How does Hamlet see the world, why is the hero tragic. "Hamlet" Questions for the lesson

Hello guys! Sit down. Check if everything is ready for the lesson. On the desk should be writing utensils, a diary, a textbook on literature. Fine. You can start. Open your notebooks, write down the date and topic of the lesson:

September thirtieth

W. Shakespeare "Hamlet".

"Eternal image" of Hamlet in the tragedy. Thought suffering.

1. Introductory word of the teacher

Today at the lesson we begin to study one of the greatest works of foreign literature, the tragedy of William Shakespeare "Hamlet". In fact, "Hamlet" does not belong to the period of classicism. The work was written earlier (1600-1601), and is an example of the works of the Renaissance. Classicism will follow.

We changed the logic a little, because due to certain circumstances we mistakenly skipped this topic, but we are forced to return to it, since Hamlet is one of the outstanding works of literature, and we have no right to bypass it. In the next lesson, we will return to classicism, and we will study the Ode of Lomonosov.

There is one thing in common between the Renaissance and the Classical era. Can anyone name her?

The fact is that during the period of the development of human thought and the development of literature, the samples of Antiquity were addressed three times, three times they tried to return them and presented them as ideals. The first time in the Renaissance, then during the Enlightenment and the reign of classicism, and then already in the Silver Age - this is the beginning of the 20th century (Blok, Balmont, Bryusov). A common feature is an appeal to the ideals of the past. Shakespeare's Hamlet is a work of the Renaissance, but you can already see some of the features of classicism that we noted yesterday in this text. They are just being born. The main difference between the works of the Renaissance and the classics is the absence of a cult of reason over feelings, that is, on the contrary, feelings dominate. We can find confirmation of this fact by analyzing Shakespeare's Hamlet, since the work is full of feelings and experiences, they are in the foreground, they measure everything.

1. The teacher's message.

Pay attention to the topic of the lesson. Today we will analyze the image of the protagonist of the tragedy, but before we start this work, let's remember what underlies the play? (Conflict) In the tragedy "Hamlet" he has 2 levels:

1 level. Personal between Prince Hamlet and the King

Claudius, who became the husband of the prince's mother after

treacherous murder of Hamlet's father. Conflict

has a moral nature: two vital

positions.

2level . The conflict of man and era. ("Denmark-prison." "The whole

the world is rotten.)

From the point of view of action, the tragedy can be divided into 3 parts. Which? Where is the plot, climax, denouement?

1 part . The plot, five scenes of the first act. Meeting Hamletwith the Ghost, who entrusts Hamlet with the task of avenging a dastardly murder;

2 part. The climax, dubbed the "mousetrap". Hamlet is finally convinced of Claudius's guilt, Claudius himself realizes that his secret has been revealed, Hamlet opens the eyes of Gertrude, etc.;

part 3 . Interchange. Duel of Hamleg and Laertes, death of Gertrude, Claudius

Laertes, Hamlet.

Who is Hamlet? Who is Hamlet, the hero of Shakespeare's tragedy?

Knight of Honor? The ideal renaissance man?

A passionate debunker of untruth? Or the most miserable person

who lost everything in this world and perished? Crazy? - Every

the reader evaluates Hamlet in his own way.

The first thing that catches your eye when reading a tragedy is an unusual

poetic language, especially in the translation of B. Pasternak. All

characters think in poetic images and concepts. Before us

action is deployed in a specific country (Denmark), in a specific

time (XIV century), but it seems that this can happen in any

another country and at any other time. That is why the work is so popular to this day.

"Eternal images", what does it mean? Any opinions?

Let's write down.

“Eternal images” is the name of literary characters, to whom the ultimate artistic generalization imparts human, timeless meaning. (Don Juan, Hamlet, Faust, etc.) Writers from different countries and generations explain the essence of their characters in their own way.

The appearance of a new concept is even connected with the image of Hamlet, it is called "hamletism". That is a special trait of a person. Such character traits as indecision, being in a state of eternal contradictions, doubts are implied. This reflection, introspection, paralyzing in a person the ability to act.

The prototype of the hero was the semi-legendary Prince Amlet, whose name is found in one of the Icelandic sagas. The very first literary monument, which tells the saga of Amleth's revenge, belonged to the pen of a medieval Danish chronicler.

Let us turn to the character of Hamlet as a hero - a microcosm of tragedy.

We can judge what is happening in the inner world of Hamlet indirectly (behavior, clashes with courtiers, poisonous remarks) and directly (from conversations with friends, with his mother, from monologues).

1. Work with the text, revealing the reader's perception of the work by students.

How do we see Hamlet in Act 1? What are his first speeches about?

The hero's first words reveal the depth of his grief. before us and truly noble hero. This is a man who first encountered evil in his life and felt with all his heart how terrible it is. Hamlet does not reconcile with evil and intends to fight it.

Analysis of the first monologue. What is the monologue about? Why does Hamlet say that he is disgusted with the whole world? Because of which? Is it only because of the death of his father?

The first monologue reveals to us a characteristic feature of Hamlet - the desire to generalize individual facts. It was just a private family drama. For Hamlet, however, it turned out to be enough to make a generalization: life is “a lush garden that bears only one seed; wild and evil rules in it.”

So, 3 facts shocked the soul:

Sudden death of father;

The place of the father on the throne and in the heart of the mother was taken by an unworthy person in comparison with the deceased;

Mother betrayed the memory of love. Thus, Hamlet learns that evil is not a philosophical abstraction, but a terrible reality that is next to him, in people who are closest in blood.

The problem of revenge in tragedy is solved by different heroes in different ways. Why is the task of revenge entrusted to Hamlet perceived by him as a curse?

Hamlet makes the task of personal revenge a matter of restoring the entire destroyed moral world order. The task of revenge in the mind of Hamlet grew into a matter of retribution, and these are different things. Before starting to live truly, as befits a person, he still needs to first arrange his life so that it corresponds to the principles of humanity.

Why didn't Hamlet act immediately after taking on the task of revenge?

The shock left him unable to act for some time.

He had to see to what extent he could trust the ghost's words. In order to kill a king, it is necessary not only to convince yourself of his guilt, but also to convince others.

What is the nature of Hamlet's "madness"?Is his madness only feigned or is he really going crazy?

Hamlet is a man who felt what happened with all his being, and the shock he experienced undoubtedly brought him out of balance. He is in a state of deepest turmoil.

How does the internal conflict of the hero deepen with the development of the action? To answer this question, let's turn to Hamlet's famous monologue "To be or not to be ...", which is the culmination of the image of the development of mental discord (act 3, scene 1)So what's the question?

1. Listening and analysis of the reading of Hamlet's monologue by Vysotsky.

Message word

Let's turn to the video material, Hamlet's monologue is read by Vladimir Vysotsky, who managed to most accurately and fully convey the complexity of the image of Hamlet. According to the majority of theater critics, Hamlet performed by V. Vysotsky is the best of all created in the last four decades in the theater.

Listening (5 minutes)

1. Conversation

Vladimir Vysotsky himself is already giving a partial description of the hero. Reveals to us the Hamlet he played.

What distinguishes this monologue from other monologues and replicas of the prince?

1. Monologue is the compositional center of the tragedy.

2. Thematically unrelated to the action of this scene and the main storyline.

3. Hamlet appears already thinking, we do not know the beginning of his monologue and its end - “But be quiet!”. For a moment, the inner world of the hero “opens up” to us.

What is Hamlet thinking about in this monologue? What prompted his thoughts?

Hamlet experiences a painful state caused by the realization of what surrounds him. Before him, in the faces of his relatives and courtiers, the abysses of evil that exist in the world open up. The question of the attitude towards evil is a matter of life and death.

Hamlet stops before the question of how a person should behave in the world of evil: to fight with him with his own weapon (“taking up arms against the sea of ​​unrest, to slay them with confrontation”) or evade the struggle, leave life without soiling himself with its dirt.

Hamlet's thoughts are heavy and gloomy. What is the reason for Hamlet's internal hesitation?

Before Hamlet, death appears in all its painful tangibility. There is a fear of death in him. Hamlet reached the highest limit in his doubts. So. He decides to fight, and the threat of death becomes real for him: he understands that Claudius will not leave alive a person who will throw an accusation of murder in his face.

What prevents Hamlet from simply taking revenge on Claudius and killing him, just as he killed his father? After all, such a case presents itself to him (Act 3, scene 2).

1. Hamlet needs Claudius' guilt to become obvious to everyone. In addition, the hero does not want to become like his enemies and act by the same means (to kill the king now means to commit the same secret and vile murder). He has a plan for this:

Excite (the mask of madness does not lull, but awakens Claudius' vigilance, provokes him to action)

Force to impersonate (Act 2, scene 2)

Kill (Act 3, scene 3).

2. Prayer cleanses the soul of Claudius (his father died without remission of sins).

3. Claudius is on his knees with his back to Hamlet (violation of the principles of noble honor).

How do we see Hamlet now?

Now we have a new Hamlet, who does not know the former discord; his inner calm is combined with a sober understanding of the discord between life and ideals.

Does the final scene resolve Hamlet's conflict?

By killing Claudius, Hamlet fulfills his personal revenge. But the big task that the hero sets himself - the transformation of reality - remains unbearable for him. Departing from life, Hamlet leaves the world still imperfect, but he alarmed him, focused the attention of those who remained alive on the terrible fact: “the age has been shaken”. This was his mission, like that of other great humanists of the Shakespearean era.

So what is the tragedy of Hamlet?

The tragedy is not only that the world is terrible, but also that it must rush into the abyss of evil in order to fight it. He realizes that he himself is far from perfect, his behavior reveals that the evil that reigns in life, to some extent, blackens him. The tragic irony of life circumstances leads Hamlet to the fact that he, acting as an avenger for the murdered father, also kills the father of Laertes and Ophelia, and Laertes takes revenge on him.

1. Summarizing. Generalization.

Why do you think our lesson is called “The Suffering of Thought”?

The moral choice is the main problem that grows out of the fate of Hamlet. Everyone has a choice. What that choice is depends on the individual. And so from generation to generation. The image of Hamlet becomes an eternal image, it has been addressed again over the centuries and will be addressed more than once in the future. Hence the concept of "Hamletism" - that is, an eternally doubting person.

1. Homework

"PRINCE OF DANISH": HAMLET AS AN ETERNAL IMAGE

Eternal images is a term of literary criticism, art history, cultural history, covering artistic images passing from work to work - an invariant arsenal of literary discourse. We can distinguish a number of properties of eternal images (usually occurring together):

• content capacity, inexhaustibility of meanings;
• high artistic, spiritual value;
• the ability to overcome the boundaries of eras and national cultures, common understanding, enduring relevance;
• polyvalence - an increased ability to connect with other systems of images, participate in various plots, fit into a changing environment without losing one's identity;
• translatability into the languages ​​of other arts, as well as the languages ​​of philosophy, science, etc.;
• widespread.

Eternal images are included in numerous social practices, including those far from artistic creativity. Usually, eternal images act as a sign, a symbol, a mythologeme (i.e., a folded plot, a myth). They can be images-things, images-symbols (a cross as a symbol of suffering and faith, an anchor as a symbol of hope, a heart as a symbol of love, symbols from the legends of King Arthur: a round table, the Holy Grail), images of a chronotope - space and time (the Flood, the Last Judgment, Sodom and Gomorrah, Jerusalem, Olympus, Parnassus, Rome, Atlantis, the Platonic cave, and many others). But the main characters remain.

The sources of eternal images were historical figures (Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Shakespeare, Napoleon, etc.), characters of the Bible (Adam, Eve, Serpent, Noah, Moses, Jesus Christ, apostles, Pontius Pilate, etc.), ancient myths (Zeus - Jupiter, Apollo, Muses, Prometheus, Elena the Beautiful, Odysseus, Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, Narcissus, etc.), legends of other peoples (Osiris, Buddha, Sinbad the Sailor, Khoja Nasreddin , Siegfried, Roland, Baba Yaga, Ilya Muromets, etc.), literary tales (Perro: Cinderella; Andersen: The Snow Queen; Kipling: Mowgli), novels (Servantes: Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Dulcinea Toboso; Defoe: Robinson Crusoe ; Swift: Gulliver; Hugo: Quasimodo; Wilde: Dorian Gray), short stories (Merime: Carmen), poems and poems (Dante: Beatrice; Petrarch: Laura; Goethe: Faust, Mephistopheles, Margarita; Byron: Childe Harold), dramatic works (Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Falstaff; Tirso de Molina: Don Giovanni; Molière: Tartuffe; Beaumarchais: Figaro).

