Name: Saba Rabia
Major: English Literature
Date:15th September, 2014
Question: Critically analyse the concept of “plot”, according to Aristotle’s Poetics and application of it to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Answer:
In literary terms, plot refers to the events that take place in a storyline which make up a story. It is the plot of a story which highly affects the audience and brings out their emotions towards it. If a plot is strong, complete whole, consistent and interesting the audience would be carried away and hence a perfect plot would be created. In Aristotle’s opinion, comparative to any other aspect plot was the most important aspect of drama. William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” is one of the most celebrated Revenge Tragedy with
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Simple plot has a smooth coverage of events without any twists and turns but more of a continuous. Whereas a complex plot would involve mixture of unpredictable events and it can involve violent changes in the play. Hamlet very easy owns the complex plot that has a structure which gives its audience a roller coaster ride of events which starts from the bottom with calmness in the play to the peak; with twists and turns and get back down along with the downfall of the tragic hero –Hamlet. For Aristotle, the definition of plot is “an arrangement of events” which should all be inter-related. To which he adds that there should be a proper beginning, middle and end. The beginning, however, should involve incentive movement which would later rise to the plot. In the play Hamlet is introduced as a young grief-stricken prince who is not only melancholic over the death of his father but also on the hasty marriage of his uncle and his mother, the queen. By the end of Act1, the beginning of the play, we get aware of the fact that Hamlet hated the idea of his uncle being the new king, the castle celebrating his uncle’s newly gotten throne and marriage with the queen while according to him the castle should still be in the mourning of his father, the former king’s death. The appearance of his father’s ghost is a turning point which gives rise to events like Hamlet’s madness, …show more content…
William Shakespeare covers all the twists and turns of the play with a very proportionate length that is enough to arouse pity and fear in the audience. Some critics might say that Hamlet is fails in his planning, but I think Hamlet succeeds in proving his uncle guilty in front of people he wanted to, and people do have empathy towards him and don’t find him the wrong one. Although that is how a tragedy is supposed to be, the tragic hero will try to move the natural balance and would never achieve the outcome he wants to have correctly. Moving on towards the three unities, Aristotle discussed two of them only –Unity of Time and Unity of Action. This should be kept in mind that it were the critics who further added unity of place not Aristotle. Even Aristotle did not put any hard and fast rule on the Unity of Time, he did state that a tragedy should end in a single revolution of sun i.e one day, but it was a lenient statement not a rigid rule. However, in Hamlet, Shakespeare is least bothered with the unity of time as the action, as he portrays in his play, takes place in seven days. Whereas logically thinking, there are many intervals in the play which doesn’t justify the time sequels. For example he sails towards England in two
Fowler, Alastair. 1987. 'The Plays Within the Play of Hamlet.' In 'Fanned and Winnowed Opinions': Shakespearean Essays Presented to Harold Jenkins, edited by John W. Mahon and Thomas A. Pendleton. London and New York: Methuen.
tragedy without the need for plot, because of his power over the plot. The interpretations of the text can
...ent techniques and styles that help audiences understand. Hamlet is play of one man?s apparent uncertainty and exposure to a number of dissolutions and distractions that prevent him from giving peace to his father?s ghost and peace to his own mind state. He uses the madness that he has, as a way to distract and trick his enemies into doing as he pleases. The film version attempts to show this, but in an environment that is very much different than the middle ages. Just as in most film adaptations, Hamlet on screen is mostly vague, but with enough substance to be mildly entertaining, and a good start for individuals who want to start reading Shakespeare, but are afraid that they won?t understand, or will be caught off guard by the language. This is why the modern version of Hamlet is a very appropriate film for students and children, alike. (apart from the violence)
To understand a play, you must first understand the fundamentals for the play: protagonist, antagonist, exposition, rising action, crisis, climax and resolution. I will examine Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This is a great example for the purpose of this paper it provides a clear and great examples.
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Hamlet invites various interpretations of the structure because of the play’s complexity. Let us in this essay analyze various interpretations of structure.
In 1600, William Shakespeare composed what is considered the greatest tragedy of all time, Hamlet, the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark. His masterpiece forever redefined what tragedy should be. Critics have analyzed it word for word for nearly four hundred years, with each generation appreciating Hamlet in its own way. While Hamlet conforms, without a doubt, to Aristotle's definition of a tragedy, one question still lingers. Did Shakespeare intend for the reader or viewer of Hamlet to feel greater sympathy for Hamlet, or for Ophelia, Hamlet's lover? Both characters tug at the heartstrings throughout the play, but it is clear that 'the tragedy of the Prince of Denmark' is a misrepresentation of Shakespeare's true intention.
Hamlet is a classic example of a story that has a tragic effect. In order for a story to have this effect it must have a tragic hero that receives sympathy from the audience members. To be a tragic hero a character must possess good characteristics: bravery and loyalty, but they also can possess a bad one like pride. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet became the tragic hero after his father is killed. His father, King Hamlet, is killed by his brother Claudius so that he could inherit the throne and everything that came with the kingdom of Denmark. After his father’s death, Hamlet avenges his father’s death by trying to kill Claudius. Hamlet is the tragic hero because he is brave and loyal, but he could not move past his father’s death quick enough which ultimately play a key role in his death. The audience feels sympathy for the predicament that hamlet is in which makes him the perfect tragic hero of the play Hamlet.
The Complex Character of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Upon examining Shakespeare's characters in this play, Hamlet proves to be a very complex character, and functions as the key element to the development of the play. Throughout the play we see the many different aspects of Hamlet's personality by observing his actions and responses to certain situations. Hamlet takes on the role of a strong character, but through his internal weaknesses we witness his destruction.
As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.
In 350 B.C.E., a great philosopher wrote out what he thought was the definition of a tragedy. As translated by S.H. Butcher, Aristotle wrote; “Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality—namely, Plot, Characters, Thought, Diction, Spectacle, Melody. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html)” Later in history, William Shakespeare wrote tragedies that epitomized Aristotle’s outline of a tragedy. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one such tragedy.
In Poetics, Aristotle defines plot as “the arrangement of the incidents” (Aristotle 12). He indicates that there are six elements in every tragic play, which are plot, character, thought, diction, melody and spectacle, among these plot is placed in the foremost positi...
The play Hamlet by Shakespeare, takes place in The Kingdom Denmark at the beginning of 17th century. The word tragedy means a failing of character in the hero of a tragedy that begins about his downfall. “The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark” says it all because he was prince of Denmark and, he was not free to carve for himself. Hamlet, like all the other major characters, was untrue to himself. When he was himself, he was like Horatio, a student from Wittenberg. But as he said, "Horatio, or I do forget myself." He did forget himself. He erased himself and his humanist education from his own brain and there in the book and volume of his brain he wrote his father's commandment (the voice of Denmark, sent from Hell to speak of horrors, to breathe contagion, unfolding the secrets of his prison-house that he was forbid to tell to mortal ears). Hamlet was from himself taken away. In the play Hamlet by Shakespeare, the character Hamlet’s tragic flaw is outlined by his inability to act, and make final decisions upon his desired goals. So in the essay below there are some examples from the book that leads hamlet to his tragic flaw. At some point he is too rational that is also one of the causes that leads to his tragic flaw.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.