on the Text". Pride and Prejudice. Oxford World's Classics (ed. James Kinley). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280238-5. + Fergus, Jan (1997). "The professional woman writer". In Copeland, E.; McMaster, J. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-49867-8. + Howse, Christopher (28 December 2012). "Anniversaries of 2013". Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. + Cossy, Valérie; Saglia, Diego (2005). "Translations". In Todd, Janet (ed.). Jane Austen in Context. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-82644-0. + Southam, B.C., ed. (1995). Jane Austen: The Critical Heritage. Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-13456-9. + Barker, Juliet (2016). The Brontës: a life in letters. Barker, Juliet R.V. (2016 ed.). London. ISBN 978-1408708316. OCLC 926822509. + "'Pride and Prejudice': What critics said". Jane Austen Summer Program. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 20 January 2024. + Johnson, Claudia L. (1988). Jane Austen: Women, Politics, and the Novel. University of Chicago Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780226401393. + Scott, Walter (1998). The journal of Sir Walter Scott. Anderson, W.E.K. Edinburgh: Canongate. ISBN 0862418283. OCLC 40905767. + Johnson (1988) p.74 + "BBC – The Big Read – Top 100 Books". May 2003. Retrieved 12 May 2008. + "Aussie readers vote Pride and Prejudice best book". thewest.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 May 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2008. + "200th Anniversary of Pride And Prejudice: A HuffPost Books Austenganza". The Huffington Post. 28 January 2013. + Schuessler, Jennifer (28 January 2013). "Austen Fans to Celebrate 200 Years of Pride and Prejudice". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 February 2015. + "Video: Jane Austen celebrated on 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice publication". Telegraph.co.uk. 28 January 2013. Archived from the original on 29 January 2013. + ABC News. "'Pride and Prejudice' 200th Anniversary". ABC News. + "Queensbridge Publishing: Pride and Prejudice 200th Anniversary Edition by Jane Austen". queensbridgepublishing.com. + Kate Torgovnick May (28 January 2013). "Talks to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Pride and Prejudice". TED Blog. + Rothman, Lily (28 January 2013). "Happy 200th Birthday, Pride & Prejudice...and Happy Sundance, Too: The writer/director of the Sundance hit 'Austenland' talks to TIME about why we still love Mr Darcy centuries years later". Time. Retrieved 7 February 2015. + Fullerton, Susannah (2013). Happily Ever After: Celebrating Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Frances Lincoln Publishers. ISBN 978-0711233744. OCLC 1310745594. + Pride and Prejudice (1940) at IMDb + Pride and Prejudice (2005) at IMDb + "First Impressions the Broadway Musical". Janeaustensworld.wordpress.com. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 27 January 2012. + "Pride and Prejudice (1995)". Bernardjtaylor.com. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2012. + "PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the Musical". prideandprejudice-themusical.com. + Stolthet och fördom / Pride and Prejudice (2011) Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, work details + "Episode 1: My Name is Lizzie Bennet". The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Archived from the original on 25 May 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013. + "Episode 100: The End". The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 7 May 2013. + "'Top Chef's' 'Last Chance Kitchen,' 'Oprah's Lifeclass,' the Nick App, and 'The Lizzie Bennet Diaries' to Receive Interactive Media Emmys". yahoo.com. 22 August 2013. + Hasan, Heba (24 April 2012). "Pride and Prejudice, the Web Diary Edition". Time. Retrieved 16 August 2012. + Koski, Genevieve (3 May 2012). "Remember Pride And Prejudice? It's back, in vlog form!". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 16 August 2012. + Matheson, Whitney (4 May 2012). "Cute Web series: 'The Lizzie Bennet Diaries'". USA Today. Retrieved 16 August 2012. + "'Orgulho e Paixão': novela se inspira em livros de Jane Austen". Revista Galileu (in Brazilian Portuguese). 29 August 2022. Retrieved 10 April 2023. + Booster, Joel Kim. "Pride and Prejudice on Fire Island". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 21 June 2022. + Gómez-Galisteo, M. Carmen (2018). A Successful Novel Must Be in Want of a Sequel: Second Takes on Classics from The Scarlet Letter to Rebecca. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-1476672823. + "Abigail Reynolds Author Page". Amazon. Retrieved 27 July 2012. + "Bella Breen Author Page". Amazon. + Grossman, Lev (April 2009). "Pride and Prejudice, Now with Zombies". TIME. Archived from the original on 4 April 2009. Retrieved 26 April 2009. + "Quirkclassics.com". Quirkclassics.com. Retrieved 27 January 2012. + "Marvel.com". Marvel.com. Archived from the original on 24 July 2010. Retrieved 27 January 2012. + Aidan, Pamela (2006). An Assembly Such as This. Touchstone. ISBN 978-0-7432-9134-7. + Aidan, Pamela (2004). Duty and Desire. Wytherngate Press. ISBN 978-0-9728529-1-3. + Aidan, Pamela (2007). These Three Remain. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-0-7432-9137-8. + Hislop, Victoria. Death Comes to Pemberley: Amazon.co.uk: Baroness P. D. James: 9780571283576: Books. ASIN 0571283578. + Farmer, Ava (2011). Second Impressions. Chawton, Hampshire, England: Chawton House Press. ISBN 978-1613647509. + Baker, Jo (8 October 2013). Longbourn. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 978-0385351232. + "New direction for 'literary chameleon' Jo Baker to Transworld – The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. + "Jo Baker – Longbourn, Book at Bedtime – BBC Radio 4". BBC. + Sittenfeld, Curtis (19 April 2016). Eligible. Random House. ISBN 978-1400068326. + Gomez-Galisteo, Carmen. “An Eligible Bachelor: Austen, Love, and Marriage in Pride and Prejudice and Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld”. Anglo Saxonica, No. 20, issue 1, art. 9, 2022, pp. 1–11. https://revista-anglo-saxonica.org/articles/10.5334/as.92 + Roberts, Sarah A.; Simpson, Deborah M.; Armstrong, Stuart D.; Davidson, Amanda J.; Robertson, Duncan H.; McLean, Lynn; Beynon, Robert J.; Hurst, Jane L. (1 January 2010). "Darcin: a male pheromone that stimulates female memory and sexual attraction to an individual male's odour". BMC Biology. 8: 75. doi:10.1186/1741-7007-8-75. ISSN 1741-7007. PMC 2890510. PMID 20525243. + Stern, William (1 March 2016). "Pride and protein". Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease. 39 (2): 321–324. doi:10.1007/s10545-015-9908-7. ISSN 1573-2665. PMID 26743057. S2CID 24476197. + Manga Classics: Pride and Prejudice (2014) UDON Entertainment ISBN 978-1927925188 +External links +Search Wikisource +Wikisource has original text related to this article: +Pride and Prejudice + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Background +Plot +Characters +Toggle Characters subsection +Primary +Secondary +Themes +Toggle Themes subsection +Genre and style +Reception +Toggle Reception subsection +Critical response +Awards +In other media +Toggle In other media subsection +Film +Television +Stage +Radio +Influence +Toggle Influence subsection +Literature +Music +Editions +See also +References +External links +Lord of the Flies + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Page semi-protected +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +This article is about the novel by William Golding. For the film adaptations, see Lord of the Flies (1963 film) and Lord of the Flies (1990 film). For other uses, see Lord of the Flies (disambiguation). +Lord of the Flies + +The original UK Lord of the Flies book cover +Author William Golding +Cover artist Anthony Gross[1] +Genre Allegorical novel +Publisher Faber and Faber +Publication date 17 September 1954 +Publication place United Kingdom +Pages 224[2] +OCLC 47677622 +Lord of the Flies is the 1954 debut novel of British author William Golding. The plot concerns a group of British boys who are stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. The novel's themes include morality, leadership, and the tension between civility and chaos. + +Lord of the Flies was generally well received, and is a popular assigned book in schools. + +Background +Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding's first novel. Golding got the idea for the plot from The Coral Island, a children's adventure novel with a focus on Christianity and the supposed civilising influence of British colonialism. Golding thought that the book was unrealistic, and asked his wife if it would be a good idea if he "wrote a book about children on an island, children who behave in the way children really would behave?"[3] + +The novel's title is a literal translation of Beelzebub, a biblical demon considered the god of pride and warfare.[4] Golding, who was a philosophy teacher before becoming a Royal Navy lieutenant, experienced war firsthand, and commanded a landing craft in the Normandy landings during D-Day in 1944. After the war ended and Golding returned to England, the world was dominated by Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation, which led Golding to examine the nature of humanity and went on to inspire Lord of the Flies.[5] + +Lord of the Flies was rejected by many publishers before being accepted by Faber & Faber. An initial rejection labelled the book as "absurd ... Rubbish & dull".[6] The book was originally titled Strangers from Within, which was considered "too abstract and too explicit"[7] and was eventually changed to Lord of the Flies.[8][9] + +Editor Charles Monteith worked with Golding on several major edits, including removing the entire first section which described an evacuation from nuclear war.[6][7] The character of Simon was also heavily edited to remove an interaction with a mysterious figure who is implied to be God.[10] Ultimately, Golding accepted the edits, and wrote that "I've lost any kind of objectivity I ever had over this novel and can hardly bear to look at it."[11] The edited manuscripts are available to view at the University of Exeter library.[12] + +Plot +In the midst of a wartime evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on an isolated island in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are boys in their middle childhood or preadolescence. A fair-haired boy named Ralph and a fat boy nicknamed Piggy find a conch shell, which Ralph uses as a horn to gather the survivors. Ralph immediately commands authority over the other boys using the conch, and is elected their "chief". He establishes three goals for the boys: to have fun, to survive, and to constantly maintain a smoke signal that could alert passing ships. Ralph, a red-haired boy named Jack, and a quiet boy named Simon use Piggy's glasses to create a signal fire. + +The semblance of order deteriorates as the boys grow lazy and ignore Ralph's efforts to improve life on the island. They become paranoid about an imaginary monster called "the beast". Ralph fails to convince the boys that no beast exists, while Jack gains popularity by declaring that he will personally hunt and kill the monster. At one point, Jack takes the boys to hunt a wild pig, including the boys who were meant to watch the signal fire. The smoke signal goes out, failing to attract a ship that was passing by the island. Ralph angrily confronts Jack and considers relinquishing his role as leader, but is persuaded not to do so by Piggy. + +One night, an air battle occurs near the island and the body of a fighter pilot drifts down in a parachute. Twin boys Sam and Eric mistake the corpse for the beast. When Ralph and Jack investigate with another boy, Roger, they flee in terror, believing the beast is real. Jack tries to turn the others against Ralph, and goes off alone to form his own tribe, with most of the other boys gradually joining him. + +Jack and his followers set up an offering to the beast in the forest: a pig's head, mounted on a sharpened stick and swarming with flies. Simon, who often ventures into the forest alone, has an imaginary dialogue with the head, which he dubs the "Lord of the Flies". The head tells Simon that there is no beast on the island, and predicts that the other boys will turn on Simon. That night, Ralph and Piggy visit Jack's tribe, who have begun painting their faces and engaging in primitive ritual dances. When Simon realises that the beast is only a dead pilot, he rushes to tell Jack's tribe, but the frenzied boys (including Ralph and Piggy) mistake Simon for the beast and beat him to death. + +Jack and his tribe steal Piggy's glasses, the only means of starting a fire. Ralph goes to Jack's camp with Piggy, Sam, and Eric to confront him and retrieve the glasses. Roger triggers a trap that kills Piggy and shatters the conch. Ralph manages to escape, but Sam and Eric are forced to join Jack's tribe. + +That night, Ralph secretly confronts Sam and Eric, who warn him that Jack plans to hunt him. The following morning, Jack's tribe sets fire to the forest. Ralph narrowly escapes the boys and the fire, and finally falls in front of a uniformed adult – a British naval officer who has landed on the island to investigate the fire. Ralph, Jack, and the other boys erupt into sobs over the "end of innocence". The officer expresses his disappointment at seeing the boys exhibiting such feral, warlike behaviour, then turns, "moved and a little embarrassed," to stare at his cruiser waiting offshore. + +Characters +Primary +Ralph: The athletic and charismatic protagonist who is the boys' elected leader. He is often representative of order, civilisation, and productive leadership. At the beginning of the novel, Ralph sets out to build huts and thinks of ways to improve their chances of being rescued. Ralph's influence over the boys is at first secure, but it declines as the boys defect to Jack and turn to savagery. +Jack Merridew: The strong-willed antagonist who represents savagery, violence, and power. At the beginning of the novel, he is infuriated at losing the leadership election to Ralph. He then leads his tribe, consisting of a group of ex-choir boys, into the deep forest where they hunt pigs and turn into barbarians with painted faces. By the end of the novel, he uses the boys' fear of the beast to assert control over them. +Simon: An innately spiritual boy who is often the voice of reason in the rivalry between Ralph and Jack. +Piggy: Ralph's intellectual and talkative friend who helps Ralph to become leader and is the source of many innovative ideas. He represents the rational side of humanity. Piggy's asthma, weight and poor eyesight make him a target of scorn and violence. His real name is not given. +Roger: An initially quiet boy who eventually becomes violent when Jack rises to power. +Secondary +Sam and Eric: Twins, who are among Ralph's few supporters at the end of the novel. Roger forces them to join Jack's tribe. +The Officer: A naval officer who rescues the surviving boys at the end of the novel. He does not understand the boys' warlike behaviour, despite commanding a warship himself. +Themes +The novel's major themes of morality, civility, leadership, and society all explore the duality of human nature.