Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is the main character of William Shakespeare's tragedy. His image is central to the tragedy. The bearer of the main idea and philosophical conclusions of the entire work is Hamlet. The hero's speeches are full of aphorisms, apt observations, wit and sarcasm. Shakespeare accomplished the most difficult of artistic tasks - he created the image of a great thinker.
Plunging into the events of Shakespeare's tragedy, we observe all the versatility of the protagonist's character. Hamlet is a man not only of strong passions, but also of high intelligence, a man who reflects on the meaning of life, on ways to fight evil. He is a man of his era, who carries within himself its duality. On the one hand, Hamlet understands that “man is the beauty of the universe! The crown of all living things!”; on the other hand, “the quintessence of dust. Not a single person makes me happy."
The main goal of this hero from the beginning of the play, revenge for the murder of his father, is contrary to his nature, because... Hamlet is a man of modern times, an adherent of humanistic views and he is incapable of causing pain and suffering to other people. But, having learned the bitterness of disappointment, the torment through which he goes, Hamlet comes to the realization that, fighting for justice, he will have to resort to force.
Around him he sees only treason, insidiousness, betrayal, “that you can live with a smile and with a smile be a scoundrel; at least in Denmark." He is disappointed in his “despicable love”, in his mother, uncle - “Oh, destructive woman! Scoundrel, smiling scoundrel, damned scoundrel! His thoughts about the purpose of man, about the meaning of life take on a tragic overtones. Before our eyes, the hero is going through a difficult struggle between a sense of duty and his own beliefs.
Hamlet is capable of great and faithful friendship. In his relationships, he is alien to feudal prejudices: he values people by their personal qualities, and not by the position they occupy.
Hamlet's monologues reveal the internal struggle that he wages with himself. He constantly reproaches himself for his inactivity, trying to understand whether he is capable of any action at all. He even thinks about suicide:
“To be or not to be - that is the question;
What is nobler in spirit - to submit
To the slings and arrows of furious fate
Or, taking up arms in the sea of turmoil, defeat them
Confrontation? Die, sleep -
And that's all; and say that you end up sleeping
Melancholy and a thousand natural torments,
The legacy of the flesh - how is such a denouement
Not thirsty? Die, sleep. - Go to sleep!
And dream, perhaps? That’s the difficulty” (5, p.44)
Shakespeare shows the consistent development of Hamlet's character. The power of this image is not in what actions it does, but in what it feels and forces the readers to experience.
Minor characters
Image Hamlet is revealed in its entirety in relationships with all characters. After all, everyone minor character has its own task, its own destiny and illuminates some facet of the protagonist’s character. Consider the role and significance minor characters tragedy for a full perception of the main character and artistic perception works generally.
The space of tragedy is a multi-vector structure, almost every vector of which makes visible the existing confrontation between the main character and certain characters in the play. All the characters in Hamlet are direct participants in the dramatic action and can be united according to their own characteristics.
Conventionally, the first vector on the field of dramatic conflict is represented by Claudius and Gertrude. The mother and uncle of the main character of the tragedy are the ruler who usurped power.
The second is Polonius and Osric. The Chancellor of the Danish Kingdom, who is at the top of feudal society, is a poor copy of a talented intriguer, united in their readiness to carry out any order from the authorities, without forgetting their own benefit.
The third is Ophelia and Laertes, the daughter and son of Polonius, whose fate is directly connected with the actions of Hamlet.
The fourth is Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet's fellow students at the University of Wittenberg.
The fifth is Prince Fortinbras. Hamlet will not meet him on stage, but the feeling that Fortinbras is a kind of double of the protagonist does not disappear. Some events in the life of the Norwegian prince coincide with the story of Prince Hamlet (as, by the way, with the story of Laertes), however, life priorities everyone defines it differently. In the real space of the tragedy, Fortinbras can be a mate to his father, killed by King Hamlet, to Hamlet himself and Laertes.
Outside the system is real acting heroes There remains a character who creates the plot of the main storyline - this is the Ghost, the shadow of Hamlet's father. The sphere of realization of this character is limited to communication with Hamlet; the Ghost pushes Prince Hamlet to take active action. The events that took place at the beginning of the performance are translated into the plane of moral choice and encourage the hero to determine the priorities of existence, to search for and approve, even at the cost of his life, a new system of values.
Another possible schematization can be given figurative system tragedies: Hamlet and the two kings (Hamlet, Claudius); Hamlet and two women (Gertrude, Ophelia); Hamlet and the young vassals whom the prince considers friends (Horatio, Rosencrantz-Guildenstern); Hamlet and the Avenging Sons (Fortinbras, Laertes).
The image of Claudius captures the type of bloody usurper monarch.
“Murderer and slave;
Smerd, twenty times one tenth smaller
The one who was your husband; jester on the throne;
The thief who stole power and the state,
Who pulled off the precious crown
And put it in his pocket! (5, p.59)
While maintaining the mask of a respectable person, a caring ruler, a gentle spouse, this “smiling scoundrel” does not bind himself to any moral standards: he breaks his oath, seduces the queen, kills his brother, and carries out insidious plans against the rightful heir. At court, he revives old feudal customs, indulges in espionage and denunciations. “The wild and the evil reign here.”
“Yes, this prodigal beast, incestuous,
A magician of the mind, of cunning with a black gift -
O vile mind and vile gift that are powerful
So seduce! (5, p. 14)
Endowed with “the magic of the mind, the black gift of deceit,” Claudius is insightful and careful: he cleverly prevents Fortinbras’s campaign against Denmark, quickly extinguishes the anger of Laertes, turning him into a weapon for reprisal against Hamlet, and creates the appearance of collegiality in government. Fearing that the people will stand up for the prince, the king conducts intrigues against him very carefully: he does not believe the rumor about Hamlet’s madness.
The conflict between the humanist Hamlet and the tyrant Claudius is a conflict between old and new times.
