Shakespearean heroines. "Hamlet" main characters

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies. The eternal questions raised in the text concern humanity to this day. Love conflicts, themes related to politics, reflections on religion: this tragedy contains all the basic intentions of the human spirit. Shakespeare's plays are both tragic and realistic, and the images have long become eternal in world literature. Perhaps this is where their greatness lies.

Famous English author was not the first to write the story of Hamlet. Before him there was The Spanish Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd. Researchers and literary scholars suggest that Shakespeare borrowed the plot from him. However, Thomas Kyd himself probably consulted earlier sources. Most likely, these were short stories from the early Middle Ages.

Saxo Grammaticus, in his book “The History of the Danes,” described the real story of the ruler of Jutland, who had a son named Amlet and a wife Geruta. The ruler had a brother who was jealous of his wealth and decided to kill him, and then married his wife. Amlet did not submit to the new ruler, and, having learned about the bloody murder of his father, decides to take revenge. The stories are the same right down to the smallest details, but Shakespeare interprets the events that took place differently and penetrates deeper into the psychology of each character.

The essence

Hamlet returns to his native castle Elsinore for his father's funeral. From the soldiers who served at the court, he learns about a ghost who comes to them at night and whose outline resembles the late king. Hamlet decides to go to a meeting with an unknown phenomenon, a further meeting horrifies him. The ghost reveals to him the real reason his death and persuades his son to take revenge. The Danish prince is confused and on the verge of madness. He doesn’t understand whether he really saw his father’s spirit, or was it the devil who visited him from the depths of hell?

The hero reflects on what happened for a long time and ultimately decides to find out on his own whether Claudius is really guilty. To do this, he asks a troupe of actors to perform the play “The Murder of Gonzago” to see the king’s reaction. During a key moment in the play, Claudius becomes ill and leaves, at which point a sinister truth is revealed. All this time, Hamlet pretends to be crazy, and even Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were sent to him, could not find out from him the true motives of his behavior. Hamlet intends to talk to the queen in her chambers and accidentally kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtain in order to eavesdrop. He sees in this accident a manifestation of the will of heaven. Claudius understands the criticality of the situation and tries to send Hamlet to England, where he is to be executed. But this does not happen, and the dangerous nephew returns to the castle, where he kills his uncle and himself dies from poison. The kingdom passes into the hands of the Norwegian ruler Fortinbras.

Genre and direction

“Hamlet” is written in the genre of tragedy, but the “theatrical” nature of the work should be taken into account. After all, in Shakespeare’s understanding, the world is a stage, and life is a theater. This is a specific worldview, a creative look at the phenomena surrounding a person.

Shakespeare's dramas are traditionally classified as. She is characterized by pessimism, gloom and aestheticization of death. These features can also be found in the work of the great English playwright.

Conflict

The main conflict in the play is divided into external and internal. Its external manifestation lies in Hamlet’s attitude towards the inhabitants of the Danish court. He considers them all base creatures, devoid of reason, pride and dignity.

Internal conflict is very well expressed in emotional experiences hero, his struggle with himself. Hamlet chooses between two behavioral types: new (Renaissance) and old (feudal). He is formed as a fighter, not wanting to perceive reality as it is. Shocked by the evil that surrounded him on all sides, the prince is going to fight it, despite all the difficulties.

Composition

The main compositional outline of the tragedy consists of a story about the fate of Hamlet. Each individual layer of the play serves to fully reveal his personality and is accompanied by constant changes in the hero’s thoughts and behavior. Events gradually unfold in such a way that the reader begins to feel constant tension, which does not stop even after Hamlet’s death.

The action can be divided into five parts:

1. First part - plot. Here Hamlet meets the ghost of his deceased father, who bequeaths him to take revenge for his death. In this part, the prince for the first time encounters human betrayal and meanness. This is where his mental torment begins, which does not let him go until his death. Life becomes meaningless for him.
2. Second part - action development. The prince decides to pretend to be crazy in order to deceive Claudius and find out the truth about his act. He also accidentally kills the royal advisor, Polonius. At this moment, the realization comes to him that he is the executor of the highest will of heaven.
3. The third part - climax. Here Hamlet, using the trick of showing the play, is finally convinced of the guilt of the ruling king. Claudius realizes how dangerous his nephew is and decides to get rid of him.
4. Part four - The Prince is sent to England to be executed there. At the same moment, Ophelia goes crazy and tragically dies.
5. Fifth part - denouement. Hamlet escapes execution, but is forced to fight Laertes. In this part, all the main participants in the action die: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes and Hamlet himself.

The main characters and their characteristics

• Hamlet– from the very beginning of the play, the reader’s interest is focused on the personality of this character. This “bookish” boy, as Shakespeare himself wrote about him, suffers from the disease of the approaching century - melancholy. At his core, he is the first reflective hero of world literature. Someone may think that he is a weak person, incapable of action. But in fact, we see that he is strong in spirit and is not going to submit to the problems that befell him. His perception of the world changes, particles of former illusions turn to dust. This gives rise to that same “Hamletism”—an internal discord in the hero’s soul. By nature he is a dreamer, a philosopher, but life forced him to become an avenger. Hamlet’s character can be called “Byronic”, because he is maximally focused on his internal state and is quite skeptical about the world around him. He, like all romantics, is prone to constant self-doubt and tossing between good and evil.
• Gertrude- Hamlet's mother. A woman in whom we see the makings of intelligence, but a complete lack of will. She is not alone in her loss, but for some reason she does not try to get closer to her son at a time when grief has occurred in the family. Without the slightest remorse, Gertrude betrays the memory of her late husband and agrees to marry his brother. Throughout the action, she constantly tries to justify herself. Dying, the queen understands how wrong her behavior was, and how wise and fearless her son turned out to be.
• Ophelia- daughter of Polonius and lover of Hamlet. A meek girl who loved the prince until her death. She also faced trials that she could not endure. Her madness is not a fake move invented by someone. This is the same madness that occurs at the moment of true suffering; it cannot be stopped. There are some hidden indications in the work that Ophelia was pregnant with Hamlet's child, and this makes the realization of her fate doubly difficult.
• Claudius- a man who killed his own brother to achieve his own goals. Hypocritical and vile, he still carries a heavy burden. The pangs of conscience devour him daily and do not allow him to fully enjoy the rule to which he came to in such a terrible way.
• Rosencrantz And Guildenstern– Hamlet’s so-called “friends” who betrayed him at the first opportunity to make good money. Without delay, they agree to deliver a message announcing the death of the prince. But fate has prepared a worthy punishment for them: as a result, they die instead of Hamlet.
• Horatio- an example of a true and faithful friend. The only person the prince can trust. They go through all the problems together, and Horatio is ready to share even death with his friend. It is to him that Hamlet trusts to tell his story and asks him to “breathe some more in this world.”

Themes

1. Hamlet's Revenge. The prince was destined to bear the heavy burden of revenge. He cannot coldly and calculatingly deal with Claudius and regain the throne. His humanistic principles force him to think about the common good. The hero feels responsible for those who have suffered from the evil that is widespread around him. He sees that it is not Claudius alone who is to blame for the death of his father, but all of Denmark, which blithely turned a blind eye to the circumstances of the death of the old king. He knows that to take revenge he needs to become an enemy to everyone around him. His ideal of reality does not coincide with the real picture of the world; the “shaken age” arouses hostility in Hamlet. The prince understands that he cannot restore peace alone. Such thoughts plunge him into even greater despair.
2. Hamlet's love. Before all those terrible events, there was love in the hero’s life. But, unfortunately, she is unhappy. He loved Ophelia madly, and there is no doubt about the sincerity of his feelings. But the young man is forced to give up happiness. After all, the proposal to share sorrows together would be too selfish. To finally break the connection, he has to inflict pain and be merciless. Trying to save Ophelia, he could not even imagine how great her suffering would be. The impulse with which he rushes to her coffin was deeply sincere.
3. Hamlet's friendship. The hero values ​​friendship very much and is not used to choosing his friends based on his assessment of their position in society. His only true friend is a poor student Horatio. At the same time, the prince is contemptuous of betrayal, which is why he treats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern so cruelly.

Problems

The issues covered in Hamlet are very broad. Here are the themes of love and hate, the meaning of life and the purpose of man in this world, strength and weakness, the right to revenge and murder.

One of the main ones is problem of choice, which the main character faces. There is a lot of uncertainty in his soul; alone he thinks for a long time and analyzes everything that happens in his life. There is no one next to Hamlet who could help him make a decision. Therefore, he is guided only by his own moral principles and personal experience. His consciousness is divided into two halves. In one lives a philosopher and humanist, and in the other, a man who understands the essence of a rotten world.

His key monologue “To be or not to be” reflects all the pain in the hero’s soul, the tragedy of thought. This incredible internal struggle exhausts Hamlet, makes him think about suicide, but he is stopped by his reluctance to commit another sin. He began to become increasingly concerned about the topic of death and its mystery. What's next? Eternal darkness or a continuation of the suffering he endures during his life?

Meaning

The main idea of ​​tragedy is to search for the meaning of life. Shakespeare shows a man of education, eternally searching, with a deep sense of empathy for everything that surrounds him. But life forces him to face true evil in various manifestations. Hamlet is aware of it, trying to figure out how exactly it arose and why. He is shocked by the fact that one place can so quickly turn into hell on Earth. And his act of revenge is to destroy the evil that has entered his world.

Fundamental to the tragedy is the idea that behind all these royal squabbles is great turning point the entire European culture. And at the edge of this turning point Hamlet appears - new type hero. Along with the death of all the main characters, the centuries-old system of understanding the world collapses.

Criticism

In 1837, Belinsky wrote an article dedicated to Hamlet, in which he called the tragedy a “brilliant diamond” in the “radiant crown of the king of dramatic poets,” “crowned by entire humanity and having no rival before or after himself.”

