World Drama

Assignment Topic:

Problems of Hemlet

Submitted To:

Sir Zahoor Hussain

Submitted By:

Sara Iram

MALL-17-33

Class:

M.A English (3rd)

BZU BAHADUR SUB CAMPUS LAYYAH

 Hamlet and His problems

Introductory:

Although not included among shakespare’s problems plays Hemlet is no doubt the

most baffling of his trageclies. Not only does it raise problems of understanding but it

also present many pitfalls which lead to a misunderstanding of its meaning. It is only

appropriate that the reader’s sense of batflement crises primarily from the fact that

hamlet himself seems to be so baffled at every step.

Starting Point:

Claudius has committed a murder of which he is not suspected not even at first by the

sorrowing Hamlet until the Ghost’s words awaken the unstated imaginings of

Hamlet’s prophetic soul. Claudius has accomplished his own succession to the throne

in place of his nephew Hamlet not by usurpation but by full consent of the Danish

Court Claudius is to outward appearances an apt choice. His marriage with the dead

kind’s widow even if technically incestuous to the new reign. It is without Conscious

irony that Rosencrantz and Guidenstern appointed guardians of the unpredictable

Hemlet echo great Elizabethan commonplaces intheir defence of legitimate

monarchical authority. The life of their king is threatened and they know that majesty

Dies not alone but like a gulf doth draw/whats near it with it ophelia ignorant of the

murder cannot fathom the sudden and vindictive hostility of one had professed love to

her in honourable fashion.

Contrast:

Hamlet is in almost complete contrast with Claudius he seems to be almost a stranger

at Elisnore. He has been studying at the university of Wittenberg. He regards the

common people of his society to be too wordly and corrupted. “it is as a stranger that

he shares with Horatio a secret knowledge of there being more things in heaven find

earth than are dreamt of in mere philosophy. Gertrude can only suppose that her son

is.

Guesswork:

The courtiers of Elsinore try to provide various reasons to explain Hamlets Strange

behavior. All this guesswork only betrays knowledge of Hamlet becomes a mirror

reflecting the conscience of each observer and the guilty marriage is what Gertrude

sees in herself you go not till. I set you up a glass.

Hamlet’s Irritation:

Hamlet is irritated by the attempts to probe his mind what Hamlet objects to is the

over simplification and the prying that destroys the integrity of his whole and

complex being.

“Though you can fret me you cannot play upon me”

Every human being is unique and believes that others can never fully understand or

appreciate him. And every human being experiences some perverse delight in this

proof of the world’s callousness.

Estrangement:

In his turn Hamlet also indulges in amateur motive hunting and so annoys those who

would seek a compromise with him he merely typifies in dramatically heightened

form a human tendency to prefer estrangement. His is after all an extraordinary

situation. It is plausible that a young man so suddenly deprived of his father and
confronted with evidence of his mother fleshly weakness should generalize upon the

depravity of the human conditions even in himself.

The Heros Exceptional Suffering:

A Shakesearean tragecly is cathartic and depicts the suffering and misfortunes of the

hero in an exceptional way to produce in the spectators hearts the feelings of pity

Sympathy wonder and fear. Hamlet too suffers terribly throughout the play. Hamlet is

introduced as a man grieving over the death of his father.

Melodramatic Element Contributing to Terror:

In Shakespeare’s tragedies we have an elements of melodrama which contribute to the

feeling of terror. Hamlet too has tinges of melodramatic elements. In the first Act

itself we notice this element. The Ghost has been seen twice by the guards before the

play open.

But more than these melodramatic elements, the feelings of unease and sadness is

evoked by the sense of moral disorder and chaos in the world of Hamlet the time is

out of joint and the state is an unweeded garden. All through the play we along with

Hamlet are faced with the issue of human corruptibility and morality.

Tragic Flaw:

Tragic flaw plays an important role in the sufferings of a character in Shakespear’s

tragedies. Hamlets tragedy is mainly due to a defect irresolution in his character. He is

capable of impulsive action but not preplanned action. He killed polonius on an

impulse. The result is that the crime turns against himself and gives an opportunity to

Claudius to send him to England. The consequence of his irresolution is that he delays

his action of avenging his father’s death. He thinks too much and meditakes upon his
own action hence he postpones the idea of killing Claudius who is at prayer for he

thinks that if he murders hum at this present moment instead of suffering for his evils

in hell his soul would go to heaven. He wants him to suffer in this world as well as in

the next world. Earlier he wants to confirm Claudius hum so he gets the play enacted.

They play reveals Claudius guilt. Inspite of that he still hesitates to avenge the murder

and the enemy takes the initiative. The consequence is that he avenges his father’s

death at the cost of his own death.

Hamlet and his problems of T.S Eliot a Critique

Throughout the ages Shakespeare’s Hamlet has remained a piece of work that is being

analyzed from different point of view by different critics some find interest in the way

Shakespeare has handled the character, Hamlet Eliots Criticism of Hamlet is based on

his Contemporary critics like J.M. Robertson and Edgar Stoll. Both these two critics

has paved to a new approach to critic the plays of Shakespeare especially Hamlet.

