William Shakespeare. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (trans. B. Pasternak)
CHARACTERS
Claudius, King of Denmark.
Hamlet, son of the former and nephew of the present king.
Polonium, chief royal advisor.
Horatio, friend of Hamlet.
Laertes, son of Polonius.
Voltimand, Cornelius - courtiers.
Rosencrantz, Guildenstern - Hamlet's former university friends.
Osric.
Nobleman.
Priest.
Marcellus, Bernardo - officers
Francisco, soldier.
Reynaldo, close to Polonius.
Actors.
Two gravediggers.
Hamlet's Father's Ghost.
Fortinbras, Prince of Norway.
Captain.
English ambassadors.
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother.
Ophelia, daughter of Polonius.
Lords, lady, officers, soldiers, sailors, messengers, retinues.
The location is Elsinore.
ACT ONE
SCENE ONE
Elsinore. The area in front of the castle.
Midnight. Francisco at his post. The clock strikes twelve. approaches him Bernardo.
Bernardo
Who is there?
Francisco
No, who are you, answer first.
Bernardo
Long live the king!
Francisco
Bernardo?
Bernardo
Francisco
You took care to come on time.
Bernardo
Twelve strikes; Go get some sleep, Francisco.
Francisco
Thank you for changing it: I'm cold,
And there is sadness in my heart.
Bernardo
How is it on guard?
Francisco
Everything went silent, like a mouse.
Bernardo
Well, good night.
And Horace and Marcellus will meet,
My replacements, hurry up.
Francisco
Listen, aren't they? - Who goes?
Enter Horatio And Marcellus.
Horatio
Friends of the country.
Marcellus
And the king's servants.
Francisco
Farewell.
Marcellus
Goodbye, old man.
Who replaced you?
Francisco
Bernardo is on duty.
Farewell.
Leaves.
Marcellus
Hey! Bernardo!
Bernardo
That's it!
Horace is here!
Horatio
Yes, in a way.
Bernardo
Horace, hello; hello friend Marcellus
Marcellus
Well, how did this strangeness appear today?
Bernardo
Haven't seen it yet.
Marcellus
Horatio thinks it's all
A figment of the imagination and doesn’t believe it
Our ghost, seen twice in a row.
So I invited him to stay
On guard with us this night
And if the spirit appears again,
Check it out and talk to him.
Horatio
Yes, that’s how he will appear to you!
Bernardo
Let's sit down
And allow me to storm your ears,
So fortified against us by the story
About what we saw.
Horatio
If you please, I'll sit down.
Let's listen to what Bernardo tells us.
Bernardo
Last night
When the star that is west of Polaris,
Transferred the rays to that part of the heavens,
Where it still shines, I am with Marcellus,
It was just one hour...
Included Ghost
Marcellus
Shut up! Freeze! Look, there he is again.
Bernardo
His posture is the spitting image of the deceased king.
Marcellus
You are knowledgeable - turn to him, Horace.
Bernardo
Well, does it remind you of a king?
Horatio
Yes, of course! I'm scared and confused!
Bernardo
He's waiting for the question.
Marcellus
Ask, Horace.
Horatio
Who are you, without rights at this hour of the night
Having taken the form in which it shone, it happened
Denmark's buried monarch?
I conjure the sky, answer me!
Marcellus
He was offended.
Bernardo
And he walks away.
Horatio
Stop! Answer! Answer! I conjure!
Ghost leaves
Marcellus
He left and didn’t want to talk.
Bernardo
Well, Horace? Completely in awe.
Is this just a game of imagination?
What is your opinion?
Horatio
I swear to God:
I wouldn’t admit it if it weren’t for the obvious!
Marcellus
How similar he is to the king!
Horatio
How are you with yourself?
And in the same armor as in the battle with the Norwegian,
And just as gloomy as on an unforgettable day,
When in a quarrel with the elected officials of Poland
He threw them out of the sleigh onto the ice.
Incredible!
Marcellus
At the same hour with the same important step
Yesterday he passed by us twice.
Horatio
I don't know the details of the solution,
But overall it's probably a sign
Shocks threatening the state.
Marcellus
Wait. Let's sit down. Who will explain to me
Why such strictness of guards,
Embarrassing citizens at night?
What caused the casting of copper cannons,
And the import of weapons from abroad,
And recruitment of ship carpenters,
Diligent on weekdays and on Sundays?
What lies behind this fever,
Demanding the night to help the day?
Who will explain this to me?
Horatio
Will try.
At least that's the rumor. King,
Whose image has just appeared before us,
As you know, he was called to fight
The ruler of the Norwegians, Fortinbras.
Our brave Hamlet prevailed in battle,
This is what he was known as in the enlightened world.
The enemy fell. There was an agreement
Bonded with the observance of the rules of honor,
What along with life should Fortinbras
Leave the land to the winner,
In exchange for that and on our part
Vast possessions were pledged,
And Fortinbras would take possession of them,
Let him take over. For the same reasons
His land according to the named article
His heir, the younger Fortinbras,
In excess of natural enthusiasm
Recruited a detachment throughout Norway
For the bread of thugs ready for battle.
Preparations have a visible goal,
As reports confirm this, -
Violently, with weapons in hand,
Recapture the lost lands from my father.
This is where I think it lies
The most important reason for our fees,
Source of concern and excuse
To the confusion and turmoil in the region.
Bernardo
I think that's true.
It’s not for nothing that he bypasses the guards in armor
An ominous ghost, similar to a king,
Who was and is the culprit of those wars.
