Summary of a lesson on literature on the topic "W. Shakespeare's Hamlet"

Near Elsinore, the royal palace of Denmark, soldiers several times saw a ghost that surprisingly resembled the recently deceased king. The news reaches the Danish prince Hamlet and he decides to see the ghost. Hamlet's meeting with him leads to horror and confusion - the ghost told him that his uncle, the current king, killed him, and bequeaths revenge to his son. Hamlet is so amazed and confused that he decides to pretend to be crazy. He is trying to obtain irrefutable evidence of Claudius' guilt. The king, guessing that " Hamlet is not crazy, but is pretending for some purpose", sends his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to him, so that for an appropriate reward they find out what is really on Hamlet's mind. But Hamlet, having understood the true purpose of their visit, does not reveal anything to them, answering their questions with meaningless monologues.

At this time, a troupe of traveling actors arrives in Elsinore. Hamlet asks them to stage the play “The Murder of Gonzago”, inserting a few lines of his own composition into it. Thus, The Murder of Gonzago will depict the murder of the former king according to the words of a ghost. The king closely follows the action of the play and leaves after a murder occurs in Hamlet's play. After this, Hamlet goes to the queen’s chambers, and before the conversation he accidentally kills the royal adviser, Polonius, who is hiding behind the carpet. Next, he talks to his mother, reproaching her for the fact that by marrying Claudius, she insulted her former husband. The king, realizing that Hamlet is dangerous for him, sends him to England to be executed immediately upon arrival. The prince escapes this fate and returns to Denmark. The uncle resorts to an already tried and tested method - poison. Hamlet dies, killing the king before dying. The Danish throne passes to Fortinbras, the Norwegian ruler. The basis of the dramatic composition is the fate of the Danish prince.

Its disclosure is structured in such a way that each new stage of the action is accompanied by some change in Hamlet’s position or state of mind.

3 facts shocked my soul:

Sudden death of father;
The place of the father on the throne and in the heart of the mother was taken by a man unworthy in comparison with the deceased;
Mother betrayed the memory of love.

From the ghost, Hamlet learns that his father's death was the work of Claudius. “Murder is vile in itself; but this is the most disgusting and inhumane of all.”

More vile - since the brother killed his brother and the wife cheated on her husband, the people closest to each other by blood turned out to be the worst enemies, hence the rottenness eats away at the very foundations of human life (“Something is rotten in the Danish state”).

Thus, Hamlet learns that evil is not a philosophical abstraction, but a terrible reality located next to him, in people closest by blood.

At the center of the tragedy is the question of MAN, embodied in the entire figure of Hamlet. The solution to this issue is connected primarily with the person himself, with his ability to become worthy of his ideal.

Hamlet shows the image of a man who, going through incredible suffering, acquires that degree of courage that corresponds to the humanistic ideal of the individual.

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 us, 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 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.

Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov is the main character of the novel. He is a “former student”, forced to leave his studies due to lack of money, living in the poorest quarter of St. Petersburg in a closet that looks more like a closet. But he is an intelligent person, a person capable of assessing the reality around him. It was in such an environment where the hero was forced to live that his inhuman theory could arise.

Raskolnikov published an article in the magazine in which he reflected that all people are divided into “those who have the right,” who can cross a certain moral line, and “trembling creatures,” who must obey the strongest. Ordinary people are only creatures designed to reproduce their own kind. “Extraordinary” are those people who rule the world, reach heights in science, technology, and religion. They not only can, but are obliged to destroy everything and everyone on their way to achieving the goal necessary for all of humanity.

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Faculty of Publishing and Journalism

Department of Literary History

Coursework on the history of foreign literature

CONFLICT AND HERO IN W. SHAKESPEARE'S TRAGEDY "HAMLET"

Moscow - 2011

Plan

Introduction
1. The tragedy “Hamlet” as a vivid example of an internal personality conflict

1.2 The depth of the conflict in William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”

2. The image of the main character of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”
Conclusion

Introduction

The relevance of the work lies in the fact that the tragedy “Hamlet” is the most popular and, according to many critics, the most profound creation of the great playwright. The power of this tragedy is confirmed not only by its popularity among readers, but especially by the fact that Hamlet is a play that has taken one of the first places in the repertoire of the world theater, and it retains it to this day.

Hamlet is the most problematic of all Shakespeare's works.

