Essay “Mastery of Dramatic Composition of the Tragedy “Hamlet.” Mastery of dramatic composition of the tragedy "Hamlet" Composition and artistic features
The content of Hamlet and the ideological problems arising from it have always occupied criticism to such an extent that the artistic side of the tragedy has received much less coverage. Meanwhile, if the dramatic merits of Hamlet were insignificant, the tragedy would not have taken the place it belongs to in world culture and the history of ideas. The ideological problems of tragedy excite with such force because Shakespeare affects primarily aesthetically. Of course, the artistic effect of Hamlet depends on the integrity of the play's impact, but the impression it makes is determined by the masterful use of the entire arsenal of dramatic art. We are not exaggerating at all when we say that Shakespeare used all or almost all of the most effective techniques of theater, drama and poetry when creating Hamlet. The resistant and at the same time elastic alloy created by him is based on certain ideas. But if we want to understand why and how these ideas reach us and excite our consciousness, then we need to understand artistic means, used for this purpose by the brilliant playwright.
The foundation of the work is its dramatic basis. As we know, much here was prepared for Shakespeare by his predecessors, who worked on the plot of Hamlet. Taking advantage of the fruits of their labor, Shakespeare enriched the dramatic basis of the plot in his characteristic spirit.
Although for modern reader and the tragedy is of interest to the viewer primarily from an ideological and psychological point of view, however, we must not forget that this interest rests on the absolutely excellent development of the action. “Hamlet” is a work with exciting dramatic action. This is in in the best sense words entertaining play. The plot is developed with such skill that even if one could imagine a viewer not interested in the ideological content of the tragedy, he would still be captivated by the plot itself.
The basis of the dramatic composition 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 or state of mind, and the tension increases all the time until 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.
However, although Hamlet occupies our main attention, the tragedy reveals not only his fate, but also the fate of a large group of people around him. Apart from Horatio, as well as minor characters like Marcellus, Bernardo, Osric, the priest and the gravediggers, each of them has their own story, full of drama. They exist in the play not only to show the hero’s attitude towards them. Each character lives an independent life. There are so many of these heroes, so many dramas here. Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, Fortinbras are not “official” figures, but artistic images people, revealed in their entirety. If they occupy less space in the tragedy than its hero, this is explained by the fact that the time and attention allotted to them is quite enough to reveal the nature of each of them. They are less complex and rich in human content than Hamlet, but everything that is in each of them is revealed to us in all its dramatic expressiveness.
Thus, the tragedy is a plexus of many different human destinies and characters. This gives rise to a feeling of vitality of the work. Moreover, not only Hamlet, but also each of minor characters reveals itself in action. They all do something in pursuit of their goals in life, and each acts according to their character.
Weaving so many destinies into a single dramatic knot was a most difficult artistic task. It is carried out with skill unparalleled before Shakespeare. Nowhere in all the dramaturgy preceding Shakespeare, and even in his own work before Hamlet, will we find such an organic unity of the destinies of many people as here. In most previous works, some lines of action remained that were not crossed. In Hamlet, the fates of all the characters are connected in one way or another, and the variety of connections between them also contributes to the feeling of vitality of everything that happens, which arises in the reader and especially in the viewer.
The dramatic tension of the tragedy increases as the destinies of the characters become more and more intersecting and all of them, regardless of their desire, find themselves involved in the struggle. Moreover, as we noticed when talking about Hamlet, unexpected changes and upheavals occur in everyone’s fate.
The action of the tragedy shows not only the attitude of the characters to the central conflict, but also the development of their characters. The development of the hero's character is revealed to us with the greatest completeness and depth. Before Hamlet, Shakespeare had not had a single hero whose life path, character, state of mind, feelings were presented in the process of such a complex and contradictory development. But not only the image of Hamlet is depicted in movement. The same applies to other characters, first of all Ophelia and Laertes, then the king and queen, finally even Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The degree of evolution of these characters varies. After Hamlet, the external and internal development of Ophelia and Laertes is most fully shown. Least disclosed inner world the third group of characters, where development is noted mainly from the outside, through the depiction of actions and actions related to the main storyline.