The image of Hamlet contains all the universal human traits "<…>this is me, this is each of us, more or less...”, Belinsky writes about him.

S. T. Coleridge, in his Shakespeare Lectures (1811-12), writes: “Hamlet hesitates due to natural sensitivity and hesitates, held back by reason, which forces him to turn his effective forces to the search for a speculative solution.”

Psychologist L.S. Vygotsky focused on Hamlet’s connection with the other world: “Hamlet is a mystic, this determines not only his state of mind on the threshold of double existence, two worlds, but also his will in all its manifestations.”

And literary critic V.K. Kantor looked at the tragedy from a different angle and in his article “Hamlet as a “Christian Warrior”” pointed out: “The tragedy “Hamlet” is a system of temptations. He is tempted by a ghost (this is the main temptation), and the prince’s task is to check whether it is the devil who is trying to lead him into sin. Hence the trap theater. But at the same time he is tempted by his love for Ophelia. Temptation is a constant Christian problem.”

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Shakespeare and his heroes

The whole world is a stage and all men and women are just actors,

which have their own moment of appearance and disappearance.

Shakespeare " How do you like it"

Nowadays, the Stratford School of Shakespearean Studies has prevailed almost completely in recognizing Shakespeare as the undisputed author of all famous literary heritage. Over four centuries, she maintains that the 37 greatest plays and 154 most beautiful sonnets produced by genius in Elizabethan England were written by William Shakespeare of Stratford. This was not prevented by the gaping lack of factual and textual evidence usual for writers of the past, confirming their authorship with the testimony of trustworthy contemporaries, the presence of indisputable handwritten and other materials connecting the writer with his creations.

Much is known about the personality of William Shakespeare. He was born on April 23, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, a small town 35 km from Birmingham, into a family of artisans (his father made gloves and traded in various farm goods, and was subsequently elected a councilor and court administrator of the city). At the age of 18, William married Anna Hathway, who was 8 years older than him. They had three children. In 1585. In 1589, William left Stratford and appeared in London, where he became an actor at the Globe Theatre. In 1612, William returned to Stratford, where he took up business and trade. In 1616 he caught a cold and died on his birthday.

Nowadays, every tourist interested in culture, arriving in England, visits the city of Shakespeare. Stratford England showcases five houses that at various times belonged to the family of William Shakespeare. The house of Mary Ardens, where William's mother spent her childhood, the house in which William was born and spent the first 5 years of his life, the house of William's wife Anna Hathway with her beautiful garden, Hall Croft - the home of William's eldest daughter Susanna and her husband, a famous doctor in the city John Hall and, finally, Nash House - the house of the first husband of the granddaughter William, on the site of which stood the burnt New House, in which Shakespeare died in 1616. This impressive display of realities leaves no doubt about the existence of William Shakespeare, whom the nation and the world, following the people of Stratford, believe the greatest poet and a playwright who has ever written in English. The authorship of William Shakespeare is confirmed by the authority of the royal house. In 1879, the Royal Shakespeare Theater and the Royal Shakespeare Company, financed from the state budget, was created. The company has its theaters in several cities in England.

However, there are those who doubt the authorship of William Shakespeare. They are haunted not only by the lack of reliable literary evidence, but by the very personality of the master of words. The lack of education, the lack of information about his intellectual horizon-expanding travels, the contradiction between the detailed knowledge of court etiquette that follows from the plays and William’s far from aristocratic origins raise doubts. His life as a small town citizen, businessman, actor, moneylender, investor, theater impresario, is in no way consistent with the life of the great poet and playwright.

The Stratford version of Shakespeare's authorship is based almost entirely on the touching poetic dedication of the playwright Ben Jonson, a contemporary of Shakespeare, published in the introduction to the First Folio, printed after the poet's death in 1623, containing almost all the plays of the great playwright. The dedication is entitled In memory of my dear friend, Author, Mr. William Shakespeare. In it he calls Shakespeare the Swan of Avon. And this, practically, is all that connects William Shakespeare with the literary heritage attributed to him. What attracts attention is the special emphasis on the fact of authorship in the dedication, which is unusual in these circumstances. It would seem that the author's name of William Shakespeare on the title page of the book is quite sufficient.

The main reasons for doubts about the author's identity are the insurmountable gap between the known facts of William Shakespeare's life and the breadth of his education, the author's acquaintance with classical literature, the achievements of astronomy and other sciences, his knowledge of law and the laws of legal proceedings. William Shakespeare was not a student at any university in the country. There is no trace of William Shakespeare's visit or detailed acquaintance with the cities of Italy, about which the author wrote 9 of his 37 plays, the country in which the great poet and playwright and all educated Englishmen learned the ideas of the European Renaissance.

The poet’s huge vocabulary and mastery of language, and most importantly the depth and power of his thinking, do not fit well with the known facts of William’s life.

More often than others, doubts are expressed by writers who well understand the mechanism of the creative literary process. William's authorship was doubted by Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, Vladimir Nabokov, and John Galsworthy. Theater actors and film people, Chaplin, Orson Welles, had their doubts. The doubters also include some of the leading actors of the Shakespeare Company itself, such as Sir John Gielgud, and the living Sir Derrick Jacobi, Mark Rylance, Michael York.

Henry James said that “I am haunted by the conviction that the divine William is the greatest and most successful deception of the patient world.” Mark Twain published the book “ Is Shakespeare dead? in which, regarding the lack of knowledge about the author, he wrote that “Satan and Shakespeare are the most famous among the unknown persons who have ever existed on our planet.”

Among researchers, a number of names of possible and more probable authors of the classical heritage arose. In their support, many works by textual critics, researchers of the era, and collectors of biographical evidence appeared.

There were also doubts regarding the uniqueness of the author, but the work of many textual critics has convincingly shown that everything attributed to Shakespeare was written by the same master.

However, for the Nation it is not so important which of its sons belongs to world fame, and the presence of many candidates for it violates the tradition of worship of genius and introduces chaos into the ritual of his adoration. In this regard, Thomas Eliot said that “honest criticism and careful consideration are directed not at the poet, but at the poetry,” as if to say: forget about the author and admire the poetry!

For national fame, knowledge of the real name and life of the author is not so important. There are many interesting and beloved writers who completely hid behind their nom de plume, or, having revealed their name, hid the facts of their lives from readers. Moreover, their work does not cause problems of interpretation. However, for a genius of Shakespearean magnitude, knowledge of the facts of his biography is of enormous importance. Interpretation of his works without knowledge important events his personal life and the life of his friends, the circle of ideas that owned the people of his environment, without a sense of the meaning put by the author in his words, loses an important anchor of their understanding, leaves the laymen the freedom to devalue his masterpieces, their perverse, empty interpretation for the needs of an undemanding viewer. Suffice it to recall the film about Romeo and Juliet by Florentine Franco Zeferelli, which was sensational in 1968 and awarded 4 Oscars, including an Oscar for directing. In it, the drama of all-conquering hatred dissolved in the endless ballet fencing and love dance of beautifully dressed young actors against the backdrop of a sun-drenched Italian medieval landscape with castles.

With the passing of centuries, doubts and the search for a more probable author do not die. Here is an example from the Russian search for a candidate for authorship. While the Shakespeare Commission was founded in 1975 Russian Academy Sciences adhered to the Stratford version of authorship, Ilya Mikhailovich Gililov (1924-2007), the permanent secretary of this commission, published a sensational book in 1997 A game about William Shakespeare or a mystery great phoenix, which makes a carefully argued case for the collective authorship of Sir Roger Manners, the Fifth Earl of Rutland, and his wife Elizabeth Sidney, daughter of the famous court poet, diplomat and warrior who died in battle, Philip Sidney.

Both of these authors have long been on the list of likely candidates. Manners, an Elizabethan aristocrat and intellectual, after studying at Oxford and Cambridge, continued his education at the University of Padua with his English classmates Messrs. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Manners, who has died aged 36, was a member of the diplomatic mission to Denmark and was known for a number of literary hoaxes.

Calvin Goffman, an American writer and theater critic who died in 1987, provides extensive textual and biographical evidence to support Christopher Marlowe's attribution of Shakespeare's literary legacy. He argued that this famous Elizabethan playwright and poet was not at all killed at Depfort in 1593 at the age of 29, but, having fled England, found refuge in France and Italy, where he wrote everything that is attributed to Shakespeare.

Oxford Shakespeare scholars and Sigmund Freud are convinced that the author was the 17th Earl of Oxford, Edward de Vere, an educated aristocrat and able poet who had a conflict with the Jewish moneylender Michael Locke regarding "3000 ducats".

Earl completed a course at Cambridge at the age of 14 and continued his education in Italy, where he studied Italian language, literature and law, receiving an LL.M. Naturally, De Vere was well acquainted with the morals of the aristocrats.

Kreiler is convinced that " The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar written by De Vere and that Hamlet is an almost autobiographical play from the life of the Earl of Oxford. The image of Polonius in it is a parody of the father of the wife of Earl William Cecil, Lord Barley.

Mark Twain and a number of other researchers are convinced that the author of the plays and poetry attributed to Shakespeare is Francis Bacon, the famous Elizabethan philosopher, scientist, lawyer, and statesman.

However, a detailed analysis of the possible authorship of the above candidates inevitably encounters insurmountable contradictions, not providing sufficiently strong evidence for any of the candidates and not allowing William to be reliably excluded from them, inevitably leaving the name of Shakespeare in force.

But the list of candidates does not end with the names listed. There are researchers who are convinced that William Stanley, Earl of Derby, and even Queen Elizabeth herself performed under the name of Shakespeare.

The Queen loved and supported theaters, the public adored them, but the Puritan and Anglican churches fought with actors and accused the theater of having a harmful influence on morals, of blasphemy, of blasphemous dressing of men in women's dress, since women were prohibited from performing on stage.