Examples of the use of eternal images by different authors permeate all world literature and other arts: Prometheus (Aeschylus, Boccaccio, Calderon, Voltaire, Goethe, Byron, Shelley, Gide, Kafka, Vyach. Ivanov, etc., in painting Titian, Rubens, etc.) , Don Juan (Tirso de Molina, Moliere, Goldoni, Hoffmann, Byron, Balzac, Dumas, Merimee, Pushkin, A. K. Tolstoy, Baudelaire, Rostand, A. Blok, Lesya Ukrainka, Frisch, Alyoshin and many others, opera by Mozart), Don Quixote (Cervantes, Avellaneda, Fielding, essay by Turgenev, ballet by Minkus, film by Kozintsev, etc.).

Often, eternal images act as pairs (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Orestes and Pylades, Beatrice and Dante, Romeo and Juliet, Othello and Desdemona or Othello and Iago, Leila and Majnun, Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Faust and Mephistopheles, etc. .d.) or entail fragments of the plot (the crucifixion of Jesus, the struggle of Don Quixote with windmills, the transformation of Cinderella).

Eternal images become especially relevant in the context of the rapid development of postmodern intertextuality, which has expanded the use of texts and characters of writers of past eras in modern literature. There are a number of significant works devoted to the eternal images of world culture, but their theory has not been developed. New achievements in the humanities (thesaurus approach, sociology of literature) create prospects for solving the problems of the theory of eternal images, with which the equally poorly developed areas of eternal themes, ideas, plots, and genres in literature merge. These problems are interesting not only for narrow specialists in the field of philology, but also for the general reader, which forms the basis for the creation of popular science works.

The sources of the plot for Shakespeare's Hamlet were the Tragic Histories by the Frenchman Belforet and, apparently, a play that has not come down to us (possibly Kida), in turn dating back to the text of the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). The main feature of the artistry of "Hamlet" is syntheticity (synthetic fusion of a number of storylines - the fate of heroes, the synthesis of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the base, the general and the particular, the philosophical and the concrete, the mystical and everyday, the stage action and the word, the synthetic connection with the early and late works of Shakespeare).

Hamlet is one of the most mysterious figures in world literature. For several centuries, writers, critics, scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of this image, to answer the question of why Hamlet, having learned the truth about the murder of his father at the beginning of the tragedy, postpones revenge and at the end of the play kills King Claudius almost by accident. J. W. Goethe saw the reason for this paradox in the strength of the intellect and the weakness of the will of Hamlet. On the contrary, the film director G. Kozintsev emphasized the active principle in Hamlet, saw in him a continuously acting hero. One of the most original points of view was expressed by the outstanding psychologist L. S. Vygotsky in The Psychology of Art (1925). Having a new understanding of Shakespeare's criticism in L. N. Tolstoy's article "On Shakespeare and Drama", Vygotsky suggested that Hamlet is not endowed with character, but is a function of the action of tragedy. Thus, the psychologist emphasized that Shakespeare is a representative of the old literature, which did not yet know character as a way of depicting a person in verbal art. L. E. Pinsky connected the image of Hamlet not with the development of the plot in the usual sense of the word, but with the main plot of the “great tragedies” - the discovery by the hero of the true face of the world, in which evil is more powerful than it was imagined by humanists.

It is this ability to know the true face of the world that makes Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth tragic heroes. They are titans, surpassing the average spectator in intelligence, will, courage. But Hamlet is different from the other three protagonists of Shakespeare's tragedies. When Othello strangles Desdemona, King Lear decides to divide the state between his three daughters, and then gives the share of the faithful Cordelia to the deceitful Goneril and Regan, Macbeth kills Duncan, guided by the predictions of the witches, then they are wrong, but the audience is not mistaken, because the action is built so that they could know the true state of affairs. This puts the average viewer above the titanic characters: the audience knows something they don't know. On the contrary, Hamlet knows less than the audience only in the first scenes of the tragedy. From the moment of his conversation with the Phantom, which is heard, apart from the participants, only by the spectators, there is nothing significant that Hamlet does not know, but there is something that the spectators do not know. Hamlet ends his famous monologue "To be or not to be?" meaningless phrase "But enough", leaving the audience without an answer to the most important question. In the finale, having asked Horatio to "tell everything" to the survivors, Hamlet utters a mysterious phrase: "Further - silence." He takes with him a certain secret that the viewer is not allowed to know. Hamlet's riddle, therefore, cannot be solved. Shakespeare found a special way to build the role of the protagonist: with such a construction, the viewer can never feel superior to the hero.

The plot connects Hamlet with the tradition of the English "revenge tragedy". The genius of the playwright is manifested in the innovative interpretation of the problem of revenge - one of the important motives of the tragedy.

Hamlet makes a tragic discovery: having learned about the death of his father, the hasty marriage of his mother, having heard the story of the Phantom, he discovers the imperfection of the world (this is the plot of the tragedy, after which the action develops rapidly, Hamlet matures before our eyes, turning in a few months of plot time from a young student to 30 year old person). His next discovery: “time is dislocated”, evil, crimes, deceit, betrayal are the normal state of the world (“Denmark is a prison”), therefore, for example, King Claudius does not need to be a powerful person arguing with time (like Richard III in the chronicle of the same name ), on the contrary, time is on his side. And one more consequence of the first discovery: in order to correct the world, to defeat evil, Hamlet himself is forced to embark on the path of evil. From the further development of the plot it follows that he is directly or indirectly guilty of the death of Polonius, Ophelia, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Laertes, the king, although only this latter is dictated by the demand for revenge.

Revenge, as a form of restoring justice, was such only in the good old days, and now that evil has spread, it does not solve anything. To confirm this idea, Shakespeare poses the problem of revenge for the death of the father of three characters: Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras. Laertes acts without reasoning, sweeping away “right and wrong”, Fortinbras, on the contrary, completely refuses revenge, Hamlet puts the solution of this problem depending on the general idea of ​​​​the world and its laws. The approach found in Shakespeare's development of the motive of revenge (personification, i.e., tying the motive to characters, and variability) is also implemented in other motives.

Thus, the motive of evil is personified in King Claudius and presented in variations of involuntary evil (Hamlet, Gertrude, Ophelia), evil from vindictive feelings (Laertes), evil from servility (Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric), etc. The motive of love is personified in female images: Ophelia and Gertrude. The friendship motif is represented by Horatio (faithful friendship) and by Guildenstern and Rosencrantz (betrayal of friends). The motif of art, the world-theatre, is associated both with touring actors and with Hamlet, who appears insane, Claudius, who plays the role of the good uncle Hamlet, etc. The motif of death is embodied in the gravediggers, in the image of Yorick. These and other motives grow into a whole system, which is an important factor in the development of the plot of the tragedy.

L. S. Vygotsky saw in the double assassination of the king (with a sword and poison) the completion of two different storylines developing through the image of Hamlet (this function of the plot). But there is another explanation as well. Hamlet acts as a fate that everyone has prepared for himself, preparing his death. The heroes of the tragedy die, ironically: Laertes - from the sword, which he smeared with poison, in order to kill Hamlet under the guise of a fair and safe duel; the king - from the same sword (according to his proposal, it should be real, unlike Hamlet's sword) and from the poison that the King had prepared in case Laertes could not inflict a mortal blow on Hamlet. Queen Gertrude drinks poison by mistake, as she mistakenly confided in a king who did evil in secret, while Hamlet makes all secret clear. Hamlet bequeaths the crown to Fortinbras, who refuses to avenge his father's death.

Hamlet has a philosophical mindset: he always moves from a particular case to the general laws of the universe. He views the family drama of his father's murder as a portrait of a world in which evil thrives. The frivolity of the mother, who so quickly forgot about her father and married Claudius, leads him to generalize: "O women, your name is treachery." The sight of Yorick's skull makes him think about the frailty of the earth. The whole role of Hamlet is based on making the secret clear. But with special compositional means, Shakespeare ensured that Hamlet himself remained an eternal mystery for viewers and researchers.

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HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
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STUDY CONTROL WORK

According to the History of Foreign Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

"Image of Hamlet

in W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet"

Done: student

030 gr. 71РЯ

Introduction 3

1. The image of Hamlet at the beginning of tragedy 4

2. Ethics of Hamlet's revenge. The climax of tragedy. 10

3. Death of the protagonist 16

4. Perfect Rebirth Hero 19

Conclusion 23

References 23

Introduction

Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" (1600) is the most famous of the plays of the English playwright. According to many highly respected connoisseurs of art, this is one of the most thoughtful creations of human genius, a great philosophical tragedy. It deals with the most important issues of life and death, which cannot but excite every person. Shakespeare the thinker appears in this work in all his gigantic stature. The questions posed by the tragedy are of truly universal significance. Not without reason, at different stages of the development of human thought, people turned to Hamlet, looking for confirmation of their views on life and the world order in it.

As a true work of art, "Hamlet" attracts many generations of people. Life changes, new interests and concepts arise, and each new generation finds something close to itself in the tragedy. The power of tragedy is confirmed not only by its popularity with readers, but also by the fact that for almost four centuries it has not left the stage.

The tragedy "Hamlet" heralded a new period in Shakespeare's work, new interests and moods of the writer.

According to Shakespeare's words, each drama is a whole, separate world that has its own center, its own sun, around which the planets with their satellites circulate "and in this universe, if we mean tragedy, the sun is the main character who has to fight against everything unfair peace and give life.

The most attractive thing in tragedy is the image of the hero. "It's beautiful, like Prince Hamlet!" - exclaimed one of Shakespeare's contemporaries Anthony Skoloker, and his opinion was confirmed by many people who understand a lot about art over the centuries that have passed since the creation of the tragedy (1; p.6)

To understand Hamlet and sympathize with him, one does not need to find himself in his life situation - to find out that his father was murdered, and his mother betrayed her husband's memory and married another. Even with the dissimilarity of life situations, Hamlet turns out to be close to readers, especially if they have spiritual qualities similar to those inherent in Hamlet - the tendency to peer into themselves, immerse themselves in their inner world, sharply perceive injustice and evil, feel someone else's pain and suffering as their own. .

Hamlet became a beloved hero when romantic sensibilities became widespread. Many began to identify themselves with the hero of Shakespeare's tragedy. The head of the French romantics Victor Hugo () wrote in his book "William Shakespeare": "In our opinion," Hamlet "is the main creation of Shakespeare. Not a single image created by the poet disturbs and excites us to such an extent.

Russia also did not remain aloof from the fascination with Hamlet. Belinsky argued that the image of Hamlet has a universal significance.

The image of Hamlet at the beginning of the tragedy

At the beginning of the action, Hamlet does not yet appear on the scene, but he is mentioned, and this is more significant than it seems at first glance.

In fact, the night watchmen are the king's guard. Why don’t they report the appearance of the Phantom, as they should, “by the authorities”, to one of the king’s close associates, even Polonius, but attract Horatio, a friend of the prince, and he, having made sure that the Phantom looks like the late king , advises telling about this not to the current king, but to Hamlet, who has no power and has not yet been proclaimed heir to the crown?

Shakespeare builds the action not according to the Danish rules of guard duty, but immediately directs the audience's attention to the figure of the Danish prince.

He singled out the prince with a black suit, in stark contrast to the colorful robes of the courtiers. Everyone dressed up for an important ceremony marking the beginning of a new reign, only one in this motley crowd in mourning attire - Hamlet.

His first words, a remark to himself, apparently pronounced on the proscenium and addressed to the audience: “Let him be a nephew, but by no means cute” - immediately emphasizes that not only attire, but with his whole being, he does not belong to a submissive and servile host those around the king.