If thinkers are concerned with the task of finding and defining the essence of the philosophy that underlies the tragedy, then aestheticians are fascinated by the task of establishing the artistic qualities due to which this work acquired relevance for the most different eras of social life and was perceived as one’s own by various and even opposing trends in social life. philosophical thought.

Finally, Hamlet also poses a problem in a special literary aspect.

The history of the plot, the time of creation of the play and its text are among the issues that, unfortunately, cannot be easily resolved. Some significant aspects of the creative history of “Hamlet” are a kind of mysteries, which researchers have long been struggling to unravel.

Based on the relevance of the topic of the course work, we can determine the purpose of the work - to reveal the image of the main character and the basis of the conflict in the tragedy “Hamlet”.

The subject of the work is the connection between the hero and the conflict in the tragedy “Hamlet”, and the object of study is the identification of the conflict of the main character of the tragedy.

Study objectives:

§ show the events in the history of the creation of the play “Hamlet”;

§ reveal the depth and variety of conflicts in Hamlet;

§ reveal the inconsistency of the image of Hamlet and show the philosophical foundations of his conflict.

The hypothesis is that Hamlet’s internal experiences and reflection of nature create complex contradictory conflicts in the tragedy.

Development of the topic in the literature:

The abundance of problems associated with Shakespeare's great tragedy is reflected in the extensive literature devoted to Hamlet. A huge number of studies, critical works and studies have been written about this play. A special bibliography compiled by A. Raven lists more than two thousand books and articles on Hamlet published between 1877 and 1935. Although the literature devoted to the tragedy in subsequent years has not yet been fully taken into account, nevertheless, it is safe to say that the flow of research during this time has not decreased at all.

The literary controversy surrounding the image of Hamlet is diverse; the number of interpretations of the entire tragedy and especially the character of its protagonist is enormous. The starting point for the ongoing controversy to this day was the judgment expressed by the heroes of Goethe’s novel “The Years of the Teaching of Wilhelm Meister,” where the idea was voiced that Shakespeare wanted to show “a great deed weighing on a soul that is sometimes beyond the power of such an act... here an oak tree is planted in a precious vessel, whose purpose was to cherish only delicate flowers in its bosom...” 11 Goethe I.V. Years of study of William Meister, collection. op. in 13 volumes. - T. VII - M., Fiction, 1978. - P. 248.

1. The tragedy “Hamlet” as a vivid example of an internal personality conflict

1.1 The history of the creation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”

As you know, Shakespeare usually did not invent plots for his plays. He took plots that were already existing in literature and gave them dramatic treatment. Sometimes he dramatized chronicles, short stories or poems, but it often happened that he simply remade a ready-made dramatic work created by one of his more or less distant predecessors. It was the same with Hamlet.

This plot was a long time ago and was repeatedly processed in literature before Shakespeare. According to A. Anikst, the prototype of the hero was the semi-legendary prince Amleth, whose name appears in one of the Icelandic sagas of Snorri Sturluson (1178-1241). 11 Shakespeare W. Favorites. In 2 parts / Comp. auto articles and comments. A. Anikst. - M., 1984.

The first literary monument, which tells the saga of Amleth's revenge, belongs to the pen of the medieval Danish chronicler Saxo Grammar (c. 1140 - c. 1208). In his “Acts of the Danes” (“Gesta Danorum”), written around 1200 in Latin, he reports that this story took place in pagan times, that is, before 827, when Christianity was introduced in Denmark.

The ancient saga contains all the main elements of the action of Shakespeare's tragedy. The differences concern only minor details and the ending. However, despite all the similarities in the plot, the ideological meaning of the Scandinavian legend is completely different from that of Shakespeare. The saga, narrated by Saxo Grammaticus, is quite in the spirit of the robber morality of medieval feudal chivalry.

In the ancient times of paganism - so says Saxo Grammaticus - the ruler of Jutland was killed during a feast by his brother Feng, who then married his widow. The son of the murdered man, young Amlet (Hamlet), decided to take revenge for the murder of his father. To gain time and appear safe, Hamlet decided to pretend to be mad. Feng's friend wanted to check this, but Hamlet beat him to it. After Feng's unsuccessful attempt to destroy the prince at the hands of the English king, Hamlet triumphed over his enemies.

As for the character of ancient Amlet and Shakespeare's Hamlet, the only thing they have in common is that they are both people of great intelligence. But their mentality and thoughts are completely different, just as their moral concepts are different. Seeking revenge for his father, Amleth does not hesitate at all. His whole life is devoted only to this task. It does not burden him at all, for it naturally follows from the harsh moral laws of the early Middle Ages, in the spirit of which he was brought up.

