Harold Bloom interview on "Hamlet" (2003)

Literary critic Harold Bloom provides an in-depth interpretation of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the characters in the play, as he does in his book "Hamlet: Poem Unlimited."
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[@ManufacturingIntellect]

Check out these GREAT Harold Bloom books on Amazon: "How to Read and Why": amzn.to/318PRW8 "Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds": amzn.to/315ucy8 "Possessed by Memory: The Inward Light of Criticism": amzn.to/2UJGxpd Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259 Share this video! Get Two Books FREE with a Free Audible Trial: amzn.to/2LBdkZl Checking out the affiliate links above helps me bring even more high quality videos by earning me a small commission! And if you have any suggestions for future content, make sure to subscribe on the Patreon page. Thank you for your support!

[@eduardosturla]

Bloom was just out of the hospital and pumped full of meds for this interview. He had open heart surgery in 2002. This explains the need to drink so much water. What a noble soul. From humble immigrant background, a native yiddish speaker, learned the english language and taught the Western Canon to countless generations of students and certainly left the world a little better than he found it. He passed away in 2019. RIP

[@NaughtyVampireGod]

Thank you for the context. Even though it is constantly under attack I believe the Western Canon and the Great Books will survive.

[@colleencupido5125]

What a noble soul indeed. And he left the world a LOT better than he found it. As I wrote in a fan letter to him ( which he answered) " Your work will live on, and if that's the only kind of immortality you believe in, at least you have that." When I learned he had passed, I did a rosary for him. RIP, Professor Bloom.

[@NathanielRobinson]

I met him about a year later at the Yale eye center. Really nice person and what a brilliant mind!

[@rishabhaniket1952]

I saw him a month back, he was bitching about Harry Potter and Fifty shades, he didn’t seem to mind Twilight much. We had coffee and on our way back from the coffee house he recited the entire Paradise Lost.

[@allen5455]

Yeah, water and Irish whiskey! About half and half.

[@OneManShakespeare]

@ 7:50 "the critical tradition says he's in love with his mother - you know, that's Freud's notion - so much nonsense" Thank you Mr Bloom.

[@OneManShakespeare]

I entirely agree! But you still see it pop up in some productions - the Mel Gibson version with Glenn Close immediately springs to mind.

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Don't worry! The liberals have excommunicated Mr. Freud.

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Amen!

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

If he speaks your thoughts, then he must be a psychic! Is Bloom psychic?

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Exactly. Read C.S. Lewis treatment of Hamlet. Lewis shows that the play is all about "faith." Faith in the "ghost." "To be (being: faith) or not to be (rationalism). Modernism/rationalism is/was all caught up in Freud. Most libraries are "throwing out" their collections of Freud. In our college library, there are now about 25 volumes with white cardboard marks attached to each. The bookmarks say... "discard, not discernible." Freud coined the term "female hysteria." His theory stands as good science... but, not for the sexual complexes he though up from nothing. Some from Freud, some not. The feminist "hate" Freud. Good! For psychology, try Thomas Szasz, "The Myth of Mental Illness."

[@sarahumlaut]

"He does not need an Iago, he is his own Iago" BRILLIANT!!!

[@hughmanatee7657]

Sarah Loverly in one of his books Bloom says that if they were ever on stage together Hamlet would destroy Iago in an instant.

[@stephencarter7266]

@@hughmanatee7657 That make absolutely no sense. The world of Shakespeare isn't the _Marvel Comic Universe_ . That particular quote demonstrates both Bloom's and Lovely's misappropriation of the Bard and his genius. I suspect that if William Shakespeare could get on a academic panel with Harold Bloom, he'd destroy Bloom in an instant, for putting his (Bloom) own personal spin on his (Shakespeare) hard and inspired work.

[@haimbenavraham1502]

The man gave me a thirst for literature.

[@luigirizzo6959]

We must indulge such thirst, mustn't we?

[@parthjackson189]

Yes

[@jackjohnhameld6401]

Sibelius said that no one ever erected a monument for a critic. There should be a monument to Harold Bloom who taught a generation how to read. I am not American (my country is Scotland) but Harold was a noble soul as Eduardo (below) said.

