A Study On Intertextuality Between Gertrude And Claudius And Hamlet

John Updike (1932--2009) is a well-recognized American novelist, short story writer, poet, art critic and literary critic. In his productive and fruitful writing career, John Updike creates many works, for which he received31awards, including two Pulitzer Prize, two O. Henry Prize and two National Book Awards. Gertrude and Claudius, the nineteenth novel of Updike, is called the prequel of Hamlet. It was selected as the forth in top10books of2000in the New York Times. The novel consists in three parts in which Updike unearthed earlier life of his protagonists before the play Hamlet imaginatively by the application of intertextuality.Intertextuality, which derives reasonable factors from a series of literary theories and intellectual movements, such as Deconstructionism, Structuralism, Postmodernism, Russian Formalism and Marxism, is one of the most commonly applied theories in contemporary literary criticism. Intertextuality was first coined by Julia Kristeva in her thesis Bukhtin, word, Dialogue and Novel published in1966. Since it was first coined by Julia Kristeva, the definition of intertextuality has been continuously improved and developed. The efforts of outstanding writers and researchers constitute the development and dissemination of intertextual theory.Literally speaking, every text is transformed from other texts and cross-referenced by other texts. The texts together form an infinite open net and constructed the evolution of text and literary semiotics.This thesis aims to employ intertextual theory to unearth the prominent features presented in John Updike’s reconstructed work of the classic play and find out the prolific intertextual skills of Updike. Under the guidance of the theory of intertextuality, John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius is first investigated from Shakespeare’s Hamlet in its intertextual elements:character, imagery and plot. Then the extended elements will be detected to show the significance of Updike’s deconstruction and reconstruction.This paper is divided into five parts.The first part gives a brief introduction to William Shakespeare and John Updike as well as the two works studied in this thesis. It also gives a brief summary of the literary review of current studies on them both at home and abroad and the development of intertextuality. As to intertextuality, many a theorist enriches the theory and may define the term with different scope since its birth. So a detailed analysis of the theory is provided. The second part explores intertextuality of characters in Gertrude and Claudius. By borrowing different names from three predecessors of Hamlet in each chapter in Gertrude and Claudius, the author endows characters subversive images. Hamlet is no longer the one long-time on the stage to accuse his mother and Claudius. Gertrude is no more the queen with easy virtue but a woman with strong self-consciousness and speaking right. King Hamlet is a power-eager guy taking advantage of the political marriage. Claudius is a miserable secondary son suffering from the feudal Primogeniture. Polonius is a tedious but not evil counselor.The third part analyzes the intertextuality of imagery in Gertrude and Claudius. Study on imagery processes a long development. The study on imageries used in Shakespearean works first began by Caroline Spurgeon in1960s in her book named Shakespeare’s Imagery, and What It Tells Us. John Updike also extends some imagery factors in his new century novel from the play.The fourth part focuses on the intertextuality of plots in Gertrude and Claudius. Revenge and marriage serve as the story clues of the two works. Revenge, as one important factor in two works, promotes the development of the plots while marriage is the concentration of commentaries. After further study on the clues, we can find that there are common points and difference in the application of two lines. The common point is that Gertrude without exception is seen as a chip to achieve power by men. The difference is that in Hamlet it is men who are core persons in directing the play, whereas in Gertrude and Claudius Gertrude becomes the core person who leads the storyline.The fifth part tells about the extended elements in Gertrude and Claudius from four aspects, including the change in narrative perspective, new speech right endowed to the Characters, the overthrow of the theme and John Updike’s religious view directly expressed in the novel.The last part is the conclusion of this thesis. This paper analyzes the art of Updike’s intertextual narration, but also the inspiration and humane care on women from him who do not have true freedom and happiness in a patriarchal society.Through the above detailed study, a conclusion can be drawn that by deconstruction and reconstruction of Shakespeare’s classical play, Updike has expanded the protagonist’s lives before the play and conveyed his concern on women and religion. By setting the story in the medieval times when women suffered custody from patriarchal society and endows speaking right to the female character Gertrude, Updike shows his sympathy to women’s plight. Updike reminds that as marginalized and materialized objects, the complete liberation of women, not only refers to the complete overthrow of their partner, but also refers to a strong self-consciousness and the ability to have economic independence. Women should be aware that they are not an attachment to their husband, but an independent part of society.