There were other works similar in plot to Hamlet, namely the work of François Belfort (1530-1583), published in 1576 in French (Belfore mainly followed the story of the Danish chronicler, but at the same time he more expressively presented some motives of the plot about Hamlet), as well as a play on the same plot, which existed before Shakespeare's Hamlet on the English stage and may have been written by Thomas Kyd (1558-1594).

T. Kyd belongs to the galaxy of playwrights who, in the late 1580s, reformed the English theater and in a short time created the foundations of English drama of the Renaissance. He was the creator of the genre of revenge tragedy. A striking example of this type of drama was his “Spanish Tragedy” (c. 1587). This play established the typical tropes of revenge tragedy that are repeated in a number of dramatic works of the era, including Hamlet.

However, in his interpretation of the plot, Shakespeare greatly expanded its scope. Although the question of revenge plays an important role in his tragedy, nevertheless, here it is not the plot motive that suppresses the rest. On the contrary, questions of a broader philosophical nature in Shakespeare's tragedy to a certain extent even muted the theme of revenge, putting forward other motives.

As for the dating of the play, the following should be said here. As is known, one of the most important basis for establishing the chronology of the plays of the great playwright was the list of his works published by F. Meres in 1598. Hamlet is not mentioned in this list. From this we can conclude that the tragedy was created by Shakespeare after 1598. The following documentary evidence, which helps establish the chronology, is contained in the register of the Chamber of Booksellers, where all books intended for publication were registered.

On July 26, 1602, the publisher Roberts, associated with Shakespeare's company, registered the "Book called the Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, as lately performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men." This document shows that the tragedy was written by Shakespeare and performed on stage before mid-1602.

According to E. C. Chambers, Hamlet was created and first performed on stage in 1600-1601. This dating of the play is the most generally accepted.

During Shakespeare's lifetime, the tragedy was published three times:

§ Quarto 1603 (Q1);

§ Quarto 1604 (Q2);

§ Quarto of 1611 (Q3) - reprint of the 1604 text.

After Shakespeare's death, Hamlet was published in the first collection of his works, the 1623 folio (F1). It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 4,042 lines and 29,551 words.

Accordingly, three editions are of interest to textual critics: Q1, Q2 and F1. Nowadays, a summary text is printed.

Q2 and F1 are essentially the same, while the 1603 edition is half the size of the second quarto.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, it was believed that Q1 was the first version of the tragedy. Shakespeare was believed to have then revised and completed the work, doubling its length. Based on this hypothesis, assumptions were made about the creative history of the tragedy. Today, the opinion that Q1 is the first version of the tragedy is rejected by Shakespeare studies.

“Hamlet” is a literary work in general, and a certain type of it is drama. “Hamlet” is a special kind of it - it is a tragedy, and a poetic tragedy at that. The study of this play cannot be connected with issues of dramaturgy.

In an effort to comprehend the ideal meaning, spiritual significance and artistic power of Hamlet, one cannot separate the plot of the tragedy from its idea, isolate the characters and consider them in isolation from each other. It would be especially wrong to single out the hero and talk about him outside of connection with the action of the tragedy. "Hamlet" is not a monodrama, but a complex dramatic picture of life, in which different characters are shown in interaction. But it is indisputable that the action of the tragedy is built around the personality of the hero.

Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", the most famous of the plays of the English playwright. According to many highly respected art connoisseurs, this is one of the most profound creations of human genius, a great philosophical tragedy. It is not without reason that at different stages of the development of human thought, people turned to Hamlet, looking for confirmation in it of their views on life and world order.

However, Hamlet attracts not only those who are inclined to think about the meaning of life in general. Shakespeare's works pose acute moral problems.

Hamlet has become one of the most beloved characters in world literature. Moreover, he has ceased to be a character in an ancient tragedy and is perceived as a living person, well known to many people, almost everyone of whom has their own opinion about him.

1.2 The depth of the conflict in William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”

In a broad sense, conflict should be called that system of contradictions that organizes a work of art into a certain unity, that struggle of images, social characters, ideas that unfolds in every work - in epic and dramatic ones broadly and completely, in lyrical ones - in primary forms.