Hamlet restrained himself, answering the king and mother. Left alone, he pours out his soul in a passionate speech.

What feelings fill the soul of Hamlet when he first appears on the stage? First of all, grief caused by the death of his father. It is aggravated by the fact that the mother so soon forgot her husband and gave her heart to another. The parents' relationship seemed ideal to Hamlet. But a month later she was already remarried, and “she had not yet worn out the shoes in which she walked behind the coffin”, “even the salt of her dishonorable tears on her reddened eyelids had not disappeared.”

For Hamlet, the mother was the ideal of a woman, a natural feeling in a normal, and even more so in such a good family that surrounded Hamlet.

Gertrude's betrayal of her husband's memory revolts Hamlet also because in his eyes the brothers are incomparable: "Phoebus and the satyr." Added to this is the fact that, according to the concepts of the Shakespearean era, marriage with the brother of the deceased husband was considered the sin of incest.

The very first monologue of Hamlet reveals his tendency to make the broadest generalizations from a single fact. Mother's behavior

leads Hamlet to a negative judgment about all women

With the death of his father and the betrayal of his mother, Hamlet experienced a complete collapse of the world in which he had lived until then. The beauty and joy of life has disappeared, I don’t want to live anymore. It was just a family drama, but for the impressionable and strongly feeling Hamlet, it turned out to be enough to see the whole world in black:

How insignificant, flat and stupid

It seems to me that the whole world is in its aspirations! (6; p. 19)

Shakespeare is faithful to the truth of life when he depicts Hamlet's spiritual reaction to what happened in this way. Natures endowed with great sensitivity deeply perceive the terrible phenomena that directly affect them. Hamlet is just such a person - a man of hot blood, a big heart capable of strong feelings. He is by no means the cold rationalist and analyst he is sometimes imagined to be. His thought is excited not by the abstract observation of facts, but by their deep experience. If we feel from the very beginning that Hamlet rises above those around him, then this is not the elevation of a person above the circumstances of life. On the contrary, one of the highest personal virtues of Hamlet lies in the fullness of the feeling of life, his connection with it, in the consciousness that everything that happens around is significant and requires a person to determine his attitude to things, events, people.

Hamlet survived two shocks - the death of his father and the hasty second marriage of his mother. But a third blow awaited him. He learned from the Ghost that his father's death was the work of Claudius. As Ghost says:

You should know my noble boy

The snake is your father's killer-

In his crown. (6; p. 36)

Brother killed brother! If it has already come to this, then the rot has corroded the very foundations of humanity. Evil, enmity, betrayal crept into the relationship of people who are closest to each other by blood. This is what struck Hamlet the most in the revelations of the Phantom: not a single person, even the closest and dearest, can be trusted! Hamlet's anger turns against both mother and uncle:

Oh, the woman is a villain! O scoundrel!

O baseness, baseness with a low smile! (6; p. 38)

The vices that corrode human souls are hidden deep. People have learned to cover them up. Claudius is not the scoundrel whose abomination is already visible in his very outward appearance, as, for example, in Richard III, the main character of Shakespeare's early chronicle. He is "a smiling scoundrel, hiding under the mask of complacency, statesmanship and a penchant for fun the greatest heartlessness and cruelty."

Hamlet draws a sad conclusion for himself - no one can be trusted. This determines his attitude towards everyone around him, with the exception of Horatio. In each he will see a possible enemy or accomplice of his opponents. Hamlet accepts the task of revenge for his father with a somewhat unexpected ardor for us. After all, quite recently we heard from him complaints about the horrors of life and the recognition that he would like to commit suicide, just not to see the surrounding abomination. Now he is imbued with indignation, gathering strength.

The ghost entrusted Hamlet with the task of personal revenge. But Hamlet understands it differently. The crime of Claudius and the betrayal of his mother in his eyes are only partial manifestations of the general corruption:

The century was shaken - and worst of all,

That I was born to restore it!

If at first, as we have seen, he fervently swore to fulfill the Ghost's covenant, now it is painful for him that such a huge task fell on his shoulders, he looks at her as a "curse", she is a heavy burden for him. Those who consider Hamlet weak, see in this the inability, and perhaps even the unwillingness of the hero to join the fight.

He curses the age in which he was born, curses that he is destined to live in a world where evil reigns and where, instead of surrendering to truly human interests and aspirations, he must devote all his strength, mind and soul to the struggle against the world of evil.

This is how Hamlet appears at the beginning of the tragedy. We see that the hero is truly noble. He has already won our sympathy. But can we say that he is able to easily and simply, without hesitation, solve the problem facing him and go ahead? No, Hamlet seeks first to comprehend what is happening around.

It would be a mistake to look for completeness of character and clarity of outlook on life in him. We can say about him so far that he has an innate spiritual nobility and judges everything from the point of view of true humanity. He is going through a deep crisis. Belinsky aptly defined the state in which Hamlet was before the death of his father. It was an "infantile, unconscious harmony," a harmony based on ignorance of life. Only when faced with reality as it is, a person is faced with the opportunity to know life. For Hamlet, the knowledge of reality begins with shocks of great power. The very introduction to life is a tragedy for him.

Nevertheless, the position in which Hamlet found himself has a broad and, one might say, typical meaning. Not always realizing this, every normal person is imbued with sympathy for Hamlet, because rarely anyone escapes the blows of fate (1; p. 86)

We parted from the hero when he took upon himself the task of revenge, accepted it as a heavy but sacred duty.

The next thing we learn about him is his insanity. Ophelia rushes in to tell her father about the prince's strange visit.

Polonius, who has long been worried about his daughter's relationship with the prince, immediately suggests: "Mad with love for you?" After listening to her story, he affirms his conjecture:

Here is a clear explosion of love madness,

In the fury of which sometimes

They come up with desperate decisions. (6; p.48)

Moreover, Polonius sees this as a consequence of his banning Ophelia from meeting the prince: "I'm sorry that you were harsh with him these days."

So there is a version that the prince has gone mad. Has Hamlet really lost his mind? The question has occupied a significant place in Shakespeare studies. It was natural to assume that the misfortunes that befell the young man caused insanity. It must be said right away that this was not actually the case. Hamlet's madness is imaginary.

It wasn't Shakespeare who invented the hero's madness. It was already in the ancient saga of Amlet and in its French retelling by Belfort. However, under the pen of Shakespeare, the nature of Hamlet's pretense has changed significantly. In pre-Shakespearean interpretations of the plot, assuming the guise of a madman, the prince sought to lull the vigilance of his enemy, and he succeeded. He waited in the wings and then dealt with the killer of his father and his entourage.

Shakespeare's Hamlet does not lull Claudius' vigilance, but deliberately arouses his suspicions and anxiety. Two reasons determine this behavior of the Shakespearean hero.

On the one hand, Hamlet is not sure of the truth of the Ghost's words. In this, the prince discovers that he is far from alien to the prejudices about spirits, which were still very tenacious in the era of Shakespeare. But, on the other hand, Hamlet, a man of the new time, wants to confirm the message from the other world with absolutely real earthly proof. We will encounter this combination of old and new more than once, and, as will be shown later, it had a deep meaning.

Hamlet's words deserve attention in another aspect. They contain a direct recognition of the oppressed state of the hero. What has been said now echoes the sad thoughts of Hamlet, expressed at the end of the second picture of the first act, when he was thinking about death.

The cardinal question connected with these confessions is this: is Hamlet such by nature, or is his state of mind caused by the terrible events that he faced? The answer, of course, can only be one. Before all the events known to us, Hamlet was an integral harmonic personality. But we meet him already when this harmony is broken. Belinsky explained the state of Hamlet after the death of his father in this way: “... The higher a person is in spirit, the more terrible is his disintegration, and the more solemn is his victory over his limbs, and the deeper and holier is his bliss. This is the meaning of Hamlet's weakness."

By "disintegration" he does not mean the moral decay of the hero's personality, but the disintegration of the spiritual harmony that was previously inherent in him. The former integrity of Hamlet's views on life and reality, as it then seemed to him, was broken.

Although Hamlet's ideals remain the same, everything he sees in life contradicts them. His soul splits. He is convinced of the need to fulfill the duty of revenge - the crime is too terrible and Claudius is disgusting to the limit. But Hamlet's soul is full of sadness - grief over the death of his father and grief caused by his mother's betrayal did not pass. Everything that Hamlet sees confirms his attitude to the world - a garden overgrown with weeds, "wild and evil rules in it." Knowing all this, is it surprising that the thought of suicide does not leave Hamlet?

In Shakespeare's time, the attitude toward madmen inherited from the Middle Ages was still preserved. Their bizarre behavior was a cause for laughter. Pretending to be insane, Hamlet at the same time, as it were, puts on the guise of a jester. This gives him the right to tell people to their faces what he thinks of them. Hamlet makes extensive use of this opportunity.

In Ophelia, he settled confusion with his behavior. She is the first to see the dramatic change that has taken place in him. Polonia Hamlet is simply fooling, and he easily succumbs to the inventions of a pretended madman. Hamlet plays him in a certain way. “He plays with my daughter all the time,” says Polonius, “but at first he did not recognize me; said I was a fishmonger…”. The second motive in Hamlet's "game" with Polonius is his beard. As the reader remembers, to the question of Polonius about the book in which the prince always looks, Hamlet answers: "this satirical rogue says here that old people have gray beards ...". When Polonius later complains that the monologue read by the actor is too long, the prince abruptly cuts him off: "This will go to the barber, along with your beard ...".

With Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, fellow students, Hamlet plays differently. With them, he behaves as if he believed in their friendship, although he immediately suspects that they were sent to him. Hamlet answers them with frankness for frankness. His speech is one of the most significant passages in the play.

“Recently - and why, I don’t know myself - I have lost my gaiety, abandoned all my usual activities; and, indeed, it’s so hard on my soul that this beautiful temple, the earth, seems to me a desert cape ... What a masterful creature - a man! How noble of mind! How infinite capacity! In appearance and in movements - how expressive and wonderful. In action - how similar to an angel! In comprehension - how similar to the deity! The beauty of the universe! The crown of all living! And what is this quintessence of dust for me. Not one of the people makes me happy, no, neither, although with your smile you seem to want to say something else.

Hamlet, of course, is only playing frankly with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. But, although Hamlet masterfully plays his university friends, he is indeed torn apart by contradictions. The spiritual balance of Hamlet is completely broken. He mocks the spies sent to him, and tells the truth about his changed attitude towards the world. Of course, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who did not know anything about the secret of the death of the former king, could not guess that Hamlet's thoughts were occupied with the task of revenge. Nor did they know that the prince reproached himself for his slowness. We will not be far from the truth if we assume that Hamlet wants to see himself as such an avenger who hesitates, but the stronger the blow will be when he strikes it with the same inexorability. (1, p. 97)

We know, however, that Hamlet had doubts as to how far the Ghost could be trusted. He needs such proof of the guilt of Claudius, which would be earthly reliable. He decides to take advantage of the troupe's arrival in order to show the king a play that will present exactly the villainy that he committed:

"the spectacle is a loop,

To lasso the king's conscience."

This plan probably arose when the First Actor so excitedly read a monologue about Pyrrhus and Hecuba. Sending the actors away on his behalf, Hamlet orders the head of the troupe to present the play "The Murder of Gonzago" and asks to include sixteen lines written by himself in it. Thus arises Hamlet's plan to test the truth of the words of the Phantom. Hamlet does not rely on his intuition or on a voice from the other world, he needs a proof that satisfies the requirements of reason. It is not for nothing that in a long speech expressing Hamlet's view of the universe and man (it was mentioned above), Hamlet puts reason in the first place when he exclaims: “What a masterful creation - man! How noble of mind! It is only through this highest human ability that Hamlet intends to condemn the hated Claudius.

Having paid tribute to the close reading of individual scenes of the tragedy, let's not forget about those strong adhesions that hold its beginning and the entire ascending line of action. Such a role is played by two great monologues of Hamlet - at the end of the palace scene and at the end of the second act.

First of all, let's pay attention to their tonality. Both are unusually temperamental. “Oh, if this dense clot of meat// Melted, perished, came out with dew!”. This is followed by a frank admission that Hamlet would like to die. But the mournful intonation is replaced by anger at the mother. Words flow from the mouth of Hamlet in a stormy stream, finding more and more new expressions to condemn her (1; P. 99)

The noble anger of the hero makes him sympathetic. At the same time, we feel: if the thought of suicide flickers in Hamlet's mind, then the instinct of life in him is stronger. His grief is enormous, but if he really wanted to part with his life, a person of such temperament would not talk so extensively.

What does the first big monologue of the hero say about his character? At least not about weakness. The internal energy inherent in Hamlet receives a clear expression in his anger. A person of weak character would not indulge in indignation with such force.

The monologue that concludes the second act is full of reproaches for inaction. And again, indignation strikes him, this time directed against himself. What kind of abuse does not bring down on his head Hamlet: "Stupid and cowardly fool", "rotozey", "coward", "donkey", "woman", "dishwasher". We have seen before how severe he is towards his mother, how full of enmity towards Claudius. But Hamlet is not one of those who finds evil only in others. He is no less severe and merciless towards himself, and this feature of him further confirms the nobility of his nature. It takes the utmost honesty to judge yourself as, if not more severely, than others.

The end of the monologue, in which Hamlet lays out his plan, refutes the idea that he does not want to do anything to carry out revenge. Before acting, Hamlet wants to prepare suitable conditions for this (1; p. 100).

The Ethics of Hamlet's Revenge. The climax of tragedy.

Hamlet has his own ethics of revenge. He wants Claudius to know what punishment awaits him for. He seeks to arouse in Claudius the consciousness of his guilt. All the hero's actions are devoted to this goal, up to the "mousetrap" scene. To us, such a psychology may seem strange. But one must know the history of the bloody revenge of the era; when a special sophistication of retribution to the enemy arose, and then Hamlet's tactics would become clear. He needs Claudius to be imbued with the consciousness of his criminality, he wants to punish the enemy first with internal torments, pangs of conscience, if he has one, and only then deliver a fatal blow so that he knows that he is punished not only by Hamlet, but by the moral law, universal justice.

Much later, in the queen's bedroom, after slaying Polonius hiding behind a curtain, Hamlet sees in what seems to be an accident a manifestation of a higher will, the will of heaven. They entrusted him with the mission to be the Scourge and minister - the scourge and the executor of their destiny. This is how Hamlet looks at the matter of revenge. And what is the meaning of the words: “he punished me and me him”? (1; p.101)

That Polonius was punished for his interference in the struggle between Hamlet and Claudius is clear from Hamlet's words: "That's how dangerous it is to be too fast." But what is Hamlet punished for? For acting thoughtlessly and slaying the wrong person, and thereby making it clear to the king who he was aiming at.

Our next meeting with Hamlet takes place in the gallery of the castle, where he was called. Hamlet comes, not knowing who and why is waiting for him, completely at the mercy of his thoughts, expressing them in his most famous monologue.

The monologue "To be or not to be" is the highest point of Hamlet's doubts. It expresses the mood of the hero, the moment of the highest discord in his mind. For this reason alone, it would be wrong to look for strict logic in it. She is not here. The hero's thought is transferred from one subject to another. He starts thinking about one thing, moves on to another, a third, and none of them.

questions he himself put to himself, does not receive an answer.

Does “to be” mean for Hamlet only life in general? Taken by themselves, the first words of the monologue can be interpreted in this sense. But it does not take much attention to see the incompleteness of the first line, while the following lines reveal the meaning of the question and the opposition of two concepts - what is meant by "to be" and what is "not to be":

What is nobler in spirit - to submit

Slings and arrows of a furious fate

Or, taking up arms against the sea of ​​troubles, slay them

Confrontation?

Here the dilemma is expressed quite clearly: “to be” means to rise up on the sea of ​​unrest and slay them, “not to be” means to submit to the “slings and arrows of a furious fate”.

The posing of the question has a direct bearing on Hamlet's situation: should one fight against the sea of ​​evil or avoid the fight? Here, finally, a contradiction appears with great force, the expressions of which have been encountered before. But at the beginning of the third act, Hamlet again finds himself in the power of doubt. These mood swings are extremely characteristic of Hamlet. We do not know whether he is characterized by hesitations and doubts in the happy time of his life. But now this instability manifests itself with all certainty.

Which of the two possibilities does Hamlet choose? "To be", to fight - such is the lot that he has taken upon himself. Hamlet's thought runs ahead, and he sees one of the outcomes of the struggle - death! Here a thinker wakes up in him, asking himself a new question: what is death? Hamlet again sees two possibilities of what awaits a person after death. Death is an immersion in non-existence in the complete absence of consciousness:

Die, sleep

And only: and say that you end up sleeping

Longing and a thousand natural torments ...

But there is also a terrible danger: “What dreams will be dreamed in a death dream, / / ​​When we drop this mortal noise ...”. Perhaps the horrors of the afterlife are no worse than all earthly troubles: “This is what brings us down; where is the reason// That disasters are so long-lived…”. And further:

Let's get a grasp of the monologue and it will become clear that Hamlet talks in general - about all people, and they have never met people from the other world. Hamlet's thought is correct, but it diverges from the plot of the play.

The second thing that catches your eye in this monologue is the idea that it is easy to get rid of the hardships of life if you "Give yourself a calculation with a simple dagger."

Now let's turn to the part of the monologue in which the disasters of people in this world are listed:

Who would take down the whips and mockery of the century,

The oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud,

The pain of despicable love, judges slowness,

The arrogance of the authorities and insults.

Made to meek merit,

If only he could figure it out for himself...

Note that none of these calamities concerns Hamlet. He talks here not about himself, but about the whole people, for whom Denmark is really a prison. Hamlet appears here as a thinker concerned about the plight of all people suffering from injustice. (1;p.104)

But the fact that Hamlet thinks about all of humanity is another feature that speaks of his nobility. But what about the hero's idea that everything can be ended with a simple blow of a dagger? The monologue "To be or not to be" is permeated from beginning to end with a heavy consciousness of the sorrows of being. We can safely say that already starting from the first monologue of the hero it is clear: life does not give joys, it is full of grief, injustice, various forms of desecration of humanity. Living in such a world is hard and undesirable. But Hamlet must not part with his life, for the task of revenge lies with him. He must make a calculation with a dagger, but not on himself!

Hamlet's monologue ends with a thought about the nature of reflection. In this case, Hamlet comes to a disappointing conclusion. Circumstances require action from him, and thoughts paralyze the will. Hamlet admits that an excess of thought weakens the ability to act (1; p. 105).

As already mentioned, the monologue "To be or not to be" is the highest point of the hero's thoughts and doubts. He reveals to us the soul of a hero who is unreasonably hard in the world of lies, evil, deceit, villainy, but who, nevertheless, has not lost the ability to act.

We are convinced of this by observing his meeting with Ophelia. As soon as he notices her, his tone immediately changes. Before us is no longer a thoughtful Hamlet, reflecting on life and death, not a man full of doubts. He immediately puts on the mask of madness and speaks harshly to Ophelia. Fulfilling the will of her father, she ends their break and wants to return the gifts she once received from him. Hamlet also does everything to push Ophelia away from him. “I once loved you,” he says at first, and then denies this too: “I did not love you.” Hamlet's speeches to Ophelia are full of mockery. He advises her to go to a monastery: “Go to a monastery; why should you breed sinners?" "Or, if you absolutely want to marry, marry a fool, because smart people know well what monsters you make of them." The king and Polonius, eavesdropping on their conversation, are once again convinced of Hamlet's madness (1; p. 106).

Immediately after this, Hamlet gives instructions to the actors, and there is not a trace of insanity in his speech. On the contrary, what he said down to our time is cited as the indisputable basis of the aesthetics of the theater. There are no traces of madness in Hamlet's next speech to Horatio, in which the hero expresses his ideal of a man, and then asks a friend to watch Claudius during the performance. New touches that appeared in the image of Hamlet in the scene of a conversation with the actors - the warmth of the soul, the inspiration of the artist, who is counting on mutual understanding (3; p. 87)

Hamlet begins to play the insane again only when the whole court, led by royalty, comes to watch the performance ordered by the prince.

When asked by the king how he is doing, the prince sharply replies: “I feed on air, I feed on promises; capons are not fattened like that.” The meaning of this remark becomes clear if we remember that Claudius declared Hamlet his heir, and this is confirmed by Rosencrantz. But Hamlet understands that the king, who killed his brother, can calmly deal with him. No wonder the prince says to Rosencrantz: "while the grass grows ..." This beginning of the proverb is followed by: "... the horse can die."

But most noticeable is the defiant nature of Hamlet's behavior when he answers the king's question whether there is anything reprehensible in the play: “This play depicts a murder committed in Vienna; the name of the duke is Gonzago; his wife is Baptista; you will see now; it's a mean story; but does it matter? Your Majesty and us, whose soul is pure, this does not concern ... ". The words sound even sharper and more direct when, on stage, Lucian pours poison into the ear of the sleeping king (actor); Hamlet's "commentary" leaves no doubt: "He poisons him in the garden for the sake of his power. His name is Gonzago. Such a story exists and is written in the most excellent Italian language. Now you will see how the murderer earns the love of Gonzaga's wife. Sarcasm has two addresses here. However, the whole play, played out by the actors, aims at Claudius at the same time; and Gertrude! (1; p. 107)

The behavior of the king, who interrupted the performance, leaves no doubt in Hamlet: "I would vouch for the words of the Ghost with a thousand gold pieces." Horatio confirms Hamlet's observation - the king was embarrassed when a theatrical villain poured poison into the sleeping king's ear.

After the introduction, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern come to Hamlet, they inform him that the king is upset and that his mother invites him for a conversation. This is followed by one of the most famous passages in the play.

Rosencrantz makes another attempt to find out the secret of the prince, referring to their former friendship. After that, Hamlet plays Polonius, and finally, after all the worries of this day and evening, he is left alone. Now left alone, Hamlet admits to himself (and to us):

... now I'm hot blooded

I could drink and do such a thing,

That the day would tremble.

Hamlet gained confidence in Claudius's guilt. He is ripe for revenge: he is ready to deal with the king and reveal to his mother all her crime. (1; p.108)

The Mousetrap is the culmination of a tragedy. Hamlet sought the correct second and third acts. None of the characters, with the exception of Horatio, knows the secret that the Ghost told the Prince. Viewers and readers are aware of it. They tend, therefore, to forget that Hamlet has a secret and that all his behavior is due to the desire to obtain confirmation of the words of the Ghost. The only one who is truly concerned about Hamlet's behavior is Claudius. He would like to believe Polonius that Hamlet has lost his mind because Ophelia rejected his love. But during the meeting, he could make sure that it was not Ophelia who expelled him from her heart, but Hamlet renounced his beloved girl. He heard the prince's strange threat: “We will have no more marriages; those who are already married, all but one will live…”. Then Claudius could not yet know what she meant - perhaps just dissatisfaction with the hasty marriage of his mother. Now opponents know the main thing about each other.

Claudius immediately makes a decision. He, who at first kept the prince near him, so that it would be easier to follow him, now decides to send him to England. We do not yet know the whole insidiousness of Claudius' plan, but we see that he is afraid to keep the prince close. For this, as it will become clear very soon, the king has reasons. Now that Hamlet is aware of his crime, nothing can stop his revenge. And the case, it would seem, turns up. Going to his mother, Hamlet finds himself face to face with the king, who is trying to pray for his sin. Hamlet enters, and his first thought is:

Now to complete everything...

But the prince's hand stops: Claudius is praying, his soul is turned to heaven, and if he is killed, it will ascend to heaven. This is not revenge. This is not the kind of retribution Hamlet wants:

... will I be avenged,

Having smitten him in spiritual cleansing,

When is he equipped and ready to go?

No. (1; p. 109)

Hamlet does not prevaricate, does not deceive himself and us when he says that to kill the praying Claudius means to send him to heaven. Recall what was said above about the ethics of revenge. Hamlet saw the Ghost-father, who is tormented because he died without proper repentance, Hamlet wants to take revenge on Claudius so that he would forever writhe in torment in the afterlife. Let's listen to the hero's speech. Is it the slightest echo of spiritual weakness?

Back, my sword, find out the girth more terrible;

When he is drunk or angry

Or in the incestuous pleasures of the bed;

In blasphemy, at a game, at something,

What is not good. - Then knock him down.

Hamlet longs for effective revenge - to send Claudius to hell for eternal torment. Accordingly, to kill Claudius at the moment when the king turns to God, according to Hamlet, is tantamount to sending the killer's soul to heaven. (5; p. 203) When in the next scene Gertrude, fearful of Hamlet's threatening words, cries out for help, a scream is heard from behind the curtain. Hamlet, without hesitation, pierces this place with a sword. He thinks that the king was eavesdropping on his conversation with his mother - and now is the right moment to strike him down. Hamlet is regretfully convinced of his mistake - it was only Polonius, "a miserable, fussy buffoon." There is no doubt that Hamlet aimed precisely at Claudius (1; p. 110). When the body falls behind the curtain, the prince asks his mother: "Was that the king?" Seeing the body of Polonius, Hamlet confesses: "I aimed at the highest." Hamlet's blow not only missed its mark, it gave Claudius a clear understanding of the prince's intentions. “So it would be with us if we were there,” says the king, having learned about the death of Polonius.

Thus, there is no reason to doubt the determination of Hamlet. He does not look like a relaxed person who has lost all ability to act. But this does not mean at all that the hero is concerned with only one goal - to defeat his offender. The whole conversation between Hamlet and his mother undoubtedly shows the bitterness of the prince, who sees that evil has captured the soul of such a dear person as his mother.

From the very beginning of the tragedy, we saw Hamlet's grief caused by the hasty marriage of his mother. In The Mousetrap, the lines uttered by the actor who played the queen are specially designed for her:

Betrayal does not live in my chest.

The second spouse is a curse and shame!

The second is for those who killed the first ...

Critics debate which sixteen lines Hamlet inserted into the text of The Murder of Gonzago. Most likely those that contain direct reproaches of the mother. But no matter how correct this assumption is, Hamlet, after hearing the words of the old play quoted here, asks his mother: “Madame, how do you like this play?” - and hears in response restrained, but quite significant words, corresponding to the current position of Gertrude: "This woman is too generous with assurances, in my opinion." One might ask why Hamlet had never said anything to his mother before? He waited for an hour when he would be sure of the crime of Claudius (1; p. 111). Now, after the Mousetrap, Hamlet reveals to her that she is the wife of the one who killed her husband. When Gertrude reproaches her son for committing "a bloody and crazy act" by killing Polonius, Hamlet replies:

A little worse than in damned sin

After killing the king, marry the king's brother.

But Hamlet cannot blame the mother for the death of her husband, since he knows who the murderer was. However, if before Hamlet saw only the betrayal of his mother, now she is tarnished by her marriage to her husband's murderer. Hamlet puts the murder of Polonius by him, the crime of Claudius, and the betrayal of his mother into one criminal series. You should pay attention to how Hamlet pronounces his appeals to his mother. We must listen to the intonation of his tirades:

Don't break your hands. Quiet! I want

break your heart; I will break it...

Accusing the mother, Hamlet says that her betrayal is a direct violation of morality. The behavior of Gertrude is equated by Hamlet with those violations of the world order that make the whole Earth tremble. Hamlet can be reproached for taking on too much. Let us recall, however, his words: he is a scourge and a executor of the highest will.

The whole tone of Hamlet's conversation with his mother is marked by cruelty. The appearance of the Ghost increases his thirst for revenge. But now its implementation is hindered by being sent to England. Suspecting a trick on the part of the king, Hamlet expresses confidence that he can eliminate the danger. The thinking Hamlet gives way to the active Hamlet.

During the interrogation, which is carried out by the king himself, prudently surrounded by guards, Hamlet allows himself buffoonish speeches that can be mistaken for the delirium of a madman, but the reader and viewer know that Hamlet's reasoning about how the king can become food for worms is fraught with danger; the hidden meaning of the king's answer to the question where Polonius is is especially clear. Hamlet says: “In heaven; send there to see; if your messenger does not find him there, then look for him elsewhere yourself”, that is, in hell; we remember where the prince intends to send Claudius...

We have followed Hamlet's behavior through two stages of the development of the action after he learned from the Ghost the secret of his father's death. Hamlet has a firm intention to put an end to Claudius, if he manages to overtake him at the moment when he does something bad, then, slain by the sword, he will go to hell for eternal torment.

The task of revenge not only does not interfere, but exacerbates the disgust for the world, as he opened himself to the prince after the death of his father.

A new phase of action begins. Hamlet is sent to England with reliable guards. He understands the king's intention. While waiting to board the ship, Hamlet sees the passage of Fortinbras' troops. For the prince, this serves as a new reason for reflection.

Doubts ended, Hamlet found determination. But now circumstances are against him. He needs to think not about revenge, but about how to avoid the trap prepared for him.

Death of the main character

Death has hovered over the tragedy from the very beginning, when the Ghost of the slain king appears. And in the scene at the cemetery, Hamlet sees the reality of death - the earth, which stores decayed corpses. The first gravedigger famously throws skulls out of the ground in which he is digging a grave for Ophelia. Among them is the skull of the royal jester Yorick.

Hamlet is struck by the frailty of everything that exists. Even human greatness will not escape such a fate: Alexander the Great had the same appearance in the ground and he smelled just as bad.

In tragedy, two concepts of death collide, two points of view on it: the traditional, religious one, which claims that human souls still continue to exist after death, and the real one: the appearance of death is the bones that remain from a person. Hamlet discusses this with irony: “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander turns to dust; dust is earth; clay is made from the earth; and why can't they plug a beer barrel with this clay into which he has turned?

Sovereign Caesar turned into ashes,

Went, perhaps, to plastering the walls.

Two ideas about death - religious and real - do not seem to contradict each other. One is about the human soul, the other about his body. However, the stranger from the next world, as the reader remembers, does not describe himself in the best possible way - after poisoning: vile scabs stuck around his body. This means that the earthly scab comes to the afterlife ... (1; P. 117)

So far, we have been talking about death in general. Yorick's skull brought death closer to Hamlet. He knew and loved this jester. However, even this death remains a distraction for the prince. But then a funeral procession appears at the cemetery and Hamlet learns that his beloved is being buried.

After sailing for England, he could not hear anything about the fate of Ophelia. I didn't have time to tell him about her and Horatio. We know how the death of his father plunged Hamlet into grief. Now he is shaken to the core again. Laertes spared no words to express grief. Hamlet did not yield to him in this. We have heard the passionate speeches of the hero more than once. But now he seems to have outdone himself:

I loved her; forty thousand brothers

With all the multitude of your love with me

Wouldn't equalize

That Hamlet's grief is great is undeniable, and it is just as true that he is truly shaken. But in this ardent speech there is something unnatural, not characteristic of other, even the most ardent speeches of Hamlet. It seems that the bombast of Laertes' rhetoric was passed on to Hamlet. Hamlet's hyperbole is too obvious to be believed, as we believe other powerful speeches of the hero. True, in life it happens that a deep shock causes a stream of words that are devoid of meaning. Perhaps this is exactly what is happening at the moment with Hamlet. The queen finds a direct explanation for her son's behavior: "This is nonsense." He will rage and calm down, she believes (1; p. 119). Was Hamlet's grief feigned? I don't want to believe this. The Queen's words cannot be trusted. She is convinced of the madness of her son and sees only this in all his behavior.

If it is possible to explain Hamlet's loud speech over the ashes of his beloved, then his unexpectedly conciliatory appeal to Laertes sounds strange: “Tell me, sir, Why do you treat me like that? I have always loved you." From the point of view of ordinary logic, Hamlet's words are absurd. After all, he killed Father Laertes ...

Hamlet returned to Denmark in many ways a new man. Previously, his anger extended to absolutely everyone. Now Hamlet will be at enmity only with the main enemy and his direct accomplices. He intends to treat the rest of the people tolerantly. In particular, this applies to Laertes. In the scene following the cemetery, Hamlet says to a friend:

I am very sorry, friend Horatio,
That I forgot myself with Laertes;
In my destiny I see a reflection

his destiny; I will deal with it...

Hamlet's words in the cemetery are the first manifestation of this intention. He knows that he caused grief to Laertes by killing his father, but apparently believes that Laertes should understand the unintentionality of this murder.

Concluding a conversation with Horatio, Hamlet admits that he got excited at the cemetery, but Laertes "enraged me with his puffy grief." Here is an explanation for Hamlet's exaggerated expressions of grief. Leaving the cemetery, the prince does not forget about the main task and again pretends to be insane.

But melancholy in the sense accepted by Shakespeare's contemporaries, the intention to "cleanse the stomach of the dirty world" does not leave Hamlet. Just as Hamlet used to make fun of Polonius, he makes fun of Osric.

Having received an invitation to compete with Laertes in fencing, Hamlet does not feel any suspicion. He considers Laertes a nobleman and does not expect a dirty trick from him. But the prince's heart is restless. He confesses to Horatio: “... you can’t imagine how heavy my heart is here, but it’s all the same. This, of course, is nonsense; but this is like some kind of premonition, which, perhaps, a woman would have embarrassed.

Horatio advises heeding the premonition and abandoning the duel. But Hamlet rejects his proposal with words that critics have long attached great importance to, because they contain both thought and intonation new to Hamlet:

“... We are not afraid of omens, and there is a special craft in the death of a sparrow. If now, so, then not later; if not later, so then now; if not now, then someday anyway; willingness is everything. Since what we part with does not belong to us, does it matter if it is too early to part? Let it be". This speech of Hamlet should be equated with his great monologues.

Returning to Elsinore, Hamlet cannot directly attack the king, who is under strong guard. Hamlet understands that the struggle will continue, but he does not know how and when. He does not suspect about the conspiracy of Claudius and Laertes. But he firmly knows that the moment will come, and then it will be necessary to act. When Horatio warns that the king will soon find out what the prince did with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet replies: “My gap” (1; p. 122). In other words, Hamlet expects to put an end to Claudius in the shortest possible time and only waits for the right opportunity.

Hamlet cannot control events. He has to rely on a happy accident, on the will of Providence. He tells a friend:

Praise of surprise: us recklessness

Sometimes it helps out where it dies

Deep intent; that deity

Our intentions are completed,

At least the mind has planned and not so ...

It is difficult to say when exactly Hamlet came to the conviction of the decisive role of higher powers for human affairs - whether then on the ship, or having fled from it, or upon returning to Denmark. In any case, he, who previously thought that everything depends on his will, when he decides on his revenge, was convinced that the implementation of human intentions and plans is far from being in the will of man; a lot depends on the circumstances. Hamlet found what Belinsky called courageous and conscious harmony. (1; C; 123)

Yes, this is the Hamlet of the final scene. Unaware of the trick, he goes to the competition with Laertes. Before the fight begins, he assures Laertes of his friendship and asks for forgiveness for the damage done to him. Hamlet - inattentively reacted to his answer, otherwise he would have suspected something was wrong earlier. A hunch dawns on him only during the third fight, when Laertes wounds the prince with a poisoned blade. At this time, the queen also dies, having drunk the poison prepared by the king for Hamlet. Laertes confesses his betrayal and names the culprit. Hamlet turns the poisoned weapon against the king and, seeing that he is only wounded, forces him to drink the poisoned wine.

Hamlet's new mindset was reflected in the fact that, recognizing treason, he immediately killed Claudius - exactly as he once wanted.

Hamlet dies as a warrior, and his ashes are carried off the stage with military honors. The viewer of the Shakespeare theater fully appreciated the significance of the military ceremony. Hamlet lived and died like a hero.

The evolution of Hamlet is depicted in the tragedy in harsh colors and appears in all its complexity. (3; p. 83)

The perfect resurrection hero

In Shakespeare's plays there is such a feature: whatever the length of time when the action takes place; during it, a person goes through his life path. The life of the heroes of Shakespeare's tragedies begins from the moment when they are involved in a dramatic conflict. Indeed, the human personality reveals itself completely when, voluntarily or involuntarily, it is involved in a struggle, the outcome of which sometimes turns out to be tragic for it (1; p. 124).

The whole life of Hamlet passed before us. Yes exactly. Although the action of the tragedy covers only a few months, they were the period of the true life of the hero. True, Shakespeare does not leave us in the dark about what the hero was like before the fatal circumstances arose. With a few strokes, the author makes it clear what Hamlet's life was like before the death of his father. But everything that precedes the tragedy is of little importance, because the moral qualities and character of the hero are revealed in the process of life's struggle.

Shakespeare acquaints us with Hamlet's past by two means: his own speeches and the opinion of others about him.

From the words of Hamlet "I have lost my gaiety, abandoned all my usual activities" it is easy to draw a conclusion about the state of mind of Hamlet the student. He lived in a world of intellectual interests. It is no coincidence that Shakespeare the artist chose Wittenberg University for his hero. The fame of this city was based on the fact that it was here that Martin Luther on October 31, 1517 nailed his 95 theses against the Roman Catholic Church to the doors of the cathedral. Thanks to this, Wittenberg became synonymous with the spiritual reformation of the 16th century, a symbol of free thought. The circle in which Hamlet revolved was made up of his university comrades. With all the savings necessary for the drama, Shakespeare introduced three of Hamlet's classmates at the university - Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - into the number of characters. From these latter we learn that Hamlet was a theater lover. We also know that Hamlet not only read books, but also wrote poetry himself. This was taught in the universities of that time. There are even two samples of Hamlet's literary writing in the tragedy: a love poem addressed to Ophelia, and sixteen lines of poetry inserted by him into the text of the tragedy "The Murder of Gonzago".

Shakespeare presented him as the typical "universal man" of the Renaissance. This is exactly how Ophelia draws him, regretting that, having lost his mind, Hamlet has lost his former qualities.

She also calls him a courtier, a warrior (soldier). As a true "courier", Hamlet also wields a sword. He is an experienced swordsman, constantly practicing this art and demonstrating it in a fatal duel that completes the tragedy.

The word "scholar" here means a highly educated person, not a scientist.

In Hamlet they also saw a person capable of governing the state, not without reason he is "the color and hope of a joyful state." Due to his high culture, much was expected of him when he inherited the throne-. All the internal perfections of Hamlet were reflected in his appearance, manner, grace of behavior (1; P. 126)

This is how Ophelia saw Hamlet before the dramatic change took place in him. The speech of a loving woman is at the same time an objective characteristic of Hamlet.

Joking conversations with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern give an idea of ​​the secularity inherent in Hamlet. The scattering of thought that fills the prince's speech speaks of his intelligence, observation, and ability to sharply formulate a thought. Fighting spirit he shows in a clash with pirates.

And how can we judge how right Ophelia is, arguing that they saw in him the hope for all of Denmark to receive a wise and just monarch? To do this, it suffices to recall that part of the monologue "To be or not to be", where Hamlet condemns "judges slowness, arrogance of the authorities and insults inflicted on uncomplaining merit". Among the disasters of life, he calls not just “the wrath of the strong”, but the injustice of the oppressor (oppressor's wrong), “the mockery of the proud” means the arrogance of the nobility towards ordinary people.

Hamlet is depicted as a follower of the principles of humanism. As the son of his father, he must take revenge on his murderer and is full of hatred for Claudius.

If evil were embodied in one Claudius, the solution to the problem would be simple. But Hamlet sees that other people are also subject to evil. For whom to cleanse the world of evil? For Gertrude, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Osric?

Here are the contradictions oppressing the consciousness of Hamlet. (1; С127)

We have seen that he is waging a struggle, morally destroying those who betray human dignity, and finally, he is using weapons. Hamlet would like to fix the world, but does not know how! He realizes that by killing himself with a simple dagger, you will not destroy evil. Can it be destroyed by killing another?

It is known that one of the cardinal issues of Hamlet's criticism is the slowness of the prince. From our analysis of Hamlet's behavior, it cannot be deduced that he is slow, because, one way or another, he acts all the time. The real problem is not why Hamlet hesitates, but what he can achieve by acting. Not just to carry out the task of personal revenge, but to straighten the dislocated joint of Time (I, 5, 189-190).

He is bold, without fear he rushes to the call of the Ghost and follows him, despite the fearful warnings of Horatio.

Hamlet is able to quickly make decisions and act, as when he heard Polonius scream behind the curtain.

Although Hamlet often worries about death, he is not afraid of it: “My life is cheaper for me than a pin ...” This is said at the beginning of the tragedy and repeated shortly before its end: “A person’s life is to say:“ Once ”. The conclusion is prompted by all the previous experience of the hero ...

For a correct understanding of the hero, two more important circumstances must be taken into account.

The first of them is Hamlet's chivalry and his high concept of honor. Shakespeare did not accidentally choose the prince as the hero. Rejecting the obscurantism of the Middle Ages, the humanists by no means crossed out the valuable that they saw in the heritage of this era. Already in the Middle Ages, the ideal of chivalry was the embodiment of high moral qualities. It is no coincidence that it was in knightly times that beautiful legends about true love arose, such as, for example, the story of Tristan and Isolde. In this legend, love was sung not only to death, but also beyond the grave. Hamlet experiences his mother's betrayal both as a personal grief and as a betrayal of the ideal of fidelity. Any betrayal - love, friendship, duty - is regarded by Hamlet as a violation of the moral rules of chivalry.

Knightly honor did not tolerate any, even the slightest damage. Hamlet reproaches himself precisely for the fact that he hesitates when his honor is offended by not trifling reasons, while the soldiers of Fortinbras “for the sake of a whim and absurd glory / / Go to the grave ...”.

However, there is a clear contradiction here. One of the rules of knightly honor is truthfulness. Meanwhile, in order to carry out the first part of his plan and to make sure that Claudius is guilty, Hamlet pretends not to be what he really is. Paradoxical as it may seem, Hamlet decides to pretend to be crazy, and this is exactly what hurts his honor the least.

Hamlet puts “nature, honor” side by side, and, perhaps, it is not by chance that “nature” comes first, because in his tragedy it is the nature of man that is affected first of all. The third reason, called by Hamlet, is not a "feeling" at all - a feeling of resentment, insult. The prince said of Laertes: "In my fate I see the reflection of His fate!" Indeed, Hamlet's nature is also hurt by the murder of his father, that is, his filial feeling, and honor.

Hamlet's attitude to regicide is very important. With the exception of Richard III, Shakespeare everywhere shows that the assassination of a monarch is fraught with trouble for the state. This idea receives a clear and unambiguous expression in Hamlet:

From time immemorial

The royal sorrow is echoed by a general groan.

Other readers will probably be confused by the fact that these words are not spoken by the hero of the tragedy, but only by Rosencrantz.

Rosencrantz, not knowing the main circumstance, thinks that everything in Denmark will collapse if Claudius is killed. In fact, the tragedy of the country is caused by the fact that Claudius killed its rightful king. And then something happened that Rosencrantz so figuratively described: everything was mixed up, chaos arose, ending in a general catastrophe. The Prince of Denmark is by no means a rebel. He is, one might say, a statesman. His task of revenge is also complicated by the fact that, fighting against the tyrant and usurper, he must do the same thing that Claudius did - kill the king. Hamlet has a moral right to do so, but...

Here it is necessary to turn once again to the figure of Laertes (1; p.132)

Having learned about the murder of his father and suspecting Claudius of this, Laertes raises the people to revolt and breaks into the royal castle. In anger and indignation, he exclaims:

Loyalty to hell! Oaths to black demons!

Fear and piety into the abyss of abysses!

Laertes behaves like a recalcitrant feudal lord who, in the name of personal interests, refuses allegiance to the sovereign and rebels against him.

It is appropriate to ask why Hamlet did not do the same as Laertes, all the more appropriate that the people loved Hamlet. This is admitted with regret by none other than Claudius himself. Upon learning that Hamlet killed Polonius, the king says:

How pernicious that he walks free!

However, one cannot be strict with him;

A violent crowd is attached to him ...

Returning from France, Laertes asks the king why he did not take action against Hamlet. Claudius replies: "the reason / / Do not resort to open analysis - // The love of a simple crowd for him."

Why doesn't Hamlet revolt against Claudius?

Yes, because with all the sympathy for the disasters of ordinary people, Hamlet is completely alien to the idea of ​​​​drawing the people to participate in the affairs

states (1; p.133)

Hamlet cannot achieve his goal - “to set the dislocated joint of Time” by violating the law himself, raising the lower class against the higher one. Personal offense and violated honor give him a moral justification, and the political principle that recognizes tyrannicide as a legitimate form of restoring state order gives him the right to kill Claudius. These two sanctions are enough for Hamlet to carry out revenge.

How does the prince look at his position when Claudius, having seized the throne, removed him from power? We remember that he considered the ambition of Fortinbras a natural trait of chivalry. Is ambition inherent in him? One thing is honor, the highest moral dignity, another is ambition, the desire to exalt at any cost, including crime and murder. As high as Hamlet's concept of honor, he despises ambition. Therefore, he rejects the suggestion of royal spies that he is gnawed by ambition. Shakespeare portrayed the ambitious many times. In this tragedy, it is Claudius. Hamlet does not lie when he denies this vice in himself. Hamlet is by no means power-hungry. But, being a royal son, he naturally considered himself heir to the throne. Knowing the humanity of Hamlet, his condemnation of social injustice, it would not be an exaggeration to assume that, having become king, he would have sought to alleviate the fate of the people. From the words of Ophelia, we know that he was looked upon as the "hope" of the state. The realization that power is in the hands of a usurper and Elodea, and that he is not at the head of the state, intensifies Hamlet's bitterness. He once admits to Horatio that Claudius "stands between the election and my hope", that is, the hope of the prince to become king.

Fighting against Claudius, Hamlet seeks not only to carry out his revenge, but also to restore his hereditary right to the throne.

Conclusion

The image of Hamlet is given in the tragedy close-up. The scale of Hamlet's personality increases because not only the contemplation of all-encompassing evil characterizes the hero, but also the single combat with the vicious world. If he was unable to heal the “loose” age, to give a new direction to time, then he emerged victorious from his spiritual crisis. The evolution of Hamlet is depicted in the tragedy in harsh colors and appears in all its complexity. This is one of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedies. Polonius and Ophelia parted with their lives, Gertrude was poisoned, Laertes and Claudius were killed, Hamlet dies from a wound. Death tramples down death, Hamlet alone wins a moral victory.

Shakespeare's tragedy has two denouements. One directly completes the outcome of the struggle and is expressed in the death of the protagonist. And the other is brought into the future, which will be the only one capable of accepting and enriching the unfulfilled ideals of rebirth and establishing them on earth. The author points out that the struggle is not over, that the resolution of the conflict is in the future. A few minutes before his death, Hamlet bequeaths Horatio to tell people about what happened. They must know about Hamlet in order to follow his example, in order to “combat with confrontation” evil on earth and turn the world - prison into a world of freedom.

Despite the gloomy ending, there is no hopeless pessimism in Shakespeare's tragedy. The ideals of the tragic hero are indestructible, majestic

and his struggle with a vicious, unjust world should serve as an example for other people (3; p. 76). This gives the tragedy "Hamlet" the meaning of a work that is relevant at all times.

Bibliography

1. Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" .- M: Enlightenment, 1986.-124p.

2. Shakespeare. - M: Young Guard, 196s.

3. Dubashinsky Shakespeare.- M: Enlightenment, 1978.-143 p.

4. Holliday and his world. - M: Rainbow, 1986. - 77p.

5. Shvedov The evolution of Shakespeare's tragedy. - M: Art, 197p.

6. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. - Izhevsk, 198p.

Dramaturgy of the 16th-17th centuries was an integral and perhaps the most important part of the literature of that time. This type of literary creativity was the closest and most understandable to the broad masses, it was a spectacle that made it possible to convey to the viewer the feelings and thoughts of the author. William Shakespeare is one of the brightest representatives of the dramaturgy of that time, which is read and re-read to our time, plays based on his works, analyzes philosophical concepts.

The genius of the English poet, actor and playwright lies in the ability to show the realities of life, to penetrate the soul of each viewer, to find in it a response to his philosophical statements through feelings familiar to every person. The theatrical action of that time took place on a platform in the middle of the square, the actors in the course of the play could go down to the “hall”. The viewer became, as it were, a participant in everything that was happening. Nowadays, such an effect of presence is unattainable even when using 3d technologies. All the more important in the theater was the word of the author, the language and style of the work. Shakespeare's talent is manifested in many respects in his linguistic manner of presenting the plot. Simple and somewhat ornate, it differs from the language of the streets, allowing the viewer to rise above everyday life, to stand for some time on a par with the characters of the play, people of the upper class. And the genius is confirmed by the fact that this has not lost its significance in later times - we get the opportunity to become for some time accomplices in the events of medieval Europe.

The pinnacle of Shakespeare's work was considered by many of his contemporaries, and subsequent generations after them, to be the tragedy "Hamlet - Prince of Denmark". This work of a recognized English classic has become one of the most significant for Russian literary thought. It is no coincidence that the tragedy of Hamlet has been translated into Russian more than forty times. Such interest is caused not only by the phenomenon of medieval dramaturgy and the literary talent of the author, which is undoubtedly. Hamlet is a work that reflects the "eternal image" of a seeker of truth, a philosopher of morality and a man who has stepped above his era. The galaxy of such people, which began with Hamlet and Don Quixote, continued in Russian literature with the images of “superfluous people” Onegin and Pechorin, and further in the works of Turgenev, Dobrolyubov, Dostoevsky. This line is native to the Russian seeking soul.

History of creation - Tragedy Hamlet in romanticism of the 17th century

Just as many of Shakespeare's works are based on short stories in the literature of the early Middle Ages, so the plot of the tragedy Hamlet was borrowed by him from the Icelandic chronicles of the 12th century. However, this plot is not something original for the "dark time". The theme of the struggle for power, regardless of moral standards, and the theme of revenge is present in many works of all time. Based on this, Shakespeare's romanticism created the image of a person protesting against the foundations of his time, looking for a way out of these shackles of conventions to the norms of pure morality, but who himself is a hostage to existing rules and laws. The crown prince, a romantic and a philosopher, who asks eternal questions of being and, at the same time, is forced to fight in reality in the way that was customary at that time - “he is not his own master, his birth is tied hand in hand” (act I, scene III ), and this causes him an internal protest.

(Antique engraving - London, 17th century)

In the year of writing and staging the tragedy, England experienced a turning point in its feudal history (1601), therefore, in the play there is some gloom, a real or imaginary decline in the state - "Something has rotted in the Kingdom of Denmark" (act I, scene IV ). But we are more interested in the eternal questions “about good and evil, about fierce hatred and holy love”, which are so clearly and so ambiguously spelled out by the genius of Shakespeare. In full accordance with romanticism in art, the play contains heroes of pronounced moral categories, an obvious villain, a wonderful hero, there is a love line, but the author goes further. The romantic hero refuses to follow the canons of time in his revenge. One of the key figures of the tragedy - Polonius, does not appear to us in an unambiguous light. The theme of betrayal is considered in several storylines and is also offered to the viewer's judgment. From the obvious betrayal of the king and the infidelity of the memory of the late husband by the queen, to the trivial betrayal of the friends of the students, who are not averse to finding out the secrets from the prince for the mercy of the king.

Description of the tragedy (the plot of the tragedy and its main features)

Ilsinore, castle of the Danish kings, night watch with Horatio, Hamlet's friend, meets the ghost of the deceased king. Horatio tells Hamlet about this meeting, and he decides to personally meet with his father's shadow. The ghost tells the Prince the gruesome story of his death. The king's death turns out to be a dastardly murder by his brother Claudius. After this meeting, a turning point occurs in Hamlet's mind. What was learned is superimposed on the fact of the unnecessarily fast wedding of the king's widow, Hamlet's mother, and the murderous brother. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of ​​revenge, but is in doubt. He must make sure of everything himself. Feigning madness, Hamlet observes everything. Polonius, adviser to the king and father of Hamlet's beloved, tries to explain to the king and queen such changes in the prince with rejected love. Before, he forbade his daughter Ophelia to accept Hamlet's courtship. These prohibitions destroy the idyll of love, further leading to depression and insanity of the girl. The king makes his attempts to find out the thoughts and plans of his stepson, he is tormented by doubts and his sin. The former student friends of Hamlet hired by him are with him inseparably, but to no avail. The shock of what he learned makes Hamlet think even more about the meaning of life, about such categories as freedom and morality, about the eternal question of the immortality of the soul, the frailty of being.

Meanwhile, a troupe of wandering actors appears in Ilsinore, and Hamlet persuades them to insert several lines into the theatrical action, exposing the king in fratricide. In the course of the performance, Claudius gives himself away with confusion, Hamlet's doubts about his guilt are dispelled. He tries to talk to his mother, to throw accusations in her face, but the ghost that appears forbids him to take revenge on his mother. A tragic accident exacerbates the tension in the royal chambers - Hamlet kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtains out of curiosity during this conversation, mistaking him for Claudius. Hamlet is sent to England to cover up these unfortunate accidents. Spy friends are sent with him. Claudius hands them a letter for the King of England asking him to execute the prince. Hamlet, who managed to accidentally read the letter, makes corrections in it. As a result, traitors are executed, and he returns to Denmark.

Laertes, the son of Polonius, also returns to Denmark, the tragic news of the death of his sister Ophelia as a result of her insanity because of love, as well as the murder of his father, pushes him to an alliance with Claudia in revenge. Claudius provokes a duel with swords between two young men, the blade of Laertes is deliberately poisoned. Not dwelling on this, Claudius poisons the wine as well, in order to make Hamlet drunk in case of victory. During the duel, Hamlet is wounded by a poisoned blade, but finds an understanding with Laertes. The duel continues, during which the opponents exchange swords, now Laertes is wounded by a poisoned sword. Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, cannot stand the tension of the duel and drinks poisoned wine for her son's victory. Claudius is also killed, only Horace, the only true friend of Hamlet, remains alive. The troops of the Norwegian prince enter the capital of Denmark, who occupies the Danish throne.

Main characters

As can be seen from the entire development of the plot, the theme of revenge fades into the background before the moral quest of the protagonist. The accomplishment of revenge for him is impossible in the expression, as is customary in that society. Even having convinced himself of his uncle's guilt, he does not become his executioner, but only an accuser. Unlike him, Laertes makes a deal with the king, for him revenge is above all, he follows the traditions of his time. The love line in the tragedy is only an additional means to show the moral images of that time, to set off the spiritual searches of Hamlet. The main characters of the play are Prince Hamlet and the king's adviser Polonius. It is in the moral foundations of these two people that the conflict of time is expressed. Not the conflict of good and evil, but the difference in the moral levels of two positive characters is the main line of the play, brilliantly shown by Shakespeare.

A smart, devoted and honest servant to the king and the fatherland, a caring father and a respected citizen of his country. He is sincerely trying to help the king understand Hamlet, he is sincerely trying to understand Hamlet himself. His moral principles at the level of that time are impeccable. Sending his son to study in France, he instructs him on the rules of conduct, which today can be given without changes, they are so wise and universal for any time. Worried about his daughter's moral character, he exhorts her to refuse Hamlet's courtship, explaining the class difference between them and not excluding the possibility of the prince's frivolous attitude towards the girl. At the same time, according to his moral views corresponding to that time, there is nothing prejudicial in such frivolity on the part of the young man. With his distrust of the prince and the will of his father, he destroys their love. For the same reasons, he does not trust his own son either, sending a servant to him as a spy. The plan for observing him is simple - to find acquaintances and, slightly slandering his son, lure out the frank truth about his behavior away from home. To eavesdrop on the conversation of an angry son and mother in the royal chambers is also not something wrong for him. With all his actions and thoughts, Polonius appears to be an intelligent and kind person, even in the madness of Hamlet, he sees his rational thoughts and gives them their due. But he is a typical representative of a society that puts so much pressure on Hamlet with its deceit and duplicity. And this is a tragedy that is understandable not only in modern society, but also in the London public of the early 17th century. Such duplicity is protested by its presence in the modern world.

A hero with a strong spirit and an outstanding mind, searching and doubting, having become one step higher than the whole society in his morality. He is able to look at himself from the outside, he is able to analyze those around him and analyze his thoughts and actions. But he is also a product of that era and that binds him. Traditions and society impose a certain stereotype of behavior on him, which he can no longer accept. On the basis of the plot about revenge, the whole tragedy of the situation is shown when a young man sees evil not just in one vile act, but in the whole society in which such acts are justified. This young man calls himself to live in accordance with the highest morality, responsibility for all his actions. The tragedy of the family only makes him think more about moral values. Such a thinking person cannot but raise universal philosophical questions for himself. The famous monologue "To be or not to be" is only the pinnacle of such reasoning, which is woven into all his dialogues with friends and enemies, in conversations with random people. But the imperfection of society and the environment still pushes for impulsive, often unjustified actions, which are then hard experienced by him and ultimately lead to death. After all, the guilt in the death of Ophelia and the accidental mistake in the murder of Polonius and the inability to understand the grief of Laertes oppress him and shackle him with a chain.

Laertes, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Horatio

All these persons are introduced into the plot as Hamlet's entourage and characterize ordinary society, positive and correct in the understanding of that time. Even considering them from a modern point of view, one can recognize their actions as logical and consistent. The struggle for power and adultery, revenge for the murdered father and the first girlish love, enmity with neighboring states and obtaining land as a result of jousting tournaments. And only Hamlet stands head and shoulders above this society, bogged down to the waist in the tribal traditions of succession to the throne. Three friends of Hamlet - Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are representatives of the nobility, courtiers. For two of them, spying on a friend is not something wrong, and only one remains a faithful listener and interlocutor, a smart adviser. An interlocutor, but nothing more. Before his fate, society and the whole kingdom, Hamlet is left alone.

Analysis - the idea of ​​the tragedy of the prince of Denmark Hamlet

The main idea of ​​Shakespeare was the desire to show psychological portraits of contemporaries based on the feudalism of the "dark times", a new generation growing up in society that can change the world for the better. Competent, seeking and freedom-loving. It is no coincidence that in the play Denmark is called a prison, which, according to the author, was the whole society of that time. But the genius of Shakespeare was expressed in the ability to describe everything in semitones, without sliding into the grotesque. Most of the characters are positive and respected people according to the canons of that time, they reason quite sensibly and fairly.

Hamlet is shown as a person prone to introspection, spiritually strong, but still bound by conventions. The inability to act, the inability, makes him related to the "superfluous people" of Russian literature. But it carries a charge of moral purity and the desire of society for the better. The genius of this work lies in the fact that all these issues are relevant in the modern world, in all countries and on all continents, regardless of the political system. And the language and stanza of the English playwright captivate with their perfection and originality, make you re-read the works several times, turn to performances, listen to performances, look for something new, hidden in the mists of time.

Opening Hamlet, like any other play, the director has to answer the questions again - "what is the most important thing in it?" and “how does he see her character?”. During the long history of performances, Hamlet on the stage was weak and strong. The hero changed depending on the time, which formed the request and changed the directors' view of the problem of the play and the image of Hamlet. Bartoshevich has a very precise definition of this phenomenon - for society, Hamlet appears as a mirror in which the viewer either sees a role model, a symbol of spiritual perfection, or a reflection of his mental illness and his impotence. It is difficult and there is no need to argue with this, but it can be clarified that if earlier Hamlet himself, as the protagonist of the performance, was a mirror, now more and more often it becomes the world around him in the performance and representing a slice of time or other phenomena important for the director.

