Philosophical problems of tragedy. Reflection of the crisis of humanism in William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” What is Hamlet’s personal problem

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

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

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

The essence

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

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

Genre and direction

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

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

Conflict

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

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

Composition

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

The action can be divided into five parts:

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

The main characters and their characteristics

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

Themes

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

Problems

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

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

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

Meaning

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

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

Criticism

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

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

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

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

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

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is the most outstanding of all the writers of the English Renaissance. His pen includes comedies ["A Midsummer Night's Dream", "Much Ado About Nothing", "Twelfth Night"], tragedies, sonnets, historical chronicles ["Richard II", "Richard III", "Henry IV", "Henry V" "].

Tragedies: Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet.

Tragedy "Hamlet". Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, learns that his father did not die, but was treacherously killed by Claudius, who then married the widow of the deceased and inherited his throne. Hamlet swears to avenge his father, but instead he reflects, philosophizes, and does not take anything decisive. He kills Claudius, but purely impulsively, having learned that he poisoned him. In fact, Hamlet is not passive or weak-willed. Just studying at the university, he was far from the court and its intrigues. Now it was as if scales had fallen from his eyes. He saw the inconstancy of his mother, who married for the second time literally immediately after the funeral of her first husband. Sees the falsehood and depravity of the entire Danish court. Hamlet understands that the point is not the fact of his father’s murder, but that this murder could have been carried out, remained unpunished and brought fruit to the murderer only thanks to the indifference, connivance and servility of everyone around him. Hamlet could have dealt with Claudius and regained the throne. But he is a thinker and a humanist concerned with the common good. He must fight the untruths of the whole world, speaking out in defense of all the oppressed. But such a task, in Hamlet’s opinion, is beyond the capabilities of one person, so Hamlet retreats before it, goes into his thoughts, and plunges into the depths of his despair. But such a position sharpens his thoughts and makes him an impartial judge of life. Expressing thoughts of exceptional depth, Hamlet is not an exponent of the ideas of Shakespeare himself or his era, but a specific person, whose words, expressing his deep personal experiences, acquire special persuasiveness through this.

Tragedy is studied at school in the 10th grade, and the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” is also studied in the 8th grade.

20) Goethe’s “Faust” as a genre of educational tragedy.

The role of prologues (“Prologue in the theater”, “Prologue in heaven”) in the composition of the tragedy. Faust and Mephistopheles - two views of the world. Image of Margarita. Studying tragedy at school.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) is Germany's greatest poet. A brilliant poet, prose writer, playwright, a man of encyclopedic knowledge. Goethe's work embodies the most progressive and humane ideas of his time.

The tragedy “Faust” is one of the greatest works of world literature, on which the poet worked throughout his life. Goethe borrowed the plot from the 16th century “People's Book” about Doctor Faustus, a magician and a warlock. Goethe gave his Faust the features of a humanist, rushing out of the darkness of the Middle Ages to new, bright times. In an effort to understand the meaning of life, Faust enters into an alliance with the devil, who promises to give him all the joys of life. After great trials and disappointments, having experienced ups and downs, having known love, having become familiar with art, Faust finds inner harmony. Faust finds the highest happiness and satisfaction only in creative activity for the benefit of the people.

The tragedy begins with the “Prologue in the Theater.” It expresses Goethe's aesthetic views. The poet defends the high purpose of art. In the second introduction, “Prologue in Heaven,” the optimistic educational idea of ​​​​the tragedy is clearly outlined. Goethe contrasts the cynical skepticism of Mephistopheles and his slander against man with the life-affirming concept put by the poet into the mouth of the Lord, who expresses confidence that Faust, having gone through all the errors and dangerous temptations, will achieve victory and defend the high title of man.

Goethe believed that the harmony of the world is created in the struggle of contradictions, and truth is created in the clash of ideas. Faust and Mephistopheles are two antipodes. They have certain human traits embedded in them. Faust is dissatisfied, restless, passionate, ready to love passionately and hate strongly, he is capable of being mistaken and making tragic mistakes. He is very sensitive, his heart is easily hurt. His mind is in constant doubt and anxiety. Mephistopheles is balanced, passions, and doubts do not bother him. He looks at the world without hatred and love. But this is not the type of villain. This is the type of person who is tired of long contemplation of evil and has lost faith in the good principles of the world. He sees the imperfection of the world and knows that it is eternal, that no amount of effort can change it.