This is the basis of plot construction, a clash of contradictions that convey the author’s thought. When a dramatic situation arises, the character is forced to act: his actions are driven by his will, his interests. In drama, opposing wills and interests usually collide. Opposite goals, in the struggle for which the characters’ personalities are revealed. The conflict forms the plot, it is the content of the script and its main driving force, its potential for movement. On its basis, a plot, characters, and twists and turns emerge.

The concept of conflict itself is quite diverse. In tragedy, one can talk about conflict from different positions: in the sense of the external opposition of the characters - Hamlet and his opponent Claudius, Hamlet and Laertes.

We can talk about the internal conflict in Hamlet himself, about the internal struggle of his contradictory aspirations.

Conflict is an integral moment in every plot (and often non-fabulous, for example, lyrical) work, and a completely inevitable moment; the social practice of any social group seems to be a continuous dialectical movement from one social contradiction to another, from one social conflict to another. Resolving these contradictions, being aware of them, “a social person who reproduces his feelings and thoughts in artistic creativity,” thereby reproduces his contradictory relationships to the contradictory objective reality and resolves them.

Every work of art appears, first of all, to be a dialectical unity - a unity of contradictions. Thus, it is always conflicting; at its core there is always a certain social conflict and personal conflict.

Conflict of conscience in tragedy:

Hamlet is a person enlightened in humanism, who, in order to clarify the truth, has to take a step back to the medieval concepts of “conscience” and “the country from which no one returned.” Conscience, like humanism, has become a modern word for us, changing and expanding its original content. It is already very difficult for us to imagine how the same word was perceived by Shakespeare’s audience, denoting for them, first of all, the fear of afterlife punishment for their earthly actions, the very fear from which the new consciousness sought to free itself.

“So conscience turns us all into cowards” - the old Russian translation of Hamlet’s famous line is still the most correct, from a historical point of view. After all, not only Hamlet says the same thing in Shakespeare, but at least one of the hired killers in “Richard III”: it, “conscience” (as this fellow argues), “makes a man a coward.” And before committing an evil deed, he waits until his “conscience” calms down, passes away, like illness. 11 Shakespeare W. Comedies, chronicles, tragedies: In 2 volumes - T. 1. - M.: Ripol classic, 2001. - 784 p.

For Hamlet, this conflict of conscience does not go away, and this is his tragedy. The tragedy is that he finds nothing else but seemingly once and for all rejected dependence on otherworldly, inhuman authority for support and action, in order to put in place the “dislocated joints” of the era. He has to judge one era by the standards of another, already bygone era, and this, according to Shakespeare, is unthinkable.

Hamlet had the opportunity to punish Claudius more than once throughout the play. Why, for example, does he not strike when Claudius is praying alone? Therefore, the researchers found that in this case, according to ancient beliefs, the soul of the murdered person would go straight to heaven, and Hamlet needs to send it to hell. That's the point! If Laertes had been Hamlet, he would not have missed the opportunity.

“Both worlds are despicable to me,” he says. For Hamlet, they are not despicable, and this is the tragedy of his situation. The psychological duality of Hamlet's consciousness is of a historical nature: its cause is the dual state of a “contemporary”, in whose consciousness voices suddenly began to speak and the forces of other times began to act.

The task of restoring justice in Hamlet faces not only Hamlet, but at least two other young people, like himself: Laertes and Fortinbras. Shakespeare thus clearly and comparatively identifies the problem. Those two act, in contrast to Hamlet, guided by immediate conviction, truly by their own will. Laertes in particular, the exemplary young man of his time, requires no sanction other than filial love and a sense of duty to avenge his father. If King Claudius had not intervened, he would have carried out quick reprisals against the murderer. And Hamlet “feels ashamed” and seeks moral and spiritual support in the same place from where he received the very news of the treacherous murder of his father.

Before his duel with Laertes, Hamlet frightens him by saying:

Although I am not bilious and rash,

but there is something dangerous in me,

what is wiser to beware of. Hands off! 11 Shakespeare W. Comedies, chronicles, tragedies, collected. in 2 volumes - T. 2 - M., Ripod classic, 2001 - P. 263.

Hamlet has his own ethics of revenge. He wants Claudius to find out what punishment awaits him. For Hamlet, true revenge is not physical murder. He seeks to arouse in Claudius the consciousness of his guilt. All the hero’s actions are dedicated to this goal, right up to the “mousetrap” scene. Hamlet strives for Claudius to be imbued with the consciousness of his criminality; he wants to punish the enemy first with internal torment, pangs of conscience, and only then strike him so that he knows that he is being punished not only by Hamlet, but by the moral law, universal justice.

