Introduction
“What a piece of work is man!
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
In form, in moving, how express and admirable!
In action, how like an angel!
In apprehension, how like a god!
The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals”! (Hamlet; Act II, Scene II, Lines 308-313)
The above lines have been taken as an extract from Shakespearean wonderful play Hamlet, which presents before the readers a moral lesson that by doing wrong with others for nothing not only may jeopardize one’s peace of mind but also one’s life is surely ruined in the course of time sooner or later. Nature has its own criteria of taking revenge and man has to suffer a lot consequently. It is perhaps in the nature of man that he deliberately commits an offense and this wrongdoing leads him towards the way to disturbance and turmoil. All this wrongdoing takes place both in literature and real life. The same is the case with Claudius and Gertrude in the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet.
Main body
Shakespeare is not only a poet of England, but also he is the artist of all people and all ages. He was neither a preacher nor a reformer, yet his universality seeks no bounds. Being the literary giant and superman of the playwrights, Shakespeare’s works not only throw light on his individual thinking as well as personal glimpses about life but also have the thorough analyses of the prevailing cultural traits and the cult observed and followed by him and the people of his times. His plays depict political turmoil and governmental changes taking place in the England of his era. This is the most wonderful and superb quality and distinguishing feature of the asset of the ages and the laureate of the centuries i.e. William Shakespeare. His magnificent tragedy Hamlet reveals many aspects of not only human nature, psychology, and dignity, but also unveils the inner thoughtfulness and vision of the unparalleled poet. The same is the case with his play Hamlet, which begins and goes on in a state of mystery, where dialogues, soliloquies, actions, and conspiracies have been presented in an extremely well-knitted format. The murder of the King, Prince Hamlet’s madness, the appearance of the King’s ghost, Ophelia’s suspicious death in mysterious circumstances, play within the play (frame narrative) Hamlet’s unexpected return from the voyage and bout between Laureates and Hamlet—all depict mystery and obscurity in them on the one hand and Shakespeare’s command over events and incidents on the other.
Soliloquies maintain a significant place in the play Hamlet, which starts with the beginning of the play and chase the protagonist almost near the close of the end of the play. Since Hamlet does not expose the real cause of his self-imposed madness, his views, intentions, liking and disliking, ideas, and ambitions can only be assessed and estimated through these soliloquies. These soliloquies are dramatic and ironical, Harold Wilson submits, with an irony that is implicit and eloquent in the extravagances of Hamlet’s rhetoric. His very first soliloquy points out his antipathy towards his mother’s second marriage with his uncle, which Hamlet states as incest. He criticizes this act of his mother in his following soliloquy.
“…………………….Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month –
Let me not think on’t–Frailty, thy name is woman! –
A little month or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears: – why she, even she –
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have to mourn’d longer—” (Act I, Scene II, Lines 142-151)
His first soliloquy exposes his views about life, which is not only valid evidence of Hamlet’s inward situation but also indicates the grief, a son undergoes on seeing someone else with his mother at his father’s place. Another soliloquy portrays the intensity of his anguish on losing his father at such a young age when his affection and supervision is most wanted. Thus, there is the universality of sorrow and woe on the loss of filial love, adoration, and devotion in the first soliloquy in these words:
“How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all uses of the world!
Fie don’t! Ah fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed;” (Act I, Scene II, Lines 135-138)
Hamlet’s inner conflict, lack of quick judgment, and lack of decision power also decide the fate of the whole royal family on the one hand and give a serious blow to Hamlet’s plans and determination to take revenge for the murder of his father on the other. One of his soliloquies depicts the fault of his character soon after his meeting with the ghost of his father on the one hand, and reveal his sensibility, patience, and vigilance while estimating the ghost on the other in these words:
“……………….The spirit that I have seen
Maybe the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps
Out of my weakness and my melancholy, –
As he is very potent with such spirits, – ” (Act II, Scene II, Lines 585-589)
The soliloquies not only reveal Hamlet’s intentions but also make a comprehensive analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of his character. The same is the case with his soliloquy in Act III, where he looks determined to commit suicide in order to get rid of his melancholy and sorrows:
“For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?” (Act III, Scene I, Lines 77-83).
Hence, Hamlet’s inner conflict can be observed in the above lines, where he tries to assess the intentions of the ghost in order to make his future strategy to take revenge for the murder of his dead father. Hamlet is eager to kill Claudius to take revenge for the murder of his father. As he finds him praying, Hamlet alters his plan fearing killing while praying may lead Claudius’s soul to the heavens. Hence, his soliloquy reflects upon his inner conflict and lack of judgment as well. Conflict is thought to be the very soul of Shakespearean tragedy. In a tragic hero, this conflict can easily be observed while studying Othello, Macbeth, and Hamlet. The nature of conflict many times seems to undergo a change as the plot unfolds and progresses.