The best pages of the first part of Faust are devoted to the description of the meeting of Faust and Margarita, their love and the tragic death of the girl. Margarita is characterized by simple-heartedness, spiritual purity, and sensitivity; she completely trusted Faust, a beautiful stranger she met by chance at a village festival. He captured her heart and mind. A girl by her nature is inclined to love, forgive shortcomings, and humble herself. The spirit of doubt and struggle is alien to her. She is lost in front of Mephistopheles. His words frighten her. Faust is conquered by Margarita's spiritual purity. But, having achieved her love, he leaves her. Margarita kills her child and goes to prison. She is losing her mind. Margarita is aware of her terrible guilt, but still strives for Faust with all her heart.

At school, Goethe's tragedy "Faust" is studied in the 10th grade.

1) The history of the plot of “Hamlet”.

The prototype is Prince Amleth (the name is known from the Icelandic sagas of Snorri Sturluson). 1 lit. a monument in which this plot is found is “History of the Danes” by Saxo Grammar (1200). Differences in the plot from “G”: the murder of King Gorwendil by brother Fengon takes place openly, at a feast; before this, F. and Queen Geruta had nothing to do with each other. Amlet takes revenge like this: having returned from England (see Hamlet) for a funeral feast regarding his own death (they still thought that he was killed), he gets everyone drunk, covers them with a carpet, nails them to the floor and sets them on fire. Geruta blesses him, because... she repented of marrying F. In 1576 Fr. writer François Belfort published this story in French. language. Changes: connection between F. and Geruta before the murder, strengthening of Geruta’s role as an assistant in the matter of revenge.

Then a play was written that has not reached us. But we know about it from the memoirs of contemporaries about “a bunch of Hamlets” who pronounce long monologues. Then (before 1589) another play was written, which was published, but the author did not (most likely it was Thomas Kyd, from whom “The Spanish Tragedy” remained). The tragedy of bloody revenge, the founder of which was Kid. The secret murder of a king reported by a ghost. + motive of love. The villain's machinations, directed against the noble avenger, turn against him. Sh. left the whole plot.

2) History of the study of the tragedy “G”.

There were two concepts regarding G. - subjectivist and objectivist.

Subjectivist points of view: Thomas Hammer in the 18th century. was the first to notice G.'s slowness, but said that G. was brave and decisive, but if he had acted immediately, there would have been no play. Goethe believed that the impossible was being demanded from G. The Romantics believed that reflection kills the will.

Objectivist point of view: Ziegler and Werder believed that G. does not take revenge, but creates retribution, and for this it is necessary for everything to look fair, otherwise G. will kill justice itself. In general, this can be confirmed by a quotation: The century has been shaken - And the worst thing is that I was born to restore it. Those. he administers the highest judgment, and does not simply take revenge.

Another concept: G.'s problem is related to the problem of interpreting time. A sharp shift in chronological perspective: the clash of heroic time and the time of absolutist courts. The symbols are King Hamlet and King Claudius. Both of them are characterized by Hamlet - “the chivalrous king of exploits” and the “smiling king of intrigue.” 2 duels: King Hamlet and the Norwegian king (in the spirit of the epic, “honor and law”), 2 - Prince Hamlet and Laertes in the spirit of the policy of secret murders. When G. finds himself faced with irreversible time, Hamletism begins.

3) The concept of the tragic.

Goethe: “All his plays revolve around a hidden point where all the originality of our “I” and the daring freedom of our will collides with the inevitable course of the whole.” The main plot is the fate of man in society, the possibilities of the human personality in a world order unworthy of man. At the beginning of the action, the hero idealizes his world and himself, based on the high purpose of man, he is imbued with faith in the rationality of the system of life and in his ability to create his own destiny. The action is based on the fact that the protagonist enters into a great conflict with the world on this basis, which leads the hero through a “tragic delusion” to mistakes and suffering, to misdeeds or crimes committed in a state of tragic passion.

In the course of the action, the hero realizes the true face of the world (the nature of society) and his real capabilities in this world, dies in the denouement, with his death, as they say, atones for his guilt and at the same time affirms the greatness of people in the whole action and in the finale. personality as a source of tragically “daring freedom.” More specifically: G. studied in Wittenberg, the cultural and spiritual center of the Renaissance, there he picked up ideas about the greatness of man, etc., and Denmark with its intrigues is alien to him, for him it is “the worst of prisons.” What does he think about a person now - see. his monologue in act 2 (about the quintessence of dust).