Horatio
He is like a speck in the eye of my soul!
In the heyday of Rome, in the days of victories,
Before the powerful Julius fell, the graves
They stood without inhabitants, and the dead
On the streets there was confusion.
There was bloody dew in the fire of comets,
Spots appeared in the sun; month,
On whose influence does Neptune's power rest?
I was sick with darkness, as if at the end of the world,
The same crowd of bad omens,
As if running ahead of events,
Like hastily sent messengers,
Earth and sky send together
To our latitudes to our fellow countrymen.
Ghost returns
The square in front of the castle in Elsinore. On guard are Marcellus and Bernard, Danish officers. They are later joined by Horatio, the learned friend of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. He came to verify the story about the nightly appearance of a ghost similar to the Danish king who had recently died. Horatio is inclined to consider this a fantasy. Midnight. And a menacing ghost in full military garb appears. Horatio is shocked and tries to talk to him. Horatio, reflecting on what he saw, considers the appearance of the ghost a sign of “some kind of unrest for the state.” He decides to tell Prince Hamlet about the night vision, who interrupted his studies in Wittenberg due to the sudden death of his father. Hamlet's grief is aggravated by the fact that his mother soon after his father's death married his brother. She, “without wearing out the shoes in which she followed the coffin,” threw herself into the arms of an unworthy man, “a dense clot of meat.” Hamlet’s soul shuddered: “How tiresome, dull and unnecessary, / It seems to me, everything that is in the world! O abomination!
Horatio told Hamlet about the night ghost. Hamlet does not hesitate: “Hamlet’s spirit is in arms! Things are bad; / There's something here. It would be night soon! / Be patient, soul; evil will be revealed, / At least it will go from the eyes into the underground darkness.”
The ghost of Hamlet's father told about a terrible crime.
While the king was resting peacefully in the garden, his brother poured the deadly juice of henbane into his ear. “So in a dream, from a brotherly hand, I lost my life, my crown and my queen.” The ghost asks Hamlet to avenge him. "Bye Bye. And remember about me” - with these words the ghost leaves.
The world has turned upside down for Hamlet... He swears to avenge his father. He asks his friends to keep this meeting secret and not to be surprised at the strangeness of his behavior.
Meanwhile, the king's close nobleman Polonius sends his son Laertes to study in Paris. He gives his brotherly instructions to his sister Ophelia, and we learn about Hamlet’s feelings, from which Laertes warns Ophelia: “He is a citizen of his birth; / He does not cut his own piece, / Like others; The life and health of the entire state depend on his choice.”
His words are confirmed by his father, Polonius. He forbids her to spend time with Hamlet. Ophelia tells her father that Prince Hamlet came to her and he seemed out of his mind. Taking her hand, “he let out a sigh so mournful and deep, / As if his whole chest had broken and life was extinguished.” Polonius decides that Hamlet's strange behavior in recent days is due to the fact that he is "mad with love." He is going to tell the king about this.
The king, whose conscience is burdened with murder, is concerned about Hamlet's behavior. What lies behind it - madness? Or something else? He calls upon Rosencrantz and Guildestern, Hamlet's former friends, and asks them to find out his secret from the prince. For this he promises “the royal mercy.” Polonius arrives and suggests that Hamlet's madness is caused by love. To confirm his words, he shows Hamlet’s letter, which he took from Ophelia. Polonius promises to send his daughter to the gallery where Hamlet often walks in order to make sure of his feelings.
Rosencrantz and Guildesterne try unsuccessfully to find out the secret of Prince Hamlet. Hamlet understands that they were sent by the king.
Hamlet learns that actors have arrived, the capital's tragedians, whom he liked so much before, and an idea comes to his mind: to use the actors to make sure of the king's guilt. He agrees with the actors that they will play a play about the death of Priam, and he will insert two or three verses of his composition into it. The actors agree. Hamlet asks the first actor to read a soliloquy about the murder of Priam. The actor reads brilliantly. Hamlet is excited. Entrusting the actors to the care of Polonius, he reflects alone. He must know exactly about the crime: “The spectacle is a noose to lasso the king’s conscience.”
The king questions Rosencrantz and Guildestern about the success of their mission. They admit that they were unable to find out anything: “He does not allow himself to be questioned / And with the cunning of madness he slips away...”
They report to the king that traveling actors have arrived, and Hamlet invites the king and queen to the performance.
Hamlet walks alone and utters, reflecting, his famous soliloquy: “To be or not to be, that is the question...” Why do we hold on to life so much? In which “the mockery of the century, the oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud.” And he answers his own question: “The fear of something after death - / An unknown land from where there is no return / For earthly wanderers” - confuses the will.
Polonius sends Ophelia to Hamlet. Hamlet quickly realizes that their conversation is being overheard and that Ophelia has come at the instigation of the king and father. And he plays the role of a madman, gives her advice to go to a monastery. The straightforward Ophelia is killed by Hamlet’s speeches: “Oh, what a proud mind is slain! Nobles, / Fighter, scientist - gaze, sword, tongue; / The color and hope of a joyful power, / An emboss of grace, a mirror of taste, / An exemplary example - fallen, fallen to the end! The king makes sure that love is not the cause of the prince’s upset. Hamlet asks Horatio to watch the king during the play. The show begins. Hamlet comments on it throughout the play. He accompanies the poisoning scene with the words: “He poisons him in the garden for the sake of his power. / His name is Gonzago Now you will see how the murderer wins the love of Gonzaga’s wife.”