In the 16th century, the Corporation of London waged a merciless war on theatres, declaring them a place of lawlessness, debauchery, violence, interference with public transport, a breeding ground for dubious taverns and prostitution that sprang up around theatres, and most importantly, a plague zone.

Among the aristocracy, theater was considered a vulgar art form, and its members were not inclined to reveal their interest in it. Hence the assumption arose about the titled author of Shakespeare's plays hiding his name.

Whoever this genius of the theater, called Shakespeare today, was, the images he created have survived centuries and exist regardless of doubts about the identity of their creator. The author was a great connoisseur of human souls, a humanist and a rare person for his time, devoid of racial prejudice, a writer who declared the inconsistency of his characters, made the dual voices of his heroes convincing, and described in his creations the coexistence of alternative worlds.

The fates of the numerous and varied characters in the plays, masterfully generalized without loss of realism and truthfulness, concentrate a dramatic analysis of people’s behavior in different critical situations human life.

For more than four centuries, Shakespeare's images have lived among us, forcing us to reflect on their feelings, thoughts and actions. Images of Hamlet, Claudius and Ophelia; Romeo Juliet, members of the Montague (Montague) and Capulet families, Mercutio and Tybaldo; King Lear and his three daughters; Falstaff; Prospero; Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and King Duncan; the black Venetian general Othello, Iago and Desdemona; the Jews Shylock, Antonio, Basanio and Portia are known to the reading public throughout the world.

"Romeo and Juliet"- a play about the invincible power of hatred. In Verona, there is a long-standing undying feud between members of the Romeo clan and the Juliet clan. She is personified by Juliet's bloodthirsty relative Tybaldo. In a street fight, Tybaldo kills Mercutio, Romeo's friend. In the return duel, Romeo kills Tybaldo, and the hatred of the clans receives bloody fuel. Despite the enmity of the clans, young Romeo and fourteen-year-old Juliet fell in love with each other. In Verona, there is hope that the love of young people will lead to the oblivion of the enmity of the clans. But Shakespeare does not console the audience with empty hope. He knows that human hatred is stronger than love. The great connoisseur of human souls does not follow the liberal Christian thesis about the natural goodness of man. The tragedy ends with the death of the heroes.

"Hamlet" is undoubtedly the greatest play written for the theater. Essays on Hamlet were written by Goethe, Coleridge, Hegel, Nietzsche, Turgenev, Freud, Eliot, Asimov, Derrida and many others. It talks about a person’s difficult choice of duty and his path in the labyrinth of life, where Evil triumphs. Faced with him, Prince Hamlet, returning from university, ponders whether he should leave the labyrinth, where the insidious enemy, using treachery and criminal methods, inevitably wins, leave the battlefield, “die, or perhaps fall asleep.” The alternative is to enter battle and inevitably resort to the enemy's dirty weapons.

Hamlet's despair before the triumph of Evil is consonant with the motif of Shakespeare's famous 66th sonnet.

The story of the Danish prince goes far beyond the genre of Elizabethan revenge tragedy. "The Tragedy of the Danish Prince Hamlet", is not only the greatest masterpiece of drama, but also one of the most perfect and profound literary attempts to create an image ideal hero, the person he should be, according to the author.

More than four centuries have passed since the publication of the play about Hamlet, people's morals and moral standards have transformed, and knowledge of human psychology has deepened. However, neither the relevance of Hamlet's problem nor the recognition of the moral strength of this young man has lost its force. The need to combat the shape-changing World Evil and the inextricably linked difficult problem of choosing an effective weapon that does not pollute your hands has not diminished either.

Hamlet left the court of his father, the Danish king, becoming a student at the famous Wittenberg University, whose name is associated with the Reformation of the 16th century and the name of its graduate, Martin Luther.

Hamlet (just like his creator), an agnostic who does not believe in eternal life. He is aware of modern science and literature. Due to the death of his father, the prince returns home, where a carefree, courtly life awaits him as the heir to the throne, the nephew of the new king. However, at court, Hamlet is faced with Evil, which demands the restoration of justice, the punishment of the criminal, a dangerous struggle, a mortal battle. Hamlet discovers that his uncle, the new king, treacherously killed his brother, the prince's father, and his mother became the wife of the new king. King Claudius is the personification of the criminal thirst for power, deceit, and readiness to kill. However, Shakespeare portrays a real person in him, endows him with the statesmanship of a responsible monarch who diplomatically avoided conflict with aggressive Norway, and the ability to help Hamlet overcome depression. Claudius admits his sins and, in the silence of his private chapel, tries to beg for forgiveness.

Hamlet, a man of thought, does not at all desire to cross his sword, shed the blood of his enemies, or plunge into a battle that promises him, given the existing balance of power, almost inevitable death. He knows that the fight a treacherous enemy, who is ready to do anything for his victory, will demand from him actions that are contrary to his soul. He contemplates suicide, but after much deliberation he chooses to fight. Before entering into mortal combat, he seeks irrefutable evidence of his enemy's guilt - he conducts an investigative experiment with the help of a traveling troupe of actors.

Evil seeks not only to win, but also to dirty its opponent. But Hamlet understands that in order not to lose the fight he will have to respond with treachery to treachery and blood to blood. He accepts this inevitable condition - the need to use the enemy's weapons to defend a just cause. Shakespeare shows that even at this Hamlet remains pure. Using the example of the story of Laertis, Hamlet’s childhood friend, the son of King Polonius’ adviser, the difference between a fair fight and murder with a poisoned weapon is emphasized. By mistake, Hamlet kills Father Laertis. He drives Ophelia, his sister, to suicide. Thirsty for revenge, Laertis challenges Hamlet to a duel. However, in a duel with the prince, Laertis agrees to fight with a poison-coated weapon offered to him by Claudius.

The modern generation is again faced with the difficult problem of choosing a form of struggle in a decisive battle with an enemy who adheres to different moral rules and uses inhumane methods, the problem of choosing a weapon for defense that does not contradict humane ethical standards.

The attitude towards Hamlet as a noble hero, despite his “non-vegetarian” actions in the conflict with his enemies, is associated with the motives of his actions. Hamlet is driven by a mysterious moral imperative, which Kant wrote about almost two centuries later as a given inaccessible to reason, embedded in the minds of people. Hamlet's fight against evil is devoid of personal gain; he is selfless.

In a tragedy, all its heroes die. The Norwegian Fortinbras, the new monarch who came to rule Denmark, succinctly, in a nutshell, concludes the story of the Danish prince, calling him “noble Hamlet” - noble Hamlet.

Hamlet does not expect heavenly reward for his noble fight against Evil. He dies with the words the rest is silence, meaning that the mission is over, and after that there is only the desired silence.

"The Merchant of Venice" - a play about a Jew living among Christians. The reason for the author's appeal to the Jewish theme is unknown. The immediate reason for Shakespeare's conversion in 1596-97. The story of Shylock, the tragedy of the Jew in medieval Venice, was inspired by the trial that ended with the execution of Dr. Rodrigo Lopez (1525-1594), a “converse” (baptized Jew) who lived in London. Fleeing from the Portuguese Inquisition, Dr. Lopez fled to England, where he made a successful medical career and became the personal physician of Queen Elizabeth I. During this era, Jewish doctors often served at the court of monarchs. The Queen of France had a Jewish “converse” as her doctor; the Spanish king and Pope Paul III were also treated by Jewish doctors.

Don Antonio, an English-backed pretender to the Portuguese throne who lived in exile in London, was at the center of intrigue and espionage on the part of the Spanish king Philip, a longtime enemy of the English crown, who had captured Portugal. Robert De Vero, 2nd Earl of Essex, the Queen's favorite who suffered from spy mania, accused Dr. Lopez of treason and conspiracy against Queen Elizabeth in connection with Spanish intrigues around Don Antonio. Under torture, Lopez admitted that the Spaniards tried to persuade him to poison the queen, but he rejected treason. Despite the queen's doubts about Lopez's guilt and her long-term refusal to sign his death warrant, the Earl of Essex secured his conviction and execution (the brutal practice of hanging, drowning and quartering for state criminals at that time).

It is obvious that Christopher Marlowe's five-act tragedy " Jew from Malta"(1590), the theme of which and certain plot elements are repeated in “ Merchant of Venice" Shakespeare, influenced the great poet's play about the Jew Shylock.

The plot of the play is borrowed from one of the stories in the collection of stories by Giovani Fiorentino, published in 1565 in Milan, entitled “I l Pecorone (Simp)"(1378). This collection is similar in form to The Decameron Boccaccio(1350 g). A contemporary English translation of this collection is unknown to Shakespeare, suggesting that it was read by the author of the play in the original Italian. The story describes the story of a wealthy Florentine, Senora Belmont, who married a young, cash-strapped entrepreneur who was preparing an expedition to search for treasures overseas. His friend helped him find the money needed for the expedition from a Jewish moneylender. A pound of the debtor's meat is assigned as collateral for the debt (a custom borrowed from the practice of ancient Rome). The expedition was unsuccessful and the merchant appeared in court for the inevitable fulfillment of the terms of the loan. However, Senora Belmont, the merchant’s wife, convinces the judge of the injustice of the contract with the Jew and saves her unlucky husband.

The play, which could be called a “revenge comedy,” was considered entertaining at that time, since no one was killed in it and the “attacker” was punished. She appeared on the stage of the Globe Theater under the title " The comic story of the Merchant of Venice or otherwise called the Jew of Venice", is actually one of the most complex in its moral message. In it, the author tells the story of the moneylender Shylock with his usual wisdom and objectivity.