4) The image of the protagonist.

The hero is a highly significant and interesting person. The subjective side of a tragic situation is also the consciousness of the protagonist. The unique character of the tragic hero lies in his destiny - and the very plot of this play, as a heroically characteristic plot.

Sh.’s tragic hero is quite at the level of his situation, he can handle it, without him it would not exist. She is his destiny. Another person in the place of the protagonist would have come to terms with the current circumstances (or would not have gotten involved in such a situation at all).

The protagonist is endowed with a “fatal” nature, rushing against fate (Macbeth: “No, come out, let’s fight, fate, not to the stomach, but to death!”).

5) The image of the antagonist.

The antagonists are various interpretations of the concept of “valor.” Claudius is valiant according to Machiavelli. Energy of mind and will, ability to adapt to circumstances. Strives to “appear” (imaginary love for nephew).

Iago is a quality of a Renaissance personality: activity, enterprise, energy. But the nature is rude - it is a boor and a plebeian. He is cunning and envious, hates superiority over himself, hates the high world of feelings, because it is inaccessible to him. Love is lust for him.

Edmund - activity, enterprise, energy, but there are no benefits of a legitimate son. Crime is not a goal, but a means. Having achieved everything, he is ready to save Lear and Cordelia (an order for their release). Macbeth is both an antagonist and a protagonist (S. never named a tragedy after the antagonist). Before the witches appeared, he was a valiant warrior. And then he thinks that he is destined to be king. This is supposedly his duty. Those. the witches predicted it for him - now it’s up to him. Driven by the ethic of valor, he becomes a villain. Towards the goal - by any means. The ending speaks of the collapse of a generously gifted personality who took the wrong path. See his latest monologue.

6) Concept of time.

Hamlet - see above.

7) Features of the composition.

Hamlet: the beginning is a conversation with a ghost. The climax is the “mousetrap” scene (“The Murder of Gonzago”). The denouement is clear.

8) The motive of madness and the motive of life-theater.

For G. and L., madness is the highest wisdom. In madness they understand the essence of the world. True, G.'s madness is fake, L.'s is real.

Lady Macbeth's Madness - Man's mind has gone astray and nature rebels against him. The image of the world-theater conveys Shakespeare's view of life. This is also manifested in the characters’ vocabulary: “scene”, “jester”, “actor” are not just metaphors, but words-images-ideas (“Two truths are spoken as favorable prologues to the brewing action on the theme of royal power” - Macbeth, I, 3 , literally; “My mind had not yet composed the prologue before it began to play” - Hamlet, V, 2, etc.).

The tragedy of the hero is that he has to play, but the hero either doesn’t want to (Cordelia), but is forced to (Hamlet, Macbeth, Edgar, Kent), or realizes that at the decisive moment he was just playing (Ottelo, Lear).

This polysemic image expresses the humiliation of man by life, the lack of freedom of the individual in a society unworthy of man.

Hamlet’s maxim: “The purpose of acting was and is to hold up, as it were, a mirror in front of nature, to show every time and class its likeness and imprint” - also has the opposite effect: life is acting, the theatricality of art is a small resemblance to the great theater of life.

Seminar lesson No. 4.

Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet"

1. What served as the basis for Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”? Why is it that only specialists know the story about the Danish prince Amleth, while Shakespeare’s Hamlet is known to the whole world?

It is no secret that Shakespeare often wrote his books, inspired by ancient stories that had already been told by someone. For example, the story of Romeo and Juliet was told before Shakespeare in a poem by Arthur Brooke. Someone unknown, long before Shakespeare, wrote a primitive dramatic story, “King Lear and the Three Daughters.” The legend about Hamlet also goes back many centuries. His story was outlined by Saxo Grammaticus in his “History of the Danes” (c. 1200). It described the life of the Jutland prince Amleth, who lived in pagan times, that is, until 827, when Christianity was introduced in Denmark.

Subsequently, this story was retold several times by different authors, and in 1589. The prince's story was even performed on the London stage.

These stories and legends, with their inherent pristine simplicity and naivety, would continue to exist, as many legendary and fairy-tale stories still exist, preserving all the charm of their primitiveness. But it is to Shakespeare that they owe the acquisition of an extraordinary depth of comprehension of life, enormous poetic power. Who would have known Romeo and Juliet, Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet if Shakespeare had not depicted their fates? Shakespeare raised these and many other stories to the height of such an understanding of life, which had not been seen in art before him.