During this scene, the king could not stand it. He got up. There was a commotion. Polonius demanded that the game be stopped. Everyone leaves. Hamlet and Horatio remain. They are convinced of the king's crime - he gave himself away completely.
Rosencrantz and Guildestern return. They explain how upset the king is and how perplexed the queen is about Hamlet's behavior. Hamlet takes the flute and invites Guildestern to play it. Guildesterne refuses: “I do not master this art.” Hamlet says with anger: “You see what a worthless thing you are making of me? You are ready to play me, it seems to you that you know my modes...”
Polonius calls Hamlet to his mother, the queen.
The king is tormented by fear and tormented by a bad conscience. “Oh, my sin is vile, it stinks to heaven!” But he has already committed a crime, “his chest is blacker than death.” He kneels down, trying to pray.
At this time, Hamlet passes - he goes to his mother’s chambers. But he does not want to kill the despicable king during prayer. “Back, my sword, find out the terrible girth.”
Polonius hides behind the carpet in the queen's chambers to overhear Hamlet's conversation with his mother.
Hamlet is full of indignation. The pain that torments his heart makes his tongue bold. The Queen gets scared and screams. Polonius finds himself behind the carpet, Hamlet, shouting “Rat, rat,” pierces him with his sword, thinking that it is the king. The Queen begs Hamlet for mercy: “You directed my eyes straight into my soul, / And in it I see so many black spots, / That nothing can remove them...”
A ghost appears... He demands to spare the queen.
The Queen does not see or hear the ghost; it seems to her that Hamlet is talking to the void. He looks like a madman.
The queen tells the king that in a fit of madness, Hamlet killed Polonius. "He's crying about what he did." The king decides to immediately send Hamlet to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildestern, who will be given a secret letter to the Briton about the death of Hamlet. He decides to bury Polonius secretly to avoid rumors.
Hamlet and his traitorous friends rush to the ship. They meet armed soldiers. Hamlet asks them whose army is and where it is going. It turns out that this is the Norwegian army, which is going to fight with Poland for a piece of land, which “for five ducats” it would be a pity to rent. Hamlet is amazed that people cannot “settle the dispute about this trifle.”
For him, this incident is a reason for deep reflections about what is tormenting him, and what is tormenting him is his own indecision. Prince Fortinbras, “for the sake of whim and absurd glory,” sends twenty thousand to death, “as if to bed,” since his honor is hurt. “So what about me,” Hamlet exclaims, “I, whose father is killed, / whose mother is in disgrace,” and I live, repeating “this must be done.” “Oh my thought, from now on you must be bloody, or dust will be your price.”
Having learned about the death of his father, Laertes secretly returns from Paris. Another misfortune awaits him: Ophelia, under the burden of grief - the death of her father at the hands of Hamlet - has gone crazy. Laertes seeks revenge. Armed, he breaks into the king's chambers. The king calls Hamlet the culprit of all Laertes' misfortunes. At this time, the messenger brings the king a letter in which Hamlet announces his return. The king is at a loss, he understands that something has happened. But then he hatches a new vile plan, in which he involves the hot-tempered, narrow-minded Laertes.
He proposes to arrange a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. And to ensure that the murder takes place, the end of Laertes’ sword should be smeared with deadly poison. Laertes agrees.
The Queen sadly reports the death of Ophelia. She “tried to hang her wreaths on the branches, the treacherous branch broke, she fell into a sobbing stream.”
Two gravediggers are digging a grave. And they make jokes.
Hamlet and Horatio appear. Hamlet talks about the vanity of all living things. “Alexander (Macedonian - E. Sh.) died, Alexander was buried, Alexander turns to dust; dust is earth; clay is made from earth; and why can’t they plug up a beer barrel with this clay into which he turned?”
The funeral procession is approaching. King, queen, Laertes, court. Ophelia is buried. Laertes jumps into the grave and asks to be buried with his sister; Hamlet cannot stand the false note. They grapple with Laertes. “I loved her; forty thousand brothers / with all the multitude of their love would not be equal to me,” - in these famous words of Hamlet there is a genuine, deep feeling.
The king separates them. He is not happy with the unpredictable fight. He reminds Laertes: “Be patient and remember yesterday; / We will move things to a quick end.”
Horatio and Hamlet are alone. Hamlet tells Horatio that he managed to read the king's letter. It contained a request to immediately execute Hamlet. Providence protected the prince, and, using his father’s signet, he replaced the letter in which he wrote: “The donors must be killed immediately.” And with this message, Rosencrantz and Guildestern sail towards their doom. The ship was attacked by robbers, Hamlet was captured and taken to Denmark. Now he is ready for revenge.
Osric, a close associate of the king, appears and reports that the king has bet that Hamlet will defeat Laertes in a duel. Hamlet agrees to the duel, but his heart is heavy and he anticipates a trap.
Before the duel, he asks for an apology from Laertes: “My act, which hurt your honor, nature, feeling, / - I declare this, - was insane.”
The king prepared another trap for loyalty - he placed a goblet of poisoned wine to give it to Hamlet when he was thirsty. Laertes wounds Hamlet, they exchange rapiers, Hamlet wounds Laertes. The Queen drinks poisoned wine for Hamlet's victory. The king was unable to stop her. The queen dies, but manages to say: “Oh, my Hamlet, drink! I was poisoned." Laertes confesses his betrayal to Hamlet: “The king, the king is guilty...”