[5] + +Lord of the Flies portrays a scenario in which upper-class British children quickly descend into chaos and violence without adult authority, despite the boys' attempts to establish order and co-ordination. This subverts the colonial narration found in many British books of this period, such as The Coral Island.[5] Lord of the Flies contains various references to The Coral Island, such as the rescuing naval officer describing the boys' misadventures as a "jolly good show. Like the Coral Island."[13] Golding's three central characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack, can also be interpreted as caricatures of the protagonists in The Coral Island.[14] + +At an allegorical level, a central theme is how the desire for civilisation conflicts with the desire for power. Lord of the Flies also portrays the tension between groupthink and individuality, rational and emotional reactions, and morality and immorality. These themes have been explored in an essay by American literary critic Harold Bloom.[15] + +Some examples of symbolism in Lord of the Flies are the signal fire, Piggy's glasses, and the conch shell, which can be read as representing hope, reason, and unity, among other interpretations. + +The novel also examines aspects of war, as the story is set during a war that has begun before the boys arrive on the island.[16] Although the location of the island is never stated, it is implied to be somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. + +Genre and style +As a tale of adventure and survival, Lord of the Flies fits the genre of romanticism. It also questions human morality, making it a work of philosophical fiction. The novel is styled as allegorical fiction, embodying the concepts of inherent human savagery, mob mentality, and totalitarian leadership.[17] However, Golding deviates from typical allegory in that both the protagonists and the antagonists are fully developed, realistic characters. + +Reception +Critical response +Its first print run of 3,000 copies was slow to sell, but Lord of the Flies went on to become very popular, with more than ten million copies sold as of 2015.[7] E. M. Forster chose Lord of the Flies as his "outstanding novel of the year", and it was described in one review as "not only a first-rate adventure but a parable of our times".[7] In February 1960, Floyd C. Gale of Galaxy Science Fiction rated Lord of the Flies five stars out of five, stating, "Golding paints a truly terrifying picture of the decay of a minuscule society ... Well on its way to becoming a modern classic".[18] Marc D. Hauser called Lord of the Flies "riveting" and said that it "should be standard reading in biology, economics, psychology, and philosophy".[19] + +Lord of the Flies presents a view of humanity unimaginable before the horrors of Nazi Europe, and then plunges into speculations about mankind in the state of nature. Bleak and specific, but universal, fusing rage and grief, Lord of the Flies is both a novel of the 1950s, and for all time. + +—Robert McCrum, The Guardian.[7] + +Lord of the Flies was included on the American Library Association's list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999, for its controversial stance on human nature and individual welfare versus the common good.[20] The book has been criticised as cynical for portraying humanity as inherently selfish and violent. It has been linked with the essay "The Tragedy of the Commons" by Garrett Hardin and with books by Ayn Rand and countered by "Management of the Commons" by Elinor Ostrom.[21] Lord of the Flies has been contrasted with Tongan castaways an incident from 1965, when a group of schoolboys on a fishing boat from Tonga were marooned on an uninhabited island and considered dead by their relatives. The group not only managed to survive for over 15 months but "had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination". When ship captain Peter Warner found them, they were in good health and spirits. The Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, writing about the Tonga event, called Golding's portrayal unrealistic.[22] + +Awards +Lord of the Flies was awarded a place on both lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 41 on the editor's list and 25 on the reader's list.[23] In 2003, Lord of the Flies was listed at number 70 on the BBC's survey The Big Read,[24] and in 2005 it was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.[25] Time also included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time.[26] + +Popular in schools, especially in the English-speaking world, a 2016 UK poll saw Lord of the Flies ranked third in the nation's favourite books from school, behind George Orwell's Animal Farm and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.[27] + +In 2019, BBC News included Lord of the Flies on its list of the 100 most inspiring novels.[28] + +In other media +Film +Three film adaptations were based on the book: + +Lord of the Flies (1963), directed by Peter Brook +Alkitrang Dugo (1975), a Filipino film, directed by Lupita A. Concio +Lord of the Flies (1990), directed by Harry Hook +A fourth adaptation, to feature an all-female cast, was announced by Warner Bros. in August 2017.[29][30] Subsequently abandoned, it inspired the 2021 television series Yellowjackets.[31] Ladyworld, an all-female adaptation, was released in 2018. + +Television +In April 2023, the BBC announced that the British production company Eleven Film would produce the first ever television adaptation of the novel, written by screenwriter Jack Thorne.[32] + +Stage +The book was first adapted for the stage and performed in 1984 at Clifton College Preparatory School. It was adapted by Elliot Watkins, a teacher at the school, with the consent of Golding, who attended the opening night.[citation needed] + +Nigel Williams wrote his own adaptation of the text for the stage some ten years later. It was debuted by the Royal Shakespeare Company in July 1995.[33] The Pilot Theatre Company toured it extensively in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. + +In October 2014 it was announced that the 2011 production[34][failed verification] of Lord of the Flies would return to conclude the 2015 season at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre ahead of a major UK tour. The production was to be directed by Timothy Sheader.[citation needed] + +Kansas-based Orange Mouse Theatricals and Mathew Klickstein produced a topical, gender-bending adaptation called Ladies of the Fly that was co-written by a group of girls aged 8 to 16 based on the original text and their own lives. The production was performed by the girls as an immersive live-action show in August 2018.[35] + +Radio +In June 2013, BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcast a dramatisation by Judith Adams in four 30-minute episodes directed by Sasha Yevtushenko. The cast included Ruth Wilson as narrator, Finn Bennett as Ralph, Richard Linnel as Jack, Caspar Hilton-Hilley as Piggy, and Jack Caine as Simon.[36] + +Influence +Literature +Author Stephen King named his fictional town of Castle Rock after Jack's mountain camp in Lord of the Flies.[37] The book itself appears prominently in King's novels Cujo (1981), Misery (1987) and Hearts in Atlantis (1999).[38] His novel It was influenced by Golding's novel: "I thought to myself I'd really like to write a story about what's gained and what's lost when you go from childhood to adulthood, and also, the things we experience in childhood that are like seeds that blossom later on."[39] In 2011, King wrote an introduction for a new edition of Lord of the Flies to mark the centenary of Golding's birth.[40] King's town of Castle Rock inspired the name of Rob Reiner's production company, Castle Rock Entertainment.[41] + +Alan Garner credits the book with making him want to become a writer.[42] + +Music +Iron Maiden wrote a song inspired by the book, included in their 1995 album The X Factor.[43] + +The Filipino indie pop/alternative rock outfit The Camerawalls include a song titled "Lord of the Flies" on their 2008 album Pocket Guide to the Otherworld.[44] + +Editions +Golding, William (1958) [1954]. Lord of the Flies (Print ed.). Boston: Faber & Faber. +See also +Batavia (1628 ship) +"Das Bus", an episode of The Simpsons with a similar plot +Heart of Darkness (1899), short novel by Joseph Conrad +A High Wind in Jamaica +Island mentality +Robbers Cave Experiment +Two Years' Vacation (1888), adventure novel by Jules Verne +References + "Bound books – a set on Flickr". 22 November 2007. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 10 September 2012. + Amazon, "Lord of the Flies: Amazon.ca" Archived 20 May 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Amazon + Presley, Nicola. "Lord of the Flies and The Coral Island." William Golding Official Site, 30th Jun 2017, https://william-golding.co.uk/lord-flies-coral-island Archived 23 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 9th Feb 2021. + 2 Kings 1:2–3, 6, 16 + Dash, Jill. "Why should you read "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding?". YouTube. + Monteith, Charles. "Strangers from Within." William Golding: The Man and His Books, edited by John Carey, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1987. + "The 100 best novels: No 74 – Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954)". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020. + Symons, Julian (26 September 1986). "Golding's way". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 6 October 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019. + Faber, Toby (28 April 2019). "Lord of the Flies? 'Rubbish'. Animal Farm? Too risky – Faber's secrets revealed". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on 28 April 2019. Retrieved 28 April 2019. + Kendall, Tim. Email, University of Exeter, received 5th Feb 2021. + Williams, Phoebe (6 June 2019). "New BBC programme sheds light on the story behind the publication of Lord of the Flies". Faber & Faber Official Site. Archived from the original on 1 May 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021. + "EUL MS 429 – William Golding, Literary Archive". Archives Catalogue. University of Exeter. Retrieved 6 October 2021. The collection represents the literary papers of William Golding and consists of notebooks, manuscript and typescript drafts of Golding's novels up to 1989. + Reiff, Raychel Haugrud (2010), William Golding: Lord of the Flies, Marshall Cavendish, p. 93, ISBN 978-0-7614-4700-9 + Singh, Minnie (1997), "The Government of Boys: Golding's Lord of the Flies and Ballantyne's Coral Island", Children's Literature, 25: 205–213, doi:10.1353/chl.0.0478, S2CID 144319352 + Bloom, Harold. "Major themes in Lord of the Flies" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019. + https://study.com/learn/lesson/lord-of-the-flies-william-golding-settings-time-period-analysis What does the setting symbolize in Lord of the Flies?[dead link] + "Lord of the Flies: Genre". SparkNotes. + Gale, Floyd C. (February 1960). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 164–168. + Marc D. Hauser (2006). Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong. page 252. + "100 most frequently challenged books: 1990–1999". American Library Association. 2009. Archived from the original on 15 May 2010. Retrieved 16 August 2009. + Williams, Ray (24 May 2021). "How The Lord of the Flies is a Myth and a False Representation of Humanity". Ray Williams. Retrieved 24 May 2024. + Bregman, Rutger (9 May 2020). "The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 9 May 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020. + Kyrie O'Connor (1 February 2011). "Top 100 Novels: Let the Fighting Begin". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2019. + "The Big Read – Top 100 Books". BBC. April 2003. Archived from the original on 28 October 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2012. + Grossman, Lev; Lacayo, Richard (6 October 2005). "ALL-TIME 100 Novels. Lord of the Flies (1955), by William Golding". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on 10 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012. + "100 Best Young-Adult Books". Time. Archived from the original on 22 January 2020. Retrieved 11 December 2019. + "George Orwell's Animal Farm tops list of the nation's favourite books from school". The Independent. Archived from the original on 11 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019. + "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 5 November 2019. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 10 November 2019. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature. + Fleming, Mike Jr (30 August 2017). "Scott McGehee & David Siegel Plan Female-Centric 'Lord of the Flies' At Warner Bros". Deadline. Archived from the original on 6 March 2018. Retrieved 11 April 2018. + France, Lisa Respers (1 September 2017). "'Lord of the Flies' all-girl remake sparks backlash". Entertainment. CNN. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 11 April 2018. + Soloski, Alexis (10 November 2021). "Yellowjackets Leans In to Savagery". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 12 November 2021. Archived November 11, 2021, at the Wayback Machine + "BBC announces first TV adaptation of William Golding's Lord of the Flies". 20 April 2023. Retrieved 20 April 2023. + "Search | RSC Performances | LOF199508 - The Lord of the Flies". Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Retrieved 1 April 2023. + "Lord of the Flies, Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, review". The Telegraph. 26 May 2011. Archived from the original on 30 May 2011. Retrieved 26 May 2011. + "Orange Mouse Theatricals to stage re-imagined 'Lord of the Flies' with an all-female twist". LJWorld.com. + "William Golding – Lord of the Flies". BBC Radio 4. Archived from the original on 20 June 2013. + Beahm, George (1992). The Stephen King story (Revised ed.). Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel. p. 120. ISBN 0-8362-8004-0. Castle Rock, which King in turn had got from Golding's Lord of the Flies. + Liukkonen, Petri. "Stephen King". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 23 March 2007. + Presley, Nicola (16 June 2018). "Stephen King's It and Lord of the Flies". william-golding.co.uk/. + Flood, Alison (11 April 2011). "Stephen King joins William Golding centenary celebration". The Guardian. + King, Stephen (2011). "Introduction by Stephen King". Faber and Faber. Archived from the original on 24 July 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2011. + The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. 1984. p. 325. + "CALA (-) LAND". ilcala.