Gertrude
The queen evokes a difficult feeling. Gertrude is “my seemingly pure wife,” a weak-willed, although not stupid, woman, “she has had enough of heaven and thorns that live in her chest, ulcerating and stinging.”
“You are a queen, uncle’s wife;
And - oh, why did this happen! - you are my mother” (5, p.71)
Behind her majesty and external charm, you cannot immediately determine that the queen has neither marital fidelity nor maternal sensitivity. The people of Denmark are distant and alien to the queen. When people dissatisfied with the king burst into the palace with Laertes, she shouts to them:
“They squeal and are happy, having lost the trail!
Get back, you crappy Danish dogs! (5, p. 79)
Hamlet's biting, frank reproaches addressed to the Queen Mother are fair. And although at the end of the tragedy her attitude towards Hamlet warms up, the accidental death of the queen does not evoke sympathy, since she is an indirect accomplice of Claudius, who herself turned out to be an unwitting victim of his vile crime. Submitting to Claudius, he dutifully helps carry out an “experiment” on the supposedly insane prince, which deeply hurts his feelings and causes disrespect for himself.
Polonius is a resourceful courtier in the guise of a sage. Intrigue, hypocrisy, and cunning became the norm of his behavior in the palace and in his own home. Everything with him is subject to calculation. He teaches the same to others, for example, saying to his son Laertes:
And a rash thought comes from action.
Be simple with others, but not at all vulgar.
Your friends, having tested their choice,
Chain it to your soul with steel hoops,
But don't callus your palms with nepotism
With any featherless familiar. Into a quarrel
Beware of entering; but having entered,
Act in such a way that your enemy will beware.
Collect all opinions, but keep yours.
Make the dress as expensive as possible,
But without any fuss - rich, but not flashy:
People are often judged by their appearance” (5, p. 24)
His distrust of people even extends to his own children. He sends a servant to spy on his son, makes his daughter Ophelia an accomplice in spying on Hamlet, without worrying about how this hurts her soul and how it humiliates her dignity. He will never understand sincere feeling Hamlet to Ophelia, and he ruins him with his vulgar interference. He dies at the hands of Hamlet, as a spy, eavesdropping on the queen’s conversation with her son.
The image of Ophelia is one of brightest examples Shakespeare's dramatic mastery. Hamlet loves Ophelia, the meek daughter of the courtier Polonius. This girl differs from other Shakespearean heroines, who are characterized by determination and a willingness to fight for their happiness: obedience to her father remains the main feature of her character.
Hamlet loves Ophelia, but does not find happiness with her. Fate is unkind to Ophelia: her father Polonius is on the side of Claudius, who is guilty of the death of Hamlet's father and is his desperate enemy. After Hamlet kills her father, a tragic breakdown occurs in the girl’s soul and she goes crazy.
"Sorrow and sadness, suffering, hell itself
It turns you into beauty and charm” (5, p.62)
The madness and death of this fragile, unprotected creature evokes sympathy. We hear a poetic account of how she died; that before her death she continued to sing and passed away in an unusually beautiful way, “weaving nettles, buttercups, irises, orchids into garlands,” breaking into a “sobbing stream.” This final poetic touch is extremely important for completion. poetic image Ophelia.
"Her clothes,
They stretched out and carried her like a nymph;
Meanwhile she sang snippets of songs,
As if I didn’t smell trouble
Or was a creature born
In the element of water; it couldn't last
And the clothes, heavily drunk,
The unfortunate woman was carried away by the sounds
Into the quagmire of death" (5, p. 79)
Her death resonated in Hamlet’s heart as a new grave loss.
Finally, at her grave we hear Hamlet admit that he loved her “as forty thousand brothers cannot love!” That is why the cruel words that he says to her are difficult for him, he pronounces them with despair, because, loving her, he realizes that she has become a weapon of his enemy against him and in order to carry out revenge he must renounce love. Hamlet suffers because he is forced to hurt Ophelia and, suppressing pity, is merciless in his condemnation of women.
Laertes is the son of Polonius. He is straightforward, energetic, courageous, loves his sister tenderly in his own way, wishes her well and happiness. But judging by how, burdened by domestic care, Laertes strives to leave Elsinore, it is difficult to believe that he is very attached to his father. However, having heard about his death, Laertes is ready to execute the culprit, be it the king himself, to whom he took the oath of allegiance.
“I’m not afraid of death. I declare
That both worlds are despicable for me,
And come what may; just for my father
Take revenge as it should" (5, p. 51)
He is not interested in the circumstances under which his father died, and whether he was right or wrong. The main thing for him is to “take revenge as it should be.” The strength of his intentions to take revenge at any cost is so strong that he rebels against the king:
“The ocean itself, having overflowed its borders,
Doesn't devour the earth so furiously
Like young Laertes with a rebellious crowd
Sweeps away the guards. The mob follows him;
And, as if the world had begun for the first time,
Antiquity is forgotten and custom is despised -
The support and consolidation of all speeches, -
They shout: “Laertes is king! He is chosen!
Hats, hands, tongues fly up:
“Laertes, be king, Laertes is king!” (5, p. 47)
Laertes, having entered into an agreement with the king, and going out to compete with the prince, having a poisoned weapon, neglects knightly honor, dignity and generosity, because before the competition Hamlet explained himself to him and Laertes extended his hand to him. Only intimacy own death, the consciousness that he himself was a victim of Claudius’s treachery forces him to tell the truth and forgive Hamlet.
"Pay
Deserved; he prepared the poison himself. -
Let us forgive each other, noble Hamlet.
May you be innocent in my death
And my father, as I am in yours! (5, p. 97)
Horatio is Hamlet's friend. The hero considers Horatio himself best friend precisely because he sees in him a real person, untouched by general moral corruption, who has not become a “slave of passions,” in whom “blood and reason” are organically fused. This is a balanced, moderate and calm young man, for which Hamlet praises him:
"..Human,
Who does not suffer even in suffering
And accepts with equal gratitude
Wrath and gifts of fate; blessed,
Whose blood and mind are so joyfully fused,
That he is not a pipe in Fortune's fingers,
Playing it" (5, p. 33)
Hamlet and Horatio are contrasted with the deceitful and two-faced Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, “his peers from his school years,” who agreed to spy on Hamlet in favor of the king and find out “what secret is tormenting him and whether we have a cure for it.”