It is not known whether the author of the play visited Venice, but he was not directly familiar with Jewry. The play was written in 1596-98, more than three centuries after the expulsion of Jews from the English kingdom by the edict of King Edward I. Since then, more than ten generations have changed in the country and direct knowledge of Jewry did not exist. Anti-Semitism was only a tradition, fueled by memories of the past, or borrowed from the experience of continental European countries. In England, in 1275, a law was passed accusing Jews of usury, issuing inferior gold and silver coins, and prohibiting Jews from engaging in money lending. The edict required Jews to completely abolish usury over the next 15 years. Since all other ways of earning money were practically prohibited to them, they were forced to continue lending. In 1290, they were expelled from the country for violating the edict.

Later, individual Jews, fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, settled in England and converted to Christianity. King Henry VIII, the father of Queen Elizabeth, brought the Jewish families of musicians and composers Bassano and Lupos expelled from Spain from Venice to London. (Shakespeare's 27 sonnets (127 to 152) are supposed to be dedicated to the "Dark Lady of the Sonnets", poet and feminist Emilia Lanier, daughter of Baptiste Bassano.)

It is natural to choose the moneylender as a Jewish character. The origin of the unusual name of Shylock, the hero of the play " The Merchant of Venice" unknown. It should be noted that the plot of the play is based on the behavior of this hero, which is unusual for a religious Jew, which Shylock certainly was. Shylock's desire to avenge the insults inflicted on him by murder, described by Shakespeare, does not correspond to Jewish morality, which prohibits the murder of a person. In addition, the insult inflicted on Shylock, even the most severe one, is not equal to murder and exceeds the demand for retribution equal to the crime (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth), on which Jewish justice is based. (In the event of a legal conflict, when a murderer appears before a Jewish court, for whom the punishment equal to the crime is death, the court offers him eternal exile). However, the attitude towards Shylock on the part of the Venetian fellow citizens is presented with complete realism.

In the Juden Frei of England, Shakespeare and Marlowe, familiar with the problems of the Jewish diaspora in Europe, did not have sufficient knowledge of Judaism and its moral standards and, therefore, endowed their Jewish characters - Shylock and Barabas (the hero of Marlowe's play The Jew of Malta) - with many traits. character and morality of contemporary Christians.

Venice, as the place where the story of Shylock unfolded, was not chosen by Shakespeare by chance. It was in this city, where a large Jewish community of Spanish, Portuguese and German Jewish exiles formed in the 15th century, that the first Jewish ghettos arose. The life of the Jews of Venice was constrained by a number of prohibitive laws. They were forbidden to leave the ghetto after dark, to appear without a special red hat, and later without a yellow scarf. The activities he was allowed to do were limited to running money changers, lending money, trading in textiles, and printing Jewish books and medical practice. At the same time, the amount of interest charged for lending money was set by the Venetian authorities.

The play centers around the relationship between the Jew Shylock and its non-Jewish characters. Proud Shylock, obviously a native of Spanish exiles, is middle-aged, widowed, and rich. He lives alone with his beloved daughter Jessica and carefully preserves the memory and ring of his deceased wife Leah. In his difficult and despised, but necessary business, Shylock constantly experiences undeserved bullying and humiliation from the Venetians.

Gratiano, a friend of the hero of the play by the Venetian merchant Antonio, embodies the feelings of the Venetians towards the Jews, insults Shylock, telling him: “Oh, damn you merciless dog, whose spirit is controlled by a wolf with bloody greedy wolf desires<…>. Oh, stony, inhuman, despicable enemy." Shylock often hears similar slander addressed to himself.

Shylock, a man with self-respect, considers himself an equal citizen of Venice. He can hardly endure constant humiliation and dreams of retribution. According to the laws of honor existing in Europe, only blood spilled in a duel can wash away the shame of insults. However, even forgetting about the Jewish prohibition of murder, the very idea of ​​a duel between an elderly Jewish moneylender and a noble Venetian seems grotesque. And reasons for such a fight arise too often.

The poor aristocrat Basagno asks his friend, the rich merchant Antonio, for 3,000 ducats for a wedding trip to Belmont to the rich bride Portia. Antonio did not have any free money, since his capital was invested in a sea expedition, but he was ready to guarantee the necessary loan. Basagno finds the Jewish moneylender Shylock in the city. Antonio approaches him for a loan, but on insulting terms of zero interest. Shylock is furious, but sees this as an opportunity for retribution for the humiliation he suffered. He agrees to an interest-free loan, but demands the debtor's life as collateral in case of non-payment. Antonio agrees, and they sign a contract, according to which, in case of default by a set date, the insolvent debtor is obliged to part with “a pound of meat close to his heart”! Both parties to the transaction know that the separation from the body of a pound of flesh “close to the heart” inevitably means death.

Shylock does not want the money back at all - he longs for retribution and dreams of the opportunity to kill the Venetian.

In describing Shylock, Shakespeare rejects the dominant stereotype of the Jew in Europe, according to which he was a special, inferior, ugly creature, physically and spiritually different from a Christian. Shylock is not endowed with either a disgusting appearance or a disgusting character. Shakespeare describes a deeply offended man, thirsting for revenge, a man equal and understandable to other people. In his famous monologue, Shylock says:

“Yes, I'm Jewish. Doesn't a Jew have eyes? Doesn't he have hands, internal organs, sizes, feelings, affections, passions? He eats the same food, is wounded by the same weapons, suffers from the same diseases, is treated with the same medicines, is cold and experiences the same heat from the same winters and summers as a Christian. Don't we bleed when we are hurt? Don't we laugh when we are tickled? Don’t we die if we are poisoned and don’t we take revenge if you treat us unfairly?”

Antonio's expedition was a failure. He doesn't have the money to repay the debt. Shylock arrests him and brings him to the Duke's trial. Basagno and Portia, having received a letter from Antonio about the trial that threatens him, rush to the rescue and return to Venice. The cunning Portia appeared in court in the men's clothes of the young doctor of law Balthazar. So that Shylock immediately knows his place, Portia asks: “Which of you is a merchant here and which is a Jew?”

Shylock's right is not disputed. As compensation, he is offered double the amount of debt. But he refuses and demands strict execution of the contract. The Duke does not want to make a difficult decision and transfers the case to the young scientist doctor of law Balthazar - Portia.

Portia calls for mercy and offers Shylock triple the amount of debt - 9,000 ducats! But for proud man his dignity is more valuable than money. Shylock refuses this offer as well, continuing to insist on fulfilling the contract. Here the author attributes to Shylock a too uncompromising position in the Venetian court, which was clearly unusual for a Jew in medieval Europe.

The mood of the court changes. Portia suddenly declares that the contract is not valid because it only talks about meat, but nothing about blood, without which it cannot be separated from the body.

Moreover, since the contract for separating meat from the body “near the heart” contains the intent to kill, according to the law of Venice, this is tantamount to an encroachment by a foreigner (Jew) on the life of a Venetian. And such a crime is punishable by depriving the offender of all his property, half of which goes to the victim, and the other goes to the treasury. The trial is over!

Shylock is defenseless and ruined. His daughter leaves her father's house, converts to Christianity, and marries a Christian. The generous Antonio renounces his half of Shylock's property on the condition that the Jew converts to Christianity and bequeaths his property after the death of his daughter. Shylock's rejection of the faith of his fathers, which is psychologically much greater than the satisfaction of his vindictiveness, is here explained by the author's unfamiliarity with Judaism, but reflects the reality of Jewish life. To save their lives from persecution by the Inquisition, Jews had to abandon their religion.

Vladimir Jabotinsky, analyzing the image of the Jew in literature, wrote: “But nothing real, nothing that, if not in strength, then at least in mood, in penetration into the Jewish soul, could stand next to “Nathan the Wise” or “Shylock”, Russian literature did not give " The writer and thinker Jabotinsky correctly understood Shakespeare's intention and rejected the anti-Semitic cliché of superficial interpretation of the story of Shylock as the story of a disgusting Jew.

Shakespeare was a great writer and a rare man free from racial prejudice. Shylock is endowed with “Spanish pride” and uncompromisingness.

Although the Christian heroes of the play are characterized by love for each other, a sense of friendship, and generosity, while Shylock is shown only as undeservedly insulted and, therefore, vengeful and cruel, the main vector of the play is not directed at accusing Shylock, but at criticizing anti-Semitism. The laws do not protect Shylock from constant insults; they are directed against the Jew. Shylock has no chance for justice. He is put in a hopeless position, while the Venetians triumph, humiliate Shylock, and force him to be baptized.

During the period of the slave trade in Elizabethan England, in 1603, Shakespeare wrote a tragedy « Othello”, in which the black African is endowed with military valor and nobility. In the play, racial slurs are thrown around the name of the black Othello. The Venetians find it difficult to accept the marriage of Othello and the white aristocrat Desdemona. The black Venetian military leader, naive and inexperienced in the field of feelings, falls victim to the slander of the treacherous and cunning Venetian, the sadist Iago, kills his beloved wife.

The Venetian Jew became the victim of the cunning Venetian Portia. In the clash between the Jew and the Venetians, Shylock is not the villain, but the victim. This is the main meaning of the story of the Venetian Jew Shylock.

Supporters of the interpretation of the image of Shylock as an anti-Semitic blueprint of a disgusting, greedy and dangerous Jew refer to the fact that the author did not endow him with sympathetic features that would make the audience sympathize with Shylock.

In the play about Shylock there are no striking contrasts in the display of the characters' characters. The generous merchant Antonio demands 3,000 ducats from Shylock without payment of interest. The author's goal is to tell the truth about the situation of the Jew, a person no different from the Venetians around him, but deprived of equal rights and living in an atmosphere of contempt and hatred.

From the standpoint of justice and equality of people, the play inevitably condemns Jewish lawlessness.

The unsolved mystery of Shakespeare's authorship is a loss for literature and world culture. The spiritual world of this extraordinary, unknown man, poet, playwright, and thinker remains one of the highest and not eroded by time peaks of poetry, wisdom and morality.