They found problem with the play and the character of Hamlet as well. As Eliot Says

few Critics have ever admitted that Hamlet the play is the primary problem and

Hamlet the character only secondary.

“All alike are inconclusive because all ignore in effect even when they make mention

it the essential fact that Shakespeare’s Hamlet is and adaptation of an older play

which laid down the main action”.

Eliot added that there are also Similarities in verbal and in the character as well.

However there is alternation which Eliot says is not satisfactory as it fails to carry a

Sharp distinction rather what Shakespeare has done is that he feigned the emotion of

Hamlet in both the plays why Hamlet is a failure because the delay in Hamlet is
baseless here Eliot refers to profs toll observation “the poet was obliged to delay his

hero then he should have contrived some good reason for it”

Apart from all this Eliot also has provided some other aspects to consider the play as

an artistic failure. He said that the play flaws are committed by Shakespeare in such a

way that these would have been noticed even if a hasty revision has been given.

However the major flaws of the play as pointed by Eliot is Shakespeare falling in

using the objective correlative to give an outlet to the emotion of hamlet. He refers

other plays by Shakespeare by Macbeth or othelo. In these plays Shakespeare

successfully used the technique. The reasonless delay of Hamlet is also due to his

failure in using this technique. The baffle Hamlet is overflows with his feeling but he

could not identify it and had he found some equivalent objects to identify his feelings

than the case with Hamlet would have been different and Shakespeare could have

avoid the artistic failure.

This is just an overlook to how Eliot has criticized Hamlet for its artistic failure.

However it is not Eliots was sent present correct. In the process of criticizing Hamlet

he himself has committed some blunders which he failed to notice.

In the essay Eliot charges Shakespeare of ingenuity but in the process he himself has

forgotten that the idea he is talking about is not his own Nor does he himself has

forgotten that the idea he is talking about is not his own. Nor does he mention the

same anywhere in prose work as a whole. That is the term “objective correlative”

Eliot is talking about does not belong to him but it was Washington Aliston.

Again Eliot idea of “objective correlative” itself is not the kind of mechanism to be

applied all the time and this has came under scathing criticism in the hand of many

critics like viva yvor. Again vivas said that with the objectification the poetic creation
will turn into mechanism. Furthermore changes against Hamlet can be defused if we

look at the play from some other point of views. The play no doubt has been regarded

as one of the greatest plays ever written in English by many critics. His bafflement

also does have certain meaning as critic like victor Hugo said that his strange reality is

our own reality unhealthy as he is Hamlet express the permanent condition of human

life. Eliot takes the delay of Hamlet the character in taking revenge as a flaw. But

Hamlet was not unaware of the fact rather whenever the character plays a role in the

play then we come across the inner turmoil that is going on inside him. Once he got

the chance to take vengeance that he did not because his hatred for his uncle was so

much so that he wanted him ruin even in hell.

“Shakespeare brings out an entirely range of philosophical meaning that relate to the

very attempt to organize one’s life through action”

In other words the inaction of Hamlet in some way is the beauty of the text through

which we can peek at the life with action.

These commentaries are no doubt a defense to the charges laid by Eliot and other

Shakespeare critics regarding his delay and excessive emotion, and in fact the delay of

Hamlet has also some other valid reasons. It is not something which can be done on

the spur be the moment. His delay also help us understanding the crime and risk of

excessive emotion. Again Shakespeare too was not unaware of the fact that he is

delaying the character in taking action. So he makes ghost to reappears and adds the

Gonzago play to carry the play to its end. It Hamlet the character is not appropriate

then Hazlitt would not have said:

“They are as real as our own thoughts”

“Their reality is in the reader’s minal. It is we who are hamlet”

Here one thing can be added in the context of the device Eliot was talking about is

that when reader can feel the emotions going on inside the mind of the character then

what is the need to use “objective correlative”

Shakespeare deals both the tragic and comic elements without affecting singleness of

emotional appeal. He present the humorous speeches of polonius with all his maxims

to assume the audience as well as the reader. Again the talk of osric and the grave

diggers deviate our attention from the intensity of tragedy. Finally the wit of Hamlet

through comic and sarcastic amuses etc.

Conclusion:

Life is mysterious and unpredictable in Hamlet appearance are deceptive and little is

what it seems. Hemlet is a complex play which deals with several interrelated themes.

The theme of revenge is prominent but it is no simple revenge tragedy. It deals with

the problem of action in an evil world when the hero come to terms with the world it

is too late his death is inevitable.

Reference:

1. http://www.wikianswer.com

2. http://www.sparknotes.com

3. http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/problems/majorproblems-961111

4. http://www.Jstor.com

5. http://www.Shmoop.com

6. http://www.arielgorden.co.nz

7. http://www.answer.yahoo.com

8. http://www.enotes.com

9. http://www.sparknotes.co.nz

10. http://www.goodreads.com

Books References:

1. Hamlet/illustrated by Emma (2007)

2. Hamlet/Shakespeare’s William (1998)

3. Hamlet/illustrated by rssodger (1998)

4. Hamlet/sample essay by insight publications (2009)