What Dreams May Come: Hamlet Up Close

Few works of literature draw us into the depths of the human mind like Hamlet , Shakespeare’s haunting exploration of grief, vengeance, and the fragile work of self-understanding.

Recent reinterpretations, such as Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet and its 2025 film adaptation, which imagines the personal losses that may have shaped Shakespeare’s art, underscore the play’s enduring power to provoke reflection across centuries.

In this course, we take a deliberate, immersive approach to Hamlet , tracing its emotional and philosophical undercurrents and considering how its questions continue to resonate today.

Each week, we linger over moments that have shaped generations of readers, from Hamlet’s early soliloquies of sorrow and self-scrutiny to Ophelia’s unraveling at the intersection of surveillance and desire, and the graveyard’s stark meditations on fate and mortality.

Sessions blend close reading with thoughtful discussion, creating space for literary insight and personal reflection.

Whether returning to Hamlet or encountering it for the first time, students will engage in an intimate and deeply human exploration of Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy.