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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
1) At the end of the play Hamlet seems(ahh that contentious word that even Prince H viewed as ambiguous) to have resolved and accepted his problems of not understanding himself, never understanding himself, to do this he must understand life and death and this isn't exactly an option for a human, so he does in a way accept himself and this relieves him of the anxiety etc. of not understanding himself properly. So the tragedy couldn't be that he didn't understand himself because no one can and the problems associated with him not understanding himself are resolved in his acceptance.
2) He's not in battle with himself, he is in battle with his circumstances, he is completely morally opposed to the world he has cruelly been cast into by fate (ignore that if you are a rationalist), the only tragic (NB the difference between tragedy and tragic things) thing in his battle with himself would be if he committed suicide, which he didn't.
3) He doesn't try to aviod disaster, he goes looking for it in killing Claudius but this isn't something he alone decided to do, he was forced into this situation due to his will to fulfill his role as his father's nemesis. He doesn't ever try not to end up in disaster, he essentially has to go with the flow and take opportunities as they arise. The fact that it is a tragedy = it will be disasterous somehow.
*) An old critically accepted theory on 'tragedy' was that it was a waste of potential, going by this theory the play is a tragedy because Hamlet could have been a good King (highlighted in the end); but critical theories are fadish, so who knows????
Posted by antidisestablishmentarianist on May 02, 1997 at 05:21:03
In Reply to "! ! ! - - - HAMLET AS A TRAGEDY - - - ! ! !" posted by L M Cora on April 23, 1997 at 19:49:29
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help