Hamlet analysis of the work. Shakespeare's Great Tragedies

Analysis of the tragedy “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”

Subjects

Theme of betrayal

The theme of betrayal in William Shakespeare's tragedy “Hamlet” is one of the most important and interesting topics, as it allows not only to approach in more detail the disclosure of the artistic idea of ​​the tragedy, but also to penetrate into the mystery of human characters and destinies.

Speaking about betrayal, Shakespeare tries to show the essence of this phenomenon. King Claudius of Denmark kills his brother, thereby betraying a loved one, his country, and his own honor. His betrayals are fundamentally vile and criminal. Bearing the mark of Cain in his artistic image, the Danish king multiplies it by committing adultery with the wife of the deceased. Using the example of the death trap set by the Danish king for Hamlet, we see that the actions of the former are strictly thought out and terrible in their criminal precautions.

It is quite difficult to discuss the reasons that led to the betrayal of Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude, to the memory of her husband; one can only emphasize that Gertrude committed it consciously. Hamlet is deeply disappointed in his mother, who was once his ideal woman. The prince does not understand how she, who seemed to love her father so much, could commit such vile haste - “throw herself so onto the bed of incest”:

“Two months since he died! Less even.

Such a worthy king! Compare them

Phoebus and the Satyr. He cherished my mother so much,

That I wouldn’t let the winds touch the sky

Her faces. O heaven and earth!

Should I remember? She was drawn to him

As if the hunger was only increasing

From saturation. And a month later -

Don't think about it! Mortality, you

You are called: woman! - and shoes

Without wearing out what she was wearing after the coffin,

Like Niobe, all in tears, she -

Oh God, a beast without reason,

I would have missed you longer!” (5, p.8)

According to Hamlet, Gertrude did:

“..that’s the thing,

Which stains the face of shame,

Calls innocence a liar, on the forehead

Holy love replaces the rose with pestilence;

Transforms marriage vows

In the player's promises; such a thing.

Which is made of flesh contracts

Takes away the soul, transforms faith

In a confusion of words; the face of heaven is burning;

And this stronghold and dense bulk

With a sad look, as if before a court,

Grieves for him” (5, p.64)

Omitting the minor betrayals of the servants of the Danish throne, dictated by a banal desire to curry favor, we will dwell in more detail on the betrayal of Laertes. It was in this hero, in our opinion, that that very involuntary betrayal, due to an unfavorable combination of circumstances for him, manifested itself. Dejected by the death of his father and outraged by the latter’s clearly non-Christian burial, Laertes easily falls into the networks of deception skillfully set by Claudius, and then, upset by the death of his sister, does not have the strength to listen to his former friend and find out the truth.

To summarize all of the above, we can say that the theme of betrayal in Shakespeare's tragedy is multifaceted and multifaceted. The author not only reveals to the reader the essence of this phenomenon, but also tries to comprehend both its true causes and philosophical origins. Betrayal in Shakespeare does not have a homogeneous structure: a person can be aware of it and commit treason unwittingly; only in one thing is betrayal constant - in the tragedy that it brings into a person’s life.

Revenge theme

The theme of revenge in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet is embodied in the characters of Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras. Compositionally, Hamlet stands in the center, and not only because of his personal significance. Hamlet's father was killed, but Hamlet's father killed Fortinbras' father, and Hamlet himself kills Laertes' father.

The solution of the problem of revenge by the characters of the tragedy breaks Shakespeare's humanistic approach to this moral problem. Laertes solves the problem very simply. Having learned that his father was killed, he is not interested in the circumstances of the death of Polonius, hastily returns to Denmark, starts a riot, breaks into the palace and rushes at the king, whom he considers to be the culprit in the death of the old courtier. He rejects all other moral duties. He doesn’t care that Polonius exposed himself to the prince’s blow. Upon learning of his sister's death, he becomes even more determined in his intentions to take revenge on Hamlet, and enters into a vile conspiracy with the king to kill Hamlet.

“So, my noble father died;

My sister is thrown into hopeless darkness,

Whose perfection - if can be reversed

Go praise - defied the age

From their heights. But my revenge will come" (5, p.81)

If Laertes reaches the extreme limit of meanness in his desire for revenge, then Fortinbras shows complete disregard for the task of revenge. We do not know the reasons for this, but the circumstances set out in the plot suggest that Fortinbras has no real reason for revenge. His father himself challenged Hamlet's father to a duel and was defeated in fair combat.