Horatio fully justifies Hamlet's trust, seeing that Hamlet is dying, he is ready to die with him, but he is stopped by the request of the hero, who assigns his friend an important role - to tell people the truth about him after death. And perhaps this truth will teach people to appreciate life, to better understand the shades of good and evil.
Composition and artistic features
The basis of the dramatic composition of William Shakespeare's Hamlet is the fate of the Danish prince. Its disclosure is structured in such a way that everyone new stage The action is accompanied by some change in Hamlet's position, his conclusions, and the tension increases all the time, right up to the final episode of the duel, ending with the death of the hero. The tension of the action is created, on the one hand, by the anticipation of what the hero’s next step will be, and on the other, by the complications that arise in his fate and relationships with other characters. As the action develops, the dramatic knot becomes more and more aggravated all the time.
At the heart of any dramatic work lies the conflict, in the tragedy “Hamlet” it has 2 levels. Level 1 - personal between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, who became the husband of the prince’s mother after the treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father. The conflict has a moral nature: two people collide life positions. Level 2 - conflict between man and era. (“Denmark is a prison”, “the whole world is a prison, and an excellent one: with many locks, dungeons and dungeons...”
From the point of view of action, the tragedy can be divided into 5 parts.
Part 1 - the beginning, five scenes of the first act. Hamlet's meeting with the Ghost, who entrusts Hamlet with the task of avenging the vile murder.
The tragedy is based on two motives: the physical and moral death of a person. The first is embodied in the death of his father, the second in the moral fall of Hamlet's mother. Since they were the closest and dearest people to Hamlet, with their death that spiritual breakdown occurred when for Hamlet his whole life lost its meaning and value.
The second moment of the plot is Hamlet's meeting with the ghost. From him the prince learns that the death of his father was the work of Claudius, as the ghost says: “Murder is vile in itself; but this is the most disgusting and most inhuman of all.”
Part 2 - the development of action arising from the plot. Hamlet needs to lull the king's vigilance; he pretends to be crazy. Claudius takes steps to find out the reasons for this behavior. The result is the death of Polonius, the father of Ophelia, the prince's beloved.
Part 3 - the climax, called the “mousetrap”: a) Hamlet is finally convinced of Claudius’s guilt; b) Claudius himself realizes that his secret has been revealed; c) Hamlet opens Gertrude's eyes.
The culmination of this part of the tragedy and, perhaps, of the entire drama as a whole is the episode of the “scene on the stage.” The random appearance of the actors is used by Hamlet to stage a play depicting a murder similar to the one committed by Claudius. Circumstances favor Hamlet. He gets the opportunity to bring the king to such a state where he will be forced to give himself away by word or behavior, and this will happen in the presence of the entire court. It is here that Hamlet reveals his plan in the monologue that concludes Act II, at the same time explaining why he has still hesitated:
"The spirit that appeared to me
Perhaps there was a devil; the devil is powerful
Put on a sweet image; and perhaps
What, since I am relaxed and sad, -
And over such a soul it is very powerful, -
He is leading me to destruction. I need
More support. The spectacle is a loop,
To lasso the king’s conscience” (5, p. 29)
But even having made a decision, Hamlet still does not feel solid ground under his feet.
Part 4: a) sending Hamlet to England; b) the arrival of Fortinbras in Poland; c) Ophelia's madness; d) death of Ophelia; d) the king’s agreement with Laertes.
Part 5 - denouement. Duel of Hamlet and Laertes, Death of Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, Hamlet.
Reader's perception
In our opinion, the tragedy "Hamlet" is one of the highest peaks of Shakespeare's work. This is perhaps the most popular and most profound creation of the great playwright. The tragedy is characterized by complexity and depth of content, full of philosophical significance. Shakespeare put enormous socio-philosophical content into Hamlet.
The tragedy of Hamlet, the tragedy of man's knowledge of evil, develops before the reader's eyes; we become unwitting witnesses to tragic events, the difficult choice that faces the main character. Hamlet reveals the moral torment of a person called to action, thirsting for action, but acting impulsively, only under the pressure of circumstances; experiencing a discord between thought and will. Obsessed with the thought of revenge, Hamlet goes against his moral beliefs and principles. Hamlet's goal is not simply to kill Claudius, whom he hates; his task is to punish his father's murderer with all justice.
The betrayal of those closest to him, the shock experienced by Hamlet, shook his faith in man and gave rise to a duality of his consciousness. The internal struggle that Hamlet experiences leads him to a state of indecision, confusion in the face of circumstances: “Thus thinking makes us cowards.” He faces a difficult choice: to submit or resist evil and avenge the death of his father, or to die, fall asleep, “give himself a settlement with a simple dagger.” Hamlet realizes that the fear of death is “an unknown land from which there is no return for earthly wanderers,” the unknown “confuses his will,” and he understands that it would be better to “endure adversity and not rush to others hidden from us.” Hamlet is decisive in his intentions: “O my thought, from now on you must be bloody, or dust is your price!”
Hamlet is a lonely fighter for justice. He fights against his enemies with their own means. The contradiction in the hero’s behavior is that to achieve his goal he resorts to the same immoral methods as his opponents.
All the misfortunes that we observe at the completion of the work could have been avoided if “the century had not deteriorated.” Many fell victims of the evil conspiracy, including the conspirators themselves. Evil begat evil. Retribution has been accomplished, but this makes it very sad, because in the end two loving hearts could not be together, the son and daughter lost their father and both died, and Hamlet’s mother, the king died, although his “retribution was deserved; he prepared the poison himself,” and Hamlet himself.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The eternal questions raised in the text concern humanity to this day. Love conflicts, topics related to politics, reflections on religion: this tragedy contains all the main intentions human spirit. Shakespeare's plays are both tragic and realistic, and the images have long become eternal in world literature. Perhaps this is where their greatness lies.