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 13 October 2016. Retrieved 6 May 2018. + "Indie band The Camerawalls releases debut album". Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 10 May 2020. +External links + +Wikibooks has more on the topic of: Lord of the Flies + + +Main menu + +WikipediaThe Free Encyclopedia +Search Wikipedia +Search +Create account +Log in + +Personal tools +Contents hide +(Top) +Characters +Plot +Toggle Plot subsection +Sources +Date +Texts +Analysis and criticism +Toggle Analysis and criticism subsection +Context and interpretation +Toggle Context and interpretation subsection +Influence +Performance history +Toggle Performance history subsection +Derivative works +Notes and references +Toggle Notes and references subsection +Sources +Toggle Sources subsection +Further reading +External links +Toggle External links subsection +Hamlet + +Article +Talk +Read +View source +View history + +Tools +Appearance hide +Text + +Small + +Standard + +Large +Width + +Standard + +Wide +Color (beta) + +Automatic + +Light + +Dark +Report an issue with dark mode +Featured article +Page semi-protected +Listen to this article +From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia +This article is about the play by William Shakespeare. For its protagonist, see Prince Hamlet. For the type of settlement, see Hamlet (place). For other uses, see Hamlet (disambiguation). +Hamlet + +Hamlet portrayed by Edwin Booth (c. 1870) +Written by William Shakespeare +Characters +Hamlet +Claudius +Gertrude +Polonius +Ophelia +Laertes +Horatio +Original language Early Modern English +Genre Shakespearean tragedy +Setting Denmark +The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, usually shortened to Hamlet (/ˈhæmlɪt/), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play depicts Prince Hamlet and his attempts to exact revenge against his uncle, Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father in order to seize his throne and marry Hamlet's mother. Hamlet is considered among the "most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language", with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others".[1] It is widely considered one of the greatest plays of all time.[2] Three different early versions of the play are extant: the First Quarto (Q1, 1603); the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604); and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines and passages missing from the others.[3] + +Many works have been pointed to as possible sources for Shakespeare's play, from ancient Greek tragedies to Elizabethan dramas. The editors of the Arden Shakespeare question the idea of "source hunting", pointing out that it presupposes that authors always require ideas from other works for their own, and suggests that no author can have an original idea or be an originator. When Shakespeare wrote, there were many stories about sons avenging the murder of their fathers, and many about clever avenging sons pretending to be foolish in order to outsmart their foes. This would include the story of the ancient Roman, Lucius Junius Brutus, which Shakespeare apparently knew, as well as the story of Amleth, which was preserved in Latin by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum, and printed in Paris in 1514. The Amleth story was subsequently adapted and then published in French in 1570 by the 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. It has a number of plot elements and major characters in common with Shakespeare's Hamlet, and lacks others that are found in Shakespeare. Belleforest's story was first published in English in 1608, after Hamlet had been written, though it's possible that Shakespeare had encountered it in the French-language version.[4] + +Characters +Main article: Characters in Hamlet +Hamlet – son of the late king and nephew of the present king, Claudius +Claudius – King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and brother to the former king +Gertrude – Queen of Denmark and Hamlet's mother +Polonius – chief counsellor to the king +Ophelia – Polonius's daughter +Horatio – friend of Hamlet +Laertes – Polonius's son +Voltimand and Cornelius – courtiers +Rosencrantz and Guildenstern – courtiers, friends of Hamlet +Osric – a courtier +Marcellus – an officer +Barnardo – an officer +Francisco – a soldier +Reynaldo – Polonius's servant +Ghost – the ghost of Hamlet's father +Fortinbras – prince of Norway +Gravediggers – a pair of sextons +Player King, Player Queen, Lucianus, etc. – players +Plot + +Kronborg Castle is immortalized as Elsinore in the play Hamlet +Act I +Prince Hamlet of Denmark is the son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father's brother and successor. Claudius hastily married King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and took the throne for himself. Denmark has a long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway, in which King Hamlet slew King Fortinbras of Norway in a battle some years ago. Although Denmark defeated Norway and the Norwegian throne fell to King Fortinbras's infirm brother, Denmark fears that an invasion led by the dead Norwegian king's son, Prince Fortinbras, is imminent. + +On a cold night on the ramparts of Elsinore, the Danish royal castle, the sentries Bernardo and Marcellus discuss a ghost resembling the late King Hamlet which they have recently seen, and bring Prince Hamlet's friend Horatio as a witness. After the ghost appears again, the three vow to tell Prince Hamlet what they have witnessed. + +The court gathers the next day, and King Claudius and Queen Gertrude discuss affairs of state with their elderly adviser Polonius. Claudius grants permission for Polonius's son Laertes to return to school in France, and he sends envoys to inform the King of Norway about Fortinbras. Claudius also questions Hamlet regarding his continuing to grieve for his father, and forbids him to return to his university in Wittenberg. After the court exits, Hamlet despairs of his father's death and his mother's hasty remarriage. Learning of the ghost from Horatio, Hamlet resolves to see it himself. + + +Horatio, Hamlet, and the ghost (Artist: Henry Fuseli, 1789)[5] +As Polonius's son Laertes prepares to depart for France, Polonius offers him advice that culminates in the maxim "to thine own self be true."[6] Polonius's daughter, Ophelia, admits her interest in Hamlet, but Laertes warns her against seeking the prince's attention, and Polonius orders her to reject his advances. That night on the rampart, the ghost appears to Hamlet, tells the prince that he was murdered by Claudius (by pouring poison into his ear as he slept), and demands that Hamlet avenge the murder. Hamlet agrees, and the ghost vanishes. The prince confides to Horatio and the sentries that from now on he plans to "put an antic disposition on", or act as though he has gone mad. Hamlet forces them to swear to keep his plans for revenge secret; however, he remains uncertain of the ghost's reliability. + +Act II +Ophelia rushes to her father, telling him that Hamlet arrived at her door the prior night half-undressed and behaving erratically. Polonius blames love for Hamlet's madness and resolves to inform Claudius and Gertrude. As he enters to do so, the king and queen are welcoming Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two student acquaintances of Hamlet, to Elsinore. The royal couple has requested that the two students investigate the cause of Hamlet's mood and behaviour. Additional news requires that Polonius wait to be heard: messengers from Norway inform Claudius that the king of Norway has rebuked Prince Fortinbras for attempting to re-fight his father's battles. The forces that Fortinbras had conscripted to march against Denmark will instead be sent against Poland, though they will pass through Danish territory to get there. + +Polonius tells Claudius and Gertrude his theory regarding Hamlet's behaviour, and then speaks to Hamlet in a hall of the castle to try to learn more. Hamlet feigns madness and subtly insults Polonius all the while. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive, Hamlet greets his "friends" warmly but quickly discerns that they are there to spy on him for Claudius. Hamlet admits that he is upset at his situation but refuses to give the true reason, instead remarking "What a piece of work is a man". Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that they have brought along a troupe of actors that they met while travelling to Elsinore. Hamlet, after welcoming the actors and dismissing his friends-turned-spies, asks them to deliver a soliloquy about the death of King Priam and Queen Hecuba at the climax of the Trojan War. Hamlet then asks the actors to stage The Murder of Gonzago, a play featuring a death in the style of his father's murder. Hamlet intends to study Claudius's reaction to the play, and thereby determine the truth of the ghost's story of Claudius's guilt. + +Act III +Polonius forces Ophelia to return Hamlet's love letters to the prince while he and Claudius secretly watch in order to evaluate Hamlet's reaction. Hamlet is walking alone in the hall as the King and Polonius await Ophelia's entrance. Hamlet muses on thoughts of life versus death. When Ophelia enters and tries to return Hamlet's things, Hamlet accuses her of immodesty and cries "get thee to a nunnery", though it is unclear whether this, too, is a show of madness or genuine distress. His reaction convinces Claudius that Hamlet is not mad for love. Shortly thereafter, the court assembles to watch the play Hamlet has commissioned. After seeing the Player King murdered by his rival pouring poison in his ear, Claudius abruptly rises and runs from the room; for Hamlet, this is proof of his uncle's guilt. + + +Hamlet mistakenly stabs Polonius (Artist: Coke Smyth, 19th century). +Gertrude summons Hamlet to her chamber to demand an explanation. Meanwhile, Claudius talks to himself about the impossibility of repenting, since he still has possession of his ill-gotten goods: his brother's crown and wife. He sinks to his knees. Hamlet, on his way to visit his mother, sneaks up behind him but does not kill him, reasoning that killing Claudius while he is praying will send him straight to heaven while his father's ghost is stuck in purgatory. In the queen's bedchamber, Hamlet and Gertrude fight bitterly. Polonius, spying on the conversation from behind a tapestry, calls for help as Gertrude, believing Hamlet wants to kill her, calls out for help herself. + +Hamlet, believing it is Claudius, stabs wildly, killing Polonius, but he pulls aside the curtain and sees his mistake. In a rage, Hamlet brutally insults his mother for her apparent ignorance of Claudius's villainy, but the ghost enters and reprimands Hamlet for his inaction and harsh words. Unable to see or hear the ghost herself, Gertrude takes Hamlet's conversation with it as further evidence of madness. After begging the queen to stop sleeping with Claudius, Hamlet leaves, dragging Polonius's corpse away. + +Act IV +Hamlet jokes with Claudius about where he has hidden Polonius's body, and the king, fearing for his life, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to accompany Hamlet to England with a sealed letter to the English king requesting that Hamlet be executed immediately. + +Unhinged by grief at Polonius's death, Ophelia wanders Elsinore. Laertes arrives back from France, enraged by his father's death and his sister's madness. Claudius convinces Laertes that Hamlet is solely responsible, but a letter soon arrives indicating that Hamlet has returned to Denmark, foiling Claudius's plan. Claudius switches tactics, proposing a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet to settle their differences. Laertes will be given a poison-tipped foil, and, if that fails, Claudius will offer Hamlet poisoned wine as a congratulation. Gertrude interrupts to report that Ophelia has drowned, though it is unclear whether it was suicide or an accident caused by her madness. + +Act V + +The gravedigger scene.[7] (Artist: Eugène Delacroix, 1839) +Horatio has received a letter from Hamlet, explaining that the prince escaped by negotiating with pirates who attempted to attack his England-bound ship, and the friends reunite offstage. Two gravediggers discuss Ophelia's apparent suicide while digging her grave. Hamlet arrives with Horatio and banters with one of the gravediggers, who unearths the skull of a jester from Hamlet's childhood, Yorick. Hamlet picks up the skull, saying "Alas, poor Yorick" as he contemplates mortality. Ophelia's funeral procession approaches, led by Laertes. Hamlet and Horatio initially hide, but when Hamlet realizes that Ophelia is the one being buried, he reveals himself, proclaiming his love for her. Laertes and Hamlet fight by Ophelia's graveside, but the brawl is broken up. + +Back at Elsinore, Hamlet explains to Horatio that he had discovered Claudius's letter among Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's belongings and replaced it with a forged copy indicating that his former friends should be killed instead. A foppish courtier, Osric, interrupts the conversation to deliver the fencing challenge to Hamlet. Hamlet, despite Horatio's pleas, accepts it. Hamlet does well at first, leading the match by two hits to none, and Gertrude raises a toast to him using the poisoned glass of wine Claudius had set aside for Hamlet. Claudius tries to stop her but is too late: she drinks, and Laertes realizes the plot will be revealed. Laertes slashes Hamlet with his poisoned blade. In the ensuing scuffle, they switch weapons, and Hamlet wounds Laertes with his own poisoned sword. Gertrude collapses and, claiming she has been poisoned, dies. In his dying moments, Laertes reconciles with Hamlet and reveals Claudius's plan. Hamlet rushes at Claudius and kills him. As the poison takes effect, Hamlet, hearing that Fortinbras is marching through the area, names the Norwegian prince as his successor. Horatio, distraught at the thought of being the last survivor and living whilst Hamlet does not, says he will commit suicide by drinking the dregs of Gertrude's poisoned wine, but Hamlet begs him to live on and tell his story. Hamlet dies in Horatio's arms, proclaiming "the rest is silence". Fortinbras, who was ostensibly marching towards Poland with his army, arrives at the palace, along with an English ambassador bringing news of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths. Horatio promises to recount the full story of what happened, and Fortinbras, seeing the entire Danish royal family dead, takes the crown for himself and orders a military funeral to honour Hamlet. + +Sources +Main article: Sources of Hamlet + +A facsimile of Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, which contains the legend of Amleth +Hamlet-like legends are so widely found (for example in Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Byzantium, and Arabia) that the core "hero-as-fool" theme is possibly Indo-European in origin.