Plot structure refers to the administration of the developments and incidents in a poem, play, prose, or drama. Aristotle has described in his Poetics that an excellent tragedy presents a plot that contains a beginning, middle, and end skillfully interlinked with one another. The construction of the plot is knitted in such a way that if one incident is omitted from the play, it must jeopardize the very unity and coherence of the whole play at large. While discussing the plot structure of the play Hamlet, it becomes evident that one single character of the protagonist is so authoritative and powerful in the drama that all other characters look like minor ones in the play.
William Shakespeare has applied the frame narrative scheme in his great tragedy Hamlet in which player king and player queen reveal the assassination of Hamlet’s father by Hamlet’s real uncle King Claudius. Hamlet himself arranges for the play (within the play Hamlet), where he displays his intention of estimating the expressions of the murderer on some specific scene. The play is the thing, in which I will catch the conscience of the king. Moreover, the player Queen also ironically criticizes the real king in these words: “A second time I kill my husband dead, when second husband kisses me in bed.” (Hamlet, Act III Scene III).
The play Hamlet not only draws out universal philosophical themes in it, but also it mentions the religious beliefs of the people of Shakespearean times in dialogues, actions, reactions, and character sketches. The concepts of heaven and hell have also been extracted from theology prevailing both in Catholic and Protestant England of Shakespeare’s era. Despite the compromise of the 1559 settlement, there was the doubtful loyalty of the English Roman Catholics or ‘recusants’. The Northern rising took place in 1569, Pope Bull excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth I while absolving Catholics from their allegiance was also issued in 1570. Shakespeare’s image is fully mirrored in his work. Shaw has claimed that we know more of him than Dickens and of Thackeray. No writer can wholly disguise himself as Shakespeare does, yet many of the aspects of his vision on socio-political changes appear in his words and plays. (Ivor Brown, 1973).
Shakespeare’s religious background can be witnessed by studying and interpreting his Hamlet. Being a Christian, Shakespeare learned many mythological and theological terms and theories from home, church, peer-group, and society. Heaven, prayer, good, evil, and others are found in abundance in his play. The concepts and appearance of ghosts and Satan are the central notions, basic symbols, and supreme source of mystery, evil, and iniquity according to the teachings and mythology of all the three Abrahamic religions i.e. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Holy Scriptures of these religions emphatically declare Satan as the transgressor and God’s nemesis who refused to comply with the commands of the Creator—Almighty God the Omnipotent. In the same way, the soul of a person killed or died in miserable circumstances and unjust way, become a ghost, which appears time and again in order to provoke members of his family for revenge from the culprit and responsible for his death. Since Shakespeare belonged to the Christian faith, the notion of ghosts has been described in Torah and Bible. The ghost has been described in the Book of Saul in these words: “Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, [there is] a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.” (Book I, Chapter 28 Verse VII) The same has been described in the play Hamlet:
I am thy father’s spirit,
Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night,
And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away. (Act I, Scene V).
Clothed in radiant armor, and authorized by titles sure and manifold, as a poet, Shakespeare came forward to demand the throne of fame, as the dramatic poet of England. His excellencies compelled even his contemporaries to seat him on that throne, although there were giants in those days contending for the same honor. Hereafter I would fain endeavor to make out the title of the English drama as created by, and existing in Shakespeare, and its right to the supremacy of dramatic excellence in general. (Coleridge, 1818) He conceals his personal ideas in such a way that his words look universal and the voice of the whole community even while depicting his religious and political views. The political background of Shakespearean England can also be found in the play Hamlet. There was a challenge for England from outside countries and foreign invasion. In the late 1560s when Spanish forces were in the Netherlands, the commercial and mercantile challenge was raised in the country, which continued through many years of religious, cultural, and commercial hostility to Spain. Hawkins had been defeated at San Juan De Ulua in 1568, and Drake’s treasures raids at Nombre De Dios took place in 1572.
Conclusion
The internal and external tensions began rising in England, though the Shakespearean era is thought to be very peaceful. The ray of conspiracies and the role of the Queen’s counsel appears in the person of Polonius as the main conspirator playing a negative but intellectual role in the court. The renowned critic and poet S.T. Coleridge’s lines can be valuable in summing up the great Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet:
“Like one who, on a lonely road,
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And, having once turned round, walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”
(Quoted in Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner).
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