TRYING TO RESURRECT HAMLET
The Manchester Guardian once ran a literacy contest which involved writing a new ending for Shakespeare’s famed tragedy Hamlet. Contestants were to present a synopsis for “a better last act.” All of the contestants kept Hamlet alive, and some had the heroine return after her death. In the revisions, they said that she had only been in a trance, or that she had been feigning death to see if Hamlet really loved her. Each of the entries involved some artful device to insure a perfect happy ending. And now who can say that the TV show Dallas was being original in having Bobby Ewing come back to live by having the whole previous year of the show, including Bobby’s death being a part of Pam Ewing’s dream. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was not a rewritten or trick ending. It was the real thing! Adapted from Paul Tan’s, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, page 1144.
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