Having learned from the ghost of his father the true cause of his death, Hamlet vows to avenge his death; from that moment on, the thirst for revenge takes first place in his life, but for this he, an adherent of humane views, must commit evil himself. Hamlet accepts the task of revenge. He is prompted to this by his love for his father and equally by his hatred of Claudius, who was not only a murderer, but also a seducer of Hamlet’s mother.

“I, whose father is killed, whose mother is in disgrace,

Whose mind and whose blood are outraged...

Oh my thought, from now on you must

Be bloody, or dust is your price! (5, p. 72)

When Hamlet had the opportunity to avenge his father's death, Claudius was in prayer, and such a death, according to Hamlet, would be a reward for the murderer. Hamlet decides to wait, but, postponing revenge, the prince scolds himself for inaction and lethargy.

Having fulfilled the oath given to the ghost of his father, Hamlet betrays himself, betrays his principles and beliefs. Only God is capable of giving and taking life from a person. Hamlet acted as an avenger for what he himself had done to others. He repays evil for evil.

Thus, the theme of revenge is present throughout the work, serves as a motive for vile acts and betrayals and itself gives rise to evil, which represents a great moral problem.

Theme of morality

In Shakespeare's tragedy, two principles, two systems of public morality collided: humanism, which asserts the right of every person to his share of earthly goods, and predatory individualism, which allows one to trample on others and even everyone. The humanistic ideal met the interests of the people and all humanity. The predatory egoism of the Claudii corresponded to the worst aspects of life practice, both of the old ruling class of feudal lords and of the rising bourgeoisie.

Hamlet speaks about the corruption of morals:

"Stupid revelry to the west and east

Disgraces us among other nations...” (5, p.16)

He notices people's insincerity, flattery and sycophancy, which degrade human dignity. The idea that evil has penetrated into all pores of society does not leave Hamlet even when he talks with his mother about her guilt in front of the memory of the late king. He says:

“After all, virtue in this fat age

I must ask forgiveness from vice,

Bent over to pray to help him” (5, p. 54)

All such speeches expand the scope of the tragedy, giving it great social meaning. The misfortune and evil that struck Hamlet's family is only an isolated incident typical of society as a whole.

For Prince Hamlet, the basis of order and justice is morality. He abandons revenge as an outdated form of punishment. He dreams of justice and tries to assert it with his actions. However, the prince, like his ancestors, usurps the right to decide a person's fate. The goal of his life becomes the establishment of moral laws in his father’s country through the disgrace or destruction of those responsible, in his opinion, for the fact that “something has rotted in our Danish state.”

Shakespeare shows that not only is reality tragic, in which evil is so powerful, but it is also tragic that this reality can lead a beautiful person like Hamlet to an almost hopeless state.

Theme of life and death

The solution that the hero is looking for is not what is better, more convenient or more effective, but that one must act in accordance with the highest concept of humanity. The choice Hamlet faces is:

"..submit

To the slings and arrows of furious fate

Or, taking up arms in the sea of ​​turmoil, defeat them

Confrontation? (5, p. 43)

To suffer silently from evil or to fight against it is only one side of the issue. Submission to fate can manifest itself in the decision to voluntarily die. At the same time, active struggle can destroy a person. The question “to be or not to be?” closes with another - to live or not to live?

The theme of death constantly arises in Hamlet's reasoning: it is in direct connection with the awareness of the frailty of existence.

Life is so hard that to get rid of its horrors it is not difficult to commit suicide. Death is like a dream. But Hamlet is not sure whether a person’s mental torment ends with death. Dead flesh cannot suffer. But the soul is immortal. What kind of future is prepared for her “in the sleep of death”? A person cannot know this, for on the other side of life is “an unknown land from where there is no return for earthly wanderers.”

Hamlet's reasoning is by no means abstract. Before him, a man of enormous imagination and subtle sensitivity, death appears in all its painful tangibility. The fear of death that he speaks of arises within himself. Hamlet is forced to admit that thoughts and premonitions of death deprive a person of determination. Fear sometimes prompts you to give up action and fight. This famous monologue reveals to us that Hamlet has reached the highest limit in his doubts. It is fair that the magnificent words in which Shakespeare framed the thoughts of his hero were remembered by everyone as the highest expression of doubt and indecision.

Introduction Shakespeare character plot Hamlet

The tragedy "Hamlet - Prince of Denmark" was written by William Shakespeare in 1600-1601. In those same years, this play was staged at the Globus Theater. The play consists of five acts and is the longest play written by Shakespeare. The tragedy is based on the legend of the Prince of Denmark, where the prince seeks revenge for the death of his father. The play is relevant to this day, this can happen in any country at any time, in the book “My Friend Sergei Dovlatov.” The student returned home after graduating from college, and his father died under strange circumstances, and his mother lives with his brother.

