Hamlet 
 
The tradition of literature includes many genres. One of
the oldest and most important of these genres is tragedy. A
 one of the foremost Elizabethan tragedies in the canon of
English literature is Hamlet by William Shakespeare and one
of the earliest critics of tragedy is Aristotle. One way to
measure Shakespeare's work is to appraise it using the
methods of classical critics to see if it retains its
meaning. Hamlet is one of the most recognizable and most
often quoted tragedies in all of English literature.
Aristotle, is concerned with the proper presentation of
tragic plays and poetry. Aristotle defines tragedy as:
 
"...a representation of an action that is worth serious
attention, complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in
language enriched by a variety of artistic devices
appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in
the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and
fear bringing about the purgation of such emotion.
(Aristotle 38 -9) Shakespeare uses character, plot and
setting to create a mood of disgust and a theme of proper
revenge, as opposed to fear and pity, hence Aristotle would
have disapproved of Hamlet. It is the above mentioned
elements; character, plot and setting, used in a
non-Aristotelian way, that makes Hamlet work as one of the
English language's most renowned tragedies.
 
By proper revenge we refer to the Elizabethan view, that
revenge must be sought in certain cases, for the world to
continue properly. This is the main plot of Hamlet. In
"Poetics", Aristotle defines for us the element of plot and
shows us how he believes it must be put together. He also
believes in various unities which he states are necessary
for a proper tragedy. Aristotle believes in what he calls
"Unity of plot" (Aristotle 42 - 3). This "Unity" leaves no
room for subplots, which are crucial to the theme of
Hamlet. Without the subplot of Laertes' revenge and the
subplot of Fortinbras' revenge, we are left with a
lugubrious play where the ending, although necessary, is
pointless. The three sub-plots together as a unit, allow us
to understand what Shakespeare thought of revenge. 
 
Another way that Aristotle defines plot in tragedy is "The
noble actions and the doings of noble persons" (Aristotle
35). By this definition, Hamlet should be a noble person,
who does only noble things. Aristotle would have objected
to Hamlet's refusal to kill Claudius during prayer which
forms the turning point of Hamlet. This is significant
because if he were to have achieved his revenge at that
point Claudius' soul may have been clean. Hamlet wishes to
get revenge when Claudius' "Soul may be damned and black /
As hell, whereto it goes (Shakespeare 3, 3, 94 - 5). By
waiting for the right time, Hamlet loses his chance to
achieve revenge. This ignoble act does add to the theme of
proper revenge, not in the primary plot, but when all three
revenge sub-plots are considered together. Aristotle also
believed in heroes that are "First and foremost good
(Aristotle 51)." Although Hamlet spends much time
deliberating good and evil, and what the greatest good is,
when it comes time, he cannot act. Laertes does act, but he
acts rashly, and cannot perform good either. Fortinbras is
the type of hero that Aristotle would have preferred,
although from Fortinbras' point of view the play is not
tragic; instead it is a comedy where all of the other
characters run about and in the end through no fault of his
own, Fortinbras receives the kingship of Denmark. The plot
events with which Aristotle disagrees give meaning to
Hamlet's theme.
 
Shakespeare uses the plot to help create the mood of Hamlet
by incorporating subplots and by having his tragic hero do
things which are particularly unheroic. Hamlet's treatment
of Ophelia is particularly barbaric. By the same token
Ophelia's unstinting devotion to her father, and by that
,her poor treatment of Hamlet causes us to question which
of the two is not the worthier, but the least evil. Both of
their actions invoke disgust. Aristotle would have objected
to Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia because of his
aforementioned belief in the character attributes of the
hero. The only characters who act particularly heroic are
Horatio, who is devoted to Hamlet, and Fortinbras. These
two characters are the only ones who survive. The rest of
the characters are left dead and bleeding. As another
classical critic, Horace, wrote in Ars Poetica "I shall
turn in disgust from anything of this kind that you show me
(Horace 85)." When we see the bodies lying on the ground at
the end of the play we realize the futility of Hamlet's
actions and that evokes disgust. It is the evocation of
this emotion that Aristotle would have disagreed with.
 
Shakespeare's characters in " Hamlet" illustrate the theme
of the drama, however Aristotle would have disagreed with
Shakespeare's choices. To understand character in terms of
theme one must compare the characters. Samuel Johnson calls
Hamlet "through the whole piece rather an instrument rather
than an agent". This is giving too much credence to the
soliloquies, when Hamlet ponders, and gives too little
credence to the fact that he sent Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to their deaths without hesitating, and the
fact that he was the first on the pirate ship when attacked
on the high seas. It is the type of revenge that Hamlet
insists on that shapes his character and forces the
bloodshed at the end of the play. This contrasts with a
play of which Aristotle did approve. In Oedipus the King,
Sophocles has created a character who tries to do the
greater good, and in doing so finds that his fate has been
damned from the start. Hamlet has the chance to do good, in
this case revenge on a murderer, but lets passion sway his
reason. This "madness" is what leads Hamlet astray, leads
him to kill Polonius, leads Ophelia to commit suicide and
leads to the carnage of the final scene. 
 