[@paint9er]

Just finished "Hamlet" for the first time and was looking for insightful videos on it..I loved listening to Mr. Bloom, despite the frequent slurps lol

[@Zakster44]

Jorge Luis Borges, in his short story, "Shakespeare's Memory," has God speaking to Shakespeare much as Bloom might imagine Shakespeare speaking to his creation, Hamlet: "History adds that before or after dying he found himself in the presence of God and told Him: ‘I who have been so many men in vain want to be one and myself.’ The voice of the Lord answered from a whirlwind: ‘Neither am I anyone; I have dreamt the world as you dreamt your work, my Shakespeare, and among the forms in my dream are you, who like myself are many and no one.’"

[@alesisleonelcozzarin9140]

Not "Shakespeare´s Memory" (1983), but "Everything and Nothing" (1960). I leave you a link of the text. Cheers. medium.com/jorge-luis-borges/everything-nothing-j-l-borges-a7025a5b9769

[@taniaearle4457]

@@alesisleonelcozzarin9140 Thanks this is interesting 😊

[@jameson6930]

Will someone get this man some water!!!

[@mteresavaldes2251]

That was terribly brave to go on an interview at that moment of his life

[@BillyMcBride]

As clear and brilliant as ever, Harold Bloom, with everything he says, shows us everything so that we behold what could not have been seen without him.

[@louie3601]

08:01 The most wonderful rendition and performance of that line since Richard Burbage.

[@YY6951]

Great

[@evertvillarreal5567]

Amazing insights! Thank you, Dr. Bloom!

[@indialavoyce95]

I have read several Shakespeare plays, but haven’t read Hamlet YET. I will right that wrong

[@mikef2813]

Have you read it? If so, what do you think?

[@andrewmurphy186]

AMAZING! GIVES ME SUCH A GOOD INSIGHT TOWARDS HAROLD'S FEELINGS OF HAMLET TY!!!@!@!@

[@ragersnightmare]

Andrew murphy ikr! this was a very enlightening journey into the depths of harold blooms wondrous mind about Hamlet!

[@gordonli5658]

GE WDDIT UR DUX OF EVERYTHING

[@pleasequietdown8946]

Thank god he wasn't interrupted in this interview. I wish they all were like that

[@pleasequietdown8946]

@@slappymcgrew8607 I can't remember, was he interrupted much? Or does Charles just set a low bar

[@pleasequietdown8946]

@@slappymcgrew8607 damnit Charlie. At least he's not speaking multiple sentences over him in this one

[@amywas1]

As prodigious a bladder as ever I have witnessed in a man! Thank you, Mr Bloom.

[@mikedinken8020]

I'd imagine that has to do with taking medicine

[@hellbooks3024]

We are unable to ascertain the prodigiousness of his bladder as we are deprived a view from underneath the table.

[@Ronmcdon-mb7bh]

@@hellbooks3024 tis a shame. I suppose we can never escape our mistakes. I would like to believe I could take them back but I can’t. I have no choice. There is nothing that can be done. Mayhaps some slight comfort can be found in the inevitability of my fate.

[@jmichaelortiz]

Marvelous. Angels sing thee to thy rest, sweet professor!

[@timholbrook7671]

@ Mr. Zhia, thank you for your excellent comment. I think many us feel the very same way. It is indeed it's own tragedy.

[@plumjam]

I need a drink.

[@monicapacheco9328]

What a brilliant and unique mind ! Infinite Thanks,Mr Harold Bloom.

[@timholbrook7671]

@ edwardo Ferrer, you, my kind soul have the ability to accurately and truthfully interpret the true meaning of Harold Bloom's expressions. Bloom, politically was anything but a conservative. A true Norman Thomas socialist/Intellectual, Bloom articulated from the standpoint of the everyman. He simply desired the everyman find the many truths of life in the classics. The eternal stuff. Not the run of the mill current fluff. He, did not 'hate' fluff stuff, he simply wanted it put correctly in its proper place. It was simply NOT part of the 'canon'. It is so refreshing to read a critic about Bloom, from someone who rightfully understands him. Even, if in conclusion, you may disagree, you will at least be somewhat honest in your assessments, and not just ignorantly 'beating' on a dead man.