Another quality that determines our feeling of liveliness and vitality of the action is the richness of the characters’ reactions to everything that happens. Wherein characters react not only with actions or words. Perhaps the most remarkable thing in the dramatic composition of “Hamlet” is the creation of situations that make, on the one hand, the character’s reaction absolutely necessary, and on the other, that we feel this reaction in the subtext and even when it does not receive any verbal expression . As an example, we can cite at least the “mousetrap” scene, where the dramatic effect is due primarily to the silent reactions of the characters to the performance of “The Murder of Gonzago”. Anyone who watched the tragedy on stage could not help but notice that the performance of the traveling actors did not attract attention. We watch how the king and queen react to the performance, as well as Hamlet and Horatio watching their reactions. This scene can serve as a classic example of drama and theatricality, expressed in very subtle and at the same time intelligible means. There are many such moments in the action of a tragedy. Its ending is even more complex: we simultaneously follow the external action (the duel between Hamlet and Laertes) and the reaction of the entire court, primarily the king and queen, as well as Horatio, who observe this fight with different feelings. For the queen it's just fun; The maternal feeling revived in her makes her wish Hamlet good luck. The king hides deep excitement behind external calm, for the hour has come to eliminate the main source of his anxiety and concern. Horatio watches everything that happens warily, fearing a catch and worrying about Hamlet.
The variety of external circumstances of action is amazing. There is everything here: from a poetic idea of the other world to the most insignificant everyday details. The pomp and solemnity of the palace setting, where the fate of the state is decided, is replaced by a picture of private life with its small family interests; Now we are in one of the galleries or halls of the palace, now on the stone platform of the castle, where the night guards stand, now at a court celebration accompanied by a performance, now in the cemetery where a funeral is taking place. Not only the external setting of the action is varied, but also its atmosphere. At times, together with the hero, we are on the mysterious edge of the otherworldly, and we are overcome by a mystical feeling; but we immediately find ourselves transported into the world of practical and prosaic interests. And then - scenes full of peculiar humor, or episodes filled to the limit with passion, anxiety, and tension. The tragedy does not have the unity of atmosphere that is inherent, for example, in King Lear or Macbeth. Moments of tragic tension are interspersed with episodes characterized by the smooth atmosphere of everyday life. This technique of contrasting scenes also contributes to the feeling of vitality of everything that happens.
The most noticeable feature of Hamlet is that the tragedy is filled with thought. Its bearer is, first of all, Hamlet himself. 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. Of course, for this, the author himself had to possess the highest intellectual abilities, and they are revealed in the thoughtful speeches of the hero he created. But if we look closely at this feature of Hamlet, we will discover that first of all and most of all, our perception of Hamlet as a man of great thought is due to the art with which Shakespeare made us feel this. If we compile an anthology of Hamlet’s speeches and individual remarks, then we will in fairness have to admit that we will not find any stunning ideological discoveries. Of course, many of Hamlet's thoughts testify to his intelligence. But Hamlet is not just a smart person. In our perception, he is a man of genius, but meanwhile, as I have already said, he does not say anything particularly brilliant. What explains our idea of the hero’s high intelligence?
First of all, by how sharply he reacts to dramatic situations in which he finds himself, how he directly, in one word, in one phrase, immediately determines the essence of the matter. And this is already from the first remark. Hamlet stands silently, watching the court ceremony. A good-looking and benevolent king carries out state affairs, satisfies personal petitions, showing the wisdom of the ruler and the benevolence of the father of his subjects. Hamlet feels and understands the falsity of everything that is happening. When the king finally turns to him: “And you, my Hamlet, my dear nephew...” - the prince immediately throws out a remark, like a quick strong blow, splitting all the imaginary prosperity that reigns at court: “Nephew - let him; but certainly not cute” (I, 2). And so it will be until the end of the tragedy. Every word of Hamlet in response to the appeals of those around him hits the mark. He tears off masks, reveals the true state of things, tests, ridicules, condemns. It is Hamlet who assesses each situation of tragedy most accurately. And most clearly. Because he so correctly understands and evaluates everything that happens, we see in him the smartest person. This was achieved, therefore, in a purely dramatic way. If we compare Hamlet and the hero in this respect philosophical tragedy Goethe's "Faust", we will see that Faust is truly a great thinker in the sense that his speeches represent deep revelations about life, and in comparison with him in this respect Hamlet will indeed seem no more than a student. But Faust's thoughts are not related to the action of Goethe's tragedy, which is generally conventional, while Shakespeare's tragedy depicts to us in all its vividness various dramatic situations, the authenticity of which does not raise doubts in our minds. While we are still only vaguely beginning to guess about the situation and the actual characters of people, Hamlet, in his reaction to vital circumstances for him, reveals to us what the essence of the situation is or what a given character represents.