Having slain Polonius, who was hiding behind the curtain, with his sword, Hamlet says:

As for him,

Then I mourn; but heaven commanded

They punished me and me him,

So that I become their scourge and servant.

Conflict between human nature and behavior:

According to Shakespeare, human nature is inseparable from goodness. And the writer sees the origins of the tragedy in the discrepancy between human nature and his behavior. Shakespeare showed this conflict most fully and vividly in one of his most significant tragedies, Hamlet.

Each time I experienced the situations and problems of this tragedy in a new way. For almost four centuries, it served humanity as a mirror in which each generation looked at its face. And each time this face was different. While maintaining his formal suit, the Danish prince appeared sometimes ardent, sometimes listless, sometimes humane, sometimes cold.

Hamlet is not a narrow everyday image, but a character filled with enormous philosophical and life content. The image of Hamlet expresses with a certain force the state that was typical of many people of Shakespeare's era.

This is how Ophelia remembers the former Hamlet: “The gaze of a nobleman, the sword of a soldier, the tongue of a scholar.” 11 Shakespeare W. Comedies, chronicles, tragedies, collected. in 2 volumes - T. 2 - M., Ripod classic, 2001. - P. 197.

A conflict between power and lack of will, which has social implications:

From the very first appearance of Ophelia, the main conflict of her fate is indicated: her father and brother demand that she renounce her love for Hamlet.

“I will obey you, my lord,” Ophelia answers Polonius. This immediately reveals her lack of will and independence. Ophelia stops accepting Hamlet's letters and does not allow him to visit her. With the same humility, she agrees to meet with Hamlet, knowing that their conversation will be overheard by the king and Polonius:

I was told that very often

Hamlet began to share his leisure time with you.

Polonius was informed of the prince's meetings with his daughter. He spies on her, as well as on his son, and it is in such an atmosphere that Ophelia’s love for Hamlet arises. They immediately try to prevent this feeling.

Ophelia's love is her misfortune. Although her father is a close confidant of the king, his minister, nevertheless, she is not of royal blood and therefore is not a match for her lover. Her brother and father repeat this in every possible way.

The conflict of life and death in tragedy:

Another theme emerges with greater force in the play - the frailty of all things. Death reigns in this tragedy from beginning to end. It begins with the appearance of the ghost of the murdered king, during the course of the action Polonius dies, then Ophelia drowns, Rosencrantz and Guildensten go to certain death, the poisoned queen dies, Laertes dies, Hamlet’s blade finally reaches Claudius. Hamlet himself dies, a victim of the treachery of Laertes and Claudius.

This is the bloodiest of all Shakespeare's tragedies. But Shakespeare did not try to impress the viewer with the story of the murder; the death of each character has its own special meaning. The fate of Hamlet is the most tragic, since in his image true humanity, combined with the power of the mind, finds its most vivid embodiment. According to this assessment, his death is depicted as a feat in the name of freedom.

Hamlet often talks about death. Soon after his first appearance before the audience, he reveals a hidden thought: life has become so disgusting that he would commit suicide if it were not considered a sin. He reflects on death in the monologue “To be or not to be?” Here the hero is concerned about the mystery of death itself: what is it - or a continuation of the same torments that earthly life is full of? Fear of the unknown, of this country from which not a single traveler has returned, often makes people shy away from the fight for fear of falling into this unknown world.

Hamlet focuses on the thought of death when, attacked by stubborn facts and painful doubts, he cannot continue to strengthen the thought; everything around is moving in a fast current, and there is nothing to cling to, not even a saving straw is visible.

In the Act III soliloquy (“To be or not to be”), Hamlet clearly defines the dilemma he faces:

….submit

To the slings and arrows of furious fate

Or, taking up arms in the sea of turmoil, defeat them

Confrontation?

These words once again confirm Hamlet’s internal struggle with himself, reflection.

The moral conflict of the hero with society in the tragedy:

The matter of revenge is pushed aside, dims in front of the deepest questions about the fate of the century, about the meaning of life, which confront Hamlet in all its breadth.

To be - for Hamlet this means to think, believe in a person and act in accordance with one’s convictions and faith. But the deeper he knows people and life, the more clearly he sees triumphant evil and realizes that he is powerless to crush it with such a lonely struggle.