2. Why did every post-Shakespearean century see in Hamlet a work in tune with his search? What is the mystery of the Prince of Denmark?

Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet is the most famous of the English playwright's plays. According to many highly respected art connoisseurs, this is one of the most profound creations of human genius, a great philosophical tragedy. It concerns the most important issues of life and death, which cannot but concern every person, and are of truly universal significance. Moreover, tragedy poses acute moral problems; This is why Hamlet attracts many generations of people. Life changes, new interests and concepts arise, but each new generation finds in tragedy something close to itself.

However, everyone sees Prince Hamlet in their own way.

For example, Goethe considered him a “beautiful, pure, noble, highly moral being,” although he noted his “weakness of will with a high sense of duty.”

German researcher August Schlegel comes to the conclusion that an excessive tendency to reasoning and reflection kills determination and the will to action. Thus, the tragedy of Hamlet begins to be viewed as the eternal tragedy of the intelligentsia.

To Turgenev, he seemed an egoist: “He lives entirely for himself... He is a skeptic and is always fussing and fussing with himself.” He contrasts the indecisive, skeptical, incapable of captivating Hamlet with Don Quixote as a man of action.

argues that Hamlet at different stages shows strength, weakness, indecision, and lightning-fast determination; and that it is only in this way, in evolution, in movement, that the multifaceted image of Hamlet should be considered.

Hence the paradox of the perception of the great tragedy. Precisely because it touches everyone very personally, it gives rise to completely different, sometimes contradictory interpretations.

3. What is the tragedy of Hamlet?

“He was a man in everything” (Hamlet’s character, its content and ways of revealing it).

Prove by analyzing the texts that Hamlet is a man of thought, a philosopher.

Hamlet is the bearer of the humanistic worldview of his era and at the same time a critic of the ideas of the Renaissance.

The problem of Hamlet's will.

Tragedy is a rare guest in world art. There are entire eras of spiritual development that are devoid of a developed tragic consciousness. The reason for this is the nature of the dominant ideology. Tragedy can arise in a crisis of religious ideology, as it did in ancient Greece and the Renaissance.

Shakespeare was a contemporary of the great era in human history, called the Renaissance, which was born at the turn of the XIII-XIV centuries. It was a long period of social and spiritual development in Europe, when the centuries-old feudal system was being broken down and the bourgeois system was being born. This began in Italy. A new worldview was formed in connection with the growth of cities, the development of commodity production, the formation of a world market, geographical discoveries... The spiritual dominance of the church was put to an end, and the beginnings of new sciences appeared.

Separately, it is necessary to say about the birth and formation of a new humanistic culture. The cult of antiquity arose in sculpture and painting; it was seen as a prototype of free humanity.

At first, humanism meant only the study of the languages ​​and written records of the Greco-Roman world. This new science was opposed to the dominant church doctrine of the feudal Middle Ages, the bearer of which was theology. Over time, humanism acquired a broader meaning. It took shape in an extensive system of views, covering all branches of knowledge - philosophy, politics, morality, natural history.

Humanists did not at all reject Christianity as such. His moral teaching, the ethics of goodness, was not alien to them. But humanists rejected the Christian idea of ​​renouncing the blessings of life and, on the contrary, argued that earthly existence was given to man in order to fully use his powers.

For humanists, man is the center of the universe. The ideal of humanists was a comprehensively developed person, equally manifesting himself in the field of thought and practical activity. Having broken the old morality of submission to the existing order, supporters of a new outlook on life rejected all kinds of restrictions on human activity.

Shakespeare reflected all aspects of this complex process. In his works we see both people who are still inclined to live in the old fashioned way, and those who have thrown off the shackles of outdated morality, and those who understand that human freedom does not at all mean the right to build one’s well-being on the misfortunes of others.

The heroes of Shakespeare's plays are people of exactly this kind. They are characterized by great passions, powerful will, immeasurable desires. All of them are outstanding individuals. The character of each is revealed with extraordinary clarity and completeness. Everyone determines their own destiny by choosing one path or another in life.