I chose this play not only because of my love for William Shakespeare. But because this is one of the author’s greatest works, although it is obscured in modern times, films have already been made, plays have been staged in theaters, with their own additions and modifications. People's opinions about this work differ. Therefore, I decided to analyze this play and perhaps see what others will not write or say. Express your opinion. Before analyzing this play, I had one opinion, subjective, philistine, but now, having at least some skills, I looked at the tragedy from the other side. And this is what I got.

The play "Hamlet - Prince of Denmark" consists of five acts; The action takes place in Elsinore.

Brief retelling of the plot:

Hamlet cannot come to terms with his father's death; he believes that his father's death was not accidental, but a malicious murder. Later, Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, who talks about the regicide, and here Hamlet also doubts the veracity of the ghost’s words. Hiding behind a mask of madness, Hamlet finds a way to verify what his father’s ghost told him. Hamlet wants to restore justice, that is, take revenge. And it leads to a series of tragic events, almost everyone dies.

Here we see several parallel plot lines: the murder of Hamlet’s father and Hamlet’s revenge, the death of Polonius and Laertes’ revenge, Ophelia’s love story, Fortinbras’s line, the development of the episode with the actors, Hamlet’s trip to England. Based on all of the above, we can say that the plot is complex - woven (multi-level).

Peripeteia. The first twist, or rather a dramatic situation. This is the appearance of the ghost and conversation with Hamlet. In the conversation, Hamlet learns about the regicide, the ghost demands revenge. Hamlet becomes infected with the idea of ​​revenge for his father. Hamlet puts on a mask of madness in order to make sure that the ghost’s words are correct. Hamlet's internal state changes, his ideals have collapsed. In order to verify the veracity of the ghost’s words, Hamlet asks the visiting actors to play a scene, the so-called “mousetrap” scene. Thanks to this scene, Hamlet finds confirmation in the words of the ghost, because Claudius was present at the actors’ performance and could not hide his emotions and, without waiting for the end of the performance, retired to his chambers. Next, Hamlet has a chance to kill Claudius during his prayer, but Hamlet did not allow himself to be killed from behind, since Hamlet did not become like his father’s murderer. Hamlet goes to his mother to reveal the secret of his father's murder. In this scene there is a twist, after which the course of action reaches its climax, after which the action develops rapidly. This is the murder of Polonius. Hamlet, being in the Queen's chambers, realizes that they are being overheard. Hamlet thinks it was Claudius hiding behind the carpet. Without hesitation, Hamlet pierces the carpet with the words “Rat!” Polonius falls and dies. Hamlet made a mistake and said: “Misfortunes have begun, prepare for new ones!”

The role of recognition in the play is great. The first recognition is a meeting with a ghost, the second recognition is in the scene with the “mousetrap”, followed by the fatal recognition - the murder of Polonius, after which Hamlet is sent to England where he is to be executed, he learns this from the letter that Claudius handed to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet flees when their ship is attacked. Upon his return, Hamlet learns of Ophelia's death, at which point Hamlet has already weakened his ardor for revenge.

There are several conflicts in the play, but I chose one, the most important one, which runs through the entire play. This is an internal conflict. Hamlet longs for revenge, but for him revenge is not just murder. He is concerned about the fate of the century, the meaning of life. The main question: to be or not to be? To be for him means to think, to believe in a person, to act in accordance with his convictions, that is, to be on the side of good. Not to be is to die. But Hamlet rejects such a decision.

Hamlet longs not so much for Claudius's death as for his exposure. Hamlet is obliged to fulfill his duty, that is, to take revenge. All this leads him to an internal conflict with himself.

The conflict ends when Hamlet returns. This can be seen in the scene in the cemetery. When Hamlet picks up Yorick's skull and asks the question “To be or not to be?” The monologue “To be or not to be” is the highest point of the hero’s thoughts and doubts. The point is, did Hamlet stop at these reflections or are they a transitional step to further things? The action of the play clearly shows that, no matter how important the monologue is, no matter how deep its thoughts, Hamlet’s spiritual development did not stop there. Although important, it is just a moment. Yes, he reveals to us the soul of the hero, who finds it extremely difficult in the world of lies, evil, deception, and villainy, but who nevertheless has not lost the ability to act.

The initial conflict is that the country is in martial law, Fontibrass’s army is marching on Denmark to establish its own law. It turns out that Hamlet is mad and cannot lead the army, the country remains defenseless.

The plot is set up by all five scenes of the first act, and it is clear that the moment of highest excitement is Hamlet's meeting with the Ghost. When Hamlet learns the secret of his father's death and the task of revenge is entrusted to him, then the plot of the tragedy is clearly defined.