Hamlet hits the king with a poisoned blade and dies himself. Horatio wants to drink the poisoned wine so he can follow the prince. But the dying Hamlet asks: “Breathe in the harsh world, so that my / Tell the story.” Horatio informs Fortinbras and the English ambassadors about the tragedy that has occurred.
Fortinbras gives the order: “Let Hamlet be raised to the platform like a warrior...”
Retold
Shakespeare is the creator of an entire artistic universe, he had incomparable imagination and knowledge of life, knowledge of people, therefore the analysis of any of his plays is extremely interesting and instructive. However, for Russian culture, of all Shakespeare’s plays, the first in importance was "Hamlet", which can be seen at least by the number of its translations into Russian - there are over forty of them. Using this tragedy as an example, let us consider what new Shakespeare contributed to the understanding of the world and man in the late Renaissance.
Let's begin with plot of "Hamlet", like virtually all of Shakespeare's other works, is borrowed from a previous literary tradition. Thomas Kidd's tragedy Hamlet, presented in London in 1589, has not reached us, but it can be assumed that Shakespeare relied on it, giving his version of the story, first told in the Icelandic chronicle of the 12th century. Saxo Grammaticus, author of the "History of the Danes", tells an episode from the Danish history of the "dark time". The feudal lord Khorwendil had a wife, Geruta, and a son, Amleth. Horwendil's brother, Fengo, with whom he shared power over Jutland, was jealous of his courage and glory. Fengo killed his brother in front of the courtiers and married his widow. Amlet pretended to be crazy, deceived everyone and took revenge on his uncle. Even before that, he was exiled to England for the murder of one of the courtiers, and there he married an English princess. Amlet was subsequently killed in battle by his other uncle, King Wiglet of Denmark. The similarity of this story with the plot of Shakespeare's Hamlet is obvious, but Shakespeare's tragedy takes place in Denmark only in name; its problematics go far beyond the scope of the tragedy of revenge, and the types of characters are very different from the solid medieval heroes.
Premiere of "Hamlet" at the Globe Theater took place in 1601, and this is a year of well-known upheavals in the history of England, which directly affected both the Globe troupe and Shakespeare personally. The fact is that 1601 is the year of the “Essex Conspiracy,” when the young favorite of the aging Elizabeth, Earl of Essex, took his people to the streets of London in an attempt to rebel against the queen, was captured and beheaded. Historians regard his speech as the last manifestation of medieval feudal freemen, as a rebellion of the nobility against the absolutism that limited its rights, which was not supported by the people. On the eve of the performance, the Essex envoys paid the Globe actors to perform an old Shakespearean chronicle, which, in their opinion, could provoke discontent with the queen, instead of the play scheduled in the repertoire. The owner of Globus later had to give unpleasant explanations to the authorities. Along with Essex, the young nobles who followed him were thrown into the Tower, in particular the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare's patron, to whom his cycle of sonnets is believed to be dedicated. Southampton was later pardoned, but while Essex's trial was going on, Shakespeare's mind must have been particularly dark. All these circumstances could further thicken the general atmosphere of the tragedy.
Its action begins in Elsinore, the castle of the Danish kings. The night watch informs Horatio, Hamlet's friend, about the appearance of the Ghost. This is the ghost of Hamlet’s late father, who in the “dead hour of the night” tells his son that he did not die a natural death, as everyone believes, but was killed by his brother Claudius, who took the throne and married Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. The ghost demands revenge from Hamlet, but the prince must first make sure of what has been said: what if the ghost is a messenger from hell? To gain time and not be discovered, Hamlet pretends to be crazy; the incredulous Claudius conspires with his courtier Polonius to use his daughter Ophelia, with whom Hamlet is in love, to check whether Hamlet has actually lost his mind. For the same purpose, Hamlet's old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are called to Elsinore, and they willingly agree to help the king. Exactly in the middle of the play is the famous “Mousetrap”: a scene in which Hamlet persuades the actors who came to Elsinore to perform a performance that exactly depicts what the Ghost told him about, and by Claudia’s confused reaction he is convinced of his guilt. After this, Hamlet kills Polonius, who overhears his conversation with his mother, in the belief that Claudius is hiding behind the carpets in her bedroom; Claudius, sensing danger, sends Hamlet to England, where he is to be executed by the English king, but on board the ship Hamlet manages to replace the letter, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who accompanied him, are executed instead. Returning to Elsinore, Hamlet learns of the death of Ophelia, who has gone mad, and becomes a victim of Claudius's latest intrigue. The king persuades the son of the late Polonius and Ophelia's brother Laertes to take revenge on Hamlet and hands Laertes a poisoned sword for a court duel with the prince. During this duel, Gertrude dies after drinking a cup of poisoned wine intended for Hamlet; Claudius and Laertes are killed, Hamlet dies, and the troops of the Norwegian prince Fortinbras enter Elsinore.
Hamlet- the same as Don Quixote, the “eternal image” that arose at the end of the Renaissance almost simultaneously with other images of the great individualists (Don Quixote, Don Juan, Faust). All of them embody the Renaissance idea of limitless personal development, and at the same time, unlike Montaigne, who valued measure and harmony, these artistic images, as is typical in Renaissance literature, embody great passions, extreme degrees of development of one side of the personality. Don Quixote's extreme was idealism; Hamlet's extreme is reflection, introspection, which paralyzes a person's ability to act. He performs many actions throughout the tragedy: he kills Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths, but since he hesitates with his main task - revenge, the impression of his inactivity is created.