Discord with the world is accompanied by internal discord. Hamlet's former faith in man, his former ideals are crushed, broken in a collision with reality, but he cannot completely renounce them, otherwise he would cease to be himself.

Hamlet is a man of the feudal world, called by the code of honor to avenge the death of his father. Hamlet, striving for integrity, experiences the torment of splitting; Hamlet, rebelling against the world - the torment of prison, feels its shackles on himself. All this gives rise to unbearable grief, mental pain, and doubts. It would not be better to end all suffering once. Leave. Die.

But Hamlet rejects the idea of suicide. But not for long. After the vengeance is taken, the hero dies, he is driven into the ground by a burden that he can neither bear nor throw off. Which proves that Hamlet himself is unable to live in this society, cannot resist it. Revenge took all his strength.

A student at the University of Wittenberg, completely immersed in science and reflection, staying away from court life, Hamlet suddenly reveals aspects of life that he had never dreamed of before. It’s as if scales are falling from his eyes. Even before he is convinced of the villainous murder of his father, he discovers the horror of the inconstancy of his mother, who remarried, “not having had time to wear out the shoes” in which she buried her first husband, the horror of the incredible falsehood and depravity of the entire Danish court (Polonius, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz , Osric and others). In the light of his mother’s moral weakness, the moral impotence of Ophelia also becomes clear to him, who, despite all her spiritual purity and love for Hamlet, is unable to understand him and help him, since she believes in everything and obeys the pathetic intriguer - her father.

All this is generalized by Hamlet into a picture of the depravity of the world, which seems to him “a garden overgrown with weeds.” He says:

“The whole world is a prison, with many locks, dungeons and dungeons, and Denmark is one of the worst.” Hamlet understands that the point is not the very fact of his father’s murder, but that this murder could have been carried out, remained unpunished and brought its fruits to the murderer only thanks to the indifference, connivance and servility of everyone around him. Thus, the entire court and all of Denmark become participants in this murder, and Hamlet would have to take up arms against the whole world to take revenge. On the other hand, Hamlet understands that he is not the only one who suffered from the evil spread around him.

Hamlet is a man of philosophical thought. In individual facts he knows how to see the expression of large general phenomena; but it is not the ability to think itself that delays his actions in the struggle, but the gloomy conclusions that he comes to as a result of reflecting on everything around him.

In the monologue “To be or not to be?” he lists the scourges that torment humanity:

The scourge and mockery of the century,

the oppression of the strong, the mockery of the proud,

the pain of despised love, untruthful judges,

arrogance of the authorities and insults,

done to uncomplaining merit.

If Hamlet had been an egoist pursuing purely personal goals, he would have quickly dealt with Claudius and regained the throne. But he is a thinker and a humanist, concerned about the common good and feels responsible for everyone. This is the meaning of his exclamation (at the end of the first act):

The century has become loose; and worst of all,

That I was born to restore it!

Such a task is beyond his capabilities, according to Hamlet.

For Hamlet, the duty to avenge the murder of his father is not just blood feud. For him it grows into a social duty to fight for a just cause, into a great and difficult historical task:

The connection of times has broken down, and I was thrown into this hell so that everything would go smoothly!

Thus, in Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” we find a variety of options for the conflict of the main character, secondary characters, which are closely intertwined with each other and create the unity of the overall conflict in the play, in the center of which the hero and the conflict itself as an independent character of the work, as a wall separating the hero from normal life.

tragedy hamlet conflict

2. O image of the main character of Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet"

2.1 Prince Hamlet's inner drama

Although the death of a person is tragic, yet the tragedy of “Hamlet” takes as its main principle not death, but the moral, moral death of a person, what led him on the fatal path ending in death.

In this case, Hamlet’s true tragedy lies in the fact that he, a man of the most beautiful spiritual qualities, broke down. When I saw the terrible sides of life - deceit, betrayal, murder of loved ones. He lost faith in people, love, life lost its value for him. Pretending to be insane, he is actually on the verge of madness from the realization of how monstrous people are - traitors, incestuous people, perjurers, murderers, flatterers and hypocrites. He gains courage to fight, but he can only look at life with sorrow. 11 Shakespeare W. Plays, sonnets - M., Olympus, 2002. - P. 15.

What was the cause of Hamlet's spiritual tragedy? His honesty, intelligence, sensitivity, belief in ideals. If he were like Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, he could live like them, deceiving, pretending, adapting to the world of evil.