Starting from the first scene of the second act, the action develops, arising from the plot: Hamlet’s strange behavior, causing the king’s fears, Ophelia’s grief, and the bewilderment of the others. The king takes measures to find out the reason for Hamlet's unusual behavior. This part of the action can be defined as complication, “increase”, in a word, the development of a dramatic conflict.

The second stage of the action includes the monologue “To be or not to be?”, and Hamlet’s conversation with Ophelia, and the presentation of the “mousetrap”. The turning point is the third scene of the third act, when all this has already happened and the king decides to get rid of Hamlet. Is this too much for a punchline? Of course, you can limit yourself to one thing, for example, exposing the king: the king guesses that Hamlet knows his secret, and from here everything else follows. Hamlet finally gained confidence that he had reasons for action, but at the same time he gave away his secret. His attempt to act resulted in him killing the wrong person. Before he can strike again, he will be sent to England.

It has already been said that the tragedy reveals in the course of the action the relationship between all the main characters: Hamlet - Claudius, Hamlet - the queen, Hamlet - Ophelia, Hamlet - Polonius, Hamlet - Laertes, Hamlet - Horatio, Hamlet - Fortinbras, Hamlet - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern; Claudius - Gertrude, Claudius - Polonius, Claudius - Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Claudius - Laertes; Queen - Ophelia; Polonius - Ophelia, Polonius - Laertes; Laertes - Ophelia.

Hamlet is a man of philosophical thought. The ability to think delays his actions in the fight. 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. Hamlet is distinguished by his nobility. He is capable of great and faithful friendship. He values ​​people for their personal qualities, and not for the position they occupy. His only close friend turns out to be student Horatio. Hamlet is loved by the people, as the king speaks with alarm about.

Polonius is a resourceful courtier with 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. 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 at all about how this hurts her soul and how it humiliates her dignity. He will never understand Hamlet's sincere feelings for Ophelia, and he ruins him with his vulgar interference.

Gertrude is a weak-willed, although not stupid, woman. Behind her majesty and external charm, you cannot immediately determine that the queen has neither marital fidelity nor maternal sensitivity. 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 among readers, since they see in her an indirect accomplice of Claudius, who herself turned out to be an unwitting victim of his next atrocity. Then, obeying her father, she dutifully helps carry out the “experiment” over the supposedly insane prince, which deeply hurts his feelings and causes disrespect for himself.

Laertes is straightforward, energetic, brave, loves his sister tenderly in his own way, wishes her well and happiness. But judging by how, burdened by home 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. 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. The viewer understands the state of Laertes the son, but until he enters into an agreement with the king, and completely does not accept Laertes when he goes out to compete with the prince, having a poisoned weapon: Laertes neglected knightly honor, dignity and generosity, because before With the competition, Hamlet explained to him and Laertes extended his hand to him. Only the proximity of his own death, the consciousness that he himself was a victim of Claudius’s treachery, forces him to tell the truth.

The image of Claudius captures the type of bloody usurper monarch so hated by humanists. 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. Claudius is shrewd and careful: he cleverly prevents Fortinbras from attacking Denmark, quickly extinguishes the anger of Laertes, turning him into an instrument of reprisal against Hamlet.

Conclusion

Hamlet has attracted many generations of people. Life changes, new interests and concepts arise, and each new generation finds in tragedy something close to itself. The power of tragedy is confirmed not only by its popularity among readers, but also by the fact that for almost four centuries it has occupied one of the first, if not the very first place in the repertoire of theaters in Western countries, and is now conquering the stages of theaters of other cultures. Productions of the tragedy invariably attract spectators. The popularity of Hamlet in recent decades has been greatly facilitated by its film adaptation and television showings. Two films received especially wide recognition: one directed by English actor Laurence Olivier, the other created by Soviet director Grigory Kozintsev. To understand Hamlet and sympathize with him, you don’t need to find yourself in his life situation - to find out that his father was villainously killed, and his mother betrayed her husband’s memory and married someone else. Of course, those whose fate is at least partly similar to Hamlet’s will more vividly and acutely feel everything that the hero experiences. But even with the dissimilarity of life situations, Hamlet turns out to be close to readers, especially if they have spiritual qualities similar to those inherent in Hamlet, a tendency to peer into themselves, immerse themselves in their inner world, painfully perceive injustice and evil, feel other people’s pain and suffering as their own own.

Bibliography

1. “Hamlet - Prince of Denmark: Tragedy” / Trans. from English B. Pasternak. - St. Petersburg.