Thus, if Shakespeare’s hero seems to us the embodiment of a great mind, then this is primarily a consequence of Shakespeare’s mind as an artist. But in no case can one take away from Shakespeare the qualities of a thinker's mind in a broader sense. This side of his talent was manifested in the composition of the tragedy as a whole. It is not just a combination of events and characters that reveals to us a certain life drama. Shakespeare managed to give each situation a significance that goes beyond the scope of a single, even very important, fact. The deep intellectuality of Hamlet's reactions to everything that happens forces us, spectators or readers, to see in each fact not an accidental incident, but something typical and vitally significant in general. Together with the hero, we learn to look at facts from a higher point of view, to penetrate through the surface of phenomena into their essence.
But in order to guide us along such a path, Shakespeare the artist must have possessed the qualities necessary for a thinker seeking to understand the laws of life. True, Shakespeare nowhere boasted to us of his philosophy, did not put aside the pen of a playwright in order to occupy the pulpit and broadcast truths in a doctoral tone. He dissolved his thoughts in characters and situations. The composition of Hamlet is not the result of purely formal skill, but the result of a deeply thought-out view of life. The relationship between individual parts of Shakespeare's dramatic structure, contrasts and comparisons, the movement of destinies - all this is based on a deep and comprehensive view of life. And if they say that a sense of proportion is the most important sign of good taste, then we can say that, having demonstrated it in the artistic composition of the tragedy, Shakespeare also discovered that he knew the true measure of the things and phenomena of life themselves.
But the artist’s view of the world is distinguished not only by the ability to see relationships, measures and boundaries. His vision of the world is always emotionally charged. In this case, the emotional element of the work is tragic.
“Hamlet” is a tragedy not only in the sense that the hero’s fate is ill-fated. The peculiarity of this tragedy is most clearly revealed when compared with Romeo and Juliet. In the early tragedy we saw the bright colorful world of Renaissance Italy, we observed the development of a great and beautiful passion. In Hamlet we see something different. Everything here from the very beginning is painted in dark tragic tones. In the early tragedy, the plot was sublime love - in Hamlet it all begins with death, with the villainous murder of the king. The entire action of the tragedy we are considering represents the discovery of a huge number of the most diverse forms of evil. The language of tragedy expresses this in its own way. In Romeo and Juliet we most hear poetic hymns to beauty, joy of life and love. In Hamlet, images associated with death, decay, decay, and disease predominate.
“Hamlet” is the first of all the works reviewed so far in which Shakespeare’s worldview becomes fully tragic. All reality appears here precisely in its tragic aspect. The artist's eye reveals a lot of evil in her. Shakespeare was not a naive optimist before. This is evidenced by his chronicles, early tragedies and "Julius Caesar", as well as to a certain extent the poem "Lucretia" and "Sonnets". But everywhere evil was one side of life. If it was not balanced, then, in any case, it always had at least some kind of counterweight. In addition, in previous works, evil appeared as an illegitimate force, although it occupied a large place in life.
The difference between Hamlet and previous works is that the pattern of evil in life is revealed here. Its source may be insignificant at first, but the fact of the matter is that the poison flowing from it spreads wider and wider, capturing the whole world.
Shakespeare's tragedy is not only image a society plagued by evil. Already the earliest chronicles “Henry VI” and “Richard III”, as well as “Titus Andronicus” gave such a picture. Hamlet is a tragedy whose deepest meaning lies in awareness evil, in an effort to comprehend its roots, understand different forms of manifestation and find means of fighting against it. The artist does not look through the eyes of a dispassionate researcher. We see in the tragedy that the discovery of the evil that exists in the world shook Hamlet to the very core. But not only the hero experiences shock. The whole tragedy is imbued with such a spirit. This creation of Shakespeare poured out of his soul as an expression of the consciousness of an artist deeply moved by the spectacle of the horrors of life, revealed to him in all its terrible power. The pathos of the tragedy is indignation against the omnipotence of evil. Only from such a position could Shakespeare work, creating his tragic masterpiece.