[8] Several ancient written precursors to Hamlet can be identified. The first is the anonymous Scandinavian Saga of Hrolf Kraki. In this, the murdered king has two sons—Hroar and Helgi—who spend most of the story in disguise, under false names, rather than feigning madness, in a sequence of events that differs from Shakespeare's.[9] The second is the Roman legend of Brutus, recorded in two separate Latin works. Its hero, Lucius ("shining, light"), changes his name and persona to Brutus ("dull, stupid"), playing the role of a fool to avoid the fate of his father and brothers, and eventually slaying his family's killer, King Tarquinius. A 17th-century Nordic scholar, Torfaeus, compared the Icelandic hero Amlóði (Amlodi) and the hero Prince Ambales (from the Ambales Saga) to Shakespeare's Hamlet. Similarities include the prince's feigned madness, his accidental killing of the king's counsellor in his mother's bedroom, and the eventual slaying of his uncle.[10] + +Many of the earlier legendary elements are interwoven in the 13th-century "Life of Amleth" (Latin: Vita Amlethi) by Saxo Grammaticus, part of Gesta Danorum.[11] Written in Latin, it reflects classical Roman concepts of virtue and heroism, and was widely available in Shakespeare's day.[12] Significant parallels include the prince feigning madness, his mother's hasty marriage to the usurper, the prince killing a hidden spy, and the prince substituting the execution of two retainers for his own. A reasonably faithful version of Saxo's story was translated into French in 1570 by François de Belleforest, in his Histoires tragiques.[13] Belleforest embellished Saxo's text substantially, almost doubling its length, and introduced the hero's melancholy.[14] + + +Title page of The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd +According to one theory, Shakespeare's main source may be an earlier play—now lost—known today as the Ur-Hamlet. Possibly written by Thomas Kyd or by Shakespeare, the Ur-Hamlet would have existed by 1589, and would have incorporated a ghost.[15] Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men, may have purchased that play and performed a version for some time, which Shakespeare reworked.[16] However, no copy of the Ur-Hamlet has survived, and it is impossible to compare its language and style with the known works of any of its putative authors. In 1936 Andrew Cairncross suggested that, until more becomes known, it may be assumed that Shakespeare wrote the Ur-Hamlet.[17] Eric Sams lists reasons for supporting Shakespeare’s authorship.[18] Harold Jenkins considers that there are no grounds for thinking that the Ur-Hamlet is an early work by Shakespeare, which he then rewrote.[19] Professor Terri Bourus in 2016, one of three general editors of the New Oxford Shakespeare,[20] in her paper "Enter Shakespeare's Young Hamlet, 1589" suggests that Shakespeare was "interested in sixteenth-century French literature, from the very beginning of his career" and therefore "did not need Thomas Kyd to pre-digest Belleforest's histoire of Amleth and spoon-feed it to him". She considers that the hypothesized Ur-Hamlet is Shakespeare's Q1 text, and that this derived directly from Belleforest's French version.[21] + +The precise combination of Shakespeare's use of the Ur-Hamlet, Belleforest, Saxo, or Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy as sources for Hamlet is not known. However, elements of Belleforest's version which are not in Saxo's story do appear in Shakespeare's play.[22] + +Most scholars reject the idea that Hamlet is in any way connected with Shakespeare's only son, Hamnet Shakespeare, who died in 1596 at age eleven. Conventional wisdom holds that Hamlet is too obviously connected to legend, and the name Hamnet was quite popular at the time.[23] However, Stephen Greenblatt has argued that the coincidence of the names and Shakespeare's grief for the loss of his son may lie at the heart of the tragedy. He notes that the name of Hamnet Sadler, the Stratford neighbour after whom Hamnet was named, was often written as Hamlet Sadler and that, in the loose orthography of the time, the names were virtually interchangeable.[24][25] + +Scholars have often speculated that Hamlet's Polonius might have been inspired by William Cecil (Lord Burghley)—Lord High Treasurer and chief counsellor to Queen Elizabeth I. E. K. Chambers suggested Polonius's advice to Laertes may have echoed Burghley's to his son Robert Cecil.[26] John Dover Wilson thought it almost certain that the figure of Polonius caricatured Burghley.[27] A. L. Rowse speculated that Polonius's tedious verbosity might have resembled Burghley's.[28] Lilian Winstanley thought the name Corambis (in the First Quarto) did suggest Cecil and Burghley.[29] Harold Jenkins considers the idea of Polonius as a caricature of Burghley to be conjecture, perhaps based on the similar role they each played at court, and perhaps also based on the similarity between Burghley addressing his Ten Precepts to his son, and Polonius offering "precepts" to his son, Laertes.[30] Jenkins suggests that any personal satire may be found in the name "Polonius", which might point to a Polish or Polonian connection.[31] G. R. Hibbard hypothesised that differences in names (Corambis/Polonius:Montano/Raynoldo) between the First Quarto and other editions might reflect a desire not to offend scholars at Oxford University. (Robert Pullen, was the founder of Oxford University, and John Rainolds, was the President of Corpus Christi College.)[32] + +Date + +John Barrymore as Hamlet (1922) +"Any dating of Hamlet must be tentative", states the New Cambridge editor, Phillip Edwards. MacCary suggests 1599 or 1600;[33] James Shapiro offers late 1600 or early 1601;[34] Wells and Taylor suggest that the play was written in 1600 and revised later;[35] the New Cambridge editor settles on mid-1601;[36] the New Swan Shakespeare Advanced Series editor agrees with 1601;[37] Thompson and Taylor, tentatively ("according to whether one is the more persuaded by Jenkins or by Honigmann") suggest a terminus ad quem of either Spring 1601 or sometime in 1600.[38] + +The earliest date estimate relies on Hamlet's frequent allusions to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, itself dated to mid-1599.[39][40] The latest date estimate is based on an entry, of 26 July 1602, in the Register of the Stationers' Company, indicating that Hamlet was "latelie Acted by the Lo: Chamberleyne his servantes". + +In 1598, Francis Meres published his Palladis Tamia, a survey of English literature from Chaucer to its present day, within which twelve of Shakespeare's plays are named. Hamlet is not among them, suggesting that it had not yet been written. As Hamlet was very popular, Bernard Lott, the series editor of New Swan, believes it "unlikely that he [Meres] would have overlooked ... so significant a piece".[37] + +The phrase "little eyases"[41] in the First Folio (F1) may allude to the Children of the Chapel, whose popularity in London forced the Globe company into provincial touring.[42] This became known as the War of the Theatres, and supports a 1601 dating.[37] Katherine Duncan-Jones accepts a 1600–01 attribution for the date Hamlet was written, but notes that the Lord Chamberlain's Men, playing Hamlet in the 3000-capacity Globe, were unlikely to be put to any disadvantage by an audience of "barely one hundred" for the Children of the Chapel's equivalent play, Antonio's Revenge; she believes that Shakespeare, confident in the superiority of his own work, was making a playful and charitable allusion to his friend John Marston's very similar piece.[43] + +A contemporary of Shakespeare's, Gabriel Harvey, wrote a marginal note in his copy of the 1598 edition of Chaucer's works, which some scholars use as dating evidence. Harvey's note says that "the wiser sort" enjoy Hamlet, and implies that the Earl of Essex—executed in February 1601 for rebellion—was still alive. Other scholars consider this inconclusive. Edwards, for example, concludes that the "sense of time is so confused in Harvey's note that it is really of little use in trying to date Hamlet". This is because the same note also refers to Spenser and Watson as if they were still alive ("our flourishing metricians"), but also mentions "Owen's new epigrams", published in 1607.[44] + +Texts +Three early editions of the text, each different, have survived, making attempts to establish a single "authentic" text problematic.[45][46][47] + +First Quarto (Q1): In 1603 the booksellers Nicholas Ling and John Trundell published, and Valentine Simmes printed, the so-called "bad" first quarto, under the name The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke. Q1 contains just over half of the text of the later second quarto. +Second Quarto (Q2): In 1604 Nicholas Ling published, and James Roberts printed, the second quarto, under the same name as the first. Some copies are dated 1605, which may indicate a second impression; consequently, Q2 is often dated "1604/5". Q2 is the longest early edition, although it omits about 77 lines found in F1[48] (most likely to avoid offending James I's queen, Anne of Denmark).[49] +First Folio (F1): In 1623 Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard published The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke in the First Folio, the first edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works. [50] +This list does not include three additional early texts, John Smethwick's Q3, Q4, and Q5 (1611–37), which are regarded as reprints of Q2 with some alterations.[50] + + +Title page of the 1605 printing (Q2) of Hamlet + +The first page of the First Folio printing of Hamlet, 1623 +Early editors of Shakespeare's works, beginning with Nicholas Rowe (1709) and Lewis Theobald (1733), combined material from the two earliest sources of Hamlet available at the time, Q2 and F1. Each text contains material that the other lacks, with many minor differences in wording: scarcely 200 lines are identical in the two. Editors have combined them in an effort to create one "inclusive" text that reflects an imagined "ideal" of Shakespeare's original. Theobald's version became standard for a long time,[51] and his "full text" approach continues to influence editorial practice to the present day. Some contemporary scholarship, however, discounts this approach, instead considering "an authentic Hamlet an unrealisable ideal. ... there are texts of this play but no text".[52] The 2006 publication by Arden Shakespeare of different Hamlet texts in different volumes is perhaps evidence of this shifting focus and emphasis.[a] Other editors have continued to argue the need for well-edited editions taking material from all versions of the play. Colin Burrow has argued that "most of us should read a text that is made up by conflating all three versions ... it's about as likely that Shakespeare wrote: "To be or not to be, ay, there's the point" [in Q1], as that he wrote the works of Francis Bacon. I suspect most people just won't want to read a three-text play ... [multi-text editions are] a version of the play that is out of touch with the needs of a wider public."[57] + +Traditionally, editors of Shakespeare's plays have divided them into five acts. None of the early texts of Hamlet, however, were arranged this way, and the play's division into acts and scenes derives from a 1676 quarto. Modern editors generally follow this traditional division but consider it unsatisfactory; for example, after Hamlet drags Polonius's body out of Gertrude's bedchamber, there is an act-break[58] after which the action appears to continue uninterrupted.[59] + + +Comparison of the 'To be, or not to be' soliloquy in the first three editions of Hamlet, showing the varying quality of the text in the Bad Quarto, the Good Quarto and the First Folio +Q1 was discovered in 1823. Only two copies are extant. According to Jenkins, "The unauthorized nature of this quarto is matched by the corruption of its text."[60] Yet Q1 has value: it contains stage directions (such as Ophelia entering with a lute and her hair down) that reveal actual stage practices in a way that Q2 and F1 do not; it contains an entire scene (usually labelled 4.6)[61] that does not appear in either Q2 or F1; and it is useful for comparison with the later editions. The major deficiency of Q1 is in the language: particularly noticeable in the opening lines of the famous "To be, or not to be" soliloquy: "To be, or not to be, aye there's the point. / To die, to sleep, is that all? Aye all: / No, to sleep, to dream, aye marry there it goes." However, the scene order is more coherent, without the problems of Q2 and F1 of Hamlet seeming to resolve something in one scene and enter the next drowning in indecision. New Cambridge editor Kathleen Irace has noted that "Q1's more linear plot design is certainly easier [...] to follow [...] but the simplicity of the Q1 plot arrangement eliminates the alternating plot elements that correspond to Hamlet's shifts in mood."[62] + +Q1 is considerably shorter than Q2 or F1 and may be a memorial reconstruction of the play as Shakespeare's company performed it, by an actor who played a minor role (most likely Marcellus).[63] Scholars disagree whether the reconstruction was pirated or authorised. It is suggested by Irace that Q1 is an abridged version intended especially for travelling productions, thus the question of length may be considered as separate from issues of poor textual quality.[56][64] Editing Q1 thus poses problems in whether or not to "correct" differences from Q2 and F. Irace, in her introduction to Q1, wrote that "I have avoided as many other alterations as possible, because the differences...are especially intriguing...I have recorded a selection of Q2/F readings in the collation." The idea that Q1 is not riddled with error but is instead eminently fit for the stage has led to at least 28 different Q1 productions since 1881.[65] Other productions have used the probably superior Q2 and Folio texts, but used Q1's running order, in particular moving the to be or not to be soliloquy earlier.[66] Developing this, some editors such as Jonathan Bate have argued that Q2 may represent "a 'reading' text as opposed to a 'performance' one" of Hamlet, analogous to how modern films released on disc may include deleted scenes: an edition containing all of Shakespeare's material for the play for the pleasure of readers, so not representing the play as it would have been staged.[67][68] + +Analysis and criticism +Main article: Critical approaches to Hamlet +Critical history +From the early 17th century, the play was famous for its ghost and vivid dramatisation of melancholy and insanity, leading to a procession of mad courtiers and ladies in Jacobean and Caroline drama.[69][70] Though it remained popular with mass audiences, late 17th-century Restoration critics saw Hamlet as primitive and disapproved of its lack of unity and decorum.[71][72] This view changed drastically in the 18th century, when critics regarded Hamlet as a hero—a pure, brilliant young man thrust into unfortunate circumstances.