Hamlet is a leading man of his time. He is a student at the University of Wittenberg, which was at the forefront of Shakespeare's era. Hamlet's progressive worldview is also manifested in his philosophical views. In his reasoning one can feel glimpses of elemental materialism and the overcoming of religious illusions. True, the misfortunes he encountered brought discord into his worldview. On the one hand, Hamlet repeats the well-learned teaching of humanists about the greatness and dignity of man: “What a masterful creature is man! How noble in mind! How limitless in his abilities, appearances and movements! How precise and wonderful in action! How he resembles an angel in his deep comprehension! How he looks like some kind of god! The beauty of the universe! The crown of all living things! (II, 2). This high assessment of man is opposed by Hamlet’s unexpected conclusion: “What is this quintessence of dust to me? Not a single person makes me happy..." (II 2). With these statements, he simultaneously confirms the ideas of the Renaissance and criticizes them.

Based on the text, we can safely assume that before the terrible incidents that disturbed his spiritual peace, Hamlet was a person of integrity, and this is especially manifested in the combination of thought, will and ability to act. The shocked consciousness led to the disintegration of the unity of these qualities.

Hamlet's very first monologue reveals his tendency to make the broadest generalizations from a single fact. The mother’s behavior leads Hamlet to a negative judgment about all women: “Frailty, you are called a woman!”

With the death of his father and his mother's betrayal, for Hamlet there came a complete collapse of the world in which he had lived until then. He sees the whole world in black:

How boring, dull and unnecessary

It seems to me that everything in the world!

O abomination! This lush garden, fruitful

Just one seed; wild and evil

It dominates.

Shakespeare portrays his hero as a person endowed with great sensitivity, deeply perceiving the terrible phenomena that affect them. Hamlet is a man of hot blood, a large heart capable of strong feelings. He is by no means the cold rationalist and analyst that he is sometimes imagined to be. His thought is stimulated not by abstract observation of facts, but by deep experience of them. If from the very beginning we feel that Hamlet rises above those around him, then this is not the rise of a person above the circumstances of life. On the contrary, one of Hamlet’s highest personal advantages lies in the completeness of his sensations of life, his connection with it, in the awareness that everything that happens around him is significant and requires a person to determine his attitude towards things, events, and people. Hamlet is distinguished by an aggravated, tense and even painful reaction to his surroundings.

In Hamlet, more than anywhere else, Shakespeare reveals his changeable personality. For example, at first Hamlet takes on the task of avenging his father with somewhat unexpected ardor. After all, quite recently we heard him complain about the horrors of life and admit that he would like to commit suicide, just not to see the surrounding abomination. Now he is filled with indignation, gathering strength for the upcoming task. A little time later, it is already painful for him that such a huge task fell on his shoulders, he does not look at it as a curse, it is a heavy burden for him:

The century has been shaken - and worst of all,

That I was born to restore it!

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 fight against the world of evil.

The problem of Hamlet's will is the problem of his choice. In his most famous monologue, “To be or not to be?” Hamlet doubts like never before. This is the climax of his doubts:

What is nobler in spirit - to submit

To the slings and arrows of furious fate

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

Confrontation?

In this monologue, Hamlet appears as a deep philosopher, he reveals a thinker asking new questions: what is death:

Die, sleep -

And only: and say that you end up sleeping

Melancholy and a thousand natural torments,

The legacy of the flesh - how is such a denouement

Not thirsty?

Monologue “To be or not to be?” from beginning to end it is permeated with a heavy consciousness of the sorrows of existence. This is the apogee of his thoughts. The point is, will Hamlet stop at these reflections or are they a transitional step to further things?

But in Act III, Scene 5, Hamlet, after much thought, gains final determination in another monologue.

I don't know myself

Why do I live, repeating: “This must be done,”

Since there is a reason, will, power and means,

To do this.

Before Shakespeare, no writer conveyed such deep moral torment or described such deep thoughts.

4. What is the heroism of Hamlet’s deeds and the greatness of his feat (prove by analyzing Hamlet’s main monologues)? Evaluate your attitude towards Hamlet and the methods of fighting evil that he chooses.

Hamlet is irreconcilable to evil, but he does not know how to fight it. His heroism lies in the fact that, having gone through hellish circles of doubt, reflection, and torment, he still brings his revenge to the end.