Publishing house ABC 2012

The tragedy "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" is one of the 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 entered 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 an 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.

"Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare has long been dismantled into aphorisms. Thanks to the intense plot, acute political and love conflicts, the tragedy has remained popular for several centuries. Each generation finds in it problems inherent in its era. The philosophical component of the work invariably attracts attention - deep reflections on life and death. She pushes each reader to her own conclusions. The study of the play is also included in the school curriculum. Students are introduced to Hamlet in 8th grade. Parsing it is not always easy. We suggest making your work easier by reading the analysis of the work.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing - 1600-1601

History of creation- Researchers believe that W. Shakespeare borrowed the plot of Hamlet from a play by Thomas Kyd, which has not survived to this day. Some scholars suggest that the source was the legend of a Danish prince recorded by Saxo Grammaticus.

Subject- The main theme of the work is crime for the sake of power. In its context, the themes of betrayal and unhappy love develop.

Composition- The play is organized in such a way as to fully reveal the fate of Prince Hamlet. It consists of five acts, each of which represents certain components of the plot. This composition allows you to consistently reveal the main topic and focus on the most important issues.

Genre- A play. Tragedy.

Direction- Baroque.

History of creation

W. Shakespeare created the analyzed work in 1600-1601. There are two main versions of the story of the creation of Hamlet. According to the first, the source of the plot was the play by Thomas Kyd, author of The Spanish Tragedy. Kid's work has not survived to this day.

Many literary scholars are inclined to believe that the plot of Shakespeare’s tragedy goes back to the legend of the King of Jutland, recorded by the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in the book “The Acts of the Danes.” The main character of this legend is Amleth. His father was killed by his brother, jealous of his wealth. After committing the murder, he married Amleth's mother. The prince learned about the cause of his father's death and decided to take revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare reproduced these events in detail, but in comparison with the original source, he paid more attention to the psychology of the characters.

William Shakespeare's play was staged in the year it was written at the Globe Theater.

Subject

In Hamlet, her analysis should begin with the characterization main problem.

Motives of betrayal, crime, and love have always been common in literature. W. Shakespeare knew how to notice the internal vibrations of people and vividly convey them with the help of words, so he could not stay away from the listed problems. main topic Hamlet is a crime committed for the sake of wealth and power.

The main events of the work develop in a castle owned by Hamlet's family. At the beginning of the play, the reader learns that a ghost is wandering around the castle. Hamlet decides to meet the gloomy guest. He turns out to be his father's ghost. The ghost tells his son who killed him and asks for revenge. Hamlet thinks he has gone mad. The prince's friend Horace insists that what he saw is true. After much thought and observation of the new ruler, and he became Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, who killed his brother, the young man decides to take revenge. A plan is gradually maturing in his head.

The king guesses that his nephew knows about the cause of his father's death. He sends his friends to the prince to find out everything, but Hamlet guesses about this betrayal. The hero pretends to be crazy. The brightest thing in all these events is Hamlet’s love for Ophelia, but this too is not destined to come true.

As soon as the opportunity arises, the prince, with the help of the corpses of actors, exposes the killer. The play “The Murder of Gonzago” is performed in the palace, to which Hamlet adds lines demonstrating to the king that his crime has been solved. Claudius becomes ill and leaves the hall. Hamlet wants to talk to his mother, but accidentally kills the king's close nobleman, Polonius.

Claudius wants to exile his nephew to England. But Hamlet finds out about this, returns to the castle by cunning and kills the king. Having taken revenge, Hamlet dies from poison.

Observing the events of the tragedy, it is easy to notice that it presents an internal and external conflict. External - Hamlet's relationship with the inhabitants of his parents' courtyard, internal - the prince's experiences, his doubts.

The work develops idea that every lie is revealed sooner or later. The main idea is that human life is too short, so there is no point in wasting time entangling it with lies and intrigue. This is what the play teaches the reader and viewer.

Composition

The features of the composition are dictated by the laws of drama organization. The work consists of five acts. The plot is revealed sequentially, it can be divided into six parts: exposition - introduction to the characters, plot - Hamlet's meeting with the ghost, development of events - the prince's path to revenge, climax - observations of the king during the play, they are trying to exile Hamlet to England, denouement - death heroes.

The event outline is interrupted by Hamlet's philosophical reflections on the meaning of life and death.

Main characters

Genre

The genre of Hamlet is a play written as a tragedy, as all the events are centered around the issues of murder, death and revenge. The ending of the work is tragic. The direction of Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is Baroque, so the work is characterized by an abundance of comparisons and metaphors.