Notes

William Shakespeare is rightly called the greatest humanist of the Renaissance. The creative legacy of the great playwright of all times includes 11 tragedies, 17 comedies, 10 historical chronicles, as well as poems and poems. The plays of the English writer reflect different eras and peoples. His works had a huge influence on all European literature. One of the most mysterious creators of the word posed the question to humanity: “To be or not to be?”, giving everyone the opportunity to look for the answer themselves. Each of his creations is multifaceted and unique. The author compares the tragic with the comic, sometimes violating the unity of time of events and place.

Included in the TOP 10 the most popular and best works Shakespeare, a list of which is presented below.

"opens the top ten works of the great playwright of England. The work is a historical chronicle-duology, which describes the political and military events of the 15th century that took place in England. The plot centers on King Henry IV, whose rise to power was significant for the country. dramatic changes. In addition to the king, the prominent personalities in the chronicle are Prince Harry, Sir Henry Percy, as well as one of the most comic characters - the jester knight John Falstaff.

"is one of William Shakespeare's most popular comedies. At the center of the witty, instructive and funny play is the obstinate and rude girl Katarina. Of the many contenders for grooms, only the young man Petruchio manages to tame the heroine with the help of all sorts of tricks and cunning. The comedy contains deep psychologism, and the main idea of ​​the work that the author wanted to convey to the reader is that a person should not resist his destiny. Appearance says little about the inner content of human nature, and there is nothing secret in the world that would not become apparent.

"is the most striking and famous work of the English writer. The tragedy about the high and sincere feelings of teenagers still excites the hearts of young readers. The author was able to convey all the tragedy of the events in which young Romeo and Juliet became participants. To prove the depth of their feelings, young people have to sacrifice their own lives. In all of world literature there is no “sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet.”

"is one of the most popular plays by the master of the pen. The plot centers on the commander Othello and the daughter of the Venetian senator Desdemona. The heroes in love get married and end up on the island of Cyprus, where a black commander must serve, and his wife is ready to share his fate. Othello is madly in love with his wife and is terribly jealous of her. Passion blinded the husband and the seeds of mistrust towards his wife sank into his soul. The hero is sure that Desdemona is cheating on him. His unfounded suspicions lead to a tragic end.

« Richard III" - one of the greatest historical plays written by Shakespeare. Comes to power English king Richard III, whose reign would not last long. The ruler appears before the reader as one of the most cruel historical figures. The ruling villain is devoid of all morality and is ready to commit more and more murders for the sake of the throne. On the other hand, the cold-blooded killer is presented as extraordinary talented person. The historical figure is largely exaggerated by the writer and has nothing to do with reality.

"is one of Shakespeare's funniest comedies. The events take place in a fictional country called Illyria. Its ruler, Duke Orsino, is in love with Countess Olivia and is going to ask for her hand in marriage. But the further cycle of events and the appearance of new faces in the play brings confusion into the lives and feelings of the characters. This happens due to the fault of the twins - sister Viola and brother Sebastian, who accidentally end up in the country of Illyria after the shipwreck of their ship. Comical situations and incredible discoveries await the heroes. The writer showed himself in this work as the greatest and witty master of words.

» – great tragedy English playwright, based on the story of King Macbeth of Scotland. This is one of the most sinister and bloodthirsty characters in Shakespeare's works. The brave Scottish warrior Macbeth, who won many victories in the military field, learns of a prediction from three witches that he is destined to become king. The knight is going to fulfill the prophecy and kills the real king of Scotland, Duncan. A shadow of suspicion falls on Duncan's heirs, who are forced to leave the country. Having carried out his insidious plan, Macbeth receives the throne. But the legitimate heirs are not going to give up so easily and are preparing a conspiracy against the wicked ruler.

"is a popular Shakespearean comedy play about love. The works immerse the reader in the world of ancient Athens and the neighboring world of the elves. The heroes become victims of an enchanted forest, where they commit incredible, bizarre and absurd acts. The juice of a magical flower growing in the forest instills in a person love for the first person he meets. Amazing transformations and comic misunderstandings take place here, which at the end of the play are resolved thanks to the elf king Oberon.

"is a famous tragicomedy by the great master of words about morality. Lear has three daughters among whom he must divide his possessions. The old king asks each of his daughters about their love for him. The eldest daughters assure their father of their uncomplaining and strong love. When it comes to the youngest daughter’s turn, she turns out to be stingy with words of love. The king did not like this, and then he decides to expel the unloving daughter from the kingdom and deprives her of her inheritance. Lear will have to pay for his rash actions. The older offspring show their true face and leave the father with nothing. Meanwhile, the kingdom's daughter, exiled, becomes queen of France. She forgives her father and takes him to her place.

"is the best of the works of the English playwright, which has gained worldwide fame. The tragedy was based on the legend of the Danish ruler. The plot of the play is tied to the fact that the main character Hamlet longs to find his father's killer and avenge his death. The tragedy touches on many philosophical themes: about the meaning of life and the purpose of man, about love and hatred, loyalty and betrayal. The hero is deeply disappointed in love, friendship and doubts the rationality of the universe. Hamlet experiences unbearable mental suffering, which becomes one of the reasons for his death.

In William Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It" (1599), one of the court nobles of the exiled duke, a melancholic and philosopher, among whose reasonings there is the famous monologue "All the world is a stage

4 letters

Adam In W. Shakespeare's comedy "As You Like It" (1599), a devoted servant of the family of Sir Roland de Bois

Foam In William Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure" (1604), a reveler who, along with the pimp Pompey, is brought to trial before the Viennese governor by Constable Elbow

5 letters

Abram In Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet (1595), Montague's servant

Arthur In William Shakespeare's chronicle "King John" (1596), John's young nephew, the son of his older brother Godfrey, has legal rights to the English throne

Banquo In Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" (1606), the commander of King Duncan, killed by order of Macbeth, who was haunted by the witches' prediction that Banquo's descendants would rule Scotland

Dumain In W. Shakespeare's comedy "Love's Labour's Lost" (1594), one of the close associates of King Ferdinand of Navarre agreed to spend three years with him in academic studies away from all worldly temptations and immediately, forgetting about the promise, fell in love with Catherine, the maid of honor of the French princess. .

Lucio A character in William Shakespeare's comedy Measure for Measure (1604), whose story forms a subplot of the play; a young rake, a dandy, a talker and a liar, a regular at brothels and pubs

Taisa In Shakespeare's tragedy "Pericles" (circa 1607, published 1609), the daughter of King Simonides, who arranges her marriage in the good old way - organizes a knightly tournament and appoints the hand of Thaisa as the main prize

Tubal In W. Shakespeare's comedy "The Merchant of Venice" (1596), Shylock's friend, who goes in search of his daughter Jessica, who has run away from home

6 letters

Angelo In William Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure" (1604), the Viennese governor in the absence of Duke Vincentio

Bianca In W. Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" (1593) a gentle and meek girl, in character the direct opposite of her older sister Katharina

Gremio In W. Shakespeare's comedy "The Taming of the Shrew" (1593), a rich old man, one of Bianca's suitors, whom she rejects for Lucentio.

Elbow In William Shakespeare's comedy "Measure for Measure" (1604), the stupid and illiterate Viennese constable, one of the frequent police officers in Shakespearean plays endowed with these personal qualities

Ophelia In Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (1601), the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and lover of the title character

Password A character in William Shakespeare's comedy "The End is the Crown" (1603), a close associate of Count Bertram, a noble nobleman and a dashing swashbuckler in words, a dapper parvenu, a braggart and a coward in deeds.

Publius In W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Titus Andronicus" (1594), the son of Mark Andronicus and nephew of Titus, who participates in the scene of shooting the statues of gods with arrows imperial palace, and then helps capture his family's enemies Demetrius and Chiron.

Fabian In W. Shakespeare's comedy "Twelfth Night" (1600), Countess Olivia's close associate, whose social status is not entirely clear: he could be a simple servant or a poor nobleman living at the court of an aristocrat, as hinted by his rather familiar treatment of Olivia's relative Sir Toby Belcham

7 letters

Alexas in William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra (1607).

Apemantus In W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Timon of Athens" (1608), a grumpy philosopher who constantly denounces those around him

Imogen The heroine of W. Shakespeare's tragicomedy "Cymbeline" (circa 1610), daughter of King Cymbeline and wife of Postumus Leonata, who married him out of love, but against her father's will

Nerissa In W. Shakespeare's comedy "The Merchant of Venice" (1596), Portia's servant and friend

Pantino In William Shakespeare's comedy "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1594), the servant Antonio, who advises the latter to send his son Proteus to Milan so that he can be trimmed at the ducal court, and then tries to speed up the action, every now and then rushing Proteus and his servant Lance, who without the slightest desire they are preparing to leave.

8 letters

Valentine One of the main characters in W. Shakespeare's comedy "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1594)

Dogberry In W. Shakespeare's comedy "Much Ado About Nothing" (1598) a stupid officer

Cornelius In W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Cymbeline" (circa 1610), the doctor of the Queen of Britain, on whose orders Cornelius supplies her with potent poisons, supposedly for conducting scientific experiments on animals

Poroikov S.Yu.
Characters of Shakespeare's heroes. - M.: INFRA-M (Scientific Thought), 2014.

Reviewers:
doctor philological sciences, prof. THOSE. Vladimirova;
doctor psychological sciences, prof. L.A. Grigorovich

The characters of William Shakespeare are considered. The general principles of constructing the plots of his tragedies and comedies are analyzed. A comparative analysis of the plots of Shakespeare's plays and dramatic works A.S. Pushkin, which incorporated the principles of Shakespeare’s dramatic system.