Tragedy "Hamlet". The tragedy "Hamlet", written in 1601, is one of Shakespeare's most brilliant creations. In it, the allegorical image of “rotten” medieval Denmark meant England in the 16th century, when bourgeois relations, replacing feudal ones, destroyed the old concepts of honor, justice, and duty. Humanists who opposed feudal oppression of the individual and believed in the possibility of liberation from any oppression were now convinced that the bourgeois way of life does not bring the desired liberation, infects people with new vices, gives rise to self-interest, hypocrisy, and lies. With amazing depth, the playwright reveals the state of people experiencing the breakdown of old and the formation of new, but far from ideal forms of life, showing how they perceive the collapse of hopes.
The plot of Hamlet recorded at the end of the 12th century. by Saxop Grammar in his History of Denmark. This ancient Jutlandic legend has been repeatedly subjected to literary treatment by authors different countries. A decade and a half before Shakespeare, his talented contemporary Thomas Kpd turned to it, but his tragedy was not preserved. Shakespeare filled the plot familiar to the audience with a sharp, topical meaning, and the “tragedy of revenge” acquired a sharp social resonance under his pen.
In Shakespeare's tragedy we are talking about power and tyranny, the greatness and baseness of man, about duty and honor, about loyalty and revenge, issues of morality and art are touched upon. Prince Hamlet is noble, smart, honest, truthful. He devoted himself to science, appreciated art, loved theater, and was fond of fencing. Conversations with actors testify to his good taste and poetic gift. A special property of Hamlet’s mind was the ability to analyze life phenomena and make philosophical generalizations and conclusions. All these qualities, according to the prince, were possessed by his father, who “was a man in in every sense words". And he saw that perfect harmony of spirit, “where each god pressed his seal to give the universe the image of man.” Justice, reason, loyalty to duty, concern for his subjects - these are the traits of the one who “was a true king.” Hamlet was preparing to become this way.
But events occur in Hamlet’s life that open his eyes to how far from perfect the world around him is. There is so much apparent, rather than true, well-being in it. This is the content of the tragedy.
Suddenly his father died in the prime of his life. Hamlet hurries to Elsinore to console the Queen Mother in her grief. However, less than two months have passed, and his mother, in whom he saw an example of female purity, love, marital fidelity, “without wearing out the shoes in which she followed the coffin,” becomes the wife of the new monarch - Claudius, the brother of the deceased king. Mourning is forgotten. The new king feasts, and volleys announce that he has drained another cup. All this haunts Hamlet. He grieves for his father. He is ashamed of his uncle and mother: “The stupid revelry in the west and east disgraces us among other peoples.” Anxiety and anxiety are felt already in the first scenes of the tragedy. “Something is rotten in the Danish state.”
Appearing Ghost his father confides to Hamlet a secret, which he vaguely guessed: his father was killed by the envious and insidious Claudius, pouring a deadly poison into the ear of his sleeping brother. He took both the throne and the queen from him. The ghost calls for revenge. Envy, meanness, lies and dirt in the people close to him shocked Hamlet and plunged him into severe spiritual despondency, which those around him perceive as madness. When the prince realized this, he used his supposed madness as a means to lull Claudius's suspicions and understand what was happening. Under the circumstances, the prince is very lonely. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz turned out to be spies assigned by the king, and the astute young man figured this out very soon.
Having comprehended the true state of affairs, Hamlet comes to the conclusion: in order to correct the vicious age, it is not enough to fight one villain, Claudius. Ok now perceives the words of the ghost, who called for revenge, as a call to punish evil in general. “The world has been shaken, and the worst thing is that I was born to restore it,” he concludes. But how to fulfill this most difficult destiny? And will he be able to cope with the task? In the struggle, he even faces the question of “to be or not to be,” that is, is it worth living if it is impossible to overcome the dark forces of the century, but it is also impossible to put up with them. Investigating the psychological state of the hero, V.G. Belinsky notes two conflicts experienced by the prince: external and internal.
The first is the clash of his nobility with the meanness of Claudius and the Danish court, the second is a spiritual struggle with himself. “The terrible discovery of the secret of his father’s death, instead of filling Hamlet with one feeling, one thought - the feeling and thought of vengeance, ready for a minute to be realized in action - this discovery forced him not to lose his temper, but to withdraw into himself and concentrate in the inside of his spirit, aroused in him questions about life and death, time and eternity, duty and weakness of will, drew his attention to his own personality, its insignificance and shameful impotence, gave birth to hatred and contempt for himself.”