The famous English author was not the first to write the story of Hamlet. Before him there was The Spanish Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd. Researchers and literary scholars suggest that Shakespeare borrowed the plot from him. However, Thomas Kyd himself probably consulted earlier sources. Most likely, these were short stories from the early Middle Ages.
Saxo Grammaticus in his book "History of the Danes" described real story the ruler of Jutland, who had a son named Amlet (English Amlet) and a wife Geruta. The ruler had a brother who was jealous of his wealth and decided to kill him, and then married his wife. Amlet did not submit to the new ruler, and, having learned about the bloody murder of his father, decides to take revenge. The stories coincide down to the smallest detail, but Shakespeare interprets the events differently and penetrates deeper into the psychology of each character.
The essence
Hamlet returns to his native castle Elsinore for his father's funeral. From the soldiers who served at the court, he learns about a ghost who comes to them at night and whose outline resembles the late king. Hamlet decides to go to a meeting with an unknown phenomenon, a further meeting horrifies him. The ghost reveals to him the real reason his death and persuades his son to take revenge. Danish prince confused and on the verge of madness. He doesn’t understand whether he really saw his father’s spirit, or was it the devil who visited him from the depths of hell?
The hero reflects on what happened for a long time and ultimately decides to find out on his own whether Claudius is really guilty. To do this, he asks a troupe of actors to perform the play “The Murder of Gonzago” to see the king’s reaction. During a key moment in the play, Claudius becomes ill and leaves, at which point a sinister truth is revealed. All this time, Hamlet pretends to be crazy, and even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were sent to him, could not find out from him the true motives of his behavior. Hamlet intends to talk to the queen in her chambers and accidentally kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtain in order to eavesdrop. He sees in this accident a manifestation of the will of heaven. Claudius understands the criticality of the situation and tries to send Hamlet to England, where he is to be executed. But this does not happen, and the dangerous nephew returns to the castle, where he kills his uncle and himself dies from poison. The kingdom passes into the hands of the Norwegian ruler Fortinbras.
Genre and direction
“Hamlet” is written in the genre of tragedy, but the “theatrical” nature of the work should be taken into account. After all, in Shakespeare’s understanding, the world is a stage, and life is a theater. This is a specific worldview, creative look on the phenomena surrounding a person.
Shakespeare's dramas are traditionally classified as. She is characterized by pessimism, gloom and aestheticization of death. These features can also be found in the work of the great English playwright.
Conflict
The main conflict in the play is divided into external and internal. Its external manifestation lies in Hamlet’s attitude towards the inhabitants of the Danish court. He considers them all vile creatures, devoid of reason, pride and dignity.
The internal conflict is very well expressed in the hero’s emotional experiences, his struggle with himself. Hamlet chooses between two behavioral types: new (Renaissance) and old (feudal). He is formed as a fighter, not wanting to perceive reality as it is. Shocked by the evil that surrounded him on all sides, the prince is going to fight it, despite all the difficulties.
Composition
The main compositional outline of the tragedy consists of a story about the fate of Hamlet. Each individual layer of the play serves to fully reveal his personality and is accompanied by constant changes in the hero’s thoughts and behavior. Events gradually unfold in such a way that the reader begins to feel constant tension, which does not stop even after Hamlet’s death.
The action can be divided into five parts:
- First part - plot. Here Hamlet meets the ghost of his deceased father, who bequeaths him to take revenge for his death. In this part, the prince encounters human betrayal and meanness for the first time. This is where his mental torment begins, which does not let him go until his death. Life becomes meaningless for him.
- Second part - action development. The prince decides to pretend to be crazy in order to deceive Claudius and find out the truth about his act. He also accidentally kills the royal advisor, Polonius. At this moment, the realization comes to him that he is the executor of the highest will of heaven.
- Third part - climax. Here Hamlet, using the trick of showing the play, is finally convinced of the guilt of the ruling king. Claudius realizes how dangerous his nephew is and decides to get rid of him.
- Part four - The Prince is sent to England to be executed there. At the same moment, Ophelia goes crazy and tragically dies.
- Fifth part - denouement. Hamlet escapes execution, but is forced to fight Laertes. In this part, all the main participants in the action die: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet himself.
The main characters and their characteristics
- Hamlet– from the very beginning of the play, the reader’s interest is focused on the personality of this character. This “bookish” boy, as Shakespeare himself wrote about him, suffers from the disease of the approaching century - melancholy. At his core, he is the first reflective hero of world literature. Someone may think that he is a weak person, incapable of action. But in fact, we see that he is strong in spirit and is not going to submit to the problems that befell him. His perception of the world changes, particles of former illusions turn to dust. This gives rise to that same “Hamletism”—an internal discord in the hero’s soul. By nature he is a dreamer, a philosopher, but life forced him to become an avenger. Hamlet’s character can be called “Byronic”, because he is extremely focused on his inner state and is quite skeptical about the world around him. He, like all romantics, is prone to constant self-doubt and tossing between good and evil.
- Gertrude- Hamlet's mother. A woman in whom we see the makings of intelligence, but a complete lack of will. She is not alone in her loss, but for some reason she does not try to get closer to her son at a time when grief has occurred in the family. Without the slightest remorse, Gertrude betrays the memory of her late husband and agrees to marry his brother. Throughout the action, she constantly tries to justify herself. Dying, the queen understands how wrong her behavior was, and how wise and fearless her son turned out to be.
- Ophelia- daughter of Polonius and lover of Hamlet. A meek girl who loved the prince until her death. She also faced trials that she could not endure. Her madness is not a fake move invented by someone. This is the same madness that occurs at the moment of true suffering; it cannot be stopped. There are some hidden indications in the work that Ophelia was pregnant with Hamlet's child, and this makes the realization of her fate doubly difficult.