INTRODUCTION

William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in history English literature, recognized as one of the world's greatest classics. Even the playwright's contemporaries noted the extraordinary power of the impact of his plays on the audience. Shakespeare's plays have not left the theater stage for more than four centuries. His works enjoy constant popularity among readers around the world. In terms of the total number of copies published, Shakespeare's books are second only to the Bible. What is the secret of the colossal popularity of Shakespeare's work?
Shakespeare's dramatic system is by no means simple. It is known that K.S. Stanislavsky, comprehending the “ultimate task” of the tragedy “Hamlet,” emphasized that his interpretation of the play is fundamentally different from the generally accepted one. The great Russian director did not have time to complete work on the production of Hamlet, despite many years of work. What key to unlocking Shakespeare's dramatic system was the founder of the acting system of the same name trying to find?
There are many other questions associated with the name of the playwright. For example, the topic concerning the authorship of plays attributed to Shakespeare is still debated. Many researchers have tried to find answers to such questions. Let us present the opinion of one of the most famous connoisseurs and experts in the work of the British playwright - A.S. Pushkin, whose importance for Russian literature is as difficult to overestimate as the role of Shakespeare in English literature.
It is known that Pushkin was extremely receptive to the achievements of various cultures, both Eastern and Western. The phenomenon of Shakespeare did not go unnoticed by the writer. A number of Pushkin's letters and notes contain comments regarding the work of the British playwright. “Many of the tragedies attributed to Shakespeare do not belong to him, but were only corrected by him,” the writer states in the note “On Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” Meanwhile, according to Pushkin, Shakespeare subjected the borrowed sources to serious creative revision. In the plays of the playwright, “many traces of his free and broad brush” are found everywhere. Note that Pushkin himself acted in a similar way when compiling cycles of fairy tales and “Little tragedies”. The writer has processed a whole series famous works, editing their stories.
It is estimated that the British playwright borrowed plots from thirty-four of his thirty-seven plays. In other words, in most cases, Shakespeare does not act as the author of works, but as the compiler of their respective versions. At the same time, the fact of borrowing in no way detracts from the merits of Shakespeare’s works. It was in the edition of the British playwright that the corresponding works received the greatest fame.
For example, the plot of the Danish saga “Hamlet”, the hero of which avenges his father, served as a prototype tragedy of the same name Shakespeare. The version of this legend that is closest to Shakespeare's is contained in Saxo Grammar. It tells of a prince named Amleth, his murdered father, a usurper uncle, and how Amleth feigned madness while plotting revenge, which he successfully carried out.
For comparison, one of the researchers of the playwright’s work states that “Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is a dramatization known history love, over which, long before its appearance, young people shed a sea of ​​​​tears.” The story "Romeo and Juliet" was first published in 1476 in an Italian collection of short stories compiled by Masuccio Salernitano. Three decades later, Luigi da Porto reworked the story, creating a version close to Shakespeare's version. English translation " Tragic story Romeo and Juliet" was published in 1562. Shakespeare not only strictly adhered to the plot of this story, but even retained the names of the characters. Meanwhile this Touching story became known to the general public precisely thanks to Shakespeare.
It should be noted that plays with so-called “passing” plots had particular success with the public. By basing the play on a plot that was invariably popular, one could count on a guaranteed box office success of the theatrical production. Let us remember that in Shakespeare’s time in London there were several theaters that competed with each other in the fight for audience sympathy and wallets.
As already mentioned, Shakespeare borrowed not only the plots, but also the characters of his plays. The characters in Shakespeare's plays were often mythologized images. For example, the prototype of King Lear was one of the figures of Celtic mythology - Lear was the god of the sea who had daughters. The plot of the play “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” is largely determined by the variability of the character of its hero, Proteus. In Greek mythology, Proteus appears as a deity who can take on different forms. The characters in Shakespeare's Greek plays are Venus and Adonis, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles, and others legendary characters. A number of heroes of Roman and English Shakespearean plays are historical or semi-legendary characters.
Eight of Shakespeare's plays are devoted to ancient Greek mythology, and five to the history of Ancient Rome. In his work, the playwright widely used not only the works of ancient authors, but also folk tales and legends. Meanwhile, this alone testifies to the archetypal nature of the plots and characters chosen by Shakespeare. Thus, according to K. Jung, archetypes “were projected... in legends and fairy tales or onto historical characters.” It is known that Jung himself resorted to analyzing the characters’ characters. ancient mythology in order to highlight archetypal characters. Myths reflect simplified images of real events and historical figures. Meanwhile, such a simplification emphasizes the most characteristic, universal phenomena of reality.
The presence of archetypal figures in Shakespeare's plays explains the power of the emotional impact of his productions on the audience. According to Jung, archetypes unconsciously evoke a strong emotional response in a person. Pushkin pointed out that the characters described by Shakespeare are typical. In a letter to N.N. The writer noted to Ryleev that the British playwright created a gallery of recognizable human characters: “I imitated Shakespeare in his free composition of types and simplicity.” A characterological analysis of the characters in Shakespeare's plays shows that they correspond to well-known psychological types.
One of the reasons for the popularity of Shakespeare's plays is undoubtedly the psychological authenticity of the characters he created. In the article “On Shakespeare,” Pushkin reveals one of Shakespeare’s techniques for realistically depicting characters: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not ... types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice, but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices: circumstances develop before viewer of their diverse and multifaceted characters.” In fact, the images created by Shakespeare are multifaceted. Each of Shakespeare's characters has a distinctive set of traits. His heroes are driven by certain aspirations. Characters tend to experience characteristic emotions and experiences. The behavioral features of the characters in the plays are conveyed extremely vividly and naturalistically, right down to the finest nuances. At the same time, with all the detail in the description of the characters’ characters, the integrity of their images is achieved.
Shakespeare strived for an authentic portrayal of human characters. High degree of naturalism Shakespearean heroes testifies to the highest level of psychological skill of the playwright. Through the mouth of Hamlet, Shakespeare testifies that the true purpose of theater is to be a “mirror” reflecting true human nature:
“Violation of the measure deviates from the purpose of the theater, the purpose of which at all times has been and will be: to hold ... a mirror in front of nature.”
Shakespeare's desire to create authentic characters is emphasized by the fact that a number of his heroes have real prototypes. A striking example serves as a cycle of English historical plays dedicated to British monarchs, of which the most famous is King Richard III. Macbeth, the hero of Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, was a real historical figure, the ruler of Scotland. An indication that Macbeth actually encountered something supernatural is found in Holinshed.
Exploring the characteristic literary and artistic Shakespearean techniques, Pushkin identified a certain “dramatic system,” which he reports in the note “On Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” The writer was so interested in Shakespeare’s “system” that he decided to create his own cycle of dramatic works. Pushkin turned to prose, already being a famous poet, which caused considerable surprise to some of his contemporaries. His first dramatic work was “Boris Godunov”. “I arranged my tragedy according to the system of our father, Shakespeare,” writes Pushkin in one of his letters to Raevsky. Indeed, in “Boris Godunov” and “Hamlet” there are similarities in the themes revealed and the structure of the plots.
In total, Pushkin creates seven dramatic works. In addition to “Boris Godunov”, he writes five “Little Tragedies”, as well as “Scenes from Knightly Times”. The peculiarity of these works is that their storylines are not reducible to each other. At the same time, the plots of Pushkin’s works are based on the same principles that Shakespeare used in his plays. In this sense, the cycle of Pushkin’s dramatic works represents a kind of quintessence of Shakespeare’s creative heritage, incorporating the essence of his dramatic system.
Simultaneously with “Little Tragedies”, in the autumn of Boldin 1830, Pushkin wrote “Belkin’s Tales”, and in the last years of his life he created a series of seven fairy tales. In these Pushkin cycles, which are different in genre, both similar principles of plot construction and character types can be traced. In addition, the idea of ​​one of Pushkin’s works is conveyed by N.V. Gogol.
In the “Author's Confession,” Gogol testifies: being amazed by “the ability to guess a person and with a few features suddenly make him look like he’s alive,” Pushkin “gave me his own plot... which, according to him, he would not have given to anyone else. This was the plot of Dead Souls." Realizing the significance of Pushkin’s plan, Gogol, in a letter to V. Zhukovsky, considers “Dead Souls” nothing less than Pushkin’s “sacred testament.” In one work, Gogol managed to embody a whole gallery of recognizable human characters. At the same time, the author of “Dead Souls” himself directly points to the typicality of the images he embodied:
“Nozdryov will not leave the world for a long time. He’s everywhere between us and maybe he’s just wearing a different caftan.”
Like Shakespeare, Pushkin borrowed the plots of most of his tragedies and fairy tales, subjecting them to certain processing. Gogol did the same. In this case, the role of the authors was reduced to adjusting the original samples in order to give them a literary and artistic form that corresponded to their individual creative intent. Thus, we can talk about the existence of a centuries-old tradition of depicting typical characters associated with a certain kind of plot.
Priority in describing typical characters could be given to Shakespeare. It was from him that Pushkin learned to “compose types,” purposefully structuring the corresponding types within the framework of special cycles of works. At the same time, there is reason to believe that Shakespeare was not the founder of the corresponding tradition, but only its continuer.
Let us remember that the heyday of Shakespeare's creative genius occurred during the Renaissance - the period of the passionary explosion of medieval Europe. His contemporaries were such titans of thought and spirit as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. Shakespeare's plays reflected the general trend of that time towards the assimilation of the cultural heritage of the great ancient civilizations, which were the cradle of European culture. Indeed, a stable set of plots and artistic images was adopted by Europe from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Shakespeare's works corresponded common tradition the appeal of contemporary society to its cultural and historical origins. Mine creative path Shakespeare began by imitating the productions of ancient authors. His first play, The Comedy of Errors, is a reworking of the Roman playwright Plautus's Menaechmas. It seems that it was precisely the borrowing of plots and characters that have been traditional since antiquity that allowed Shakespeare to reveal a layer of truly archetypal phenomena.
As already noted, plays with “passing” plots, where the characters were recognizable characters, enjoyed particular success with the public. Thereby theatrical stage, whose history already spanned two millennia by the time of Shakespeare, essentially became a natural environment for polishing archetypal images and plots that had a special impact on the viewer.
The action of Shakespeare's plays develops in a certain way, following the laws of ancient drama. In performances that are diverse in artistic style, costumes and scenery corresponding to a particular era may change. The theatrical production itself is colorful and multifaceted. But the gallery of typical human characters and destinies remains unchanged. As Shakespeare testifies, theater is a kind of projection real life, its reflection:
“The whole world is a theater. There are women, men, all actors. They have their own exits and exits. And everyone plays more than one role.”
Each of Shakespeare's characters is assigned a specific role, in accordance with his character and worldview. The key to understanding the characters of Shakespeare's heroes is to understand the aspirations that drive them. The motives of the characters predetermine the roles they play and the scenarios of their behavior, thereby influencing the development of plots. In this context, it is appropriate to mention the textbook statement of the outstanding Russian psychologist A.N. Leontiev that the hierarchy of motives constitutes the core of personality. Note that the systematization of character types reflected in Shakespeare's plays correlates with the well-known classifications of personality needs; ; ; .
Appeal to world works fiction for the purpose of describing the characters often found among literary heroes - a typical phenomenon in psychology. Thus, in order to classify psychological types, K. Leongard conducted a characterological analysis of the characters in the works of over thirty writers, including Shakespeare, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. “Many writers are known to be excellent psychologists. Being very observant, they have the ability to penetrate into the inner world of a person,” Leonhard pays tribute to the psychological mastery of the classics of world literature. “What appears before us is not abstract reasoning, but concrete images of people with their thoughts, feelings, and actions.” The use of literary characters as visual illustrations of psychological types has become a generally accepted phenomenon. For example, in the Directory practical psychologist" Shakespeare's Hamlet is given as an example of one of the personality types.
In his works, Shakespeare raises questions for which ancient philosophers were looking for answers, such as the problem of predetermination of fate or free will. For example, the theme of predestination runs through the entire tragedy of Macbeth. human destiny, the inevitability of retribution for what was done. The characters in the play “The Merchant of Venice” are faced with a choice when their future life. The theme of unity and division permeates the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet. The characters in the tragedy "Othello" are faced with the problem of distinguishing between the secret and the obvious. The heroes of the comedy “Love's Labour's Lost” face both solvable and insoluble problems. The play “Two Gentlemen of Verona” reveals the theme of interpersonal human relationships.
The tragedy Hamlet occupies a special place among Shakespeare's plays. This is a deep and multifaceted work that raises all the questions listed above at once. Besides, important role The play is devoted to the theme of the creative development of the personality of its protagonist. The topic of the relationship between man and the world around him is also raised, which corresponds to the well-known problem of the role of the individual in history.
Similar themes are reflected by Pushkin in his dramatic works, as well as in cycles of stories and fairy tales. The questions addressed by Shakespeare, and after him by Pushkin, are truly eternal. Finding answers to them is vitally important for every person, and therefore such topics will never cease to worry people. This seems to be one of the reasons for the enduring demand for the works of both classics of world literature.
Shakespeare's characters live by certain principles. The ways in which the heroes of each play behave are as different as their characters. Studying the principles that Shakespeare's characters follow allows us not only to describe their characters, but also to understand why certain traits appear in a certain situation. Pushkin’s characters are also guided by similar principles, which indicates the typicality of such methods of behavior.
The fates of Shakespeare's heroes develop differently. Some of them manage to achieve what they want. Someone, like the old woman from Pushkin’s “Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” remains with a “broken trough.” Disclosure of life principles that predetermine human destinies on clear example his heroes is one of Shakespeare's most important achievements. “What develops in a tragedy? What is its purpose? Man and the people are human destiny,” Pushkin notes in one of his notes. “That’s why Shakespeare is great.”
The plots of Shakespeare's plays are built on the basis of certain principles. Similar principles underlie the plots of works from Pushkin's cycles of tragedies, stories and fairy tales; . The fates of the heroes of both authors develop not in a random, but in a natural way. They seem to be subject to certain laws that predetermine the natural course of things. Characters who follow these laws achieve success and find happiness. The fate of those who interfere with the natural course of things, disrupting it, ultimately turns out to be tragic.
Just a cursory review of what is reflected in Shakespeare's plays shows that their author is not only a brilliant writer, but also an outstanding thinker. It should be recognized that to this day the scale of the creative heritage of the successor and successor of the Shakespearean dramatic system, Pushkin, has also not been fully appreciated. This was also pointed out by Baratynsky, who was the first to call Pushkin a “thinker.” At the same time, the importance of Shakespeare and Pushkin as thinkers is comparable in scale to the figures of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. It is no coincidence that Dostoevsky called Pushkin “a great and still misunderstood forerunner.” Tolstoy considered Pushkin’s prose an “unsurpassed school.” Meanwhile, at the origins of this school is the great British playwright, in the figurative expression of Pushkin, “our father – Shakespeare.”
The analysis carried out in this work shows that Shakespeare's plays were created in accordance with a single concept, constituting an integral dramatic system. This system provides for the disclosure certain topics, selection of typical plots, description of the corresponding types of human characters. The author of the corresponding works could be one person who realized his creative plan, following specific system.
The characters of Shakespeare's heroes are conveyed extremely realistically, down to the finest psychological nuances. Such plays could have been written by a person capable of subtly sensing and experiencing the emotional states of various people. This art could be mastered by an actor who has the art of transformation and getting into character, who knows how to feel “in the shoes” of another person.
In addition, the author of the plays knew the basic principles of drama and was well acquainted with the peculiarities of theatrical productions. This is a professional in his field, whose works successfully competed with the plays of other famous authors. For example, several years before the production of Shakespeare's Hamlet at the Globe Theater, the tragedy of the then popular playwright Thomas Kyd was already taking place on one of the London stages, the plot of which was reminiscent of the story of the Prince of Denmark.
The author of the corresponding plays, without a doubt, is a well-educated person who knows not only English, but also ancient history and literature. This circumstance is noted by many researchers of Shakespeare's work.
The figure of the historical W. Shakespeare fully meets all the above criteria. It is known that Shakespeare began writing plays after first working in the theater as an actor. While still at school, young William became interested in theater and participated in productions of plays by ancient authors. Seven years of study at Stratford Grammar School allowed him to receive an excellent education for that time. It is enough to mention this detail: bachelors from Oxford University worked as teachers at the Stratford School. All this gives quite strong reasons to assert that the plays attributed to Shakespeare really belong to his pen.