The new century did not decide what to be the prince, but he himself entered the stage as the main character. Thus, in modern productions, the epoch, which determines moral values, mores, and a picture of the society surrounding Hamlet, has come to the fore. Not a ghost, but time becomes the fate of the prince in the 21st century.
This idea was justified by Shakespeare himself, in a metaphor that largely defines the plot of the play - “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right. The beginning of this phrase can literally be translated as - "Time is dislocated in the joint".

This passage was translated closest to the original by M.L. Lozinsky:
“The century has been shaken! And worst of all
That I was born to restore it!”

and A. Radlova:
“The eyelid is dislocated. O my evil lot!
I must set the eyelid with my own hand "

From this it follows that the main mission of Hamlet, according to the author, was not only revenge for the betrayal and murder of his father. We are given to understand that something more has happened. In everything that surrounds the prince, traces of the distorted morality of the “dislocated century” are visible, and Hamlet will have a really overwhelming, “cursed” burden to correct this time. Create a new coordinate system, redefining how it is possible and how it is impossible, what is good and what is bad. In this field, the viewer is given the right to decide whether Hamlet has coped with the difficult task.

In most cases, in this duel, Hamlet will either have to be the best of the best, or match his opponent, becoming part of the “dislocated eyelid”. The "age" itself, which needs to be corrected, reflects the director's intention. For clarity, in order to better imagine the modern Hamlet and the soil that nurtured him, let's consider a few theatrical examples:

world of war
(“Hamlet” directed by Omri Nitzan, Chamber Theatre, Tel Aviv (Israel))

"Hamlet" of the Chamber Theater did not need a stage, the performance is played right around the audience seats. It would seem that in this way the distance between the hall and the actors is reduced to a minimum, literally two or three steps, but the very atmosphere of the performance does not make it so easy to overcome these few meters, turning them into a kilometer distance to a foreign country and someone else's pain. Shakespeare's plays easily expose painful points and there is a lot of pain in the performance for a country located in a zone of military conflict. The world of "Hamlet" directed by Omri Natsan is a place of incessant war. In it, machine guns have long been replaced by swords, and instead of thrones, stands have been installed for broadcasting political promises. From this world there is no road to France or Wittenberg, you can leave only to serve in the army. Instead of flowers, a mad Ophelia distributes bullets, creating an even more tragic image. A second before her own death, the girl clearly sees the inevitable future, bringing quick death to the right and the guilty. War and death equalize everyone.

There is one more serious reason for the break that led to madness of Ophelia and knocked down Gertrude in the performance: the world of war is cruel and full of violence towards the weaker sex. A man in a life situation where strength rules does not resort to persuasion or tenderness, he raises his hand to a woman and takes the one he wants by force. Hamlet, emerging from peacetime, decides for himself the question "to be or not to be" as the question "to become part of the war and fight or not." Claudius, on the other hand, embodies not only a person, but also the idea of ​​permissiveness by right of opportunity and power, an idea that refuses to perish. Even being smitten by Hamlet, Claudius continues to communicate with the electorate through the microphone, assuring that he is still alive.

world of politics
(Hamlet, director Valery Fokin, Alexandrinsky Theatre, St. Petersburg)

In "Hamlet" by Valery Fokin, we see not just a "dislocated eyelid", but its underside. Mixing all the existing translations, the director created his first assistant - a universal Hamlet language for expressing his thoughts, and his second assistant was the scenery that outlines this idea from the very beginning. Instead of a castle on the stage, stands of a certain arena, stadium are lined up and the viewer is on their reverse side. So the world is divided into official and unofficial. While Hamlet is trying to change at least one part of him, there are battles for influence on both sides of the stands. Much of what is happening officially, from the front side, the viewer only hears, but does not see. In the hall, the approval of the crowd at the speeches of the king and queen is heard, and the Mousetrap, which the actors play at the request of Hamlet, is practically invisible. At the same time, initially the viewer sees more than the characters, because they are on the backstage side of the political intrigue aimed at shifting one power in favor of another. This is another cruel world of hard times, against which Hamlet, who does not want to take on such responsibility, must fight. Not strong enough for the mission entrusted to him and even naive, just the kind that is needed in the world of lies and intrigues. Hamlet in the play, without knowing it, becomes a puppet-destroyer in dexterous hands. Having found the strength to follow his will, in fact, he follows someone else's intention exactly as it was intended by a third party. In the world of politics, all heroes are pawns in the hands of a more intelligent, far-sighted and unprincipled player. Claudius is a pawn in the hands of Gertrude. This strong woman could herself kill her first husband, who apparently did not want to share the reins of government with her. That is why for the second marriage she chose the weak Cladvius as her husband, who prefers a place under her heel to the crown. The second pawn that is not destined to cross the chessboard is Hamlet himself. He is a pawn in the hands of Fortinbras. The ghost is a fake of his team, an evil joke used to achieve the goal, what for Hamlet is a crusade, for the hidden player is the elimination of rivals. Without knowing the truth, Hamlet only clears the way for the new government. No one managed to straighten the century, he remained the same dislocated in the hypocritical world of politics, where there can be no question of morality or justice.

world of consumption
(Hamlet directed by Thomas Ostermeier, Schaubühne am Leniner Platz, Germany)

Ostermeier decided to immediately play with stereotypes by offering an unusual Hamlet on stage. His Hamlet looks like a fat burgher watching his father's funeral and his mother's wedding with lazy detachment. He shows his true attitude towards others in a different way: in the hands of Hamlet is a camera filming what is happening from his point of view. Through it, he broadcasts a repulsive picture of the "holiday" on the screens. Those gathered at the table do not eat, but greedily devour the earth. The one in which there are worms, emperors on the table. It is a world of consumption, devouring itself. Deciding for himself the question "to be or not to be", Hamlet renounces it. It turns out that his lazy wadded shell is just a cocoon suit, from which Hamlet gets out after completing his transformation.

The idea of ​​the performance is best illustrated by the actions of the main characters: Claudius visiting his brother's grave to dig out a crown from it and Hamlet turning this symbol of power over before putting it on his head.

world of horror
(Hamlet directed by Harold Strelkov, ApARTe, Moscow)

Strelkov's play presents what seems to be the world farthest from reality, it does not have direct contact with today, but there is a reference to modern culture, offering to relieve stress from real fear born of everyday life, fear hidden in the subconscious and extracted from there by the entertainment industry . When designing a sanctuary for spirits from Japanese horror films, the director minimized reality by isolating his Elsinore. Strelkov chose a wooden hut as the scene of action, transferring it from a dark forest thicket to the icy Arctic expanses. Behind the walls there is only cold, darkness and not a single living soul, only fear and spirits.

In this space, hell and purgatory are united, the walls turn, demonstrating how parallel in time in one hall the undead heroes of the play live, and in the other the dead roam. Of course, here no one dies of their own free will, in a world woven from horror and despair, even Ophelia is not supposed to just drown, any death is conceived and embodied by the Ghost, who took the place of the protagonist. The shadow of Hamlet's father is the evil genius Elsinore. The heroes want to live and be happy, but the ghost does not give them a single chance. In this context, the prince meets not with the spirit of the deceased father, but with the devil, who has taken on a beloved image, leading the prince to self-destruction. In the finale, when everyone has died, Hamlet is left alone with the Ghost and asks him a question that contains all the accumulated “why?” and why?". Hamlet asks his father - what's next? Receiving instead of an answer, silence and a satiated, satisfied smile of a ghost.

primeval world
(Hamlet, directed by Nikolai Kolyada, Kolyada Theatre, Yekaterinburg)

Kolyada has nothing superfluous on stage, only tons of necessary junk, without which there would be no performance. The most replicated paintings since Soviet times are hung on the walls: “Bears in a Pine Forest”, “The Stranger”, and in the hands of the heroes are not one, but dozens of reproductions of “Mona Lisa”. Embroidered pillows, empty canned food tins and corks are scattered in the corners, passed from mouth to mouth with a kiss. Add to this a mountain of moslov, a large inflatable bathtub with oars, and here you have all the unpretentious belongings accumulated over millennia by civilization, and from above, in this garbage, monkeys that have replaced people are swarming. At best, an apocalypse occurred that reversed evolution, and our ancestors repopulated the earth, but in a more realistic reading, we are the monkeys themselves, who did not go far from this primitive society. The heroes of Kolyada are already or not yet human beings and they do not have free will, as evidenced by the collar around their necks and the leashes that they hand over to the one they are ready to follow. Naturally, this someone must be an alpha, a head baboon like Claudius.

In such a society, there is no moral dilemma about how Gertrude could remarry immediately after the death of her first husband, because only the laws of wildlife apply, no other laws have yet been invented. Religion has not been invented either, it is being replaced by shamanic dances that address nature on the most mundane issues. The monkeys, led by Claudius, who combined the functions of a leader and a shaman, call for rain.

Hamlet is the first person born in the monkey world. The first who does not hand his leash to anyone (with the exception of a fight, when habits serve as a weapon), the first who sees the surrounding reality from the height of his development, and not the depth of the general fall. Realizing the baseness of his age, Hamlet is caustic towards him, and the age, through the eyes of the director, on the contrary, sees the future in him. With his arrival, the monkeys have a choice. They still go after the alpha male Claudius, but they are ready to go after the ahead of his time Hamlet. Hamlet is a new stage of evolution, after which degradation should be replaced by development, the promise of a new day. And even his death does not contradict hope: the long-awaited rain is pouring over the body of the deceased first person.

vacuum space
(“Hamlet Project”, directed by Thomas Flax, University of the Arts Bern, Switzerland)

A half-hour performance without clear frames and forms for four very young actors. The Hamlet Project begins at the point where the play itself has exhausted itself. Shakespeare's text has already been read by the actors, parsed and lived through. The viewer gets not Hamlet itself, but its aftertaste. A story not of events, but of their consequences, presented by two Hamlets and two Ophelias. Although if the participants in the performance themselves did not insist that they were exactly two Hamlets and two Ophelias, then one couple could have turned out to be Claudius and Gertrude with the same success.

Student interpretation results in an almost female solo. In the world of consequences, there is no worthy place left for Hamlet or Claudius, their part of the play has already ended. They did what they saw fit, putting the burden of their actions on the shoulders of women who love them. Hamlet appears before the viewer only to demonstrate once again how he interfered with the lives of people close to him. This is a boy with an unbalanced psyche, in front of which hundreds of dogs and cats were tortured in childhood, or he himself tortured many living beings. Ophelia, who looks like Ophelia, an excellent student who has gathered for a graduation ball, he tortures out of habit, directing her to the path described in the play. After suffering as much as she could and thanking her family for their support, as if she was about to be awarded an Oscar, this violin sinks, having played its solo. The second Ophelia, who almost became Gertrude, prefers to drown her grief in wine and, in addition to an Oscar for the performed part, wants a crown, but her end, according to the play, is sad. In Thomas Flax, the male theatrical world, the world of the play "Hamlet" has become a female one, where women are responsible for everything that men do, paying at the highest price.

Each rule has an exception that confirms this rule, therefore, to complete the picture, we should consider at least one performance where there are no pronounced signs of the era:

History wheel
(Hamlet directed by Vladimir Recepter, Pushkin School, St. Petersburg)

Recepter, who once played "Hamlet" as a solo performance, staged with his students the classic, in the best sense of the word, "Hamlet". Leaving only the play and, if possible, without thinking for the author. During the Moscow tour, this performance was played at the ShDI (School of Dramatic Arts) in the Globe Hall, a reduced copy of the stage of the legendary London theater, and the audience had a unique opportunity to watch Hamlet from the height of the upper tiers. From there, the gazebo, the only decoration, was seen as a wheel, through the spokes of which you look at the heroes. This invisible but tangible image, symbolizing time, was always present in the performance. Not a certain period of time, but its constant flow, called fate or fate. Polonius, embracing his children and dreaming of saving them, Gertrude, despite other interpretations, loving her son, Claudius, knowing the value of his prayers, Phantom, Hamlet, a troupe of actors, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the wheel of time, rushing at great speed to the cliff, drags all participants with it tragedy, landing on the side of one Horatio. Witness in favor of Shakespeare's heroes.

When writing, an article by V.P. Komarov "Metaphors and allegories in the works of Shakespeare" (1989)