A curious detail: when Laertes suspects that Claudius killed his father, he rouses the people to revolt against the king. Hamlet, in exactly the same situation, does not resort to the help of the people, although the people love him. Why doesn't Hamlet act like Laertes? Hamlet doesn't even think about this way to settle scores with the king. His struggle with Claudius has exclusively moral meaning for him. Hamlet is a lonely fighter for justice. But it is interesting that he fights against his enemies using their own methods - he pretends, cunning, seeks to find out the secret of his enemy, deceives and - paradoxically - for the sake of a noble goal he is guilty of the death of several people. Claudius is responsible for the death of only one former king. Hamlet kills (though not intentionally) Polonius, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to certain death, kills Laertes and, finally, the king; he is the direct cause of Ophelia's madness and is indirectly responsible for her death. But in the eyes of everyone, he remains morally pure, for he pursued noble goals and the evil that he committed was always a response to the machinations of his opponents.

In our time, one can only be horrified by the methods that Hamlet chose. But you need to know the history of bloody revenge of the era when a special sophistication of retribution to the enemy arose, and then Hamlet’s tactics will become clear. He needs Claudius to become aware of his criminality; he wants to punish the enemy first with internal torment, pangs of conscience, if he has one, and only then deal a fatal blow so that he knows that it is not only Hamlet who is punishing him, but the moral law, universal justice.

Monologues - question No. 3.

5. The breadth and completeness of Shakespeare's characters (images of Polonius, Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes, Ophelia, etc.) Episodic characters.

Claudius pleasant, courteous, and perhaps, in some eyes, even seductive. (Hamlet: “Smiling scoundrel, damned scoundrel.”)

Claudius, unlike Richard III, for example, having committed one crime, was ready to stop there. Having achieved his goal, he, as his speech from the throne shows, sought to strengthen his position by peaceful means: firstly, to secure the country from a possible raid by Fortinbrass, and secondly, to make peace with Hamlet. Understanding full well that he took the throne from him, Claudius, compensating for this loss, declares him his heir, asking him to see his father. The only thing he demands from Hamlet is not to leave the Danish court, so that it would be more convenient to observe him (Hamlet: “For me Denmark is a prison”).

He realizes that he has committed a grave sin - fratricide. But he prays out of repentance, not because he deeply believes, he just wants to wash away the guilt from himself, in the hope of begging for forgiveness. He himself admits that he is “unrepentant.” His baseness is also manifested in the fact that he twice secretly plots to kill Hamlet, although he is married to his mother! He ends up unwittingly poisoning her. On top of everything else, he killed the former king, turns out to be the culprit in the death of the crown prince - he exterminated the entire royal family and therefore, according to Shakespeare, deserves death.

Gertrude. Hamlet is sure that Gertrude sincerely loved his father, and she was prompted to marry Claudius solely by base sensuality, which disgusts him. Hamlet reproaches and even bitterly condemns Gertrude not only for this, but also for incest, which in those days was considered a grave sin. She was so blindly given over to her thirst for happiness when she married a second time that she did not recognize the true character of the one in whose hands she had placed her destiny. Nevertheless, Gertrude knows that Hamlet’s madness is imaginary, but she does not reveal this to anyone.

During Hamlet's duel with Laertes, she openly sides with her son. The king's insidious conspiracy with Laertes is unknown to her. She calmly drinks the cup of poison prepared for Hamlet. The fact that she drinks the poison intended for her son has a symbolic meaning. She, like Hamlet, falls victim to Claudius’s treachery, and this at least partially atones for her moral guilt.

Polonium. He probably occupied a high position under the old king. The new king bestows his favors on him and is ready to show them to him first. This suggests that after the death of the former monarch, Polonius played an important role in the election of Claudius as king. Kowtowed to the reigning persons, in his home he is an unlimited ruler, demanding unconditional obedience. He needs to know everything that is going on in the palace. He is always in a hurry to tell all the news to the king and immediately runs to tell him, for example, that the reason for Hamlet's insanity is rejected love. The main means of obtaining information from him is surveillance. He dies while eavesdropping on Hamlet's conversation with his mother.

There is not a word in his speeches about sympathy or helping other people. Polonius knows for himself: “I know myself, when the blood is burning, how generous the tongue is in oaths.” He recommends caution in dealing with others and almost every one of his instructions is imbued with distrust of people, even sending a man to spy on his own son to check whether Laertes is fulfilling his commandments in Paris.

The wisdom of Polonius is the wisdom of a courtier, sophisticated in intrigue, going to the goal in indirect ways, able to act secretly, hiding his true intentions.