2.2. TYPICALITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S HEROES

A characterological analysis of Shakespeare's heroes shows that they are characterized by certain sets of aspirations. We can distinguish seven types of characters who are characterized by needs of a certain kind. In each of these types, a certain variety of characters is distinguished, differing from each other both in the types of aspirations and in the ways of realizing their intentions.
A gallery of similar psychological portraits is reflected in the cycles of Pushkin’s dramas and fairy tales, which include seven works each. Similar types are also depicted by Pushkin in the cycle “Belkin’s Tales”. Similar character types are presented in " Dead souls» N.V. Gogol in the person of the main character Chichikov, five landowners, as well as captain Kopeikin. Thus, a characterological analysis of literary heroes of a number of classical authors reveals a certain tradition of depicting psychological types. Note that the characters of many Pushkin's fairy tales and dramas are borrowed, as are the heroes of most of Shakespeare's plays. This gives reason to say that such images are characteristic of world literature as a whole, and therefore are typical.
A comparative analysis of Shakespeare's plays and the cycles of Pushkin's works shows that the heroes of both authors have characteristic behavior scenarios. The characters in “Dead Souls” by N.V. behave in a similar way. Gogol. This indicates the typicality of the corresponding behavior scenarios. These principles of behavior are revealed through well-known philosophical principles and laws, which indicates their universal nature.