Other On the contrary, they consider the prince to be a strong-willed, persistent, decisive, and focused person. “The reasons for such a sharp disagreement in determining the dominant traits of that hero,” writes Ukrainian researcher A. Z. Kotopko, “in our opinion, lie primarily in the fact that Shakespeare’s heroes, in particular Hamlet, are characterized by multifaceted character. As a realist artist, Shakespeare had an amazing ability to connect together the opposite sides of human character - its general and individual, socio-historical and moral-psychological characteristics, reflecting the contradictions public life" And further: “Hamlet’s doubts, hesitations, hesitations, and slowness are the doubts, hesitations, and thoughts of a decisive, brave man. When
href="http://www.school-essays.info/">Hamlet
became convinced of Claudius’s guilt, this determination is already manifested in his actions.
The content of Hamlet and the ideological and psychological problems Criticism has always been so occupied that the artistic side of the tragedy received much less coverage. Many readers even now take for granted everything that happens in the tragedy. This is due to the deeply ingrained idea of Shakespeare's work as a "document" reflecting an actual incident. And it is often forgotten that the content of Hamlet was constructed by the author according to certain laws and techniques of dramaturgy. If the dramatic merits of Hamlet were insignificant, the tragedy would not have taken the place it belongs to in world culture and in the history of ideas. The ideological problems of tragedy excite with such force because Shakespeare affects primarily aesthetically. Regardless of how much the reader and viewer realizes it, the secret of the impact of Hamlet lies precisely in Shakespeare's artistic mastery. The impression made by this tragedy is determined by the masterful use of the entire arsenal of dramatic art and the art of poetry. How did the artist use the effective dramatic techniques that made the tragedy “Hamlet” so interesting and attractive to viewers and readers?
“Hamlet” is a work with exciting dramatic action. This is an entertaining play in the best sense. Those who, knowing the plot, immediately look for a solution to its problems in the tragedy, forget that when creating the work, Shakespeare considered his first task to be to create an entertaining action. The spectators of his theater did not at all have the reverence for Shakespeare that is characteristic of us. They weren't even interested in who wrote the play. True, before Shakespeare, “Hamlet” by another author had already been performed on stage. But the public's attention had to be won over again. Over the years of work in the theater, the playwright learned this art. It was necessary to structure the play in such a way that in the very first minutes of the performance the audience would be seized with a desire to find out what would happen, and so that their attention would not weaken until the end of the performance. Even if one could imagine a viewer not interested in the ideological content of the tragedy, he would still be captivated by the very course of events.
Each new stage of the action is accompanied by a change in Hamlet's position and state of mind, and the tension increases all the time - right up to the final episode of the duel, ending with the death of the hero. The viewer is constantly waiting to see what the hero's next step will be and how the enemy will react to him. Difficulties and obstacles arise on the character’s path, sometimes he himself complicates his situation, as when, for example, he kills Polonius, thinking that he is killing the king, and he guesses who Hamlet was aiming at. As the action develops, the dramatic knot tightens more and more until the moment when direct confrontation between Hamlet and his opponents arises.
Although Hamlet occupies our main attention, the tragedy depicts not only him, but also the fate of a large group of people around him. If Hamlet is in the center of the action and his figure is highlighted, then in the second are King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes. They are directly related to Hamlet, and his fate is intertwined with theirs. The relationship between Hamlet and Claudius is antagonistic from beginning to end; there is first a hidden and then an open struggle between them.
The relationship between Hamlet and his mother is also dramatic. Hamlet cannot forgive her for such a quick betrayal of the memory of her late husband. Having established Claudius's guilt, he decides to open her eyes to the true state of affairs. Without suggesting her complicity in Claudius's crime, Hamlet reveals to her the full horror of her situation: she became the wife of the one who killed her first husband!
Hamlet loved Ophelia, and she reciprocated his feelings, but his brother and father opposed their rapprochement, based on the fact that the inequality of social status made marriage between them impossible, and an extramarital affair between the prince and a court lady, such as Ophelia, would be a dishonor for her and shame.