But he could not reconcile, and how to fight, and most importantly, how to defeat, destroy evil, he did not know. The cause of Hamlet's tragedy, therefore, is rooted in the nobility of his nature.

The tragedy of Hamlet is the tragedy of man's knowledge of evil. For the time being, the existence of the Danish prince was serene: he lived in a family illuminated by the mutual love of his parents, he himself fell in love and enjoyed the reciprocity of a lovely girl, had pleasant friends, was passionate about science, loved the theater, wrote poetry; A great future awaited him ahead - to become a sovereign and rule an entire people. Shakespeare W. Selected // Comp. auto articles and comments. A. Annixt - M., 1984. - P.104. . But suddenly everything began to fall apart. At the dawn of time, my father died. Before Hamlet had time to survive the grief, a second blow befell him: the mother, who seemed to love his father so much, less than two months later married the brother of the deceased and shared the throne with him. And the third blow: Hamlet learned that his father was killed by his own brother in order to take possession of the crown and his wife.

Hamlet experiences the deepest shock: after all, everything that made life valuable to him collapsed before his eyes:

Betrayal cannot live in my chest.

The second spouse is a curse and a shame!

The second one is for those who killed the first one...

Those who remarry,

Self-interest alone attracts, not love;

And I will kill the dead again,

When I let someone else hug me.

He had never been so naive as to think that there were no misfortunes in life. And yet his thoughts were largely fueled by illusory ideas. The shock experienced by Hamlet shook his faith in man and gave rise to a duality of his consciousness.

Hamlet feels an insurmountable disgust for his mother. So she lives now with his father's killer. At the same time, he desires her maternal love and support. Why didn't Hamlet tell his mother anything before? He waited for the hour when he would be sure of Claudius' crime. Hamlet reveals to her that she is the wife of the one who killed her husband. When Gertrude reproaches her son for committing a “bloody and crazy act” by killing Polonius, Hamlet responds:

A little worse than the damned sin

After killing the king, marry the king's brother.

But Hamlet cannot blame his mother for the death of her husband, since he knows who the murderer was. However, if earlier Hamlet saw only his mother’s betrayal, now she is tainted by marriage to her husband’s murderer. Hamlet puts his murder of Polonius, the crime of Claudius, and his mother’s betrayal on the same criminal scale.

Hatred and contempt for his mother are evident in the hero’s words when he addresses her:

Don't break your hands. Quiet! I want

Break your heart; I'll break it

When it is accessible to insight,

When it's a damn habit

Not hardened through and through against feelings.

The mother is guilty, according to Hamlet, of the following acts:

Which stains the face of shame,

Calls innocence a liar, on the forehead

Holy love replaces the rose with pestilence;

Transforms marriage vows

In the player's promises; such a thing

Which is made of flesh contracts

Takes away the soul, transforms faith

In a confusion of words; the face of heaven is burning;

And this stronghold and dense bulk

With a sad look, as if before a court,

Mourns for him.

By accusing his mother, Hamlet says that her betrayal is a direct violation of morality. It is equivalent to other similar violations: disgrace of modesty, hypocritical trampling of innocence; These are the vices of private life, but similar things happen; when treaties are violated and instead of religion they are limited to serving it only in words. Gertrude's behavior is equated by Hamlet to those violations of the world order that make the whole Earth tremble, and the heavens are covered with shame for humanity. This is the larger meaning of Hamlet's speeches.

The entire tone of Hamlet's conversation with his mother is characterized by cruelty. The appearance of the Phantom intensifies his thirst for revenge. But now its implementation is prevented by sending it to England. Suspecting a trick on the part of the king, Hamlet expresses confidence that he can eliminate the danger. The reflective Hamlet gives way to the active Hamlet.

Hamlet sees two betrayals of people connected by family and blood ties: his mother and the king's brother. If people who should be closest to each other violate the laws of kinship, then what can you expect from others? This is the root of the dramatic change in Hamlet's attitude towards Ophelia. His mother's example leads him to a sad conclusion: women are too weak to withstand the harsh trials of life. Hamlet renounces Ophelia also because love can distract him from the task of revenge.

The scene of the breakup with Ophelia is full of drama. Ophelia wants to return to Hamlet the gifts she received from him. Hamlet objects: “I gave you nothing.” Ophelia's response reveals something about their past relationship:

No, my prince, you gave; and words,

Breathed so sweetly that doubly

The gift was valuable...