- Claudius- a man who killed his own brother to achieve his own goals. Hypocritical and vile, he still carries a heavy burden. The pangs of conscience devour him daily and do not allow him to fully enjoy the rule to which he came to in such a terrible way.
- Rosencrantz And Guildenstern– Hamlet’s so-called “friends” who betrayed him at the first opportunity to make good money. Without delay, they agree to deliver a message announcing the death of the prince. But fate has prepared a worthy punishment for them: as a result, they die instead of Hamlet.
- Horatio- an example of a true and faithful friend. The only person the prince can trust. They go through all the problems together, and Horatio is ready to share even death with his friend. It is to him that Hamlet trusts to tell his story and asks him to “breathe some more in this world.”
Topics
- Hamlet's Revenge. The prince was destined to bear the heavy burden of revenge. He cannot coldly and calculatingly deal with Claudius and regain the throne. His humanistic principles force him to think about the common good. The hero feels responsible for those who have suffered from the evil that is widespread around him. He sees that it is not Claudius alone who is to blame for the death of his father, but all of Denmark, which blithely turned a blind eye to the circumstances of the death of the old king. He knows that to take revenge he needs to become an enemy to everyone around him. His ideal of reality does not coincide with real picture world, the “shaky age” arouses hostility in Hamlet. The prince understands that he cannot restore peace alone. Such thoughts plunge him into even greater despair.
- Hamlet's love. Before all those terrible events, there was love in the hero’s life. But, unfortunately, she is unhappy. He loved Ophelia madly, and there is no doubt about the sincerity of his feelings. But the young man is forced to give up happiness. After all, the proposal to share sorrows together would be too selfish. To finally break the connection, he has to inflict pain and be merciless. Trying to save Ophelia, he could not even imagine how great her suffering would be. The impulse with which he rushes to her coffin was deeply sincere.
- Hamlet's friendship. The hero values friendship very much and is not used to choosing his friends based on his assessment of their position in society. His only true friend is the poor student Horatio. At the same time, the prince is contemptuous of betrayal, which is why he treats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern so cruelly.
Problems
The issues covered in Hamlet are very broad. Here are the themes of love and hate, the meaning of life and the purpose of man in this world, strength and weakness, the right to revenge and murder.
One of the main ones is problem of choice which is faced main character. There is a lot of uncertainty in his soul; he thinks alone for a long time and analyzes everything that happens in his life. There is no one next to Hamlet who could help him make a decision. Therefore, he is guided only by his own moral principles and personal experience. His consciousness is divided into two halves. In one lives a philosopher and humanist, and in the other, a man who understands the essence of a rotten world.
His key monologue “To be or not to be” reflects all the pain in the hero’s soul, the tragedy of thought. This is incredible internal struggle exhausts Hamlet, makes him think about suicide, but he is stopped by his reluctance to commit another sin. He began to become increasingly concerned about the topic of death and its mystery. What's next? Eternal darkness or a continuation of the suffering he endures during his life?
Meaning
The main idea of tragedy is to search for the meaning of life. Shakespeare shows a man of education, eternally searching, with a deep sense of empathy for everything that surrounds him. But life forces him to face true evil in various manifestations. Hamlet is aware of it, trying to figure out how exactly it arose and why. He is shocked by the fact that one place can so quickly turn into hell on Earth. And his act of revenge is to destroy the evil that has entered his world.
Fundamental to the tragedy is the idea that behind all these royal squabbles there is a great turning point in the entire European culture. And at the forefront of this turning point, Hamlet appears - a new type of hero. Along with the death of all the main characters, the centuries-old system of understanding the world collapses.
Criticism
In 1837, Belinsky wrote an article dedicated to Hamlet, in which he called the tragedy a “brilliant diamond” in the “radiant crown of the king of dramatic poets,” “crowned by entire humanity and having no rival before or after himself.”
The image of Hamlet contains all the universal human traits "<…>this is me, this is each of us, more or less...”, Belinsky writes about him.
S. T. Coleridge, in his Shakespeare Lectures (1811-12), writes: “Hamlet hesitates due to natural sensitivity and hesitates, held back by reason, which forces him to turn his effective forces to the search for a speculative solution.”
Psychologist L.S. Vygotsky focused on Hamlet’s connection with the other world: “Hamlet is a mystic, this determines not only his state of mind on the threshold of double existence, two worlds, but also his will in all its manifestations.”
And literary critic V.K. Kantor looked at the tragedy from a different angle and in his article “Hamlet as a “Christian Warrior”” pointed out: “The tragedy “Hamlet” is a system of temptations. He is tempted by a ghost (this is the main temptation), and the prince’s task is to check whether it is the devil who is trying to lead him into sin. Hence the trap theater. But at the same time he is tempted by his love for Ophelia. Temptation is a constant Christian problem.”
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Dramaturgy of the 16th - 17th centuries was an integral and perhaps the most important part of the literature of that time. This view literary creativity was the closest and most understandable to the broad masses; it was a spectacle that made it possible to convey to the viewer the feelings and thoughts of the author. One of the most prominent representatives of dramaturgy of that time, who is read and reread to this day, performances based on his works are staged, and philosophical concepts are analyzed, is William Shakespeare.
The genius of the English poet, actor and playwright lies in the ability to show the realities of life, to penetrate the soul of every viewer, to find in it a response to his philosophical statements through feelings familiar to every person. The theatrical action of that time took place on a platform in the middle of the square; the actors could descend into the “hall” during the play. The viewer became, as it were, a participant in everything that was happening. Nowadays, such an effect of presence is unattainable even when using 3D technologies. Them higher value in the theater the word of the author, the language and style of the work were received. Shakespeare's talent is manifested largely in his linguistic manner of presenting the plot. Simple and somewhat ornate, it differs from the language of the streets, allowing the viewer to rise above everyday life, to stand for a while on a par with the characters in the play, people of the upper class. And the genius is confirmed by the fact that this has not lost its significance in later times - we get the opportunity to become for some time accomplices in the events of medieval Europe.