[@ChrisMartin-tk4dh]

It is of no coincidence that great minds are often disagreeable. We shun it at our peril.

[@drbqqq1433]

Each time I thought that he was going to swallow the glass whole, but then he never allows himself more than the tiniest intake of moisture.

[@tenzingdawa4220]

Bloom might look on the heavier side here but it’s mostly just water weight...

[@h.harrison5841]

One of the last interviews with the scholar Harold Bloom. Despite his physical limitations his mind remains exceptional.

[@friedrichwordsworth7456]

There were many more interviews after this, some in print or on radio.

[@timholbrook7671]

F. Wordsworth, very well expressed. Long live Bloom, and let us hear as many expressions of him as can be found. Love the Rose collection. I only wish Charlie would have 'booked' Bloom more!!

[@robertbrennan2268]

This is such a wonder this testament of a great scholar inducting us into his living relationship with the bottomless depths of the extraordinary text of "Hamlet"- in which Shakespeare's interminable interior dialogue of self and self - author and actor, lover and killer - plays out across the ages. Bloom opens his mind to us so we glimpse its inner riches. Here is Bloom with a final disclosure of what matters in the shadow of his own death. What an extraordinary life as a teacher of literature - such a wise intiator and inductor into the mysteries -under the sign perhaps, of Hermes with his serpent wreathed staff!. Other fine interpreters and initiators are brought to mind with the unending procession of initiate listening, the company of the discerning ear. Within "Hamlet", within the interior world of Shakespeare's vast mind, there echoes the to-and-fro of voices, and all is brought again to sound and life on our stages and through the continuing discourse across time - Johnson, Hazlitt, Coleridge, Lamb, Bradley, Wilson Knight, Greenblatt, Kermode, then finally Bloom himself. We are caught up in this down the ages to our own immediate encounters with this living body of words and symbolic actions. These voices resound in and around these works linking the living and the dead, our lives and our ends and moving on beyond our petty lives....

[@uranusgemini3388]

You know, this comment here is as great as any Hamlet uttered in the play-- so what is all the fuss about, when Hamlet could possibly be this ubiquitous?

[@FelloniousMonk22]

What a downright beautiful human being

[@degreesbrix]

Brilliant interview

[@BrianJosephMorgan]

Fascinating.

[@erniereyes1994]

I love how Harold Bloom calls bullshit on these preposterous "postmodern" lenses. Psychoanalysis might be one of the more titillating postmodern lenses to read literature, but like Bloom says: It's all nonsense.

[@AllendeEtAl]

Psychoanalysis is anything but postmodern, fool.

[@erniereyes1994]

@@AllendeEtAl you don't know what you're talking about, do you?

[@AllendeEtAl]

Yes I do: Psychoanalysis appears around 1900, and the main work of Jung, Freud and others (this is a sketch) is done before the 1940s. Postmodernism, now, can not be traced back till as early as the 1950s, and that is an exaggeration, and it is very much built against psychoanalysis, specially and explicitly by the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, and in a minor extent, by Derrida and Irigaray. The only you-may-call postmodern author who was keen on psychoanalysis was Lacan, and he was partially critical with it. Saying that, and I'm sorry since I admit I'm being rude, you only show an ignorant prejudice against contemporary philosophy, mixing such things as postmodernism and psychoanalysis.

[@erniereyes1994]

@@AllendeEtAl lol you've clearly not taken a literary analysis or a research methods class. To apply a Marxist reading to a text, for instance, is not the same as supporting Marxism and all its complexities. The same for psychoanalysis. Most progressive readers like to apply a psychoanalytic lens when they read a text of fiction, which is why postmodernists (i.e. those who hold no objective truth) subjectively "cancel" authors based on what they perceive to be racist, bigoted, xenophobic, etc., behavior in the works of a many canonical texts. That might be true for, say, Joseph Conrad, but I'm not quite sure for a Faulkner or a Philip Roth (or even Shakespeare). Postmodern readers thus say it's absolutely crucial to understand the exigencie of a text and the historical background of the author to enjoy his or her text, and I don't believe in that. I think Bloom would say the same.

