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Hamlet As Hero Essay Research Paper We

Hamlet As Hero Essay, Research Paper


We often wonder why Shakespeare’s character Hamlet, in the play Hamlet, waited


so long after bring told by the ghost, about the evil deed, before carrying out


his plan. Everyone contains a tinge of Hamlet in his or her feelings, wants, and


worries. Hamlet is not like other tragic heroes of his period. He stands apart


from other Shakespeare’s heroes in his much discussed innocence. Is this


supposed tragic hero maybe an ideal hero, one without the tragic flaw, which has


been a part of the formula for the tragedy since the Golden Age of Greece? This


is a question that has been the field for many literary critics’ battles. The


main, and, most often, the only flaw that has been attributed to Hamlet was his


delay. This seems to constitute the central part in Hamlet. Critics seem to


cling to this detail, as if trying to save the status of Hamlet as a typical


Elizabethan tragedy of revenge. According to Aristotle, " the definition of


tragedy, there should exist a flaw in the character of the main hero, who is a


great personality that is engaged in a struggle that ends


catastrophically".(Aristotle, 459) If Hamlet had no flaw, what kind of


tragic hero is he? No doubt, Hamlet is a tragical drama, for it has many


characters that end up losing their lives. But the play would not lose it’s


tragic tone if Hamlet was an ideal hero instead of a tragic one. Which is


exactly the case. If just all critics realized this, maybe today we would not


have that much trouble trying to decipher Hamlet’s character, just like


Elizabethan audiences never raised any questions concerning Hamlet’s delay.


Alice Griffin, a drama critic, lecturer, states " it was only in the last


two centuries, that the audience and their perceptions have drastically changed,


which causes this confusion concerning the character that was created by


Shakespeare for the common people, some ignorant ones among them, perhaps".


(Griffin, 63) Hamlet is an ideal hero with a flaw, a flaw that sparks many


questions among critics everywhere, these questions can be answered in a simple


concentration of one scene. Hamlet is like a soldier that is thrown into a war


where he has to do some things he rather would avoid doing, but under the given


circumstances he bites his teeth and carries himself well. In this war, the


circumstances brought on by Claudius’s murdering of King Hamlet are Hamlet’s


enemy. Morris Weitz, a critic of Shakespearian plays, states, "His dead


father, and destroyed country, is the painful truth which leaves so much hatred


and resentment in his heart". (Weitz, 15) Being a loyal prince and son, and


one whom an entire kingdom respected, he should seek revenge and bring justice


back in the royal court. The whole play would be very simple if this murder was


an open assassination. But no, Shakespeare made sure that this murder was a


secret, that no one, except maybe Claudius, knew about it. Bernard Grebanier,


another critic that focuses on the piece of literature, says, "this puts in


a completely different context to the play that was written by Thomas Kyd, a


play that is titled Ur-Hamlet, which Shakespeare used as a basis for his Hamlet


play".(Grebanier, 111) This way, Shakespeare accomplished very different


development of action, and ultimately one of the best plays in that history.


Along with that, Shakespeare created disagreement concerning reasons why Hamlet


waited so long before killing Claudius. A careful reader can notice that more


than two months pass between Hamlet being told by the aspiration about the evil


deed, and Hamlet following through with his plan. One can argue that from this


follows that Hamlet procrastinated, have that one flaw – being passive, not


daring to act. But Shakespeare never payed attention to this time interval.