Many of his contemporaries, and after them subsequent generations, considered the tragedy “Hamlet - Prince of Denmark” to be the pinnacle of Shakespeare’s creativity. This is a work by a recognized English classic became one of the most significant for Russian literary thought. It is no coincidence that Hamlet's tragedy has been translated into Russian more than forty times. This interest is caused not only by the phenomenon of medieval drama and the literary talent of the author, which is undoubtedly. Hamlet is a work that reflects the “eternal image” of a seeker of truth, a moral philosopher and a man who has stepped above his era. The galaxy of such people, which began with Hamlet and Don Quixote, continued in Russian literature with the images of “superfluous people” by Onegin and Pechorin, and further in the works of Turgenev, Dobrolyubov, Dostoevsky. This line is native to the Russian seeking soul.
History of creation - The tragedy of Hamlet in the romanticism of the 17th century
Just as many of Shakespeare’s works are based on short stories from early medieval literature, he borrowed the plot of the tragedy Hamlet from the Icelandic chronicles of the 12th century. However, this plot is not something original for the “dark time”. The theme of the struggle for power, regardless of moral standards, and the theme of revenge are present in many works of all times. Based on this, Shakespeare's romanticism created the image of a man protesting against the foundations of his time, looking for a way out of these shackles of conventions to the norms of pure morality, but who himself is a hostage existing rules and laws. The crown prince, a romantic and a philosopher, who asks the eternal questions of existence and, at the same time, is forced in reality to fight in the way that was customary at that time - “he is not his own master, his hands are tied by his birth” (Act I, scene III), and this causes an internal protest in him.
(Antique engraving - London, 17th century)
England, in the year the tragedy was written and staged, was experiencing a turning point in its feudal history (1601), which is why the play contains that certain gloom, real or imaginary decline in the state - “Something has rotted in the Kingdom of Denmark” (Act I, Scene IV ). But we are more interested in the eternal questions “about good and evil, about fierce hatred and holy love,” which are so clearly and so ambiguously spelled out by the genius of Shakespeare. In full accordance with romanticism in art, the play contains heroes of clearly defined moral categories, an obvious villain, a wonderful hero, there is a love line, but the author goes further. Romantic hero refuses to follow the canons of time in his revenge. One of the key figures of the tragedy, Polonius, does not appear to us in an unambiguous light. The topic of betrayal is discussed in several storylines and is also offered to the viewer. From the obvious betrayal of the king and the queen’s disloyalty to the memory of her late husband, to the trivial betrayal of student friends who are not averse to finding out secrets from the prince for the king’s mercy.
Description of the tragedy (the plot of the tragedy and its main features)
Ilsinore, the castle of the Danish kings, the night guard with Horatio, Hamlet's friend, meets the ghost of the deceased king. Horatio tells Hamlet about this meeting and he decides to personally meet with his father's shadow. The ghost tells the prince terrible story of his death. The king's death turns out to be a vile murder committed by his brother Claudius. After this meeting, a turning point occurs in Hamlet’s consciousness. What is learned is superimposed on the fact of the too-quick wedding of the king’s widow, Hamlet’s mother, and his murderer brother. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of revenge, but is in doubt. He must see for himself. Feigning madness, Hamlet observes everything. Polonius, the king's advisor and the father of Hamlet's beloved, tries to explain to the king and queen such changes in the prince as a rejected love. Previously, he forbade his daughter Ophelia to accept Hamlet's advances. These prohibitions destroy the idyll of love and subsequently lead to depression and insanity of the girl. The king makes his attempts to find out the thoughts and plans of his stepson; he is tormented by doubts and his sin. Hamlet's former student friends, hired by him, are with him inseparably, but to no avail. The shock of what he learned makes Hamlet think even more about the meaning of life, about such categories as freedom and morality, about the eternal question of the immortality of the soul, the frailty of existence.
Meanwhile, a troupe of traveling actors appears in Ilsinore, and Hamlet persuades them to insert several lines into the theatrical action, exposing the king of fratricide. During the performance, Claudius betrays himself with confusion, Hamlet’s doubts about his guilt are dispelled. He tries to talk to his mother, throw accusations at her, but the ghost that appears forbids him to take revenge on his mother. Tragic accident aggravates the tension in the royal chambers - Hamlet kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtains out of curiosity during this conversation, mistaking him for Claudius. Hamlet was sent to England to hide these unfortunate accidents. His spy friends are going with him. Claudius gives them a letter for the King of England asking them to execute the prince. Hamlet, who managed to accidentally read the letter, makes corrections in it. As a result, traitors are executed, and he returns to Denmark.
Laertes, the son of Polonius, also returns to Denmark; the tragic news of the death of his sister Ophelia as a result of her insanity due to love, as well as the murder of his father, pushes him into an alliance with Claudius in the matter of revenge. Claudius provokes a sword fight between two young men, Laertes' blade is deliberately poisoned. Without stopping there, Claudius also poisons the wine in order to make Hamlet drunk in case of victory. During the duel, Hamlet is wounded by a poisoned blade, but finds mutual understanding with Laertes. The duel continues, during which the opponents exchange swords, now Laertes is also wounded with a poisoned sword. Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, cannot stand the tension of the duel and drinks poisoned wine for her son's victory. Claudius is also killed, leaving only Hamlet's only true friend Horace alive. The troops of the Norwegian prince enter the capital of Denmark, who occupies the Danish throne.