Work test

Rating Analysis

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Shakespeare is the creator of an entire artistic universe, he had incomparable imagination and knowledge of life, knowledge of people, therefore the analysis of any of his plays is extremely interesting and instructive. However, for Russian culture, of all Shakespeare’s plays, the first in importance was "Hamlet", which can be seen at least by the number of its translations into Russian - there are over forty of them. Using this tragedy as an example, let us consider what new Shakespeare contributed to the understanding of the world and man in the late Renaissance.

Let's begin with plot of "Hamlet", like virtually all of Shakespeare's other works, is borrowed from a previous literary tradition. Thomas Kidd's tragedy Hamlet, presented in London in 1589, has not reached us, but it can be assumed that Shakespeare relied on it, giving his version of the story, first told in the Icelandic chronicle of the 12th century. Saxo Grammaticus, author of the "History of the Danes", tells an episode from the Danish history of the "dark time". The feudal lord Khorwendil had a wife, Geruta, and a son, Amleth. Horwendil's brother, Fengo, with whom he shared power over Jutland, was jealous of his courage and glory. Fengo killed his brother in front of the courtiers and married his widow. Amlet pretended to be crazy, deceived everyone and took revenge on his uncle. Even before that, he was exiled to England for the murder of one of the courtiers, and there he married an English princess. Amlet was subsequently killed in battle by his other uncle, King Wiglet of Denmark. The similarity of this story with the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet is obvious, but Shakespeare's tragedy takes place in Denmark only in name; its problematics go far beyond the scope of the tragedy of revenge, and the types of characters are very different from the solid medieval heroes.

Premiere of "Hamlet" at the Globe Theater took place in 1601, and this is a year of well-known upheavals in the history of England, which directly affected both the Globe troupe and Shakespeare personally. The fact is that 1601 is the year of the “Essex Conspiracy,” when the young favorite of the aging Elizabeth, Earl of Essex, took his people to the streets of London in an attempt to rebel against the queen, was captured and beheaded. Historians regard his speech as the last manifestation of medieval feudal freemen, as a rebellion of the nobility against the absolutism that limited its rights, which was not supported by the people. On the eve of the performance, the Essex envoys paid the Globe actors to perform an old Shakespearean chronicle, which, in their opinion, could provoke discontent with the queen, instead of the play scheduled in the repertoire. The owner of Globus later had to give unpleasant explanations to the authorities. Along with Essex, the young nobles who followed him were thrown into the Tower, in particular the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, to whom his cycle of sonnets is believed to be dedicated. Southampton was later pardoned, but while Essex's trial was going on, Shakespeare's mind must have been particularly dark. All these circumstances could further thicken the general atmosphere of the tragedy.

Its action begins in Elsinore, the castle of the Danish kings. The night watch informs Horatio, Hamlet's friend, about the appearance of the Ghost. This is the ghost of Hamlet’s late father, who in the “dead hour of the night” tells his son that he did not die a natural death, as everyone believes, but was killed by his brother Claudius, who took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. The ghost demands revenge from Hamlet, but the prince must first make sure of what has been said: what if the ghost is a messenger from hell? To gain time and not be discovered, Hamlet pretends to be crazy; the incredulous Claudius conspires with his courtier Polonius to use his daughter Ophelia, with whom Hamlet is in love, to check whether Hamlet has actually lost his mind. For the same purpose, Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are called to Elsinore, and they willingly agree to help the king. Exactly in the middle of the play is the famous “Mousetrap”: a scene in which Hamlet persuades the actors who came to Elsinore to perform a performance that exactly depicts what the Ghost told him about, and by Claudia’s confused reaction he is convinced of his guilt. After this, Hamlet kills Polonius, who overhears his conversation with his mother, in the belief that Claudius is hiding behind the carpets in her bedroom; Claudius, sensing danger, sends Hamlet to England, where he is to be executed by the English king, but on board the ship Hamlet manages to replace the letter, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who accompanied him, are executed instead. Returning to Elsinore, Hamlet learns of the death of Ophelia, who has gone mad, and becomes a victim of Claudius's latest intrigue. The king persuades the son of the late Polonius and Ophelia's brother Laertes to take revenge on Hamlet and hands Laertes a poisoned sword for a court duel with the prince. During this duel, Gertrude dies after drinking a cup of poisoned wine intended for Hamlet; Claudius and Laertes are killed, Hamlet dies, and the troops of the Norwegian prince Fortinbras enter Elsinore.