2.2.1. Typical character aspirations

CONCLUSION

The analysis of Shakespeare's plays carried out in this work shows that the works of the British playwright raise important philosophical and psychological issues that remain relevant today. Truly, Shakespeare emerges as one of the greatest thinkers of his era.
The characters created by the British playwright are distinguished by their exceptional psychologism. The psychological realism of Shakespeare's heroes, in particular, is noted by the outstanding German psychologist K. Leonhard: “Shakespeare, again, has a lot of artistic exaggeration, and yet he creates an impressive picture of the psyche of people, of whom there are quite a few in reality.” Indeed, a characterological analysis of Shakespeare's characters shows that their images are psychologically clearly verified. The mental states of Shakespeare's heroes, clearly revealed in their remarks and monologues, are conveyed down to the finest nuances. This level of skill of the author can be explained by his ability to “get used to” the image of another person. It is known that the playwright participated in the production of his own plays as an actor.
The psychological authenticity of Shakespeare's heroes is so deep that it sometimes amazes the imagination. It is enough to mention the fact that the behavior of a number of Shakespearean characters corresponds to well-known patterns characteristic of neurotic personalities. It is noteworthy that Shakespeare described such types more than three centuries before this was done within the framework of psychoanalysis.
Shakespeare's works present a significant variety of images. In each of his plays, as a rule, there are from two to three dozen characters. At the same time, the characters of Shakespeare's heroes are revealed not only in their diversity, but also in all their depth and versatility. Each Shakespearean character has a certain set of characteristic traits that distinguishes him from other heroes. This approach allows you to create a realistic image of a living person, rather than a schematic image. For example, in the most difficult psychologically The character of Hamlet, the main character of the tragedy of the same name, manifests several dozen traits.
Analysis of Shakespeare's characters shows that the heroes of his plays are driven by certain motives (needs). Characters experience characteristic emotions and experiences. The characters of the characters, especially the main characters, are developed in such detail that even their thinking styles and philosophy of life strategies can be traced. The peculiarities of the characters’ behavior are conveyed so vividly and naturalistically that this makes it possible to correlate some of the characters’ behavioral reactions with characteristic defensive reactions described within the framework of psychoanalysis only in the twentieth century.
Considering the diversity and completeness of the descriptions of human characters created by Shakespeare, his plays represent a kind of “atlas” of the human soul. With all the detail of the psychological description of the characters, the integrity of the created images is achieved. A characterological analysis of Shakespeare's characters reveals not only a variety of mental phenomena, but also demonstrates the relationships and connections that exist between them. The multifaceted characters of Shakespeare's heroes reflect the fusion various aspects human nature. At the same time, an amazing naturalism of the created images is achieved. It is striking that the descriptions of Shakespeare's characters reflect many well-known theories of personality, from Freud's theory to modern concepts, including existential analysis.
A comparative analysis of Shakespeare’s plays and the dramatic works of Pushkin, as well as Gogol’s “Dead Souls,” reveals the characteristic features of the characters that are typical. The typicality of such images is indicated by the fact that Shakespeare borrowed most of the characters from his plays. Psychological types in their pure form are hardly encountered in life. Types as such are rather a kind of abstraction, a kind of coordinate system convenient for analyzing real human characters. Meanwhile, the characters of most of Shakespeare's heroes are conveyed with such skill that they are perceived as real persons, evoking a lively response and empathy for their fate. It can be assumed that when working on the characters of the heroes, Shakespeare used specific prototypes, describing people known to him, his contemporaries.
The world created by Shakespeare is populated by fictional literary characters. This world is as speculative and illusory as the world of the theater. In this sense, Shakespeare is likened to Hamlet, who stages a theatrical production of a “mousetrap.” In the scene of the “murder of Gonzago”, the prince, using the artistic means available to him, reproduces the events that actually happened. By implementing the production of a play within a play, Hamlet himself becomes the creator of an imaginary reality, like his creator Shakespeare. In this case, the author of the production appears as a subjective observer contemplating the reality he himself created.
At the same time, the action of Shakespeare's plays develops in accordance with certain laws that meet natural nature things, and therefore these laws are objective. The fates of the characters seem to depend not so much on the subjective will of the creator who created them, but on their own actions. Having acted in a certain way, the heroes come to a logical ending. Equally natural is the development of the plots of plays, in which the fates of individual characters add up to the overall mosaic of the ongoing action.
The range of manifestations of human nature in Shakespeare's plays is extremely wide. Sometimes his characters allow themselves low-grade humor, almost vulgar abuse. And at the same time, Shakespeare's characters are capable of pronouncing surprisingly deep, sublime monologues. For example, the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” begins with a dialogue between the Capulet servants making obscene jokes at each other. They just as openly mock the servants of the hostile Montague family. Meanwhile, the finale of the play has a completely different tone, tragic and sublime. The death of Romeo and Juliet appears as a sacrifice made to heaven in the name of reconciliation between the heads of warring clans.
Thus, in the structure of Shakespearean tragedy there is a transition from the low to the sublime, from the momentary to the eternal. Who made up the bulk of the audience attending the theater in Shakespeare's time? Simple artisans, city dwellers, who gave a few pence in order to escape for a while from the captivity of everyday worries, the routine of everyday life. When they come to watch a theatrical performance, they see familiar scenes of ordinary street life. Thanks to this, contact with the viewer is quickly established. Meanwhile, the subsequent action involves the viewer in a stream of other sensations and experiences, allowing one to rise above the routine of everyday life and think about enduring values.
The theme of the struggle between good and evil runs through Shakespeare's plays. His works reflect the system of universal human values ​​and ideals that underlie any civilized society. Following universal human values ​​ultimately makes a person human. It is enough to mention the image of Hamlet, who defends the right to freedom of thought, free will, and professes humanistic ideals. In this context, the works of the British playwright acquire a special moral resonance.
The question of the authorship of the dramatic system implemented in Shakespeare's plays remains open. As the main version we are considering, its developer is Shakespeare himself. It is logical to assume that the British playwright could base his system on the principles of constructing ancient drama. At the same time, the widest range of archetypal phenomena underlying human nature is reflected in the works of Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays describe both historical and mythological heroes, as well as subjects characteristic of folk art. We emphasize that uncovering the deep layer of archetypes inherent in folk art indicates that Shakespeare’s work is truly folk.
According to another version, Shakespeare embodied in his plays a system suggested to him by another person. Just as Pushkin later conveyed the idea of ​​“Dead Souls” to Gogol. This version is supported by the statements of a number of researchers that Shakespeare could be associated with members of secret societies who were carriers of sacred knowledge. There are known assumptions that the philosopher Francis Bacon participated in the creation of Shakespeare's plays. Thus, Pushkin, according to entries in his diary, in his youth was a member of one of the Masonic lodges. Subsequently, Pushkin moved away from the ideology of Freemasonry. However, Pushkin was unable to completely avoid the influence of the Freemasons. This, among other things, is evidenced by the fatal role in the fate of the writer Georges Dantes, who was closely associated with the Freemasons.
It is symbolic that Shakespeare’s Hamlet was assigned his former school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on him. The name Rosencrantz is consonant with the name of the Rosicrucian Order (Rose and Cross), which influenced the development of Freemasonry. It is curious that Hamlet was published in 1600, and the Rosicrucian manifesto was published no earlier than 1606. The manifesto uses the philosophical key of John Dee, the famous scientist and mystic, a contemporary of Shakespeare. Shakespeare created his first plays in the early 1590s, after he moved to London. In those years, John Dee lived there. London at that time was limited by the size of the modern city, and its population was only about two percent of its current size. Moreover, the theater in which Shakespeare served was located not far from Tower Ward, where Dee lived. Therefore, they could well have known each other. It is believed that John Dee served as the prototype for the wizard Prospero, the protagonist of Shakespeare's tragicomedy The Tempest.
The name Guildenstern translated from German (the language of the Danish kingdom belongs to the Germanic language branch) means “guild of stars.” It is known that influential secret societies, not excluding the Masons, sought to attract into their ranks the most outstanding people of its time. Shakespeare, without a doubt, was outstanding personality. The Globe Theater, where his plays were staged, was the most popular theater in London, if not in all of England, in those years.
In the research carried out in this work, a number of main provisions can be highlighted.
1. Analysis of Shakespeare's plays reveals current philosophical and psychological issues. This circumstance allows us to talk about Shakespeare not only as a great writer and playwright, but also as an outstanding thinker.
2. Shakespeare's plays present seven types of plots that are not reducible to each other. Similar stories are reflected in the works of other classical authors such as Pushkin. Such stories are traditional for the folklore traditions of various peoples and eras, which indicates their archetypal nature. Shakespeare's reflection of archetypes indicates that the work of the great British playwright is truly folk.
3. The structure of the plots of Shakespeare's plays is revealed through the basic principles and laws of philosophy. The above, in particular, allows us to propose an independent way of systematizing philosophical categories, based on the archetypal approach.
4. Shakespeare's characters are driven by certain aspirations that act as a motivating factor. When achieving their goals, characters use characteristic behavioral strategies, both universal, successful in most cases, and not always successful, opportunistic. At the same time, the ways of realizing the characters’ intentions are associated with their character traits.
5. A characterological analysis of Shakespeare's heroes reveals a classification of human characters, including seven psychological types. The typicality of such images is indicated by their reflection in the cycles of Pushkin’s works and in Gogol’s “Dead Souls”. This is also evidenced by the fact that Shakespeare borrowed many of his plays. Well-known types of neurotic personalities appear as derivatives of the corresponding types.
6. Analysis of Shakespeare's plays shows that they are subject to a certain system. This system provides for the disclosure of characteristic themes, the selection of typical plots, and the description of the corresponding types of characters’ characters and methods of their behavior. All this indicates the presence of a single plan when creating plays. The unique author's handwriting and artistic style of the plays also indicate that they were written (or edited) by one person. The presence of numerous borrowings is consistent with the version that Shakespeare selected the plots of his plays following a certain system. Pushkin used a similar technique, following Shakespeare’s dramatic system when writing cycles of tragedies and fairy tales.
7. Shakespeare's characters are extremely psychologically realistic. This indicates exclusively high level psychological skill of the author. In the conditions of medieval Europe, this fact can be explained by the fact that the author of the plays had experience in participating in theatrical productions. Working in the theater contributes to the development of acting talent, which involves the ability to get used to the character. This circumstance is consistent with the biography of the historical William Shakespeare, who participated in theatrical productions of his plays as an actor.
8. It cannot be ruled out that the dramatic system implemented in Shakespeare’s plays was based on earlier traditions, including philosophical and religious ones. At the same time, a comparison of all the factors studied in this work allows us to draw the conclusion that the considered works attributed to Shakespeare really belong to him.

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Introduction….…………………………………………………………………………………3
Chapter I. CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEARE'S HEROES …………………………..…….11
1.1. Othello……………..………………………….……………………..11
1.2. Romeo and Juliet………………………….……………….……..25
1.3. Merchant of Venice………………….………………………...……..37
1.4. Love's Labour's Lost………………….……………….……..49
1.5. Two Veronese………………….…………………………….……..60
1.6. Macbeth……………..………………………….…………………….72
1.7. Hamlet……………..………………………….……………………..83
1.8. Conclusions………………………………………………………………...…...100
Chapter II. TYPICALITY OF CHARACTERS AND PLOTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS..101
2.1. Typicality of the plots of Shakespeare's plays………………………..…..102
2.2. Typical character of Shakespeare's heroes.…………………………. ………..126
2.2.1. Typical character aspirations…………………………..127
2.2.2. Typical behavior of characters……………………………...133
2.2.3. Archetypal character of Shakespeare's heroes.………………….................232
2.3. Conclusions……………………………………………………….….242
Conclusion……………………………………………………..244
Literature………………………………………………………………………………249