Polonius is Claudius' outspoken henchman. In an effort to help the king and find out the secret of Hamlet's madness, he repeatedly talks with the prince. The constant desire to serve the reigning persons puts him at risk in the struggle taking place between Hamlet and the king, and he dies at the hands of the prince. The death of Polonius is the cause of Ophelia's madness and arouses Laertes' thirst for revenge on Hamlet, whom he, in collusion with Claudius, mortally wounds.
This group also includes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whose helpfulness the king uses in the fight against Hamlet. First they are assigned the role of spies, then they arrest Hamlet, and finally they are assigned to take Hamlet to England. They are not aware of the true state of affairs and, like Polonius, perish because of their zeal.
The third plan is formed by persons not directly involved in the struggle between Hamlet and Claudius. This is, first of all, the prince's friend - Horatio. In the tragedy he is assigned the role of confidante, confidant of the hero. Besides the king and Hamlet, he is the only one who knows what the essence of the ongoing struggle is. Hamlet bequeaths to him to tell everyone the truth about what happened.
The second important person of the third plan is the Norwegian prince Fortinbras. He appears on stage only twice, and then only briefly, but this is not what determines his significance in the tragedy. The world of Fortinbras is located outside of Denmark. But the Danes also have to reckon with its existence. He is first expected to invade to take back the lands his father lost. Then he abandons his claims to them and instead marches on Poland; returning from there through Denmark, he learns the tragic outcome of Claudius’s struggle against Hamlet and receives the dying man’s vote for the upcoming election of a new Danish king.
The fourth group of characters are those who are involved in the tragedy only as accidental witnesses and messengers. Such are the night guards Bernardo, Marcellus and Francisco, who were the first to see the Phantom; courtiers Cornelius and Voltimand, envoys to Norway; Polonius' confidant Reynaldo, whom he sends to Paris to spy on Laertes; a captain from Fortinbras's army talking with Hamlet before his departure for England; gravediggers digging a hole for Ophelia's coffin; the priest performing the funeral rites for her; sailors bringing news of Hamlet's return to Denmark; Osric and a second nobleman inviting Hamlet to a supposedly friendly duel with Laertes.
For one character the author could not determine his place among the characters. He is not an earthly creature, but a native of the other world. Formally, he should probably be classified in the same group as his brother and wife. The ghost, on the one hand, is outside the action, and on the other, it begins with him and is accomplished in his name - how else can you say about the task he entrusted to the hero? Let's leave him outside the ranks and categories, remembering that without his death and emergence from the other world, the whole tragedy would not have happened...
Hamlet's central place in the tragedy is determined by the fact that the main thing in the plot is revenge for the murdered king, and this task lies with Hamlet. This is confirmed in a purely external way. Of the twenty scenes of the tragedy (according to the traditional division), Hamlet participates in twelve, and in the remaining eight scenes he is constantly mentioned. So, directly or indirectly, he is always on stage.
This circumstance also deserves attention. The king communicates with a relatively small number of people close to and subordinate to him: with the queen, prince, minister Polonius, his son Laertes, Ophelia, envoys to Norway Cornelius and Voltimand, with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Here are the names of who he is talking to directly. He, as befits him, does not deign to pay attention to the rest.
Hamlet, of course, also communicates with the court circle, with the exception of Cornelius and Voltimand, with whom he does not say a word. But instead of them, he talks with Osric and another nobleman, who invite him to a duel with Laertes. In addition to them, Hamlet's interlocutors are the warriors Marcellus and Bernardo, sailors, people of ordinary rank who occupy a low position in society - actors and a gravedigger. The breadth of Hamlet's communication is striking when comparing him with other characters. All characters move within their own circle, except for Hamlet, who goes beyond these limits. The exception is Laertes, who raises the people to revolt (there will be a special discussion about this later). One way or another, there is no doubt that Hamlet, in his own way, is more democratic than the reigning and courtiers.
Let us now see how the main characters are connected to the action of the tragedy as a whole. Shakespeare was a master of multifaceted composition, in which the play has several independent lines of action that intersect with each other. At the center of the tragedy is the royal family: Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet and the Ghost of the murdered king hovering over the entire action. Nearby is the family of the royal minister Polonius: he, his son and daughter. The third line of action is formed by the history of the Norwegian royal dynasty; only Prince Fortinbras is spoken about more and only Prince Fortinbras is directly involved in the action, while his late father and living uncle are only mentioned.