From the moment he learns the secret of the Ghost, Hamlet's past life collapses. What he was like before the start of the tragedy can be judged by Horatio, his friend at the University of Wittenberg, and by the scene of the meeting with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, when he sparkles with wit - until the moment when the friends admit that Claudius summoned them. The indecently quick wedding of his mother, the loss of Hamlet Sr., in whom the prince saw not just a father, but an ideal person, explain his gloomy mood at the beginning of the play. And when Hamlet is faced with the task of revenge, he begins to understand that the death of Claudius will not correct the general state of affairs, because everyone in Denmark quickly consigned Hamlet Sr. to oblivion and quickly got used to slavery. The era of ideal people is in the past, and the theme of Denmark-prison runs through the whole tragedy, set by the words of the honest officer Marcellus in the first act of the tragedy: “Something has rotted in the Danish kingdom” (Act I, Scene IV). The prince comes to realize the hostility, the “dislocation” of the world around him: “The century has been shaken - and worst of all, / That I was born to restore it” (Act I, Scene V). Hamlet knows that his duty is to punish evil, but his idea of evil no longer corresponds to the straightforward laws of family revenge. Evil for him is not limited to the crime of Claudius, whom he ultimately punishes; Evil is spread throughout the world around him, and Hamlet realizes that one person cannot resist the whole world. This internal conflict leads him to think about the futility of life, about suicide.
The fundamental difference between Hamlet from the heroes of the previous revenge tragedy in that he is able to look at himself from the outside, to think about the consequences of his actions. Hamlet's main sphere of activity is thought, and the sharpness of his introspection is akin to Montaigne's close introspection. But Montaigne called for introducing human life into proportionate boundaries and depicted a person occupying a middle position in life. Shakespeare draws not only the prince, that is, a person standing at the highest level of society, on whom the fate of his country depends; Shakespeare, in accordance with literary tradition, depicts an extraordinary character, large in all its manifestations. Hamlet is a hero born of the spirit of the Renaissance, but his tragedy indicates that at its later stage the ideology of the Renaissance is experiencing a crisis. Hamlet takes upon himself the work of revising and revaluing not only medieval values, but also the values of humanism, and the illusory nature of humanistic ideas about the world as a kingdom of boundless freedom and direct action is revealed.
Hamlet's central storyline is reflected in a kind of mirror: the lines of two more young heroes, each of which sheds new light on Hamlet’s situation. The first is the line of Laertes, who, after the death of his father, finds himself in the same position as Hamlet after the appearance of the Ghost. Laertes, in everyone’s opinion, is a “worthy young man,” he takes the lessons of Polonius’s common sense and acts as the bearer of established morality; he takes revenge on his father's murderer, not disdaining an agreement with Claudius. The second is the line of Fortinbras; Despite the fact that he has a small place on the stage, his significance for the play is very great. Fortinbras is the prince who occupied the empty Danish throne, Hamlet's hereditary throne; he is a man of action, a decisive politician and military leader; he realized himself after the death of his father, the Norwegian king, precisely in those areas that remain inaccessible to Hamlet. All the characteristics of Fortinbras are directly opposite to the characteristics of Laertes, and we can say that the image of Hamlet is placed between them. Laertes and Fortinbras are normal, ordinary avengers, and the contrast with them makes the reader feel the exceptionality of Hamlet’s behavior, because the tragedy depicts precisely the exceptional, the great, the sublime.
Since the Elizabethan theater was poor in decorations and external effects of theatrical spectacle, the strength of its impact on the viewer depended mainly on the word. Shakespeare is the greatest poet in the history of the English language and its greatest reformer; Shakespeare's word is fresh and succinct, and in Hamlet it is striking stylistic richness of the play. It is mostly written in blank verse, but in a number of scenes the characters speak in prose. Shakespeare uses metaphors especially subtly to create the general atmosphere of tragedy. Critics note the presence of three groups of leitmotifs in the play. Firstly, these are images of illness, an ulcer that wears away a healthy body - the speeches of all the characters contain images of rotting, decomposition, decay, working to create the theme of death. Secondly, images of female debauchery, fornication, fickle Fortune, reinforcing the theme of female infidelity running through the tragedy and at the same time pointing to the main philosophical problem of the tragedy - the contrast between appearance and the true essence of the phenomenon. Thirdly, there are numerous images of weapons and military equipment associated with war and violence - they emphasize the effective side of Hamlet’s character in the tragedy. The entire arsenal of artistic means of the tragedy was used to create its numerous images, to embody the main tragic conflict - the loneliness of a humanistic personality in the desert of a society in which there is no place for justice, reason, and dignity. Hamlet is the first reflective hero in world literature, the first hero experiencing a state of alienation, and the roots of his tragedy were perceived differently in different eras.
For the first time, naive audience interest in Hamlet as a theatrical spectacle gave way to attention to the characters at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. I.V. Goethe, an ardent admirer of Shakespeare, in his novel Wilhelm Meister (1795) interpreted Hamlet as “a beautiful, noble, highly moral creature, deprived of the power of feeling that makes a hero, he perishes under a burden that he could neither bear nor throw off.” . U I.V. Goethe's Hamlet is a sentimental-elegiac nature, a thinker who cannot handle great deeds.
The romantics explained the inactivity of the first in a series of “superfluous people” (they were later “lost”, “angry”) by the excessiveness of reflection, the collapse of the unity of thought and will. S. T. Coleridge in “Shakespeare's Lectures” (1811-1812) 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.” As a result, the romantics presented Hamlet as the first literary hero in tune with modern man in his preoccupation with introspection, which means that this image is the prototype of modern man in general.