[73] + +By the mid-18th century, however, the advent of Gothic literature brought psychological and mystical readings, returning madness and the ghost to the forefront.[74] Not until the late 18th century did critics and performers begin to view Hamlet as confusing and inconsistent. Before then, he was either mad, or not; either a hero, or not; with no in-betweens.[75] These developments represented a fundamental change in literary criticism, which came to focus more on character and less on plot.[76] In the 18th century, one negative French review of Hamlet would be widely discussed for centuries, in particular in publications throughout the 19th and 20th century. [77] [78] [79] [80] [81] [82] [83] In 1768, Voltaire wrote a negative review of Hamlet, stating that "it is vulgar and barbarous drama, which would not be tolerated by the vilest populace of France or Italy... one would imagine this piece to be a work of a drunken savage".[84] + +By the 19th century, Romantic critics valued Hamlet for its internal, individual conflict reflecting the strong contemporary emphasis on internal struggles and inner character in general.[85] Then too, critics started to focus on Hamlet's delay as a character trait, rather than a plot device.[76] This focus on character and internal struggle continued into the 20th century, when criticism branched in several directions, discussed in context and interpretation below. + +Dramatic structure +Modern editors have divided the play into five acts, and each act into scenes. The First Folio marks the first two acts only. The quartos do not have such divisions. The division into five acts follows Seneca, who in his plays, regularized the way ancient Greek tragedies contain five episodes, which are separated by four choral odes. In Hamlet the development of the plot or the action are determined by the unfolding of Hamlet's character. The soliloquies do not interrupt the plot, instead they are highlights of each block of action. The plot is the developing revelation of Hamlet's view of what is "rotten in the state of Denmark." The action of the play is driven forward in dialogue; but in the soliloquies time and action stop, the meaning of action is questioned, fog of illusion is broached, and truths are exposed. + +The contrast between appearance and reality is a significant theme. Hamlet is presented with an image, and then interprets its deeper or darker meaning. Examples begin with Hamlet questioning the reality of the ghost. It continues with Hamlet's taking on an "antic disposition" in order to appear mad, though he is not. The contrast (appearance and reality) is also expressed in several "spying scenes": Act two begins with Polonius sending Reynaldo to spy on his son, Laertes. Claudius and Polonius spy on Ophelia as she meets with Hamlet. In act two, Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet. Similarly, the play-within-a-play is used by Hamlet to reveal his step-father's hidden nature. + +There is no subplot, but the play presents the affairs of the courtier Polonius, his daughter, Ophelia, and his son, Laertes—who variously deal with madness, love and the death of a father in ways that contrast with Hamlet's. The graveyard scene eases tension prior to the catastrophe, and, as Hamlet holds the skull, it is shown that Hamlet no longer fears damnation in the afterlife, and accepts that there is a "divinity that shapes our ends".[86] + +Hamlet's enquiring mind has been open to all kinds of ideas, but in act five he has decided on a plan, and in a dialogue with Horatio he seems to answer his two earlier soliloquies on suicide: "We defy augury. There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows aught, what is't to leave betimes."[87][88] + +Length +The First Quarto (1603) text of Hamlet contains 15,983 words, the Second Quarto (1604) contains 28,628 words, and the First Folio (1623) contains 27,602 words. Counting the number of lines varies between editions, partly because prose sections in the play may be formatted with varied lengths.[89] Editions of Hamlet that are created by conflating the texts of the Second Quarto and the Folio are said to have approximately 3,900 lines;[90] the number of lines varies between those editions based on formatting the prose sections, counting methods, and how the editors have joined the texts together.[91] Hamlet is by far the longest play that Shakespeare wrote, and one of the longest plays in the Western canon. It might require more than four hours to stage;[92] a typical Elizabethan play would need two to three hours.[93] It is speculated that because of the considerable length of Q2 and F1, there was an expectation that those texts would be abridged for performance, or that Q2 and F1 may have been aimed at a reading audience.[94] + +That Q1 is so much shorter than Q2 has spurred speculation that Q1 is an early draft, or perhaps an adaptation, a bootleg copy, or a stage adaptation. On the title page of Q2, its text is described as "newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was." That is probably a comparison to Q1.[89] + +Language + +Hamlet's statement that his dark clothes are the outer sign of his inner grief demonstrates strong rhetorical skill (artist: Eugène Delacroix 1834). +Much of Hamlet's language is courtly: elaborate, witty discourse, as recommended by Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 etiquette guide, The Courtier. This work specifically advises royal retainers to amuse their masters with inventive language. Osric and Polonius, especially, seem to respect this injunction. Claudius's speech is rich with rhetorical figures—as is Hamlet's and, at times, Ophelia's—while the language of Horatio, the guards, and the gravediggers is simpler. Claudius's high status is reinforced by using the royal first person plural ("we" or "us"), and anaphora mixed with metaphor to resonate with Greek political speeches.[95] + +Of all the characters, Hamlet has the greatest rhetorical skill. He uses highly developed metaphors, stichomythia, and in nine memorable words deploys both anaphora and asyndeton: "to die: to sleep— / To sleep, perchance to dream".[96] In contrast, when occasion demands, he is precise and straightforward, as when he explains his inward emotion to his mother: "But I have that within which passes show, / These but the trappings and the suits of woe".[97] At times, he relies heavily on puns to express his true thoughts while simultaneously concealing them.[98] Pauline Kiernan argues that Shakespeare changed English drama forever in Hamlet because he "showed how a character's language can often be saying several things at once, and contradictory meanings at that, to reflect fragmented thoughts and disturbed feelings". She gives the example of Hamlet's advice to Ophelia, "get thee to a nunnery",[99] which, she claims, is simultaneously a reference to a place of chastity and a slang term for a brothel, reflecting Hamlet's confused feelings about female sexuality.[100] However Harold Jenkins does not agree, having studied the few examples that are used to support that idea, and finds that there is no support for the assumption that "nunnery" was used that way in slang, or that Hamlet intended such a meaning. The context of the scene suggests that a nunnery would not be a brothel, but instead a place of renunciation and a "sanctuary from marriage and from the world’s contamination".[101] Thompson and Taylor consider the brothel idea incorrect considering that "Hamlet is trying to deter Ophelia from breeding".[102] + +Hamlet’s first words in the play are a pun; when Claudius addresses him as "my cousin Hamlet, and my son", Hamlet says as an aside: "A little more than kin, and less than kind."[103] + +An unusual rhetorical device, hendiadys, appears in several places in the play. Examples are found in Ophelia's speech at the end of the nunnery scene: "Th'expectancy and rose of the fair state"[104] and "And I, of ladies most deject and wretched".[105] Many scholars have found it odd that Shakespeare would, seemingly arbitrarily, use this rhetorical form throughout the play. One explanation may be that Hamlet was written later in Shakespeare's life, when he was adept at matching rhetorical devices to characters and the plot. Linguist George T. Wright suggests that hendiadys had been used deliberately to heighten the play's sense of duality and dislocation.[106] + +Hamlet's soliloquies have also captured the attention of scholars. Hamlet interrupts himself, vocalising either disgust or agreement with himself and embellishing his own words. He has difficulty expressing himself directly and instead blunts the thrust of his thought with wordplay. It is not until late in the play, after his experience with the pirates, that Hamlet is able to articulate his feelings freely.[107] + +Context and interpretation +Religious + +John Everett Millais' Ophelia (1852) depicts Lady Ophelia's mysterious death by drowning. In the play, the gravediggers discuss whether Ophelia's death was a suicide and whether she merits a Christian burial. +Written at a time of religious upheaval and in the wake of the English Reformation, the play is alternately Catholic (or piously medieval) and Protestant (or consciously modern). The ghost describes himself as being in purgatory and as dying without last rites. This and Ophelia's burial ceremony, which is characteristically Catholic, make up most of the play's Catholic connections. Some scholars have observed that revenge tragedies come from Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, where the revenge tragedies present contradictions of motives, since according to Catholic doctrine the duty to God and family precedes civil justice. Hamlet's conundrum then is whether to avenge his father and kill Claudius or to leave the vengeance to God, as his religion requires.[108][b] + +Much of the play's Protestant tones derive from its setting in Denmark—both then and now a predominantly Protestant country,[c] though it is unclear whether the fictional Denmark of the play is intended to portray this implicit fact. Dialogue refers explicitly to the German city of Wittenberg where Hamlet, Horatio, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attend university, implying where the Protestant reformer Martin Luther nailed the Ninety-five Theses to the church door in 1517.[109] + +Philosophical + +Philosophical ideas in Hamlet are similar to those of the French writer Michel de Montaigne, a contemporary of Shakespeare's (artist: Thomas de Leu, fl. 1560–1612). +Hamlet is often perceived as a philosophical character, expounding ideas that are now described as relativist, existentialist, and sceptical. For example, he expresses a subjectivistic idea when he says to Rosencrantz: "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so". [110] The idea that nothing is real except in the mind of the individual finds its roots in the Greek Sophists, who argued that since nothing can be perceived except through the senses—and since all individuals sense, and therefore perceive things differently—there is no absolute truth, but rather only relative truth.[111] The clearest alleged instance of existentialism is in the "to be, or not to be"[112] speech, where Hamlet is thought by some to use "being" to allude to life and action, and "not being" to death and inaction. + +Hamlet reflects the contemporary scepticism promoted by the French Renaissance humanist Michel de Montaigne.[113] Prior to Montaigne's time, humanists such as Pico della Mirandola had argued that man was God's greatest creation, made in God's image and able to choose his own nature, but this view was subsequently challenged in Montaigne's Essais of 1580. Hamlet's "What a piece of work is a man" seems to echo many of Montaigne's ideas, and many scholars have discussed whether Shakespeare drew directly from Montaigne or whether both men were simply reacting similarly to the spirit of the times.[114][115][113] + +Psychoanalytic + +Freud suggested that an unconscious Oedipal conflict caused Hamlet's hesitations (artist: Eugène Delacroix 1844). +Sigmund Freud +Sigmund Freud’s thoughts regarding Hamlet were first published in his book The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), as a footnote to a discussion of Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex, all of which is part of his consideration of the causes of neurosis. Freud does not offer over-all interpretations of the plays, but uses the two tragedies to illustrate and corroborate his psychological theories, which are based on his treatments of his patients and on his studies. Productions of Hamlet have used Freud's ideas to support their own interpretations.[116][117] In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud says that according to his experience "parents play a leading part in the infantile psychology of all persons who subsequently become psychoneurotics," and that "falling in love with one parent and hating the other" is a common impulse in early childhood, and is important source material of "subsequent neurosis". He says that "in their amorous or hostile attitude toward their parents" neurotics reveal something that occurs with less intensity "in the minds of the majority of children". Freud considered that Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus Rex, with its story that involves crimes of parricide and incest, "has furnished us with legendary matter which corroborates" these ideas, and that the "profound and universal validity of the old legends" is understandable only by recognizing the validity of these theories of "infantile psychology".[118] + +Freud explores the reason "Oedipus Rex is capable of moving a modern reader or playgoer no less powerfully than it moved the contemporary Greeks". He suggests that "It may be that we were all destined to direct our first sexual impulses toward our mothers, and our first impulses of hatred and violence toward our fathers." Freud suggests that we "recoil from the person for whom this primitive wish of our childhood has been fulfilled with all the force of the repression which these wishes have undergone in our minds since childhood."[118] + +These ideas, which became a cornerstone of Freud's psychological theories, he named the "Oedipus complex", and, at one point, he considered calling it the "Hamlet complex".[119] Freud considered that Hamlet "is rooted in the same soil as Oedipus Rex." But the difference in the "psychic life" of the two civilizations that produced each play, and the progress made over time of "repression in the emotional life of humanity" can be seen in the way the same material is handled by the two playwrights: In Oedipus Rex incest and murder are brought into the light as might occur in a dream, but in Hamlet these impulses "remain repressed" and we learn of their existence through Hamlet's inhibitions to act out the revenge, while he is shown to be capable of acting decisively and boldly in other contexts. Freud asserts, "The play is based on Hamlet’s hesitation in accomplishing the task of revenge assigned to him; the text does not give the cause or the motive of this." The conflict is "deeply hidden".