Rather than learn from experience, Hamlet follows his own
will for Claudius' fate and we learn there is a right way
and a wrong way to do things. Aristotle would have
disagreed with the amplitude of the actions in this play.
These characters have no amplitude, instead they are noble,
but they are also pathetic. Aristotle had no room for noble
characters with no amplitude and therefore he would have
disliked most of the characters in Hamlet, except for
Horatio and Fortinbras. In contrasting Fortinbras , Hamlet
and Laertes we have three men of noble birth, all of whom
have a legitimate reason to seek revenge. The main
difference is the way that each seeks his revenge. Laertes
seeks revenge in a rash and illicit ways and he dies.
Hamlet seeks revenge in an ignoble way and he dies.
Fortinbras seeks a Christian revenge and is successful. In
this way Shakespeare's characters further the theme of
Hamlet in a non-aristotelian way.
 
The characters that Shakespeare has chosen for Hamlet are
not the type one would find in a typical Greek tragedy, the
kind of tragedy that Aristotle was used to criticizing.
Oedipus the King, includes a number of elements that
Shakespeare does not use in Hamlet. The chorus is used as a
character in " Oedipus the King" to allow us a sympathetic
view of Oedipus, in his time of travail. Oedipus has
accepted responsibility for his fate and blinded himself.
The audience feels sympathy and therefore feels and pity.
No such sympathy is given to Hamlet. It is not the fact
that he does not have some sympathetic qualities; rather he
has too few sympathetic characteristics for us to wish to
empathize. Hamlet wishes to do the right thing, it is the
way he does the right thing in a wrong way that makes us
dislike him. Hamlet also spends much of his time
deliberating rather than doing. Hamlet is dour. Almost
every character in the play is dour. The only two
characters with any sort of joie de vivre are the clowns
who are also grave diggers. The irony is that the
characters who most enjoy life are those who face death on
a regular basis. This juxtaposition not only foreshadows
the conclusion of the play but also adds to the mood of
disgust. One of the elements contributing to mood is
character, however it is used in a non-Aristotelian way.
 
Aristotle ignored the concept that a play could take place
in many different settings and still retain meaning. In his
elements of tragedy Aristotle mentions "Plot, character,
diction, thought, spectacle and song.(Aristotle 39)." He
does not include setting as a separate entity. It is
implicit, however, in his conception of "Unities" that more
than one setting was not acceptable. One example may be
found in Oedipus the King, where all of the action takes
place in one setting, and where the geographical setting of
the play, in terms of a historical context, does not in
itself add any meaning. Aristotle did, however, believe in
"Unity of Time", where each action follows the previous
action, and builds to form a single "thread" of action. We
would include the time in play as part of the setting.
Another axiom of Unity of time is that one stage minute
equals on real minute. 
 
It is only by ignoring Aristotelian convention in setting,
specifically unity of time, that Shakespeare can properly
tell his story. Hamlet takes place entirely in Castle
Elsinore and on its grounds. The first scene takes place at
approximately midnight as does Act 1, Scene 4. Shakespeare
completely ignores the Aristotelian convention of "Unity of
Time". It is only by ignoring this convention that
Shakespeare can allow Hamlet to have the scene with the
ghost, a twenty minute scene, that Shakespeare elongates
from midnight to dawn. By the same token it is this
elongation that allows Hamlet to talk with the ghost and
gives the ghost a dramatic reason, the dawn, to leave the
stage. This allows Shakespeare to develop his plot and
therefore to develop his theme. These temporal
manipulations do not end here. Hamlet leaves for England by
boat, is waylaid by pirates and returns to Elsinore between
Act 4 Scene 3 and Act 5 Scene 1. This allows Laertes to
return and demand revenge, Ophelia to go mad and kill
herself and Hamlet to return just in time for the funeral.
Without this compression of time, Shakespeare could not
have fitted in the plot points he needs to build the theme
of revenge. Laertes leaves Denmark in the second scene of
the first act, and returns in the fourth act and demands
revenge for the death of his father, Polonius. Shakespeare
has, again ignored the time frame of the play in order to
facilitate the plot. It by ignoring the temporal aspect of
setting that Shakespeare has the room he needs to develop
the plot , and therefore the theme of Hamlet.
 
Shakespeare uses Castle Elsinore and environs to depict a
sordid and depressing place where incest and murder are a
part of normal life, where revenge is commonplace
motivation, and where the feigning of madness is a normal
strategy to dissemble ones feelings. This is the setting
for Hamlet. Shakespeare created this setting to tell us a
story of revenge gone wrong. He also created a mood of
disgust. When at the end of the play, things are brought to
their right order and Fortinbras becomes king, we look back
and see the depraved way of life that existed at Castle
Elsinore and its logical conclusion, a room littered with
bodies and Fortinbras taking his lawful place as king, we
feel disgust and its purgation.