Bad Boys meet the Swan of Avon: A re-visioning of Hamlet in "Sons of Anarchy"
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Date
2017-12
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Abstract
This article investigates the intersections between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and a popular TV series
Sons of Anarchy (SOA), loosely based on the Shakespearean original. The crime drama series
revolves around an outlaw motorcycle club that literally “rules” a fictional town in California like
an old royal family with its own brutal dynastic power squabbles and dark family secrets. The
club is governed by an unscrupulous President Clay and an equally violent, though more
conflicted, Vice President Jax Teller, the son of the late President, who had died in mysterious
circumstances. In the article I argue that the popularity of the series lies not in its graphic scenes
of violence, over-the-top Harley chases, and sex intrigues, but rather in its Shakespearean and
Renaissance structure. SOA, dubbed as “Hamlet on Harleys”1, is an appropriation rather than an
adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy, which makes it a truly transmedial phenomenon. The article
investigates a fascinating blend of seemingly marginal elements of modern American culture and
the canonical British tragedy. It also addresses the connections between the lifestyles of the so
called outlaw MC clubs and the early modern family structure as presented in Hamlet, focusing
on the issues of power and gender relations.
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Hamlet, Sons of Anarchy, appropriation, adaptation, early modern family
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, vol. 52.2(2017), pp.269-283