[@AllendeEtAl]

Look, man, to be honest, you don't really understand what postmodern means and you are only using it as a slur. I'd pray you look what it means in the Stanford online encyclopedia or some reliable source.

[@parthasarathi7235]

harold bloom is the greatest critic

[@OneManShakespeare]

I agree!

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Harold Bloom is in love with himself. He skipped Shakespeare's admonitions (borrowed from the Bible) on humility and hospitality.

[@jimmythefish4038]

Christopher Ricks is probably sharper. George Steiner is strong. I hope you mean among the living, otherwise there are many others.

[@backlightsnew]

Northrop Frye says something very different where Bloom talks about hearing Shakespeare's voice in the advice Hamlet gives to the players. In "Northrop Frye on Shakespeare," Frye says that is the voice of the amateur playwright (which obviously Hamlet would have been)

[@nozecone]

It is noteworthy that the players seem to think Hamlet is full of himself, IIRC - so was that a little self-deprecating humour on Shakespeare's part, was it at the expense of 'amateur playwrights'?

[@andrewbillek9209]

I never noticed before, but because I wanted to hear every word Bloom said about Hamlet, that Rose jumps in obscuring the last words Bloom says. If Rose had something interesting to say that he couldn't sit on for another second that would be valid. But that's not the case. He hust states the obvious.

[@graybow2255]

That look and hand position on the head. Yes, an intellectual.

[@jamestiburon443]

Amen

[@TheIrishfitter]

Brilliant.

[@neilbrennan5766]

" Neither a Producer nor a Consumer be; for producing consumes your Life, and consuming produces insatiable enui! " Burning Shakespeare

[@charlespeterson3798]

Master of the revels of Shakespeare. You gotta love watching his eyes.

[@lucasrunge8792]

"Hamlet does not love anyone. He is not capable of love." Hamlet's dad just died --- CHILL Harold, chill.

[@orest323]

this old water sipping dude is just lit

[@shakespearaamina9117]

Fascinating

[@supersword222]

does anyone have the english notification? i lost mine

[@gordonli5658]

Elmos world

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

I found your's in the restroom.

[@joeyb4045]

I do wish enjoyed anything this much. Shakespeare is interesting too. Bottoms up.

[@Zalley]

Great speaker

[@jamestiburon443]

I am 60. I have read his 7 of his books. Western Canon 5 times. Shakespeare 3 times. And I know HAMLET. Deeply. So, why not Vedanta philosophy with Reincarnation? Why the melodramatic despair? Shakespeare does not express the Complete nature of the Human Condition. I am sure his Karma is good.

[@ohstephendedalus]

Does anyone know what Bloom says at 08:35 'he's also incredibly..' which the interviewer interrupts?

[@Ant-qm6tv]

Various

[@VallaMusic]

what ?!? - HBloom says Hamlet doesn't love anyone ? He loved Yorick; he loved his mother; he loved his father; and he greatly loved Ophelia.

[@terryhalco1021]

Yes, and Hamlet has a great friend in his life too (Horatio).

[@hughmanatee7657]

Val Lamon That is infinitely debatable. His relationship with his father is especially problematic.

[@MelodyFlorantinaa]

I don't see him loving anyone but himself. He played everyone according to his own accord in the same way that his father, in death, tried to play Hamlet like a flute but it failed. Series of manipulation to get their way, a play within a play supports the idea that everyone is acting or putting up a front. Very soft yet cunning, seemingly loving but utterly manipulative.

[@timothymeehan181]

He once loved Ophelia, and she him, until she obeyed her father’s direct orders to refuse to see or talk with him, or receive his letters, driving them both a little crazy…

[@richardknott4626]

Good observations. He does seem to love his father and Yorick, and never says anything against Horatio, either, but I'm not so sure about either his mother or Ophelia. Any love he may have had for her seems eclipsed by his sense of her betrayal.