[120] + +Hamlet is able to perform any kind of action except taking revenge on the man who murdered his father and has taken his father's place with his mother—Claudius has led Hamlet to realize the repressed desires of his own childhood. The loathing which was supposed to drive him to revenge is replaced by "self-reproach, by conscientious scruples" which tell him "he himself is no better than the murderer whom he is required to punish".[121] Freud suggests that Hamlet's sexual aversion expressed in his "nunnery" conversation with Ophelia supports the idea that Hamlet is "an hysterical subject".[121][122] + +Freud suggests that the character Hamlet goes through an experience that has three characteristics, which he numbered: 1) "the hero is not psychopathic, but becomes so" during the course of the play. 2) "the repressed desire is one of those that are similarly repressed in all of us." It is a repression that "belongs to an early stage of our individual development". The audience identifies with the character of Hamlet, because "we are victims of the same conflict." 3) It is the nature of theatre that "the struggle of the repressed impulse to become conscious" occurs in both the hero onstage and the spectator, when they are in the grip of their emotions, "in the manner seen in psychoanalytic treatment".[123] + +Freud points out that Hamlet is an exception in that psychopathic characters are usually ineffective in stage plays; they "become as useless for the stage as they are for life itself", because they do not inspire insight or empathy, unless the audience is familiar with the character's inner conflict. Freud says, "It is thus the task of the dramatist to transport us into the same illness."[124] + +John Barrymore's long-running 1922 performance in New York, directed by Thomas Hopkins, "broke new ground in its Freudian approach to character", in keeping with the post-World War I rebellion against everything Victorian.[125] He had a "blunter intention" than presenting the genteel, sweet prince of 19th-century tradition, imbuing his character with virility and lust.[126] + +Beginning in 1910, with the publication of "The Œdipus-Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive"[127] Ernest Jones—a psychoanalyst and Freud's biographer—developed Freud's ideas into a series of essays that culminated in his book Hamlet and Oedipus (1949). Influenced by Jones's psychoanalytic approach, several productions have portrayed the "closet scene", where Hamlet confronts his mother in her private quarters, in a sexual light.[128] In this reading, Hamlet is disgusted by his mother's "incestuous" relationship with Claudius while simultaneously fearful of killing him, as this would clear Hamlet's path to his mother's bed. Ophelia's madness after her father's death may also be read through the Freudian lens: as a reaction to the death of her hoped-for lover, her father. Ophelia is overwhelmed by having her unfulfilled love for him so abruptly terminated and drifts into the oblivion of insanity.[129][130] In 1937, Tyrone Guthrie directed Laurence Olivier in a Jones-inspired Hamlet at The Old Vic.[131] Olivier later used some of these same ideas in his 1948 film version of the play. + +In the Bloom's Shakespeare Through the Ages volume on Hamlet, editors Bloom and Foster express a conviction that the intentions of Shakespeare in portraying the character of Hamlet in the play exceeded the capacity of the Freudian Oedipus complex to completely encompass the extent of characteristics depicted in Hamlet throughout the tragedy: "For once, Freud regressed in attempting to fasten the Oedipus Complex upon Hamlet: it will not stick, and merely showed that Freud did better than T.S. Eliot, who preferred Coriolanus to Hamlet, or so he said. Who can believe Eliot, when he exposes his own Hamlet Complex by declaring the play to be an aesthetic failure?"[132] The book also notes James Joyce's interpretation, stating that he "did far better in the Library Scene of Ulysses, where Stephen marvellously credits Shakespeare, in this play, with universal fatherhood while accurately implying that Hamlet is fatherless, thus opening a pragmatic gap between Shakespeare and Hamlet."[132] + +Joshua Rothman has written in The New Yorker that "we tell the story wrong when we say that Freud used the idea of the Oedipus complex to understand Hamlet". Rothman suggests that "it was the other way around: Hamlet helped Freud understand, and perhaps even invent, psychoanalysis". He concludes, "The Oedipus complex is a misnomer. It should be called the 'Hamlet complex'."[133] + +Jacques Lacan +In the 1950s, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan analyzed Hamlet to illustrate some of his concepts. His structuralist theories about Hamlet were first presented in a series of seminars given in Paris and later published in "Desire and the Interpretation of Desire in Hamlet". Lacan postulated that the human psyche is determined by structures of language and that the linguistic structures of Hamlet shed light on human desire.[134] His point of departure is Freud's Oedipal theories, and the central theme of mourning that runs through Hamlet.[135] In Lacan's analysis, Hamlet unconsciously assumes the role of phallus—the cause of his inaction—and is increasingly distanced from reality "by mourning, fantasy, narcissism and psychosis", which create holes (or lack) in the real, imaginary, and symbolic aspects of his psyche.[134] Lacan's theories influenced some subsequent literary criticism of Hamlet because of his alternative vision of the play and his use of semantics to explore the play's psychological landscape.[134] + +Feminist + +Ophelia is distracted by grief.[136] Feminist critics have explored her descent into madness (artist: Henrietta Rae 1890). +In the 20th century, feminist critics opened up new approaches to Gertrude and Ophelia. New historicist and cultural materialist critics examined the play in its historical context, attempting to piece together its original cultural environment.[137] They focused on the gender system of early modern England, pointing to the common trinity of maid, wife, or widow, with whores outside of that stereotype. In this analysis, the essence of Hamlet is the central character's changed perception of his mother as a whore because of her failure to remain faithful to Old Hamlet. In consequence, Hamlet loses his faith in all women, treating Ophelia as if she too were a whore and dishonest with Hamlet. Ophelia, by some critics, can be seen as honest and fair; however, it is virtually impossible to link these two traits, since 'fairness' is an outward trait, while 'honesty' is an inward trait.[138] + + +Hamlet tries to show his mother Gertrude his father's ghost (artist: Nicolai A. Abildgaard, c. 1778). +Carolyn Heilbrun's 1957 essay "The Character of Hamlet's Mother" defends Gertrude, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew of Claudius poisoning King Hamlet. This analysis has been praised by many feminist critics, combating what is, by Heilbrun's argument, centuries' worth of misinterpretation. By this account, Gertrude's worst crime is of pragmatically marrying her brother-in-law in order to avoid a power vacuum. This is borne out by the fact that King Hamlet's ghost tells Hamlet to leave Gertrude out of Hamlet's revenge, to leave her to heaven, an arbitrary mercy to grant to a conspirator to murder.[139][140][141] + +Ophelia has also been defended by feminist critics, most notably Elaine Showalter.[142] Ophelia is surrounded by powerful men: her father, brother, and Hamlet. All three disappear: Laertes leaves, Hamlet abandons her, and Polonius dies. Conventional theories had argued that without these three powerful men making decisions for her, Ophelia is driven into madness.[143] Feminist theorists argue that she goes mad with guilt because, when Hamlet kills her father, he has fulfilled her sexual desire to have Hamlet kill her father so they can be together. Showalter points out that Ophelia has become the symbol of the distraught and hysterical woman in modern culture.[144] + +Influence +See also: Literary influence of Hamlet +Hamlet is one of the most quoted works in the English language, and is often included on lists of the world's greatest literature.[d] As such, it reverberates through the writing of later centuries. Academic Laurie Osborne identifies the direct influence of Hamlet in numerous modern narratives, and divides them into four main categories: fictional accounts of the play's composition, simplifications of the story for young readers, stories expanding the role of one or more characters, and narratives featuring performances of the play.[146] + + +Actors before Hamlet by Władysław Czachórski (1875), National Museum in Warsaw +English poet John Milton was an early admirer of Shakespeare and took evident inspiration from his work. As John Kerrigan discusses, Milton originally considered writing his epic poem Paradise Lost (1667) as a tragedy.[147] While Milton did not ultimately go that route, the poem still shows distinct echoes of Shakespearean revenge tragedy, and of Hamlet in particular. As scholar Christopher N. Warren argues, Paradise Lost's Satan "undergoes a transformation in the poem from a Hamlet-like avenger into a Claudius-like usurper," a plot device that supports Milton's larger Republican internationalist project.[148] The poem also reworks theatrical language from Hamlet, especially around the idea of "putting on" certain dispositions, as when Hamlet puts on "an antic disposition," similarly to the Son in Paradise Lost who "can put on / [God's] terrors."[149] + +Henry Fielding's Tom Jones, published about 1749, describes a visit to Hamlet by Tom Jones and Mr Partridge, with similarities to the "play within a play".[150] In contrast, Goethe's Bildungsroman Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, written between 1776 and 1796, not only has a production of Hamlet at its core but also creates parallels between the ghost and Wilhelm Meister's dead father.[150] In the early 1850s, in Pierre, Herman Melville focuses on a Hamlet-like character's long development as a writer.[150] Ten years later, Dickens's Great Expectations contains many Hamlet-like plot elements: it is driven by revenge-motivated actions, contains ghost-like characters (Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham), and focuses on the hero's guilt.[150] Academic Alexander Welsh notes that Great Expectations is an "autobiographical novel" and "anticipates psychoanalytic readings of Hamlet itself".[151] About the same time, George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss was published, introducing Maggie Tulliver "who is explicitly compared with Hamlet"[152] though "with a reputation for sanity".[153] + +L. Frank Baum's first published short story was "They Played a New Hamlet" (1895). When Baum had been touring New York State in the title role, the actor playing the ghost fell through the floorboards, and the rural audience thought it was part of the show and demanded that the actor repeat the fall, because they thought it was funny. Baum would later recount the actual story in an article, but the short story is told from the point of view of the actor playing the ghost. + +In the 1920s, James Joyce managed "a more upbeat version" of Hamlet—stripped of obsession and revenge—in Ulysses, though its main parallels are with Homer's Odyssey.[150] In the 1990s, two novelists were explicitly influenced by Hamlet. In Angela Carter's Wise Children, To be or not to be is reworked as a song and dance routine, and Iris Murdoch's The Black Prince has Oedipal themes and murder intertwined with a love affair between a Hamlet-obsessed writer, Bradley Pearson, and the daughter of his rival.[152] In the late 20th century, David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest draws heavily from Hamlet and takes its title from the play's text; Wallace incorporates references to the gravedigger scene, the marriage of the main character's mother to his uncle, and the re-appearance of the main character's father as a ghost. + +There is the story of the woman who read Hamlet for the first time and said, "I don't see why people admire that play so. It is nothing but a bunch of quotations strung together." + + — Isaac Asimov, Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare, p. vii, Avenal Books, 1970 + +Performance history +Main articles: Hamlet in performance and Shakespeare in performance +The day we see Hamlet die in the theatre, something of him dies for us. He is dethroned by the spectre of an actor, and we shall never be able to keep the usurper out of our dreams. + +Maurice Maeterlinck in La Jeune Belgique (1890).[154] + +Shakespeare's day to the Interregnum +Shakespeare almost certainly wrote the role of Hamlet for Richard Burbage. He was the chief tragedian of the Lord Chamberlain's Men, with a capacious memory for lines and a wide emotional range.[155][156][e] Judging by the number of reprints, Hamlet appears to have been Shakespeare's fourth most popular play during his lifetime—only Henry IV Part 1, Richard III and Pericles eclipsed it.[160] Shakespeare provides no clear indication of when his play is set; however, as Elizabethan actors performed at the Globe in contemporary dress on minimal sets, this would not have affected the staging.[161] + +Firm evidence for specific early performances of the play is scant. It is sometimes argued that the crew of the ship Red Dragon, anchored off Sierra Leone, performed Hamlet in September 1607;[162][163][164] however, this claim is based on a 19th century insert of a 'lost' passage into a period document, and is today widely regarded as a hoax, likely to have been perpetrated by John Payne Collier.[165] More credible is that the play toured in Germany within five years of Shakespeare's death,[164] and that it was performed before James I in 1619 and Charles I in 1637.[166] Oxford editor George Hibbard argues that, since the contemporary literature contains many allusions and references to Hamlet (only Falstaff is mentioned more, from Shakespeare), the play was surely performed with a frequency that the historical record misses.[167] + +All theatres were closed down by the Puritan government during the Interregnum.[168] Even during this time, however, playlets known as drolls were often performed illegally, including one called The Grave-Makers based on act 5, scene 1 of Hamlet.[169] + +Restoration and 18th century + +Title page and frontispiece for Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Tragedy. As it is now acted at the Theatres-Royal in Drury-Lane and Covent-Garden. London, 1776 +The play was revived early in the Restoration. When the existing stock of pre-civil war plays was divided between the two newly created patent theatre companies, Hamlet was the only Shakespearean favourite that Sir William Davenant's Duke's Company secured.