Hamlet

The tradition of literature includes many genres. One of the oldest

and most important of these genres is tragedy; one of the foremost

Elizabethan tragedies in the canon of English literature is Hamlet by

William Shakespeare and one of the earliest critics of tragedy is

Aristotle. One way to measure Shakespeare's work is to appraise it using

the methods of classical critics and thereby to see how if it would have

retained its meaning. Hamlet is one of the most recognizable and most often

quoted tragedies in the all of English literature. Aristotle, is concerned

with the proper presentation of tragic plays and poetry. Aristotle defines

tragedy as:

"...a representation of an action that is worth serious attention,

complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in language enriched by a

variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the

play; presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity

and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotion. (Aristotle 38 -

9)

Shakespeare uses character, plot and setting to create a mood of disgust

and a theme of proper revenge, as opposed to fear and pity, hence Aristotle

would have disapproved of Hamlet. It is the above mentioned elements;

character, plot and setting, used in a non-Aristotelian way, that makes

Hamlet work as a one of the English language's most renown tragedies.

By proper revenge we refer to the Elizabethan view that revenge must

be sought in certain cases, for the world to continue properly. This is the

main plot of Hamlet. In Poetics, Aristotle defines for us, the element of

plot and shows us how he believes it must be put together. He also believes

in various unities which he states are necessary for a proper tragedy.

Aristotle believes in what he calls "Unity of plot" (Aristotle 42 - 3).

This "Unity" leaves no room for subplots, which are crucial to the theme of

Hamlet. Without the subplot of Laertes' revenge and the subplot of

Fortinbras' revenge, we are left with a lugubrious play where the ending,

although necessary, is pointless. The three sub-plots together as a unit,

allow us to understand what Shakespeare thought of revenge. Another of the

ways Aristotle defines plot in tragedy as "The noble actions and the doings

of noble persons"(Aristotle 35). By this definition, Hamlet should be a

noble person, who does only noble things. Aristotle would have objected to

Hamlet's refusal to kill Claudius during prayer which forms the turning

point of Hamlet. This is significant because if he were to have achieved

his revenge at that point Claudius' soul may have been clean. Hamlet wishes

to get revenge when Claudius' "Soul may be damned and black / As hell,

whereto it goes (Shakespeare 3, 3, 94 - 5). By waiting for the right time,

Hamlet loses his chance to achieve revenge. This ignoble act does add to

the theme of proper revenge, not in the primary plot, but when all three

revenge sub-plots are considered together. Aristotle also believed in heros

that are "First and foremost good (Aristotle 51)." Although Hamlet spends

much time deliberating good and evil, and what the greatest good is, when

it comes time, he cannot act. Laertes does act, but he acts rashly, and

cannot perform good either. Fortinbras is the type of hero that Aristotle

would have preferred, although from Fortinbras' point of view the play is

not tragic; instead it is a comedy where all of the other characters run

about and in the end through no fault of his own, Fortinbras receives the

kingship of Denmark. The plot events with which Aristotle disagrees give

meaning to Hamlet's theme.

Shakespeare uses the plot to help create the mood of Hamlet by

incorporating subplots and by having his tragic hero do things which are

particularly unheroic. Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia is particularly

barbaric. By the same token Ophelia's unstinting devotion to her father,

and by that ,her poor treatment of Hamlet causes us to question which of

the two is not the worthier, but the least evil. Both of their actions

invoke disgust. Aristotle would have objected to Hamlet's treatment of

Ophelia because of his aforementioned belief in the character attributes of

the hero. The only characters who act particularly heroic are Horatio, who

is devoted to Hamlet, and Fortinbras. These two characters are the only

ones who survive. The rest of the characters are left dead and bleeding. As

another classical critic, Horace, wrote in Ars Poetica "I shall turn in

disgust from anything of this kind that you show me (Horace 85)." When we

see the bodies lying on the ground at the end of the play we realize the

futility of Hamlet's actions and that evokes disgust. It is the evocation

of this emotion that Aristotle would have disagreed with.

Shakespeare's character's in Hamlet illustrate the theme of the drama,

however Aristotle would have disagreed with Shakespeare's choices. To

understand character in terms of theme one must compare the characters.

Samuel Johnson calls Hamlet "through the whole piece rather an instrument

rather than an agent". This is giving too much credence to the soliloquies,

when Hamlet ponders, and gives too little credence to the fact that he sent

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths without hesitating, and the

fact that he was the first on the pirate ship when attacked on the high

seas. It is the type of revenge that Hamlet insists on that shapes his

character and forces the bloodshed at the end of the play. This contrasts

with a play of which Aristotle did approve. In Oedipus the King, Sophocles

has created a character who tries to do the greater good, and in doing so

find his fate has been damned from the start. Hamlet has the chance to do

good, in this case revenge on a murderer and lets passion sway his reason.