G. Hegel wrote about Hamlet’s ability - like other most lively Shakespearean characters - to look at himself from the outside, to treat himself objectively, as an artistic character, and to act as an artist.
Don Quixote and Hamlet were the most important "eternal images" for Russian culture of the 19th century. V.G. Belinsky believed that Hamlet's idea consists "in weakness of will, but only as a result of decay, and not by its nature. By nature, Hamlet is a strong man... He is great and strong in his weakness, because a strong-spirited man and in his very fall is higher than a weak man, in his very fall his uprising." V.G. Belinsky and A.I. Herzen saw in Hamlet a helpless but stern judge of his society, a potential revolutionary; I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy is a hero rich in intelligence that is of no use to anyone.
Psychologist L.S. Vygotsky, bringing to the fore the final act of the tragedy in his analysis, emphasized Hamlet’s connection with the other world: “Hamlet is a mystic, this determines not only his mental state on the threshold of double existence, two worlds, but also his will in all its manifestations.”
English writers B. Shaw and M. Murray explained Hamlet's slowness by unconscious resistance to the barbaric law of family revenge. Psychoanalyst E. Jones showed that Hamlet is a victim of the Oedipus complex. Marxist criticism saw him as an anti-Machiavellian, a fighter for the ideals of bourgeois humanism. For Catholic K.S. Lewis's Hamlet is a "everyman", an ordinary person, depressed by the idea of original sin. In literary criticism there has been a whole gallery of mutually exclusive Hamlets: an egoist and a pacifist, a misogynist, a brave hero, a melancholic incapable of action, the highest embodiment of the Renaissance ideal and an expression of the crisis of humanistic consciousness - all this is a Shakespearean hero. In the process of comprehending the tragedy, Hamlet, like Don Quixote, broke away from the text of the work and acquired the meaning of a “supertype” (Yu. M. Lotman’s term), that is, it became a socio-psychological generalization of such a wide scope that its right to timeless existence was recognized.
Today in Western Shakespeare studies the focus is not on “Hamlet”, but on other plays of Shakespeare - “Measure for Measure”, “King Lear”, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, also, each in its own way, consonant with modernity, since in each Shakespeare's play poses eternal questions of human existence. And each play contains something that determines the exclusivity of Shakespeare's influence on all subsequent literature. American literary critic H. Bloom defines his author’s position as “disinterest”, “freedom from any ideology”: “He has no theology, no metaphysics, no ethics, and less political theory than modern critics “read” into him. Based on the sonnets it is clear that, unlike his character Falstaff, he had a superego; unlike Hamlet of the final act, he did not cross the boundaries of earthly existence; unlike Rosalind, he did not have the ability to manage his own life at will. But since he invented them, we can assume that he deliberately set certain boundaries for himself. Fortunately, he was not King Lear and refused to go mad, although he could perfectly imagine madness, like everything else. His wisdom is endlessly reproduced in our sages from Goethe to Freud, although Shakespeare himself refused to be considered a sage"; "You cannot limit Shakespeare to the English Renaissance any more than you can limit the Prince of Denmark to his play."
Dramaturgy of the 16th - 17th centuries was an integral and perhaps the most important part of the literature of that time. This type of literary creativity was the closest and most understandable to the broad masses; it was a spectacle that made it possible to convey to the viewer the feelings and thoughts of the author. One of the most prominent representatives of dramaturgy of that time, who is read and reread to this day, performances based on his works are staged, and philosophical concepts are analyzed, is William Shakespeare.
The genius of the English poet, actor and playwright lies in the ability to show the realities of life, to penetrate the soul of every viewer, to find in it a response to his philosophical statements through feelings familiar to every person. The theatrical action of that time took place on a platform in the middle of the square; the actors could descend into the “hall” during the play. The viewer became, as it were, a participant in everything that was happening. Nowadays, such an effect of presence is unattainable even when using 3D technologies. The more important the word of the author, the language and style of the work received in the theater. Shakespeare's talent is manifested largely in his linguistic manner of presenting the plot. Simple and somewhat ornate, it differs from the language of the streets, allowing the viewer to rise above everyday life, to stand for a while on a par with the characters in the play, people of the upper class. And the genius is confirmed by the fact that this has not lost its significance in later times - we get the opportunity to become for some time accomplices in the events of medieval Europe.
Many of his contemporaries, and after them subsequent generations, considered the tragedy “Hamlet - Prince of Denmark” to be the pinnacle of Shakespeare’s creativity. This work of a recognized English classic has become one of the most significant for Russian literary thought. It is no coincidence that Hamlet's tragedy has been translated into Russian more than forty times. This interest is caused not only by the phenomenon of medieval drama and the literary talent of the author, which is undoubtedly. Hamlet is a work that reflects the “eternal image” of a seeker of truth, a moral philosopher and a man who has stepped above his era. The galaxy of such people, which began with Hamlet and Don Quixote, continued in Russian literature with the images of “superfluous people” by Onegin and Pechorin, and further in the works of Turgenev, Dobrolyubov, Dostoevsky. This line is native to the Russian seeking soul.