Main characters
As can be seen from the entire development of the plot, the theme of revenge fades into the background before moral quests main character. Committing revenge is impossible for him in the expression that is customary in that society. Even after being convinced of his uncle’s guilt, he does not become his executioner, but only his accuser. In contrast, Laertes makes a deal with the king; for him, revenge is above all, he follows the traditions of his time. Love line in tragedy is only an additional means of showing moral images of that time, to highlight Hamlet’s spiritual search. Main actors The plays are Prince Hamlet and the King's advisor Polonius. It is in the moral foundations of these two people that the conflict of time is expressed. Not a conflict between good and evil, but a difference in the moral levels of the two positive characters- the main line of the play, brilliantly shown by Shakespeare.
An intelligent, devoted and honest servant of the king and fatherland, a caring father and a respected citizen of his country. He is sincerely trying to help the king understand Hamlet, he is sincerely trying to understand Hamlet himself. His moral principles are impeccable at the level of that time. Sending his son to study in France, he instructs him in the rules of behavior, which can still be cited without changes today, they are so wise and universal for any time. Worried about his daughter's moral character, he exhorts her to refuse Hamlet's advances, explaining the class difference between them and not excluding the possibility that the prince was not serious about the girl. At the same time, according to his moral views corresponding to that time, there is nothing prejudiced in such frivolity on the part of the young man. With his distrust of the prince and the will of his father, he destroys their love. For the same reasons, he does not trust his own son, sending a servant to him as a spy. His surveillance plan is simple - to find acquaintances and, having slightly denigrated his son, lure out the frank truth about his behavior away from home. Overhearing a conversation between an angry son and mother in the royal chambers is also not something wrong for him. With all his actions and thoughts, Polonius seems smart and kind person, even in Hamlet’s madness, he sees his rational thoughts and gives them their due. But he is a typical representative of society, which puts so much pressure on Hamlet with its deceit and duplicity. And this is a tragedy that is understandable not only in modern society, but also the London public of the early 17th century. Such duplicity provokes protest by its presence in modern world.
Hero with strong spirit and an extraordinary mind, searching and doubting, who became one step above the rest of society in his morality. He is able to look at himself from the outside, he is able to analyze those around him and analyze his thoughts and actions. But he is also a product of that era and that connects him. Traditions and society impose a certain stereotype of behavior on him, which he can no longer accept. Based on the plot of revenge, the whole tragedy of the situation is shown when a young man sees evil not just in one vile act, but in the entire society in which such actions are justified. This young man calls upon himself to live in accordance with the highest morality, responsibility for all his actions. The family tragedy only makes him think more about moral values. Such a thinking person cannot help but raise universal philosophical questions for himself. The famous monologue “To be or not to be” is only the pinnacle of such reasoning, which is woven into all his dialogues with friends and enemies, in conversations with random people. But the imperfection of society and the environment still pushes him to impulsive, often unjustified actions, which are then difficult for him and ultimately lead to death. After all, the guilt in the death of Ophelia and the accidental mistake in the murder of Polonius and the inability to understand Laertes’ grief oppresses him and fetters him with a chain.
Laertes, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Horatio
All these persons are introduced into the plot as Hamlet’s entourage and characterize ordinary society, positive and correct in the understanding of that time. Even considering them from a modern point of view, one can recognize their actions as logical and consistent. The struggle for power and adultery, revenge for the murdered father and first maiden love, enmity with neighboring states and obtaining lands as a result of knightly tournaments. And only Hamlet stands head and shoulders above this society, bogged down to the waist in the tribal traditions of succession to the throne. Hamlet's three friends - Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - are representatives of the nobility, courtiers. For two of them, spying on a friend is not something wrong, and only one remains a faithful listener and interlocutor, a smart adviser. An interlocutor, but nothing more. Hamlet is left alone before his fate, society and the entire kingdom.
Analysis - the idea of the tragedy of the Danish prince Hamlet
Shakespeare's main idea was the desire to show psychological portraits of his contemporaries based on the feudalism of the "dark times", a new generation growing up in society that could change the world for the better. Competent, searching and freedom-loving. It is no coincidence that in the play Denmark is called a prison, which, according to the author, was the entire society of that time. But Shakespeare's genius was expressed in his ability to describe everything in halftones, without slipping into the grotesque. Most of the characters are positive people and respected according to the canons of that time; they reason quite sensibly and fairly.
Hamlet is shown as an introspective man, spiritually strong, but still bound by conventions. The inability to act, the inability, makes it similar to “ extra people"Russian literature. But it carries within itself a charge of moral purity and the desire of society for the better. The genius of this work lies in the fact that all these issues are relevant in the modern world, in all countries and on all continents, regardless of the political system. And the language and stanza of the English playwright captivate with their perfection and originality, forcing you to reread the works several times, turn to performances, listen to productions, look for something new, hidden in the depths of centuries.
W. Shakespeare is the most famous writer England. He was a great poet and playwright and wrote in his works about eternal problems, exciting people: about life and death, love, fidelity and betrayal. Therefore, today the works of Shakespeare, especially his tragedies, are popular, although he died almost 400 years ago.
"Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" is the most significant of the tragedies
W. Shakespeare. He wrote a tragedy about a medieval prince, but it reflected what was happening in England in his time. But the meaning of “Hamlet” is not in this, but in the problems raised there, which do not depend on time.
Hamlet is a single center in which all lines of tragic action converge. This is a hero who is remembered. His words make you empathize with him, think with him, argue and object, or agree with him. At the same time, Hamlet is a person who thinks and reasons, and does not perform actions. He stands out among the other heroes of the tragedy: it is to him, and not to King Claudius, that the guards speak through their friend Horatio about the appearance of the Phantom. He alone mourns his deceased father.
Only the story of the Ghost of the Father motivates the philosopher prince to action. And Hamlet draws conclusions from events common to the Middle Ages - the murder of a king by a rival, the remarriage of his mother, who “had not yet worn out the shoes in which she followed the coffin,” when “even the salt of her dishonest tears had not disappeared from her reddened eyelids.” The mother’s behavior is quite understandable, because for a woman, moreover, the wife of a murdered king, there are only two roads - a monastery or marriage - a sign of female betrayal. The fact that the murder was committed by an uncle, a “smiling scoundrel,” is a sign of the rotting of the whole world, in which the foundations have been shaken - family relationships, family ties.