Hamlet- the same as Don Quixote, the “eternal image” that arose at the end of the Renaissance almost simultaneously with other images of the great individualists (Don Quixote, Don Juan, Faust). All of them embody the Renaissance idea of ​​limitless personal development, and at the same time, unlike Montaigne, who valued measure and harmony, these artistic images, as is typical in Renaissance literature, embody great passions, extreme degrees of development of one side of the personality. Don Quixote's extreme was idealism; Hamlet's extreme is reflection, introspection, which paralyzes a person's ability to act. He performs many actions throughout the tragedy: he kills Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths, but since he hesitates with his main task - revenge, the impression of his inactivity is created.

From the moment he learns the secret of the Ghost, Hamlet's past life collapses. What he was like before the start of the tragedy can be judged by Horatio, his friend at the University of Wittenberg, and by the scene of the meeting with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, when he sparkles with wit - until the moment when the friends admit that Claudius summoned them. The indecently quick wedding of his mother, the loss of Hamlet Sr., in whom the prince saw not just a father, but an ideal person, explain his gloomy mood at the beginning of the play. And when Hamlet is faced with the task of revenge, he begins to understand that the death of Claudius will not correct the general state of affairs, because everyone in Denmark quickly consigned Hamlet Sr. to oblivion and quickly got used to slavery. The era of ideal people is in the past, and the theme of Denmark-prison runs through the whole tragedy, set by the words of the honest officer Marcellus in the first act of the tragedy: “Something has rotted in the Danish kingdom” (Act I, Scene IV). The prince comes to realize the hostility, the “dislocation” of the world around him: “The century has been shaken - and worst of all, / That I was born to restore it” (Act I, Scene V). Hamlet knows that his duty is to punish evil, but his idea of ​​evil no longer corresponds to the straightforward laws of family revenge. Evil for him is not limited to the crime of Claudius, whom he ultimately punishes; Evil is spread throughout the world around him, and Hamlet realizes that one person cannot resist the whole world. This internal conflict leads him to think about the futility of life, about suicide.

The fundamental difference between Hamlet from the heroes of the previous revenge tragedy in that he is able to look at himself from the outside, to think about the consequences of his actions. Hamlet's main sphere of activity is thought, and the sharpness of his introspection is akin to Montaigne's close introspection. But Montaigne called for introducing human life into proportionate boundaries and depicted a person occupying a middle position in life. Shakespeare draws not only the prince, that is, a person standing at the highest level of society, on whom the fate of his country depends; Shakespeare, in accordance with literary tradition, depicts an extraordinary character, large in all its manifestations. Hamlet is a hero born of the spirit of the Renaissance, but his tragedy indicates that at its later stage the ideology of the Renaissance is experiencing a crisis. Hamlet takes upon himself the work of revising and revaluing not only medieval values, but also the values ​​of humanism, and the illusory nature of humanistic ideas about the world as a kingdom of boundless freedom and direct action is revealed.

Hamlet's central storyline is reflected in a kind of mirror: the lines of two more young heroes, each of which sheds new light on Hamlet’s situation. The first is the line of Laertes, who, after the death of his father, finds himself in the same position as Hamlet after the appearance of the Ghost. Laertes, in everyone’s opinion, is a “worthy young man,” he takes the lessons of Polonius’s common sense and acts as the bearer of established morality; he takes revenge on his father's murderer, not disdaining an agreement with Claudius. The second is the line of Fortinbras; Despite the fact that he has a small place on the stage, his significance for the play is very great. Fortinbras is the prince who occupied the empty Danish throne, Hamlet's hereditary throne; he is a man of action, a decisive politician and military leader; he realized himself after the death of his father, the Norwegian king, precisely in those areas that remain inaccessible to Hamlet. All the characteristics of Fortinbras are directly opposite to the characteristics of Laertes, and we can say that the image of Hamlet is placed between them. Laertes and Fortinbras are normal, ordinary avengers, and the contrast with them makes the reader feel the exceptionality of Hamlet’s behavior, because the tragedy depicts precisely the exceptional, the great, the sublime.

Since the Elizabethan theater was poor in decorations and external effects of theatrical spectacle, the strength of its impact on the viewer depended mainly on the word. Shakespeare is the greatest poet in the history of the English language and its greatest reformer; Shakespeare's word is fresh and succinct, and in Hamlet it is striking stylistic richness of the play. It is mostly written in blank verse, but in a number of scenes the characters speak in prose. Shakespeare uses metaphors especially subtly to create the general atmosphere of tragedy. Critics note the presence of three groups of leitmotifs in the play. Firstly, these are images of illness, an ulcer that wears away a healthy body - the speeches of all the characters contain images of rotting, decomposition, decay, working to create the theme of death. Secondly, images of female debauchery, fornication, fickle Fortune, reinforcing the theme of female infidelity running through the tragedy and at the same time pointing to the main philosophical problem of the tragedy - the contrast between appearance and the true essence of the phenomenon. Thirdly, there are numerous images of weapons and military equipment associated with war and violence - they emphasize the effective side of Hamlet’s character in the tragedy. The entire arsenal of artistic means of the tragedy was used to create its numerous images, to embody the main tragic conflict - the loneliness of a humanistic personality in the desert of a society in which there is no place for justice, reason, and dignity. Hamlet is the first reflective hero in world literature, the first hero experiencing a state of alienation, and the roots of his tragedy were perceived differently in different eras.