History of creation - The tragedy of Hamlet in the romanticism of the 17th century
Just as many of Shakespeare’s works are based on short stories from early medieval literature, he borrowed the plot of the tragedy Hamlet from the Icelandic chronicles of the 12th century. However, this plot is not something original for the “dark time”. The theme of the struggle for power, regardless of moral standards, and the theme of revenge are present in many works of all times. Based on this, Shakespeare's romanticism created the image of a man protesting against the foundations of his time, looking for a way out of these shackles of conventions to the norms of pure morality, but who himself is a hostage of existing rules and laws. The crown prince, a romantic and a philosopher, who asks the eternal questions of existence and, at the same time, is forced in reality to fight in the way that was customary at that time - “he is not his own master, his hands are tied by his birth” (Act I, scene III ), and this causes an internal protest in him.
(Antique engraving - London, 17th century)
In the year the tragedy was written and staged, England was experiencing a turning point in its feudal history (1601), which is why the play contains that certain gloom, real or imaginary decline in the state - “Something has rotted in the Kingdom of Denmark” (Act I, Scene IV ). But we are more interested in the eternal questions “about good and evil, about fierce hatred and holy love,” which are so clearly and so ambiguously spelled out by the genius of Shakespeare. In full accordance with romanticism in art, the play contains heroes of clearly defined moral categories, an obvious villain, a wonderful hero, there is a love line, but the author goes further. The romantic hero refuses to follow the canons of time in his revenge. One of the key figures of the tragedy, Polonius, does not appear to us in an unambiguous light. The theme of betrayal is discussed in several storylines and is also presented to the viewer. From the obvious betrayal of the king and the queen’s disloyalty to the memory of her late husband, to the trivial betrayal of student friends who are not averse to finding out secrets from the prince for the king’s mercy.
Description of the tragedy (the plot of the tragedy and its main features)
Ilsinore, the castle of the Danish kings, the night guard with Horatio, Hamlet's friend, meets the ghost of the deceased king. Horatio tells Hamlet about this meeting and he decides to personally meet with his father's shadow. The ghost tells the prince the terrible story of his death. The king's death turns out to be a vile murder committed by his brother Claudius. After this meeting, a turning point occurs in Hamlet’s consciousness. What is learned is superimposed on the fact of the too-quick wedding of the king’s widow, Hamlet’s mother, and his murderer brother. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of revenge, but is in doubt. He must see for himself. Feigning madness, Hamlet observes everything. Polonius, the king's advisor and the father of Hamlet's beloved, tries to explain to the king and queen such changes in the prince as a rejected love. Previously, he forbade his daughter Ophelia to accept Hamlet's advances. These prohibitions destroy the idyll of love and subsequently lead to depression and insanity of the girl. The king makes his attempts to find out the thoughts and plans of his stepson; he is tormented by doubts and his sin. Hamlet's former student friends, hired by him, are with him inseparably, but to no avail. The shock of what he learned makes Hamlet think even more about the meaning of life, about such categories as freedom and morality, about the eternal question of the immortality of the soul, the frailty of existence.
Meanwhile, a troupe of traveling actors appears in Ilsinore, and Hamlet persuades them to insert several lines into the theatrical action, exposing the king of fratricide. During the course of the performance, Claudius betrays himself with confusion, Hamlet’s doubts about his guilt are dispelled. He tries to talk to his mother, throw accusations at her, but the ghost that appears forbids him to take revenge on his mother. A tragic accident aggravates the tension in the royal chambers - Hamlet kills Polonius, who hid behind the curtains out of curiosity during this conversation, mistaking him for Claudius. Hamlet was sent to England to hide these unfortunate accidents. His spy friends are going with him. Claudius gives them a letter for the King of England asking them to execute the prince. Hamlet, who managed to accidentally read the letter, makes corrections in it. As a result, traitors are executed, and he returns to Denmark.
Laertes, the son of Polonius, also returns to Denmark; the tragic news of the death of his sister Ophelia as a result of her insanity due to love, as well as the murder of his father, pushes him into an alliance with Claudius in the matter of revenge. Claudius provokes a sword fight between two young men, Laertes' blade is deliberately poisoned. Without stopping there, Claudius also poisons the wine in order to make Hamlet drunk in case of victory. During the duel, Hamlet is wounded by a poisoned blade, but finds mutual understanding with Laertes. The duel continues, during which the opponents exchange swords, now Laertes is also wounded with a poisoned sword. Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, cannot stand the tension of the duel and drinks poisoned wine for her son's victory. Claudius is also killed, leaving only Hamlet's only true friend Horace alive. The troops of the Norwegian prince enter the capital of Denmark, who occupies the Danish throne.
Main characters
As can be seen from the entire development of the plot, the theme of revenge fades into the background before the moral quest of the protagonist. Committing revenge is impossible for him in the expression that is customary in that society. Even after being convinced of his uncle’s guilt, he does not become his executioner, but only his accuser. In contrast, Laertes makes a deal with the king; for him, revenge is above all, he follows the traditions of his time. The love line in the tragedy is only an additional means of showing the moral images of that time and highlighting Hamlet’s spiritual search. The main characters of the play are Prince Hamlet and the king's advisor Polonius. It is in the moral foundations of these two people that the conflict of time is expressed. Not the conflict of good and evil, but the difference in the moral levels of two positive characters is the main line of the play, brilliantly shown by Shakespeare.
