As with the first two books, this one is divided into
five acts, and presents the film’s opening crawl as a Shakespearean sonnet,
told by the Chorus in prologue. When C-3PO knocks on the gate of Jabba’s
palace, the droid that answers acts the part of the Porter from Macbeth, a delightful and humorous
touch. His speech is much shorter than the Porter’s, and begins: “Now here’s a
knocking, indeed! If a droid/Were porter of the Force here in this place,/He
should have rust for lack of turning key” (p. 14). Compare those lines with the
opening lines of the Porter’s speech: “Here’s a knocking, indeed! If a man were
porter of hell-gate he should have old turning the key.”
Salacious Crumb acts the part of a Fool, but also has
lines that refer to Hamlet. As when
he says, “A little more than dud and less than dead” (p. 18), a play on
Hamlet’s “A little more than kin and less than kind.” Or when he says, “A Solo
may make progress through the guts/Of Banthas!” (p. 27), a play on Hamlet’s
“Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a
beggar.” There are several Hamlet
references throughout the book. Yoda’s last line is Hamlet’s last line, but
slightly inverted, the way Yoda speaks: “The rest silence is” (p. 56). And then
Luke follows with a variation of Horatio’s line: “Good night, sweet Jedi” (p.
56), and then refers to the famous soliloquy: “These are the pains that human
life doth bring,/The heartache and the thousand nat’ral shocks/That flesh is
heir to” (p. 57). Vader takes a line from that same soliloquy: “’Tis a
consummation/Devoutly to be wish’d” (p. 99). And then a little later uses another
of Hamlet’s big speeches: “O what a rogue and peasant Sith am I” (p. 102). The
Emperor does a bit from Hamlet’s “What a piece of work is a man” speech: “O
what a piece of work we are! I should/Find joy in our humanity, and yet,/To me,
what is this quintessence of dust?” (p. 115). Leia and Luke do a bit of the
dialogue between Polonius and Hamlet, when Leia asks, “I prithee, say: what is
the matter, Luke?” and Luke responds, “Between who?” (p. 95). Han Solo, in an
aside, refers to Hamlet: “This Lando doth
protest too much, methinks” (p. 67). Even the Rancor Keeper refers to Hamlet: “O that this too, too sullied
flesh would melt/Into oblivion, if I without/my pet belov’d must live” (p. 33).
It’s interesting, as a side note, that Doescher chooses the “sullied flesh”
reading rather than “solid flesh.” The Rancor Keeper also uses a little of Richard The Third, saying: “Was ever
rancor in this humor rais’d?/Was ever rancor in this humor won?” (p. 34).
Luke refers to Hamlet
when he says, “Here is the battle grand: the skiff’s the thing/Wherein I’ll
catch Han’s rescue and take wing” (p. 37). He also refers to Hamlet after Anakin has died: “And
flights of Jedi sing thee to thy rest” (p. 152). And when Luke attacks Boba
Fett, Fett says, “A hit, a very palpable hit!” (p. 40). Ian Doescher used that
reference in William Shakespeare’s The
Empire Striketh Back, Star Wars Part The Fifth also. But then again Return Of The Jedi reused many of the
elements of the first Star Wars film:
a Death Star, Tatooine, Chewbacca presented as a prisoner, Luke and Leia
swinging together to safety, and so on. And some references seem a bit forced,
such as Boushh’s line, “O true decryptionist, thy codes are quick!” (p. 25), a
play on Romeo’s line, “O true apothecary,/Thy drugs are quick.” And there is a
bit too much of characters saying what they’re doing. Like Luke saying, “Now I
jump aboard/His bike” (p. 76), and then “I shoot, and one is dead” (p. 77), and
then “He comes a’blasting, but my lightsaber/Deflects the shots, and now I
slice his bike!” (p. 78).
Luke makes a cute reference to The Tempest: “Yet is such stuff as droids are made of” (p. 52)
(referring to Prospero’s “we are such stuff/As dreams are made on” from Act IV
of that play). And he later refers to the play again, when upon seeing the
Ewoks he remarks, “O brave new world, that has such creatures in’t!” (p. 86)
(referring to Miranda’s line near the end of the play). Han, upon seeing Leia,
exclaims, “O mistress mine, to see thee brings me joy,” a nod to a song from Twelfth Night. And when C-3PO tells the
tale of the rebellion to the Ewoks, he borrows from Jaques’ seven ages of man
speech from As You Like It: “All the
world’s at war/And all the rebels in it are the heroes;/They have their battles
and their skirmishes,/And rebels in these scenes have play’d their parts,/Their
story being seven ages” (p. 92). Darth Vader refers to Othello just before deciding to go against the Emperor: “It is the
cause, it is the cause, my soul” (p. 144). Lando refers to Julius Caesar when he says, “Shall they ascend and with a rebel’s
voice/Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war!” (p. 148).
In William
Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back, Star Wars Part The Fifth, the
ugnaughts sang. In this book, the Rancor gets a song. Why not? Han also sings
when he learns Luke is not a rival for Leia’s affections. And Luke takes the
tale of Oedipus and gives it to a Tusken Raider (p. 61). Wedge gets a nice long
aside to the audience.
By the way, in an aside, Obi-Wan mentions the
midi-chlorians, a subject that raises the ire of many fans. And it seems Ian
Doescher acknowledges that in the lines, “’Twas well I spoke/Not of the
midi-chlorians to Luke,/For then he would have endless questions still” (p.
58). Exactly, like, “What the hell were you thinking, George Lucas?”
As in William
Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh Back, Star Wars Part The Fifth, Yoda does
not speak in iambic pentameter. And in this volume, neither do the Ewoks. William Shakespeare’s The Empire Striketh
Back, Star Wars Part The Fifth featured an amusing conversation between two
Bespin guards. The Jedi Doth Return
includes a conversation between two Death Star guards, regarding Luke Skywalker
(pages 111-114). And R2-D2 gets the final speech.
William
Shakespeare’s The Jedi Doth Return, Star Wars Part The Sixth was published
in 2014, and features illustrations by Nicolas Delort.
No comments:
Post a Comment