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Is Hamlet a tragic play?

Hamlet is known as the most important tragedy of all of the English literature. But isthis famous play, written by William Shakespeare, a tragedy?

Aristotle described tragedy as The imitation of an action that is serious and also,as having magnitude, complete in itself; in appropriate and pleasurable language;... in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear,where with to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions. He believed that it isimportant to divide this gender into six important criteria for knowing if a text, story,play or movie is tragic. Thess are: Plot, characters, thoughts, diction, melody andspectacle.

Following next, this text will explain, with strong and supported arguments, whyHamlet is a tragic play, taking into account Aristotle definitions and criteria. Themost important principles that are the ones who define if a literary text is tragic ornot are plot and characters, that are the one that are going to be used to supportthe fact that Hamlet is a tragic play.

Plot: according to Aristotle this principle refers to the actions of the play, Allhuman happiness or misery takes the form of action. Character gives us qualities,but it is in our actions what we do, that we are happy or miserable. This play,Hamlet, is the story about a prince, who wanted to take revenge from his uncle,because he killed his father. From the beginning until the end, in Hamlet, sad anddreadful things happen to the principal character, such as his father murdered, hismom wedding with his uncle (who was the one who killed the king), the detail thathis mom never supported him, the suicide of the woman that he loved, the fact thatthe whole time he was being spy and called crazy, the element that he never tookcomplete revenge and his own death. Taking into account these elements itsclear that the plot is tragic and dramatic, that the main actions and events arepainful for the characters and that the play does not have a happy ending.

These play basic themes are revenge, impossible love, death and betrayal. Interms of love, is the story about Hamlet and Ophelia a prince and a commoner, thestory of a boy who is madly in love with a girl, the problem is that her father andbrother hate him and think that he is crazy. Revenge, the objective of all the maincharacters: Hamlet, the ghost, Laertes, Polonius and Claudius. The sad problem isthat none of them could achieve what they wanted, at the end all of them died andcould not succeed. Death, in Hamlet all died, because of suicide, an accident ormurdered: Hamlets father died because was poisoned by his brother; Opheliadrown herself; Laertes died because his own plan failed and he poisoned himself;Gertrude drank the poisoned wineglass; Polonius was killed by Hamlet, but by anaccident and an impulsive action; Claudius was murdered by Hamlet because ofhis anger; Hamlet was killed by his uncle. At the end of the play, all of thecharacters died and never got to have a happy ending. Betrayal, characters gavetheir back one to other, lied and killed; they were interested in what they wantedand did what ever it takes to have it. This shows how the main ideas and events of

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the story are tragic and how all of the peoples plan failed, not permitting they tohave a better life without problems.

The two principal characters of the play are Hamlet and Claudius. Taking intoaccount the criteria of the characters, which consist in the qualities and the natural

essence of the actors in the literary text, of Aristotle, this famous English play istragic. Hamlet, the principal character. His sadness illustrates the plays theme,drama and tragedy, he is melancholic and sad, he wears black cloths to expresshis pain; Hamlet also has a bad esteem, he compares and punish himself bysaying that he is a rogue and peasant slave and a dull and muddy-mottledrascal.Another important character is Claudius, who in the play is compared to asatyr, a half human and half monster creature. He is blind with his selfishness anddesire of ruling Denmark, at the end he dies with his own plan. The othercharacters also have a hard life, they have problems and bad moments, likeOphelia that is tired of living and kills her self; Laertes that dies for defending hisfathers honor. In this play, all of the main characters have problem and at the enddont resolve them, they have a difficult life, and as it has already said, none ofthem got to have happy endings.

Taking into account this two criteria that are the ones who decide whether a literarytext is tragic or not, according to the Aristotle hypothesis, Hamlet is part of thisgender because of its tragic plot, themes and characters.

Bibliography:

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/hamletcharacter.html

http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~ldernbach/msw/xhgkaristrag.pdf

http://www.studyworld.com/newsite/reportessay/literature/Shakespeare%5C

Hamlet_As_A_Tragedy-382058.htm

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