[@pillettadoinswartsh4974]

Harold says nobody gets Hamlet, which I assume includes him. Soviet/Russian actor Innocenti Smoktunovsky, who portrayed Hamlet, said, "Playing Hamlet well is not a problem. One can play it arrogantly, theatrically (in a showy way). But to be Hamlet, happens to very few. *Only the state of being Hamlet brings you close to this great play. Only that............only that."*

[@jamesduggan7200]

Any good scholar can offer one insight into Hamlet (or any other single Shakespeare play). Bloom can offer dozens. Especially I liked the terse nod to Mel Gibson, who brought to life the Act V Hamlet better than any other actor,

[@stevenyafet]

"He would not expose his inwardness". Rather HB would not expose Shakespeare's gentle inwardness. Notably Charlie Rose asked him directly. HB words fly up, message remains below.

[@TraversingSacred]

What show is this from and who is the host?

[@brianc4594]

At least provide ample refreshment for the guest

[@brianfinnegan9700]

'may you too live forever dear fellow'- Harold Bloom. So angry that Ive only just found this great man. Like the great Christopher Hitchens ,I only became aware of him after he had died.

[@christophermurnane]

Harold Bloom is one of the greatest and most savage comedians of all time

[@vincentchen3600]

adsense is gonna go skyrocketing

[@milfredcummings717]

4:18 5:06 7:51 8:25 20:15

[@benjamintycko1393]

I gotta agree with him, as usual.

[@victornissan8363]

Give this man a glass of water for fuck sake!

[@pretty-white-lamb]

0:03 look at him struggling to hold his massive brain up

[@johndowns3839]

I thought the consensus was that Lear was the hardest male character to play.

[@Jeffhowardmeade]

Donald Wolfit's advice for playing Lear: "Get a light Cordelia".

[@AGProMrPhilly]

lemme take another sip of water

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

He's sipping Roossian Vodka.

[@RobDeRosaActor]

I’ve never been thirstier in my life.

[@wadiitaous5101]

name of the show pls

[@valpergalit]

wadii taous Charlie Rose

[@stevebrizzle]

Take a shot every time Bloom takes a shot.

[@ryangullage410]

It’s a western cannon.

[@ChristosGoulios]

Transcending plato. Hm I don't particularly agree with that statement. But other than that a very solid view point.

[@ishmaelforester9825]

I think hamlet has the most lines in any of the plays. Which indicates he was Shakespeare's favourite

[@ishmaelforester9825]

He is dramatic poet Shakespeare's ultimate role of words

[@ishmaelforester9825]

'words, words, words.. '

[@science212]

Harold Bloom was a great american.

[@brooke1496]

16:04 shakespeare would have had to edit himself between editions? edit- dead

[@Voltaire7]

❤️

[@adamredfield]

Oh what a great discussion, except I wish Charlie wouldn't interrupt so much.

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Don't worry! Charlie is put out to "pasture."

[@adamredfield]

Yes indeed he has.

[@ryangullage410]

Harold Bloom was never in a tank.

[@pgfinna]

Just drops Anthony Burgees like we don't know who he is

[@ixmix]

I can't validate Mr. Bloom stance and assumptions... He goes quite far away...

[@rmwtsou]

Too much of water hast thou, poor Prof. Bloom.

[@RichMitch]

Why do the graphics not have capitals for his name

[@katecranswick8978]

They seem to not want to capitalise anything

[@dovic86]

Disable the comments, please. I'm begging you.

[@ryangullage410]

Charley Rose and Harold Bloom talking about man’s greatest creation.

[@ryangullage410]

Man’s greatest creation?

[@ryangullage410]

Hamlet. Not them.

[@mikef2813]

Give him whiskey. He might slow down a little.

[@hughmanatee7657]

Mike F Or a cup of sack, like Falstaff.

[@Richardwestwood-dp5wr]

​@hughmanatee7657 if he had a cup of cherry sack or canary like Falstaff he would have confused Hamlet with King Lear.