From the very beginning, Shakespeare begins to connect different lines of action with various strokes. From Horatio's story in the first scene, we learn that Fortinbras's father challenged Hamlet's father to a duel and, having lost, was forced to give up his lands to the Danish crown. Now Denmark fears that Fortinbras might decide to take by force what his father lost.
In the second scene, Claudius first sends envoys to the Norwegian king to stop Fortinbras' plans. Having finished with state affairs, he begins to listen to the requests of those close to him, and his first word is addressed to Laertes. He grants the request to let him go to France no sooner than asking what Polonius thinks about it. The king clearly favors Polonius, for, as we can guess, when the throne suddenly became vacant, the minister apparently contributed to the election of Claudius to the throne.
In the third scene we learn that Hamlet is paying attention to Polonius's daughter, with her brother advising her and her father ordering her to break off her relationship with the prince. So already in the first three scenes of the first act, Shakespeare intertwined three main lines of action. Further, the relationship between the royal family and the minister's family becomes more and more dramatic. Polonius helps the king in the fight against Hamlet, and the unsuspecting Ophelia is also involved in this. Hamlet kills Polonius. Ophelia goes crazy after this. Laertes returns from France to avenge his father. At Ophelia's open grave, Hamlet and Laertes have their first confrontation, then the king conspires with Laertes to kill the prince. The intertwining of the destinies of these two families runs through the entire tragedy.
What does Fortinbras have to do with the plot of the tragedy? After the Norwegian king dissuades him from attacking Denmark, Fortinbras goes on a campaign to Poland. To do this, he needs to pass through Danish territory, for which he receives permission. At an important moment in the action, the two princes almost come face to face. The example of Fortinbras, active in the fight for his interests, has great moral significance for Hamlet.
Returning from the Polish campaign, Fortinbras sees the complete destruction of the entire Danish dynasty. By feudal law, since the lands belonging to his father are part of the Danish domain, he is the only legitimate claimant to the crown of Denmark, and it, we guess, will pass to him.
The background of the tragedy, the real basis for its action, is formed by the intertwining of the destinies of three families, and personal relationships are combined with great political interests. In a certain sense, we can say that the political center of the events of the tragedy is the question of the throne of Denmark: Claudius usurped it, depriving Hamlet of the right to inherit his father, both die, leaving the crown to the Norwegian prince. The listed elements of action seem simple; readers, and especially viewers, pass by them, taking everything for granted. Meanwhile, all this is the result of a carefully developed plan, translated into dramatic action. Nothing should have been superfluous; everything was designed to achieve a certain effect.
Not only does the playwright carefully “fit” one line of action to another. He makes sure that the episodes are varied in tone.
The gloomy night scene of the Phantom's appearance is followed by a formal scene in the palace. The solemn atmosphere of the monarch's reception of his entourage is replaced by the intimate home atmosphere of Laertes' farewell to Polonius and Ophelia. After two scenes in the "interior" we are again on the site of the castle, where the Phantom is expected to appear at midnight. Finally, the Ghost's terrible discovery of the secret of the death of the late king.
If the first scene in Polonius’s house was completely calm, then the second begins with Polonius’s concern about how Laertes behaves without his father’s supervision, then Ophelia learns alarming news - Prince Hamlet is not himself, apparently, he has lost his mind. The large scene that follows is equal in volume to a whole act and consists of several phenomena: Claudius instructs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out the reason for the strange change that has occurred with Hamlet, the embassy returning from Norway reports that the danger of Fortinbras's invasion has been removed, Polonius informs the royal couple that The reason for Hamlet's insanity is his unhappy love for Ophelia. If the first two parts of this scene were in a serious tone, then Polonius’s reasoning exposes him in a comic form; the comedy intensifies when Hamlet, talking with Polonius, showers him with ridicule. And not just small talk, Hamlet’s meeting with Rosecranz and Guildenstern begins, the meeting with the actors takes place in a lively tone, it gives way to tragedy when the actor reads a monologue from an ancient tragedy, the act ends with Hamlet’s meaningful monologue about Hecuba. It is worth noting all this, and it will become obvious how well thought out the construction of the action is, not only from the point of view of the variety of events, but also the differences in tonality between the individual parts of this act.