This "madness" is what leads Hamlet astray, is what leads him to kill

Polonius, is what leads Ophelia to commit suicide and is what leads to the

carnage of the final scene. Rather than learn from experience, Hamlet

follows his own will for Claudius' fate and we learn there is a right way

and a wrong way to do things. Aristotle would have disagreed with the

amplitude of the actions in this play. These characters have no amplitude,

instead they are noble, but they are also pathetic. Aristotle had no room

for noble characters with no amplitude and therefore he would have disliked

most of the characters in Hamlet, except for Horatio and Fortinbras. In

contrasting Fortinbras , Hamlet and Laertes we have three men of noble

birth, all of whom have a legitimate reason to seek revenge. The main

difference is the way that each seeks his revenge. Laertes seeks revenge in

a rash and illicit ways and he dies. Hamlet seeks revenge in an ignoble way

and he dies. Fortinbras seeks a Christian revenge and is successful. In

this way Shakespeare's characters further the theme of Hamlet in a

non-aristotelian way.

The characters that Shakespeare has chosen for Hamlet are not the type

one would find in a typical Greek tragedy, the kind of tragedy that

Aristotle was used to criticizing. Oedipus the King, includes a number of

elements that Shakespeare does not use in Hamlet. The chorus is used as a

character in Oedipus the King to allow us a sympathetic view of Oedipus, in

his time of travail. Oedipus has accepted responsibility for his fate and

blinded himself. The audience feels sympathy and therefore feels and pity.

No such sympathy is given to Hamlet. It is not the fact that he does not

have some sympathetic qualities; rather he has too few sympathetic

characteristics for us to wish to empathize. Hamlet wishes to do the right

thing, it is the way he does the right thing in a wrong way that makes us

dislike him. Hamlet also spends much of his time deliberating rather than

doing. Hamlet is dour. Almost every character in the play is dour. The only

two characters with any sort of joie de vivre are the clowns who are also

grave diggers. The irony is that the characters who most enjoy life are

those who face death on a regular basis. This juxtaposition not only

foreshadows the conclusion of the play but also adds to the mood of

disgust. One of the elements contributing to mood is character, however it

is used in a non-aristotelian way.

Aristotle ignored the concept that a play could take place in many

different settings and still retain meaning. In his elements of tragedy

Aristotle mentions "Plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle and

song.(Aristotle 39)." He does not include setting as a separate entity. It

is implicit, however, in his conception of "Unities" that more than one

setting was not acceptable. One example may be found in Oedipus the King,

where all of the action takes place in one setting, and where the

geographical setting of the play, in terms of a historical context, does

not in itself add any meaning. Aristotle did, however, believe in "Unity of

Time", where each action follows the previous action, and builds to form a

single "thread" of action. We would include the time in play as part of the

setting. Another axiom of Unity of time is that one stage minute equals on

real minute. It is only by ignoring Aristotelian convention in setting,

specifically unity of time, that Shakespeare can properly tell his story.

Hamlet takes place entirely in Castle Elsinore and on its grounds. The

first scene takes place at approximately midnight as does Act 1, Scene 4.

Shakespeare completely ignores the Aristotelian convention of "Unity of

Time". It is only by ignoring this convention that Shakespeare can allow

Hamlet to have the scene with the ghost, a twenty minute scene, that

Shakespeare elongates from midnight to dawn. By the same token it is this

elongation that allows Hamlet to talk with the ghost and gives the ghost a

dramatic reason, the dawn, to leave the stage. This allows Shakespeare to

develop his plot and therefore to develop his theme. These temporal

manipulations do not end here. Hamlet leaves for England by boat, is

waylaid by pirates and returns to Elsinore between Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5

Scene 1. This allows Laertes to return and demand revenge, Ophelia to go

mad and kill herself and Hamlet to return just in time for the funeral.

Without this compression of time, Shakespeare could not have fitted in the

plot points he needs to build the theme of revenge. Laertes leaves Denmark

in the second scene of the first act, and returns in the fourth act and

demands revenge for the death of his father, Polonius. Shakespeare has,

again ignored the time frame of the play in order to facilitate the plot.

It by ignoring the temporal aspect of setting that Shakespeare has the room

he needs to develop the plot , and therefore the theme of Hamlet.

Shakespeare uses Castle Elsinore and environs to depict a sordid and

depressing place where incest and murder are a part of normal life, where

revenge is commonplace motivation, and where the feigning of madness is a

normal strategy to dissemble ones feelings. This is the setting for Hamlet.

Shakespeare created this setting to tell us a story of revenge gone wrong.

He also created a mood of disgust. When at the end of the play, things are

brought to their right order and Fortinbras becomes king, we look back and

see the depraved way of life that existed at Castle Elsinore and its

logical conclusion, a room littered with bodies and Fortinbras taking his

lawful place as king, we feel disgust and its purgation.