[170] It became the first of Shakespeare's plays to be presented with movable flats painted with generic scenery behind the proscenium arch of Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre.[f] This new stage convention highlighted the frequency with which Shakespeare shifts dramatic location, encouraging the recurrent criticism of his failure to maintain unity of place.[172] In the title role, Davenant cast Thomas Betterton, who continued to play the Dane until he was 74.[173] David Garrick at Drury Lane produced a version that adapted Shakespeare heavily; he declared: "I had sworn I would not leave the stage till I had rescued that noble play from all the rubbish of the fifth act. I have brought it forth without the grave-digger's trick, Osrick, & the fencing match".[g] The first actor known to have played Hamlet in North America is Lewis Hallam Jr., in the American Company's production in Philadelphia in 1759.[175] + + +David Garrick expresses Hamlet's shock at his first sighting of the ghost (artist: unknown). +John Philip Kemble made his Drury Lane debut as Hamlet in 1783.[176] His performance was said to be 20 minutes longer than anyone else's, and his lengthy pauses provoked the suggestion by Richard Brinsley Sheridan that "music should be played between the words".[177] Sarah Siddons was the first actress known to play Hamlet; many women have since played him as a breeches role, to great acclaim.[178] In 1748, Alexander Sumarokov wrote a Russian adaptation that focused on Prince Hamlet as the embodiment of an opposition to Claudius's tyranny—a treatment that would recur in Eastern European versions into the 20th century.[179] In the years following America's independence, Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, the young nation's leading tragedian, performed Hamlet among other plays at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and at the Park Theatre in New York. Although chided for "acknowledging acquaintances in the audience" and "inadequate memorisation of his lines", he became a national celebrity.[180] + +19th century + +A poster, c. 1884, for an American production of Hamlet (starring Thomas W. Keene), showing several of the key scenes +From around 1810 to 1840, the best-known Shakespearean performances in the United States were tours by leading London actors—including George Frederick Cooke, Junius Brutus Booth, Edmund Kean, William Charles Macready, and Charles Kemble. Of these, Booth remained to make his career in the States, fathering the nation's most notorious actor, John Wilkes Booth (who later assassinated Abraham Lincoln), and its most famous Hamlet, Edwin Booth.[181] Edwin Booth's Hamlet at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in 1875 was described as "... the dark, sad, dreamy, mysterious hero of a poem. [... acted] in an ideal manner, as far removed as possible from the plane of actual life".[182][183] Booth played Hamlet for 100 nights in the 1864/5 season at the Winter Garden Theatre, inaugurating the era of long-run Shakespeare in America.[183] + +In the United Kingdom, the actor-managers of the Victorian era (including Kean, Samuel Phelps, Macready, and Henry Irving) staged Shakespeare in a grand manner, with elaborate scenery and costumes.[184] The tendency of actor-managers to emphasise the importance of their own central character did not always meet with the critics' approval. George Bernard Shaw's praise for Johnston Forbes-Robertson's performance contains a sideswipe at Irving: "The story of the play was perfectly intelligible, and quite took the attention of the audience off the principal actor at moments. What is the Lyceum coming to?"[h] + +In London, Edmund Kean was the first Hamlet to abandon the regal finery usually associated with the role in favour of a plain costume, and he is said to have surprised his audience by playing Hamlet as serious and introspective.[186] In stark contrast to earlier opulence, William Poel's 1881 production of the Q1 text was an early attempt at reconstructing the Elizabethan theatre's austerity; his only backdrop was a set of red curtains.[49][187] Sarah Bernhardt played the prince in her popular 1899 London production. In contrast to the "effeminate" view of the central character that usually accompanied a female casting, she described her character as "manly and resolute, but nonetheless thoughtful ... [he] thinks before he acts, a trait indicative of great strength and great spiritual power".[i] + +In France, Charles Kemble initiated an enthusiasm for Shakespeare; and leading members of the Romantic movement such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas saw his 1827 Paris performance of Hamlet, particularly admiring the madness of Harriet Smithson's Ophelia.[189] In Germany, Hamlet had become so assimilated by the mid-19th century that Ferdinand Freiligrath declared that "Germany is Hamlet".[190] From the 1850s, the Parsi theatre tradition in India transformed Hamlet into folk performances, with dozens of songs added.[191] + +20th century +Apart from some western troupes' 19th-century visits, the first professional performance of Hamlet in Japan was Otojirō Kawakami's 1903 Shinpa ("new school theatre") adaptation.[192] Tsubouchi Shōyō translated Hamlet and produced a performance in 1911 that blended Shingeki ("new drama") and Kabuki styles.[192] This hybrid-genre reached its peak in Tsuneari Fukuda's 1955 Hamlet.[192] In 1998, Yukio Ninagawa produced an acclaimed version of Hamlet in the style of Nō theatre, which he took to London.[193] + +Konstantin Stanislavski and Edward Gordon Craig—two of the 20th century's most influential theatre practitioners—collaborated on the Moscow Art Theatre's seminal production of 1911–12.[j] While Craig favoured stylised abstraction, Stanislavski, armed with his 'system,' explored psychological motivation.[195] Craig conceived of the play as a symbolist monodrama, offering a dream-like vision as seen through Hamlet's eyes alone.[k] This was most evident in the staging of the first court scene.[199][l] The most famous aspect of the production is Craig's use of large, abstract screens that altered the size and shape of the acting area for each scene, representing the character's state of mind spatially or visualising a dramaturgical progression.[201] The production attracted enthusiastic and unprecedented worldwide attention for the theatre and placed it "on the cultural map for Western Europe".[202][203] + +The first modern dress stagings of Hamlet happened in 1925 in London and then New York. Barry Jackson's Birmingham Repertory Theatre opened their production, directed by H.K. Ayliff at the Kingsway Theatre on August 25, 1925.[204] Ivor Brown reported, "Many of the first night audience came to scoff and remained to hold its breath, to marvel and enjoy. . . .Shakespeare's victory over time and tailoring was swift and sweeping."[205] Horace Brisbin Liveright's modern dress production opened at the Booth Theater in New York on November 9, 1925, the same night that the London production moved to Birmingham. It was known "more dryly, and perhaps with a touch of something more sinister, as 'the plain-clothes Hamlet'" and did not reach the same level of success.[204] + +Hamlet is often played with contemporary political overtones. Leopold Jessner's 1926 production at the Berlin Staatstheater portrayed Claudius's court as a parody of the corrupt and fawning court of Kaiser Wilhelm.[206] In Poland, the number of productions of Hamlet has tended to increase at times of political unrest, since its political themes (suspected crimes, coups, surveillance) can be used to comment on a contemporary situation.[207] Similarly, Czech directors have used the play at times of occupation: a 1941 Vinohrady Theatre production "emphasised, with due caution, the helpless situation of an intellectual attempting to endure in a ruthless environment".[208][209] In China, performances of Hamlet often have political significance: Gu Wuwei's 1916 The Usurper of State Power, an amalgam of Hamlet and Macbeth, was an attack on Yuan Shikai's attempt to overthrow the republic.[210] In 1942, Jiao Juyin directed the play in a Confucian temple in Sichuan Province, to which the government had retreated from the advancing Japanese.[210] In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the protests at Tiananmen Square, Lin Zhaohua staged a 1990 Hamlet in which the prince was an ordinary individual tortured by a loss of meaning. In this production, the actors playing Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius exchanged roles at crucial moments in the performance, including the moment of Claudius's death, at which point the actor mainly associated with Hamlet fell to the ground.[211] + + +Mignon Nevada as Ophelia, 1910 +Notable stagings in London and New York include Barrymore's 1925 production at the Haymarket; it influenced subsequent performances by John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier.[212][213] Gielgud played the central role many times: his 1936 New York production ran for 132 performances, leading to the accolade that he was "the finest interpreter of the role since Barrymore".[214] Although "posterity has treated Maurice Evans less kindly", throughout the 1930s and 1940s he was regarded by many as the leading interpreter of Shakespeare in the United States and in the 1938/39 season he presented Broadway's first uncut Hamlet, running four and a half hours.[215] Evans later performed a highly truncated version of the play that he played for South Pacific war zones during World War II which made the prince a more decisive character. The staging, known as the "G.I. Hamlet", was produced on Broadway for 131 performances in 1945/46.[216] Olivier's 1937 performance at The Old Vic was popular with audiences but not with critics, with James Agate writing in a famous review in The Sunday Times, "Mr. Olivier does not speak poetry badly. He does not speak it at all."[217] In 1937 Tyrone Guthrie directed the play at Elsinore, Denmark, with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet and Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. + +In 1963, Olivier directed Peter O'Toole as Hamlet in the inaugural performance of the newly formed National Theatre; critics found resonance between O'Toole's Hamlet and John Osborne's hero, Jimmy Porter, from Look Back in Anger.[218][219] + +Richard Burton received his third Tony Award nomination when he played his second Hamlet, his first under John Gielgud's direction, in 1964 in a production that holds the record for the longest run of the play in Broadway history (137 performances). The performance was set on a bare stage, conceived to appear like a dress rehearsal, with Burton in a black v-neck sweater, and Gielgud himself tape-recorded the voice for the ghost (which appeared as a looming shadow). It was immortalised both on record and on a film that played in US theatres for a week in 1964 as well as being the subject of books written by cast members William Redfield and Richard L. Sterne. + +Other New York portrayals of Hamlet of note include that of Ralph Fiennes's in 1995 (for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor)—which ran, from first preview to closing night, a total of one hundred performances. About the Fiennes Hamlet Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times that it was "... not one for literary sleuths and Shakespeare scholars. It respects the play, but it doesn't provide any new material for arcane debates on what it all means. Instead it's an intelligent, beautifully read ..."[220] Stacy Keach played the role with an all-star cast at Joseph Papp's Delacorte Theater in the early 1970s, with Colleen Dewhurst's Gertrude, James Earl Jones's King, Barnard Hughes's Polonius, Sam Waterston's Laertes and Raul Julia's Osric. Sam Waterston later played the role himself at the Delacorte for the New York Shakespeare Festival, and the show transferred to the Vivian Beaumont Theater in 1975 (Stephen Lang played Bernardo and other roles). Stephen Lang's Hamlet for the Roundabout Theatre Company in 1992 received mixed reviews[221][222] and ran for sixty-one performances. David Warner played the role with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1965. William Hurt (at Circle Repertory Company off-Broadway, memorably performing "To be, or not to be" while lying on the floor), Jon Voight at Rutgers[clarification needed], and Christopher Walken (fiercely) at Stratford, Connecticut, have all played the role, as has Diane Venora at The Public Theatre. The Internet Broadway Database lists sixty-six productions of Hamlet.[223] + +Ian Charleson performed Hamlet from 9 October to 13 November 1989, in Richard Eyre's production at the Olivier Theatre, replacing Daniel Day-Lewis, who had abandoned the production. Seriously ill from AIDS at the time, Charleson died eight weeks after his last performance. Fellow actor and friend, Sir Ian McKellen, said that Charleson played Hamlet so well it was as if he had rehearsed the role all his life; McKellen called it "the perfect Hamlet".[224][225] The performance garnered other major accolades as well, some critics echoing McKellen in calling it the definitive Hamlet performance.[226] + +Keanu Reeves performed Hamlet from 12 January to 4 February 1995 at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba). The production garnered positive reviews from worldwide media outlets. Directed by Lewis Baumander the lavish production featured a cast of some of Canada's most distinguished classical actors of that period.[227] + +21st century +Hamlet continues to be staged regularly. Actors performing the lead role have included: Simon Russell Beale, Ben Whishaw, David Tennant, Tom Hiddleston, Angela Winkler, Samuel West, Christopher Eccleston, Maxine Peake, Rory Kinnear, Oscar Isaac, Michael Sheen, Christian Camargo, Paapa Essiedu and Michael Urie.[228][229][230][231] + +In May 2009, Hamlet opened with Jude Law in the title role at the Donmar Warehouse West End season at Wyndham's Theatre. The production officially opened on 3 June and ran through 22 August 2009.[232][233] A further production with Jude Law ran at Elsinore Castle in Denmark from 25–30 August 2009,[234] and then moved to Broadway, and ran for 12 weeks at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York.[235][236] + +In October 2011, a production starring Michael Sheen opened at the Young Vic, in which the play was set inside a psychiatric hospital.[237] + +In 2013, American actor Paul Giamatti played the title role of Hamlet in modern dress, at the Yale Repertory Theatre, at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.[238][239] + +The Globe Theatre of London initiated a project in 2014 to perform Hamlet in every country in the world in the space of two years. Titled Globe to Globe Hamlet, it began its tour on 23 April 2014, the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth, and performed in 197 countries.