For the first time, naive audience interest in Hamlet as a theatrical spectacle gave way to attention to the characters at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. I.V. Goethe, an ardent admirer of Shakespeare, in his novel Wilhelm Meister (1795) interpreted Hamlet as “a beautiful, noble, highly moral creature, deprived of the power of feeling that makes a hero, he perishes under a burden that he could neither bear nor throw off.” . U I.V. Goethe's Hamlet is a sentimental-elegiac nature, a thinker who cannot handle great deeds.

The romantics explained the inactivity of the first in a series of “superfluous people” (they were later “lost”, “angry”) by the excessiveness of reflection, the disintegration of the unity of thought and will. S. T. Coleridge in “Shakespeare's Lectures” (1811-1812) 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.” As a result, the romantics presented Hamlet as the first literary hero in tune with modern man in his preoccupation with introspection, which means that this image is the prototype of modern man in general.

G. Hegel wrote about Hamlet’s ability - like other most lively Shakespearean characters - to look at himself from the outside, to treat himself objectively, as an artistic character, and to act as an artist.

Don Quixote and Hamlet were the most important "eternal images" for Russian culture of the 19th century. V.G. Belinsky believed that Hamlet's idea consists "in weakness of will, but only as a result of decay, and not by its nature. By nature, Hamlet is a strong man... He is great and strong in his weakness, because a strong-spirited man and in his very fall is higher than a weak man, in his very fall his uprising." V.G. Belinsky and A.I. Herzen saw in Hamlet a helpless but stern judge of his society, a potential revolutionary; I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy is a hero rich in intelligence that is of no use to anyone.

Psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, bringing to the fore the final act of the tragedy in his analysis, emphasized Hamlet’s connection with the other world: “Hamlet is a mystic, this determines not only his mental state on the threshold of double existence, two worlds, but also his will in all its manifestations.”

English writers B. Shaw and M. Murray explained Hamlet's slowness by unconscious resistance to the barbaric law of family revenge. Psychoanalyst E. Jones showed that Hamlet is a victim of the Oedipus complex. Marxist criticism saw him as an anti-Machiavellian, a fighter for the ideals of bourgeois humanism. For Catholic K.S. Lewis's Hamlet is a "everyman", an ordinary person, depressed by the idea of ​​original sin. In literary criticism there has been a whole gallery of mutually exclusive Hamlets: an egoist and a pacifist, a misogynist, a brave hero, a melancholic incapable of action, the highest embodiment of the Renaissance ideal and an expression of the crisis of humanistic consciousness - all this is a Shakespearean hero. In the process of comprehending the tragedy, Hamlet, like Don Quixote, broke away from the text of the work and acquired the meaning of a “supertype” (Yu. M. Lotman’s term), that is, it became a socio-psychological generalization of such a wide scope that its right to timeless existence was recognized.

Today in Western Shakespeare studies the focus is not on “Hamlet”, but on other plays of Shakespeare - “Measure for Measure”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, also, each in its own way, consonant with modernity, since in each Shakespeare's play poses eternal questions of human existence. And each play contains something that determines the exclusivity of Shakespeare's influence on all subsequent literature. American literary critic H. Bloom defines his author’s position as “disinterest”, “freedom from any ideology”: “He has no theology, no metaphysics, no ethics, and less political theory than modern critics “read” into him. Based on the sonnets it is clear that, unlike his character Falstaff, he had a superego; unlike Hamlet of the final act, he did not cross the boundaries of earthly existence; unlike Rosalind, he did not have the ability to manage his own life at will. But since he invented them, we can assume that he deliberately set certain boundaries for himself. Fortunately, he was not King Lear and refused to go mad, although he could perfectly imagine madness, like everything else. His wisdom is endlessly reproduced in our sages from Goethe to Freud, although Shakespeare himself refused to be considered a sage"; "You cannot limit Shakespeare to the English Renaissance any more than you can limit the Prince of Denmark to his play."