An intelligent, devoted and honest servant of the king and fatherland, a caring father and a respected citizen of his country. He is sincerely trying to help the king understand Hamlet, he is sincerely trying to understand Hamlet himself. His moral principles are impeccable at the level of that time. Sending his son to study in France, he instructs him in the rules of behavior, which can still be cited without changes today, they are so wise and universal for any time. Worried about his daughter’s moral character, he admonishes her to refuse Hamlet’s advances, explaining the class difference between them and not excluding the possibility that the prince’s attitude towards the girl is not serious. At the same time, according to his moral views corresponding to that time, there is nothing prejudiced in such frivolity on the part of the young man. With his distrust of the prince and the will of his father, he destroys their love. For the same reasons, he does not trust his own son, sending a servant to him as a spy. His surveillance plan is simple - to find acquaintances and, having slightly denigrated his son, lure out the frank truth about his behavior away from home. Overhearing a conversation between an angry son and mother in the royal chambers is also not something wrong for him. With all his actions and thoughts, Polonius appears to be an intelligent and kind person; even in Hamlet’s madness, he sees his rational thoughts and gives them their due. But he is a typical representative of society, which puts so much pressure on Hamlet with its deceit and duplicity. And this is a tragedy that is understandable not only in modern society, but also in the London public of the early 17th century. Such duplicity causes protest with its presence in the modern world.
A hero with a strong spirit and an extraordinary mind, searching and doubting, who has become one step above the rest of society in his morality. He is able to look at himself from the outside, he is able to analyze those around him and analyze his thoughts and actions. But he is also a product of that era and that connects him. Traditions and society impose a certain stereotype of behavior on him, which he can no longer accept. Based on the plot of revenge, the whole tragedy of the situation is shown when a young man sees evil not just in one vile act, but in the entire society in which such actions are justified. This young man calls on himself to live in accordance with the highest morality, responsibility for all his actions. The family tragedy only makes him think more about moral values. Such a thinking person cannot help but raise universal philosophical questions for himself. The famous monologue “To be or not to be” is only the tip of such reasoning, which is woven into all his dialogues with friends and enemies, in conversations with random people. But the imperfection of society and the environment still pushes him to impulsive, often unjustified actions, which are then difficult for him and ultimately lead to death. After all, the guilt in the death of Ophelia and the accidental mistake in the murder of Polonius and the inability to understand Laertes’ grief oppresses him and fetters him with a chain.
Laertes, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude, Horatio
All these persons are introduced into the plot as Hamlet’s entourage and characterize ordinary society, positive and correct in the understanding of that time. Even considering them from a modern point of view, one can recognize their actions as logical and consistent. The struggle for power and adultery, revenge for a murdered father and a girl's first love, enmity with neighboring states and the acquisition of lands as a result of knightly tournaments. And only Hamlet stands head and shoulders above this society, bogged down to the waist in the tribal traditions of succession to the throne. Hamlet's three friends - Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - are representatives of the nobility, courtiers. For two of them, spying on a friend is not something wrong, and only one remains a faithful listener and interlocutor, a smart adviser. An interlocutor, but nothing more. Hamlet is left alone before his fate, society and the entire kingdom.
Analysis - the idea of the tragedy of the Danish prince Hamlet
Shakespeare's main idea was the desire to show psychological portraits of his contemporaries based on the feudalism of the "dark times", a new generation growing up in society that could change the world for the better. Competent, searching and freedom-loving. It is no coincidence that in the play Denmark is called a prison, which, according to the author, was the entire society of that time. But Shakespeare's genius was expressed in his ability to describe everything in halftones, without slipping into the grotesque. Most of the characters are positive people and respected according to the canons of that time; they reason quite sensibly and fairly.
Hamlet is shown as an introspective man, spiritually strong, but still bound by conventions. The inability to act, the inability, makes him similar to the “superfluous people” of Russian literature. But it carries within itself a charge of moral purity and the desire of society for the better. The genius of this work lies in the fact that all these issues are relevant in the modern world, in all countries and on all continents, regardless of the political system. And the language and stanza of the English playwright captivate with their perfection and originality, forcing you to reread the works several times, turn to plays, listen to productions, look for something new, hidden in the depths of centuries.
Polonium- hero of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
"Hamlet" characterization of Polonius
Polonium- Chancellor of the former and present king. Intrigue, hypocrisy, and cunning became the norm of his behavior in the palace and in his own home. Everything with him is subject to calculation. He teaches the same to others: his son: “Keep thoughts away from your tongue... Collect all opinions, and keep yours... Make a dress as expensive as possible...”. His distrust of people even extends to his own children. He sends a servant to spy on his son, he makes his daughter an accomplice in spying on Hamlet, without worrying at all about how this hurts her soul and how it humiliates her dignity. He will never understand Hamlet's sincere feelings for Ophelia, and he ruins him with his vulgar interference.
All his life trying to serve his rulers (no matter who - Hamlet or), Polonius in his desire to be in power reaches the brink, he will even accept death for the king. The naivety of the situation makes clear the phantasmagoria of the nobleman’s dream: a minute before his death he was mistaken for a king!
Polonius is a true vassal, he carries out the will of his overlord, nevertheless, he zealously protects his own interests. An experienced courtier, he easily neglects moral rules, formally remembering them only in a ritual parental conversation. The Chancellor does not believe that by going to eavesdrop on the conversation between Hamlet and the Queen, he is raising any rules. They are not something essential for him at all, i.e. something for which a person can pay with his life. Another thing is important to him: to find out what is in the prince’s thoughts and to serve the king.
He dies at the hands of Hamlet, as a spy, eavesdropping on the queen’s conversation with her son. Hamlet perceives the death of the chancellor only as a fair punishment for a vile act.