Laertes. If Hamlet worshiped his father, then Laertes wanted to quickly get rid of his tutelage. After the death of his father, his suspicion instantly falls on the king. From this we can conclude what opinion he has of his sovereign. Without hesitation, Laertes raises the people to revolt, breaks into the palace and is going to kill the king. This means he considers himself equal to the king. Revenge for his father is a matter of honor, but he has his own idea about it. For example, he is outraged that the ashes of his father and sister were not given due honor, but at the same time he is going to cut Hamlet's throat in the church. For the sake of revenge, he is even ready for sacrilege

But the full extent of his contempt for true honor is manifested in the fact that he agrees to Claudius's treacherous plan to kill Hamlet by deception, fighting him with a poisoned rapier against Hamlet's ordinary rapier for fencing exercises. He behaves not like a knight, but like an insidious killer. Before his death, Laertes, however, repents. Belatedly, his nobility of spirit returns and he confesses to his crime; he now understands: “I myself am punished by my treachery.”

Hamlet forgives him: “Be pure before heaven!” Why? He is the brother of Ophelia and Hamlet is convinced of the nobility of Laertes, that he should have the same high concepts of honor as he himself. If we remember everything that Hamlet was guilty of in relation to Polonius’s family, then the relationship between them can well be characterized by Shakespeare’s formula - “measure for measure.”

Ophelia. She speaks only 158 lines of text, but Shakespeare was able to put a whole life into these lines.

Ophelia's love is her misfortune. Although her father is a close associate of the king, his minister, she is nevertheless not of royal blood and therefore is not a match for her lover. From the very first appearance of Ophelia, the main conflict of her fate is clearly indicated - her father and brother demand that she renounce her love for Hamlet. Obeying them, we see her complete lack of war and independence.

In the tragedy there is not a single love scene between Hamlet and Ophelia. But there is a scene of their breakup. It is full of amazing drama.

The words that Hamlet pronounces over Ophelia’s grave finally convince us that his feelings for her were genuine. That is why the scenes where Hamlet rejects Ophelia are imbued with special drama - all the cruel words that he says to her are difficult for him, he pronounces them with despair, because, loving her, he realizes that she has become a tool of his enemy against him and for To achieve revenge, one must renounce love. Hamlet suffers because he is forced to hurt Ophelia, and, suppressing pity, is merciless in his condemnation of women. It is noteworthy, however, that he personally does not blame her for anything and seriously advises her to go to a monastery from this vicious world.

Horatio. Hamlet's friend from university. A completely inactive character, Horatio is assigned an important role in the ideological plan. He serves Shakespeare to reveal the ideal of man. Hamlet completely trusts his plan of revenge to him alone. He is not a slave to passions; Horatio is a calm, balanced person, he is characterized by rationalism. But the main thing that Hamlet emphasizes in him is his philosophical view of life. Horatio, with all his wise calm, loves Hamlet dearly. Seeing the hundred prince dying, he wants to share his fate and is ready to drink poison from a poisoned cup. Hamlet stops him.

Horatio is a man of humanistic culture, an ardent admirer of antiquity. Before attempting to drink poison and commit suicide, he exclaims: “I am a Roman, not a Dane in soul.”

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They are quiet habits, obsequiousness and evasiveness, assent, affectionateness and flattery, pretense, groveling, universality and insignificance.

The peculiar drama of their fate is that they are pawns in someone else's game. Accustomed to pleasing and obeying, they know nothing about the essence of what is happening, even about what they are directly involved in. Voluntary servants of evil, they die, like Polonius, when they fall under the blow of one of two powerful opponents.

Prince Fortinbrass and his father.

Fortinbrass's role is perhaps the smallest in the tragedy. The princes never meet in person, they judge each other by hearsay, but they both have a high opinion of each other.

Fortinbrass goes to fight, driven by ambition. Hamlet would not have raised his sword for this. The knightly belligerence of the Norwegian prince takes after his father, who did not like to sit idle. He languished in peace and, without any reason, challenged Hamlet’s father to a duel, himself putting forward the condition that the defeated give his lands to the winner, and lost.

Hamlet gives Fortinbrass his vote to take over Denmark, because he, unlike Claudius, but despite some of his limitations, acts with an open mind, honestly, without malice and deceit. While not a perfect knight, he is, one might say, the least evil.