According to Grebanier, "an audience was not aware of it, because


Shakespeare didn’t want it to be… the rather large time interval was of no


consequence, and truly one cannot notice this without a conscious


calculation". (Grebanier, 179) More critics, especially during popularity


of Freud, have tried to explain Hamlet’s delay exclusively from psychological


point of view. But how can one psychologically analyze a character that does not


exist in a physical world; whose existence is dependent is merely on his actions


and reactions to the events and other characters from the play? J. Dover Wilson


summarized it by saying that Hamlet is a "character in a play not in


history". (Weitz, 107) From the point of view of these critics, it follows


that character preceded the plot, thus shaping it for its needs. But


Shakespeare, not to mention all the other play writers, followed Aristotelian


view. "Tragedy is an imitation of life … and thus the plot precedes the


character". (Aristotle, 459-460) This, without even knowing Aristotelian


method, can also be deduced from knowing that Shakespeare adopted the plot of


Ur-Hamlet, and changed it slightly. A slight change in the plot, however, hardly


even the slightest change affects the characters. But one should realize that


"preceding" means coming before the other one, and it does not mean


eliminating the other. Therefore, the cause of Hamlet’s fall cannot be ascribed


exclusively to the situation. That would mean eliminating every element of


tragedy, and even drama, from Hamlet. If this would happen then Hamlet would


have become a mere collection of fate-dependent events that accidentally so


happened not to have a happy ending. So, the reason for Hamlet’s actions should


be understood as a synthesis of original situation, Hamlet’s reactions to it,


and then again of the situation th

at was affected by Hamlet’s reactions. Looking


at Hamlet’s reactions, one detail cannot be over-looked: Hamlet does not kill


Claudius in church, while he has the best chance of doing so up until that point


in the play. This little detail, and it is really a little detail, for if it was


more important, Shakespeare would have dedicated to it more than some 100 lines


in the play, tends to affect the reader’s evaluation of Hamlet’s delay. Why did


he not kill the King? Understanding this scene is crucial today in understanding


Hamlet’s delay, for we seem to be puzzled by it (if we were in the audience, the


whole scene would have lasted only moments, but as readers, we have the freedom


to ponder about it). At least so was Professor Dowden, to name one critic, who


holds that Hamlet "loses a sense of fact, because he puts every event


through his mind, filtering it until every deed seems to have an


alternative", In not doing the deed, but by evaluating it even more.


(Bloom, 66) Coleridge and Goethe would agree with this, holding that Hamlet’s


soul is too philosophical and it lacks ability to instinctually act on impulse,


and that he is "too sensitive to avenge himself". (Grebanier, 159) But


if one only reads what goes on in the play, Hamlet could by no means be called


too sensitive or passive. After the ghost appears, he ignores the fears of his


friends, is strong enough to break off their restraining hold, and follows the


ghastly apparition. He is known in the kingdom as a brilliant fencer, and shows


his skills in the match with Laertes, after which he is also able to cut the


king and take the glass of poison from Horatio’s hand, all that while dying of


deadly poison. "What then is the delay of action? Did Shakespeare make it


on purpose so that he can fill the five long acts?" (Grebanier, 115) Hamlet


is very brave and impulsive prince, but the plot seems to prevent him from


finding an, according to Bloom, "external model or simple solution for


conduct, so that he must depend more on thinking, and less on acting".


(Bloom, 102) He realizes that killing a King is a great crime. In the


seventeenth century, kings have divinity about them, and hurting a politician


today cannot compare to hurting a king from that period. The proof of this is in


the last scene. Even after Laertes speaks out and lets everyone that is present


knows that the match and poison were only the King’s plans. To this the crowd


yells, as if having an instinct to defend their king: "Treason!


Treason!" ( Shakespeare, Act V ii 312) Even if it was not punishable to


assassinate the King, Hamlet would still not kill him in the church. He might


have taken the sword out, but one thing then went through his mind: "If


King is murdered, the truth is murdered too, and the King Hamlet’s assassination


would be impossible to prove". "His aim is not to kill the King and


get the throne. He is primarily concerned with punishing the murderer of his


father, punishing him under the shelter of justice". (Grebanier, 111- 113)


So, Hamlet does delay, according to Stoll, "but with purpose to create his


deed momentous when the right moment comes in it’s time". (Stoll, 87) This


is what is behind his procrastination in the church. Until he has the proof, he


must be as patient as possible. His words in the church, then, are not at all


excuse for delay when he says that he must wait for the King to be in act that


has no relish of salvation in it. Rather, he speaks to himself in attempt to


force himself not to use violence, but to be patient. So, instead of showing a


flaw in the church, Hamlet shows virtue, his prudent patience. He is now


absolutely determined in his plan and all of his actions are directed towards


one accomplishment, to justly punish the one who murdered his father. The proof


of this is in the last scene when he orders Horatio to let everyone know the


truth, and what went on in the kingdom in the last two months. Hamlet is the


only Shakespearian tragic hero who does not have a tragic flaw, which makes him


an ideal hero, instead of a tragic one. By him being an ideal hero, doesn’t


change the tone of the play. It’s just stating that Hamlet was a very noble and


strong willed character, that didn’t have a tragic flaw. He planned everything


out, and it just seems like he has a tragic flaw. Hamlet the play still is a


revenge tragedy, for Hamlet never lived to see the full revenge. OUTLINE I.


Introduction II. Hamlet’s Delay 1. The situation of the play that surrounds


Hamlet. 2. Ur-Hamlet as a basis of Hamlet 3. Two months delay question 4.


Psychological only interpretation of Hamlet. 5. Aristotelian definitions of


drama 6. Hamlet actions as a synthesis of character and plot 7. The scene in


church – most important for the notion of delay 8. Delay because Hamlet is


passive and too emotional 9. Murdering the King is murdering the proof 10.


Virtue of patience rather than procrastination flaw III. Conclusion


Aristotle. "Poetics." The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.


Fifth Continental Edition. Ed. Maynard Mack Bloom, Harold. Hamlet, a concise


critique. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990 Corrigan, Robert W.. The


Modern Theater. New York: The MacMillan Co., 1964 Grebanier, Bernard. The Heart


of Hamlet, The Play Shakespeare Wrote. NewYork: Thomas Crowell Company, 1960


Griffin, Alice Venezky. Living Theater. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1953


Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: The Penguin Group, 1985 Stoll, John.


Hamlet, a Stratford-Upon-Avon Study. London: Edward Arnold LTD., 1963 Weits,


Morris. Hamlet and the Philosophy of Literary Criticism. Chicago: University of


Chicago, 1964

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