[@ryangullage410]

Shakespeare is the Damien Hirst of his day.

[@pragersowell]

Great interview of great thinker and writer. Read any of Dr. The

[@pragersowell]

... books.

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Harold loves Dr Zeus.

[@ItachiUchiha-ns1il]

RIP

[@paulkossak7761]

My guide to the western cannon.

[@lindarinnyo6239]

He is drinking water because of the diuretics he must be taking which dehydrate one, and this and other medication which gives dry mouth. Bladder jokes unfunny imo

[@charlieladd2206]

Why so many dislikes? There are more dislikes than likes. Dafuq?

[@garundip.mcgrundy8311]

Because he's an idiot! Friends to Noam Chomsky, the hate-American advocate.

[@jimmythefish4038]

Neither of those men are even a thousandth as much an idiot as the American president.

[@raystaar]

There should be a warning on Charlie Rose videos.

[@JAMAICADOCK]

Existentialism 300 years before it was invented.

[@parthasarathi7235]

bloom is the greatest critic

[@danscalia7427]

Why Charlie Rose was ever considered a good interviewer is far beyond me. Interjects are worst times... says asanine things and looks like the creep, he apparently is.

[@habibshams6958]

Bryan Magee would be much much better a host, I believe.

[@badger500]

He just plain cuts off Bloom in the middle of very interesting thoughts, ones we will never hear now. Frustrating to watch.

[@SeanZhaox]

Man, I miss Charlie Rose

[@cjordan1161]

I don't . He was a false intellectual . Not the real deal .

[@deadinthebed963]

He just interviewed the intellectsxwas never himself

[@martinzitter4551]

Harold Bloom seemed to be unaware of Bob Dylan.

[@CaptainLionelMandrak]

who's Bob Dylan?

[@blackstonpoetrymusic8744]

Lucky him...

[@liamodalaigh3201]

he’s a folk singer. not widely known

[@cjordan1161]

Who cares ?

[@kensssa9375]

Big Shakes Bloom Doom

[@senoronofre]

Really!

[@constancestadler4779]

Bloom has no peer. Read the corpus of his works. Claudius' death is an obvious superficial lure as is the "I lust for mommy" crap as THE seminal themes - as in playing to the Globe crowd. Hamlet introduced "personality, predicated on introspection", unable to know love (save perhaps, Yorick) to the canon of theater. Read Shakespeare before and after he writes this play, the Bard IS different. Much as if you compare Aaron the Moor (the incarnate bastard) and the hero incarnate, the 'Christianized' Moor, Othello (written 8 years apart), Shakespeare changes. Read about Leo Africanus, read about Elizabethan England at the turn of the 18th century (the filthy street life), then you MIGHT get a glimpse of how a black hero married to a while woman was so well received. That's recommended as a warm up for reading for Hamlet. Bloom nails it. "illiterate buffoon"? It is obvious know to whom that comment applies to here.

[@OneManShakespeare]

Well said Constance!

[@hellbooks3024]

Bloom had no pier.

[@conjugatemethod]

Truly spectacular: can any man smack his lips more than this?

[@dougstephens5450]

"Shakespeares makes me thirsty, Charlie. Can someone get me a catheter?"

[@deadinthebed963]

He seemed eternally dehydrated

[@pendejo6466]

Have another drink professor.

[@zackforney337]

another lip smack please

[@Ah-fd7ip]

That's the funniest thing I've seen today

[@judithnelson1665]

But wrong in this particular: King Claudius is not "ghastly", perhaps nobler, all considered ,than spoiled grad student Hamlet who kills small fry Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern

[@nozecone]

In an educational film, Patrick Stewart gives a worthwhile defence of Claudius, purporting to see him as a responsible ruler who tries to establish peace and order, as against the bellicose and vengeful dead king, and the irresponsible and unpredictable Hamlet.

[@nuqwestr]

Hamlet couldn't kill Cladius earlier, there's still 5-acts left, as both Peter O'Toole and Orson Welles reminds us.