Hamlet's father. Without him there would have been no tragedy. From beginning to end, his image hovers over her. Instructing the prince to take revenge on Claudius, the Ghost warns Hamlet not to cause any harm to his mother, the punishment for which should be her own mental torment and not to tarnish his honor.

6. Are the ideas in Hamlet relevant today?

Problems of moral choice will always be relevant. The deeper the reader thinks about Shakespeare's great work, the more he will find in it. The meaning of the work is revealed not only in characters and situations. There is something in tragedy that is not specifically expressed. It’s a very special feeling, as if by reading or watching a play on stage, we are connecting with the very roots of life. This cannot be expressed in words. But after everything that we have learned about the people who appeared in the tragedy, after the fate of each of them was accomplished, there is a feeling that the poet brought us to that central point in which the greatness, beauty and tragedy of existence were concentrated. It is in vain to look in Shakespeare’s work for clear and precise answers to the questions it raises. The more fully we can imagine the diversity of characters, the complexity of dramatic action, the more deeply we feel into the tragic fates of the heroes, the closer we will come to that huge world that the genius of Shakespeare was able to embody in the relatively small volume of his great tragedy.

This is one of those works that is amazingly thought-provoking. For the majority, it becomes that personal property that everyone feels entitled to judge. Having understood Hamlet, imbued with the spirit of the great tragedy, we not only comprehend the thoughts of one of the best minds; “Hamlet” is one of those works in which the self-awareness of humanity is expressed, its awareness of contradictions, the desire to overcome them, the desire for improvement, and irreconcilability towards everything that is hostile to humanity.

In all time in the history of art, there is no more popular work than Shakespeare's Hamlet. For more than three hundred years, this brilliant tragedy has been staged in many theaters all over the planet.

An interesting fact is that people of different ages, religions and different mentalities learn to look for answers to questions that concern them using the example of this work.

The secret of such unquenchable interest in this play lies in the fact that eternal worldly problems are revealed in unsurpassed artistic images that the playwright skillfully depicts.

At the very beginning of the play, we observe Hamlet's main goal - he seeks revenge for the murder of his parent. We should not forget that we are talking about the Middle Ages, when blood feud was a pattern. But the main character is by nature a person of humanistic views and he is not capable of taking harsh revenge, because... this causes conflict with oneself.

Hamlet weighs all the pros and cons in order to resolve the current situation. What reality surrounds him? The main character's mother married his father's murderer... Friends of Hamlet himself, who in theory should be devoted to him, on the contrary, trip him up, betray him, and help Hamlet's sworn enemy in every possible way... And even a sublime feeling - love - dooms him to a lonely existence...

As we see from the scene in the cemetery, Hamlet completely loses faith that man is a strong creature; that we are not “puppets” in someone’s hands. In his opinion, evil is what rules the world and nothing can be done about it. As if to confirm his thoughts, the events in the play develop rapidly - Ophelia dies with impunity. Hamlet is in deep thought: if he becomes a murderer, he himself will become a villain and violate his principles.

Hamlet had several opportunities to take the life of his father's murderer. So he sees how, being alone, Claudius offers a prayer in which he confesses his sins. In Shakespeare's time, death at such a moment was perceived as a blessing; the soul seemed to automatically go to heaven. But how could Hamlet allow this to happen? The hero is overcome by terrible torment: on the one hand, a sense of duty, on the other, the principles by which Hamlet lives. A terrible conclusion comes to his head - we are all prisoners in this world where there is no place for justice.

"To be or not to be?" – Hamlet’s most frequently asked question to himself. He considers himself inactive, does not understand whether he is capable of taking any decisive steps at all?

We know all this from Hamlet’s monologues, where we see constant confrontation. He thinks that he is even ripe for taking his own life, but he immediately asks: what if after death, in another dimension, he will suffer in the same way and ask the same questions?..

At the end of the play, we still see that the king’s murderer received his punishment, but this did not happen the way Hamlet would have liked.

And it’s not for nothing that the main character considers himself insane. Everything that he had to realize, and at the same time without clouding his mind, can only be achieved by a person of enormous strength.

Shakespeare illuminates the problems of humanity of a philosophical nature: what is the meaning of existence, can evil be defeated? Of course, he does not answer unequivocally, but he firmly believes that, bringing good to the world, we will definitely find answers to these sacramental questions.