The tragedy "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" is one of greatest works. It is based on the ancient legend of the Jutlandic prince Amleth, told in the history of Denmark and, possibly, used in some of the plays that preceded this work of Shakespeare. The tragedy was created at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, that is, its appearance symbolically marks the boundary of two eras: the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the New Age, the birth of the modern man. The tragedy was written hardly later than 1601: it was played on various stages for several years, and then was published in 1603. Since that time, Shakespeare's Hamlet has become part of the world literature and theater history.
Every artist dreams of playing the role of Hamlet on stage. The reason for this desire, not least of all, is that Hamlet is eternal hero, because the situation of a fundamental choice, on which future life depends, faces every person.
The plot of Shakespeare's tragedy is based on a hopeless situation in which Prince Hamlet finds himself. He returns home to the Danish court and finds a terrible situation: his father, King Hamlet, is treacherously killed by his brother, the prince’s uncle; Hamlet's mother is married to a murderer; the hero finds himself in a circle of cowardly and deceitful courtiers. Hamlet suffers, struggles, trying to reveal lies and awaken people's conscience.
In order to expose the murderer of his father, King Claudius, Hamlet puts on the court stage the play he wrote, “The Mousetrap,” which depicts a villainous murder. The very word “mousetrap” is repeated several times in the tragedy; by this Shakespeare wants to say that a person often finds himself captive of life’s circumstances and his choice determines both him as a person and the possibility of the existence of truth in the world. Hamlet pretends to be crazy, loses his beloved Ophelia, but remains undefeated, no one understands him, and he finds himself almost completely alone. The tragedy ends with general death: Hamlet’s father’s unfaithful wife, Gertrude, dies, the villain King Claudius is stabbed to death by the prince, other characters die, and Prince Hamlet himself dies from a poisoned wound.
On the Russian stage, the tragedy “Hamlet” has become popular since the end of the 18th century. In the 19th century, the role of Hamlet was played with great skill by the famous tragedian P.S. Mochalov, in the 20th century the most successful performance of this role is considered to be the play of the outstanding artist I.M. Smoktunovsky in a two-part film directed by G.M. Kozintseva.
Thousands of studies have been written about the tragedy “Hamlet”; many writers and poets have turned to the image of the hero. The tragedy had a great influence on Russian literature, including the work of A.S. Pushkina, M.Yu. Lermontov and others. For example, I.S. Turgenev wrote an article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” and a story in which he calls the hero by this name - “Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District”, and the poet Boris Pasternak, the best translator of the tragedy into Russian, wrote a poem called “Hamlet” in the 20th century.
Composition
In the first scene, Hamlet meets the ghost of his father and learns from him the secret of the king's death. This scene is the beginning of the plot, in which the prince is given a choice: to accept the Phantom as an obsession or to avenge his father. The words of the Ghost: “Farewell, farewell! And remember me” become for Hamlet the order of the deceased king. Hamlet must take an oath to avenge his father. The appearance of the Ghost means a call to restore the honor and power of the clan, to stop the crime, washing it away with the blood of the enemy.
In the second scene, which represents the most famous monologue in the history of the theater “To be or not to be...”, Hamlet’s choice becomes more complicated and reaches a new level. Now it does not consist in the usual revenge on the villain and the punishment of apostates: Hamlet must make a choice between a miserable existence, which means non-existence, if he humbles himself and is obediently inactive, and true life - existence, which is achieved only in an honest and fearless struggle. Hamlet makes a choice in favor of being; this is the hero’s choice, which determines the essence of man in the New Age, in our era.
The third scene in the same Act III marks the transition from choice and determination to action. Hamlet challenges King Claudius and reproaches his mother for betraying his father's memory by performing in front of them the play "The Mousetrap", which includes a murder scene and false assurances from the queen. This play is scary for the king and queen because it shows the truth. Hamlet does not choose revenge and murder, but punishment with truth, blinding like a bright light.
The denouement of the tragedy occurs in the fourth scene. Hamlet's play did not awaken conscience in King Claudius, but aroused fear and the intention to get rid of Hamlet, to kill him. He prepares a cup of poisoned wine for his nephew and orders the rapier blade of Hamlet’s rival, Laertes, to be poisoned. This insidious plan turns out to be disastrous for all participants in the scene. It should be noted that Hamlet does not take revenge by killing the king, he repays him for his criminal intention. Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, seems to be punishing herself by drinking from a poisoned cup, Laertes dies in repentance, Hamlet leaves, bequeathing to tell his descendants his story in order to warn people against greed and crime.