Hamlet's tragedy is so great because he doesn't just look and analyze. He feels, passes all the facts through his soul, takes them to heart. Even the closest relatives cannot be trusted, and Hamlet transfers the color of mourning to everything that surrounds him:
How boring, dull and unnecessary
It seems to me that everything in the world!
O abomination! This lush garden, fruitful
Just one seed; wild and evil
It dominates.
But what’s worse is that he, a man who is used to wielding a pen rather than a sword, needs to do something to restore balance in the world:
The century has been shaken - and worst of all,
That I was born to restore it!
The only available way that will work against court scoundrels and liars is lies and hypocrisy. Hamlet, “a proud mind,” “an emboss of grace, a mirror of taste, an exemplary example,” as his beloved Ophelia says about Hamlet, turns their own weapons against them. He poses as a madman, which the courtiers believe. Hamlet's speeches are contradictory, especially in the eyes of the surrounding courtiers, who are accustomed to believing what the king says. Under the guise of crazy delirium, Hamlet says what he thinks, because this is the only way to deceive hypocrites who do not know how to tell the truth. This is especially clearly seen in the scene of Hamlet’s conversation with the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
The only way out for Hamlet is to kill Claudius, because his actions are the root of all troubles, he drags everyone around him into this (Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, even Ophelia).
Hamlet struggles with himself. It is impossible for him to fight against evil by killing, and he hesitates, although there is no other way. As a result, he goes against his inner principles and dies at the hands of Laertes. But with the death of Hamlet, old Elsinore, the “lush garden” where only evil and betrayal grow, also perishes. The arrival of the Norwegian Fortinbras promises changes to the Danish kingdom. Hamlet's death at the end of the tragedy, it seems to me, is necessary. This is retribution for the sin of murder, for the evil caused to the world and people (Ophelia, mother), for a crime against oneself. The death of the Prince of Denmark is a way out of the vicious circle of evil and murder. Denmark has hope for a bright future.
Hamlet is one of the eternal images of world culture. Associated with it is the concept of “Hamletism,” internal contradictions that torment a person before making a difficult decision. In his tragedy, Shakespeare showed the struggle between evil and good, darkness and light within a person. This tragedy affects many of us, and when making difficult decisions, we must remember the fate of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Composition
In the tragedy “Hamlet” (1601), William Shakespeare, reworking the plot of a medieval legend and an old English play about Prince Hamlet, with greatest depth reflected the tragedy of humanism in the contemporary world. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is a wonderful image of a humanist who faced a world hostile to
humanism. The insidious murder of his father reveals to his son the evil that rules the country. For Hamlet, the obligation to avenge the murder of his father is not an ordinary blood feud. For him it grows into a social duty to fight for a just cause, into a great and difficult historical task.
Our time has gone crazy.
My talent is damned
Why should I correct that dislocation!
However, Hamlet hesitates in this struggle, sometimes severely reproaching himself for inactivity. Sometimes the idea is expressed that Hamlet is a naturally weak-willed person, a thinker and observer, incapable of decisive action. But that's not true.
The heroic tragedy also shows the powerful power of feelings that distinguished the people of the Renaissance. He is grieving the death of his father and the shameful marriage of his mother. Hamlet loves Ophelia, but does not find happiness with her. His cruelty and hurtful words towards the girl testify to the power of love and disappointment.
Hamlet is distinguished by his nobility and comes from high humanistic ideas about man. It is from here that his colossal bitterness stems when he is faced with the world of lies and crime, insidiousness and blasphemy around him.
Hamlet is capable of great and faithful friendship. In his relationships, he is alien to feudal prejudice; he values people for their personal qualities, and not for the position they occupy. His only close friend turns out to be student Horatio. Disregarding the courtiers, Hamlet friendly greets people of art - actors. The people love him, as the king speaks with concern about.
Hamlet is a man of philosophical thought. In individual facts he knows how to see the expression of large general phenomena. But it is not the ability to think itself that delays his actions in the struggle, but the pessimistic conclusions that he comes to as a result of thinking about everything around him. The events that take place at court lead Hamlet to general conclusions about man and the world in general. If such evil is possible in the world, if honesty, love, friendship, human dignity perish in it, then indeed “time has gone crazy.” Hamlet imagines the world as either a vegetable garden where weeds abound, or a well-maintained prison, with casemates, cells and dungeons. Hamlet calls the world a “lush garden” that only produces wild and reckless seed. He declares to his comrades who arrive that “To be or not to be,” Hamlet expresses doubts about the value of life itself. Recounting the various misfortunes of man, he depicts the customs of society. He perceives poverty as unbearably difficult for a person, because he has to endure
...scourges and desecration of time
So, Hamlet is amazed not only by the crime of Claudius, but also by the entire system of principles of life and moral concepts alien to him. The hero knows that he cannot limit himself to revenge alone, since the murder of Claudius will not change the world. Hamlet does not give up revenge, but at the same time he realizes that his task is much broader - to counteract evil in general.
The greatness of the task and its objective impracticability predetermine the extreme complexity of Hamlet’s inner life and actions. In the life of a “dishonest game”, “entangled in networks of meanness”, it is difficult for him to determine his own place and find real means of struggle. The scale of evil depresses Hamlet, causing him disappointment and awareness of the meagerness of his powers. Man and the world are not perceived as they seemed to him before.
Thus, Hamlet is faced not with a random crime, not with a single enemy, but with an entire enemy society. And precisely because his far-sighted philosophical thought reveals to him the laws of this society, he feels his powerlessness in the fight against evil.
The content of the tragedy "Hamlet" is inspired by the social conditions of England at that time, but its significance goes far beyond the borders of one country and one historical period. The picture of oppression and lies shown in it, in particular tyranny, turned out to be true in long time. Hence the undying interest in Hamlet, the noble and lonely fighter against evil and injustice, over the centuries.