[240] + +Benedict Cumberbatch played the role for a 12-week run in a production at the Barbican Theatre, opening on 25 August 2015. The play was produced by Sonia Friedman, and directed by Lyndsey Turner, with set design by Es Devlin. It was called the "most in-demand theatre production of all time" and sold out in seven hours after tickets went on sale 11 August 2014, more than a year before the play opened.[241][242] + +A 2017 Almeida Theatre production, directed by Robert Icke and starring Andrew Scott, was transferred that same year to the West End's Harold Pinter Theatre.[243] + +Tom Hiddleston played the role for a three-week run at Vanbrugh Theatre that opened on 1 September 2017 and was directed by Kenneth Branagh.[244][245] + +In 2018, The Globe Theatre's newly instated artistic director Michelle Terry played the role in a production notable for its gender-blind casting.[246] + +A production by Bristol Old Vic starring Billy Howle in title role, Niamh Cusack as Gertrude, Mirren Mack as Ophelia opened on 13 October 2022.[247] + +Film and TV performances +Main article: Hamlet on screen +See also: Cultural references to Hamlet +An early film version of Hamlet is Sarah Bernhardt's five-minute film of the fencing scene,[248] which was produced in 1900. The film was an early attempt at combining sound and film; music and words were recorded on phonograph records, to be played along with the film.[249] Silent versions were released in 1907, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1917, and 1920.[250] In the 1921 film Hamlet, Danish actress Asta Nielsen played the role of Hamlet as a woman who spends her life disguised as a man.[249] + +Laurence Olivier's 1948 moody black-and-white Hamlet won Best Picture and Best Actor Academy Awards and is as of 2024, the only Shakespeare film to have done so. His interpretation stressed the Oedipal overtones of the play and cast 28-year-old Eileen Herlie as Hamlet's mother opposite himself at 41 as Hamlet.[251] + +In 1953, actor Jack Manning performed the play in 15-minute segments over two weeks in the short-lived late night DuMont series Monodrama Theater. New York Times TV critic Jack Gould praised Manning's performance as Hamlet.[252] + +The 1964 Soviet film Hamlet (Russian: Гамлет) is based on a translation by Boris Pasternak and directed by Grigori Kozintsev, with a score by Dmitri Shostakovich.[253] Innokenty Smoktunovsky was cast in the role of Hamlet. + +John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in a Broadway production at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in 1964–65, the longest-running Hamlet in the U.S. to date. A live film of the production was produced using "Electronovision", a method of recording a live performance with multiple video cameras and converting the image to film.[254] Eileen Herlie repeated her role from Olivier's film version as the Queen, and the voice of Gielgud was heard as the ghost. The Gielgud/Burton production was also recorded complete and released on LP by Columbia Masterworks. + + +Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, with Yorick's skull (photographer: James Lafayette, c. 1885–1900) +The first Hamlet in color was a 1969 film directed by Tony Richardson with Nicol Williamson as Hamlet and Marianne Faithfull as Ophelia. + +In 1990 Franco Zeffirelli, whose Shakespeare films have been described as "sensual rather than cerebral",[255] cast Mel Gibson—then famous for the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon movies—in the title role of his 1990 version; Glenn Close—then famous as the psychotic "other woman" in Fatal Attraction—played Gertrude, and Paul Scofield played Hamlet's father.[256] + +Kenneth Branagh adapted, directed, and starred in a 1996 film version of Hamlet that contained material from the First Folio and the Second Quarto. Branagh's Hamlet runs for just over four hours.[257] Branagh set the film with late 19th-century costuming and furnishings, a production in many ways reminiscent of a Russian novel of the time,[258] and Blenheim Palace, built in the early 18th century, became Elsinore Castle in the external scenes. The film is structured as an epic and makes frequent use of flashbacks to highlight elements not made explicit in the play: Hamlet's sexual relationship with Kate Winslet's Ophelia, for example, or his childhood affection for Yorick (played by Ken Dodd).[259] + +In 2000, Michael Almereyda's Hamlet set the story in contemporary Manhattan, with Ethan Hawke playing Hamlet as a film student. Claudius (played by Kyle MacLachlan) became the CEO of "Denmark Corporation", having taken over the company by killing his brother.[260] + +The 2014 Bollywood film Haider is an adaptation set in modern Kashmir.[261] + +The Northman, released on 22 April 2022 and directed by the American director Robert Eggers who also co-wrote the script with Icelandic author Sjón, is based in the original Scandinavian legend that inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet. + +Derivative works + +Scenes from a 1904 benefit performance of W. S. Gilbert's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with Gilbert as Claudius +This section is limited to derivative works written for the stage. + +Tom Stoppard's 1966 play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead retells many of the events of the story from the point of view of the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and gives them a backstory of their own. Several times since 1995, the American Shakespeare Center has mounted repertories that included both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, with the same actors performing the same roles in each; in their 2001 and 2009 seasons the two plays were "directed, designed, and rehearsed together to make the most out of the shared scenes and situations".[262] + +W. S. Gilbert wrote a short comic play titled Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in which Hamlet's play is presented as a tragedy written by Claudius in his youth of which he is greatly embarrassed. Through the chaos triggered by Hamlet's staging of it, Guildenstern helps Rosencrantz vie with Hamlet to make Ophelia his bride.[263] + +Lee Blessing's Fortinbras is a comical sequel to Hamlet in which all the deceased characters come back as ghosts. The New York Times reviewed the play, saying it is "scarcely more than an extended comedy sketch, lacking the portent and linguistic complexity of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Fortinbras operates on a far less ambitious plane, but it is a ripping yarn and offers Keith Reddin a role in which he can commit comic mayhem".[264] + +Caridad Svich's 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs) includes elements of the story of Hamlet but focuses on Ophelia. In Svich's play, Ophelia is resurrected and rises from a pool of water, after her death in Hamlet. The play is a series of scenes and songs, and was first staged at a public swimming pool in Brooklyn.[265] + +David Davalos's Wittenberg is a "tragical-comical-historical" prequel to Hamlet that depicts the Danish prince as a student at Wittenberg University (now known as the University of Halle-Wittenberg), where he is torn between the conflicting teachings of his mentors John Faustus and Martin Luther. The New York Times reviewed the play, saying, "Mr. Davalos has molded a daft campus comedy out of this unlikely convergence",[266] and Nytheatre.com's review said the playwright "has imagined a fascinating alternate reality, and quite possibly, given the fictional Hamlet a back story that will inform the role for the future."[267] + +Mad Boy Chronicle by Canadian playwright Michael O'Brien is a dark comedy loosely based on Hamlet, set in Viking Denmark in 999 AD.[268] + +Notes and references +Notes + The Arden Shakespeare third series published Q2, with appendices, in their first volume,[53] and the F1 and Q1 texts in their second volume.[54] The RSC Shakespeare is the F1 text with additional Q2 passages in an appendix.[55] The New Cambridge Shakespeare series has begun to publish separate volumes for the separate quarto versions that exist of Shakespeare's plays.[56] + See Romans 12:19: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. + See the articles on the Reformation in Denmark–Norway and Holstein and Church of Denmark for details. + Hamlet has 208 quotations in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations; it takes up 10 of 85 pages dedicated to Shakespeare in the 1986 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (14th ed. 1968). For examples of lists of the greatest books, see Harvard Classics, Great Books, Great Books of the Western World, Harold Bloom's The Western Canon, St. John's College "Great Books" reading list,[145] and Columbia College Core Curriculum. + Hattaway asserts that "Richard Burbage ... played Hieronimo and also Richard III but then was the first Hamlet, Lear, and Othello"[157] and Thomson argues that the identity of Hamlet as Burbage is built into the dramaturgy of several moments of the play: "we will profoundly misjudge the position if we do not recognise that, whilst this is Hamlet talking about the groundlings, it is also Burbage talking to the groundlings".[158] See also Thomson on the first player's beard.[159] + Samuel Pepys records his delight at the novelty of Hamlet "done with scenes".[171] + Letter to Sir William Young, 10 January 1773, quoted by Uglow.[174] + George Bernard Shaw in The Saturday Review on 2 October 1897.[185] + Sarah Bernhardt, in a letter to the London Daily Telegraph.[188] + For more on this production, see the MAT production of Hamlet article. Craig and Stanislavski began planning the production in 1908 but, due to a serious illness of Stanislavski's, it was delayed until December 1911.[194] + On Craig's relationship to Symbolism, Russian symbolism, and its principles of monodrama in particular, see Taxidou;[196] on Craig's staging proposals, see Innes;[197] on the centrality of the protagonist and his mirroring of the 'authorial self', see Taxidou[198] and Innes.[197] + A brightly lit, golden pyramid descended from Claudius's throne, representing the feudal hierarchy, giving the illusion of a single, unified mass of bodies. In the dark, shadowy foreground, separated by a gauze, Hamlet lay, as if dreaming. On Claudius's exit-line the figures remained but the gauze was loosened, so that they appeared to melt away as if Hamlet's thoughts had turned elsewhere. For this effect, the scene received an ovation, which was unheard of at the MAT.[200] +References +All references to Hamlet, unless otherwise specified, are taken from the Arden Shakespeare Q2.[53] Under their referencing system, 3.1.55 means act 3, scene 1, line 55. References to the First Quarto and First Folio are marked Hamlet Q1 and Hamlet F1, respectively, and are taken from the Arden Shakespeare Hamlet: the texts of 1603 and 1623.[54] Their referencing system for Q1 has no act breaks, so 7.115 means scene 7, line 115. + + Thompson & Taylor 2006a, p. 74. + Propst, Andy (28 November 2022). "50 Best Plays of All Time: Comedies, Tragedies and Dramas Ranked". Time Out New York. 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"Tom Hiddleston in Hamlet review: A Supremely Self-Assured Prince – Rada's Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. +Further reading +Alexander, Peter (1964). Alexander's Introductions to Shakespeare. London: Collins. OCLC 257743100. +Bloom, Harold (2001). Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (Open Market ed.). Harlow, Essex: Longman. ISBN 1-57322-751-X. +Brennan, Sandra (2015). "Innokenti Smoktunovsky". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 February 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2010. +Chambers, E. K. (2009) [First published 1923]. The Elizabethan Stage. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956748-5. +Crystal, David; Crystal, Ben (2005). The Shakespeare Miscellany. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-051555-0. +Jackson, MacDonald (1991). "The Year's Contributions to Shakespeare Studies: 3 – Editions and Textual Studies". In Wells, Stanley (ed.). The Tempest and After. Shakespeare Survey. Vol. 43. Cambridge University Press. pp. 255–270. ISBN 978-1-139-05320-4. +Kermode, Frank (2000). Shakespeare's Language. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-028592-X. +External links +Library resources about +Hamlet +Resources in your library +Resources in other libraries +Listen to this article (1 hour and 20 minutes) +Duration: 1 hour, 20 minutes and 3 seconds.1:20:03Spoken Wikipedia icon +This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 14 October 2011, and does not reflect subsequent edits. +(Audio help · More spoken articles) +Hamlet Archived 25 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library +​Hamlet​ at the Internet Broadway Database +Hamlet at the Internet Off-Broadway Database + Hamlet public domain audiobook at LibriVox +Texts + The full text of Hamlet at Wikisource, in multiple editions +Hamlet Complete text on one page with definitions of difficult words and explanations of difficult passages. +Hamlet, Folger Shakespeare Library +Hamlet at Standard Ebooks +Hamlet at Project Gutenberg +Hamlet at the Internet Shakespeare Editions – Transcripts and facsimiles of Q1, Q2 and F1. +Shakespeare Quartos Archive – Transcriptions and facsimiles of thirty-two copies of the five pre-1642 quarto editions. +Hamlet at Open Source Shakespeare – A complete text of Hamlet based on Q2. +Hamlet – Annotated text aligned to Common Core standards. +Hamlet – Etext in Spanish available in many formats at Gutenberg.org. +Analysis +Hamlet on the Ramparts – The MIT's Shakespeare Electronic Archive. +Hamletworks.org – Scholarly resource with multiple versions of Hamlet, commentaries, concordances, and more. +Depictions and commentary of Hamlet paintings +Clear Shakespeare Hamlet – A word-by-word audio guide through the play. +Related works +The Danish History (Books I–IX) by Saxo Grammaticus at The Online Medieval & Classical Library (public domain translation into English of the Gesta Danorum). +vte +William Shakespeare +vte +William Shakespeare's Hamlet +vte +Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival +Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata +Portals: +icon The arts + Literature +icon Theatre +Hamlet at Wikipedia's sister projects: + +Media from Commons + +Quotations from Wikiquote + +Texts from Wikisource +Categories: Hamlet1600s playsEnglish Renaissance playsShakespearean tragediesFiction about familicideFiction about regicideFiction about fratricideGhosts in written fictionMetafictional playsBritish plays adapted into filmsPlays adapted into operasPlays adapted into radio programsPlays adapted into television showsPlays adapted into video gamesPlays set in DenmarkPlays set in castlesPlays set in palacesFiction about purgatoryRevenge playsFiction about suicideWorks based on Gesta DanorumFiction about poisoningsKronborg +This page was last edited on 9 July 2024, at 00:58 (UTC). +Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. 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