Ophelia says that Hamlet has ceased to be kind and courteous and has become unfriendly and unkind. Hamlet treats her rudely and bitterly. He confuses her by confessing:

I loved you once

It was in vain that you believed me... I didn’t love you.

Hamlet unleashes a stream of accusations against women on Ophelia. Their beauty has nothing to do with virtue - a thought that rejects one of the provisions of humanism, which affirmed the unity of the ethical and aesthetic, goodness and beauty.

The attacks against women are not divorced from Hamlet's general negative attitude towards society. Ophelia's persistent advice to go to a monastery is associated with the prince's deep conviction about the depravity of the world.

But Ophelia tries to save her love with wit:

Don't be like a sinful shepherd that others

Points to the sky the thorny path,

And he himself, a carefree and empty reveler,

Success follows a blossoming path.

These words indicate that she understands Hamlet’s nature.

Hamlet is ready for action, but the situation turned out to be more difficult than one might imagine. The direct fight against evil becomes an impossible task for some time.

The direct conflict with Claudius and other events unfolding in the play are inferior in their significance to the spiritual drama of Hamlet, which is highlighted. It is impossible to understand its meaning if we proceed only from Hamlet’s individual data or keep in mind his desire to take revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet's internal drama consists of the fact that he repeatedly torments himself for inaction, understands that words cannot help the matter, but does nothing specifically.

2.2 Philosophical basis for the inconsistency of Hamlet’s personality

Hamlet reveals the moral torment of a person called to action, thirsting for action, but acting impulsively, only under the pressure of circumstances; experiencing a discord between thought and will.

When Hamlet becomes convinced that the king will commit reprisals against him, he talks differently about the discord between will and action. He now concludes that:

Overthinking the outcome

bestial oblivion or pathetic skill.

Hamlet is certainly irreconcilable to evil, but he does not know how to fight it. Hamlet does not recognize his struggle as a political struggle. For him it has a predominantly moral character.

At the beginning of the 17th century, there was a clash between the old world, in which feudal darkness and cruelty reigned, and the new world, ruled by addictions and the power of gold. Observing the clash of two evils, the humanists of that time gradually lost faith in goodness, justice and friendship. The English playwright W. Shakespeare dedicated the tragedy “Hamlet” to precisely this change of eras.

The main character of the tragedy is Hamlet, a typical intellectual humanist of the Renaissance. He sincerely believes in people. He does not yet know that his ideas about the world, at the first collision with reality, will dissipate like smoke. Hamlet will have to feel all the doubts inherent in man in general, and two contradictory feelings take over his soul.

Hamlet returns to Elsinore after the unexpected death of his father, the king. The prince learns that his mother, Queen Gertrude, unexpectedly quickly married the worthless and cunning Claudius, who poisoned the king. With such an act, Queen Gertrude dishonored not only her husband, but also her son. Hamlet vowed to avenge his father's death, and from that moment on, the thirst for revenge takes first place in his life.

In Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be," Shakespeare shows the destructive mental struggle between idealistic ideas and cruel reality. The insidious murder of his father, the indecent marriage of his mother, the betrayal of friends, the weakness and frivolity of his beloved, the meanness of the courtiers - all this fills the prince’s soul with immeasurable suffering.

Hamlet, wearing the mask of a foolish jester, enters into combat with a world filled with evil. The prince kills the courtier Polonius, who is watching him, reveals the betrayal of his university comrades, abandons Ophelia, who could not resist the bad influence and is drawn into an intrigue against Hamlet.

The prince dreams not only of revenge for his murdered father. Hamlet's soul is stirred by thoughts about the need to fight the injustice of the world. The main character asks a rhetorical question: why should he correct a world that has become completely shaken? Does he have the right to do this? Evil lives within him, and he admits to himself that he is pompous, ambitious and vindictive. How can one overcome evil in such a situation? How to help a person defend the truth? Hamlet is forced to suffer under the weight of inhuman torment. It is then that he poses the question: to be or not to be? The resolution of this question lies the essence of Hamlet's tragedy - the tragedy of a thinking man who came into a disorderly world too early, the first of people to see the amazing imperfection of the world.

"Hamlet" is a tragedy of awakened consciousness. A kind of summary of this can be found in the lines:

This is how thought turns us all into cowards.

So the color of natural determination fades

In the dim light of a pale mind,

And plans with scope and initiative

They change paths and fail

At the very goal...

Conclusion

“Hamlet” is a tragedy, the deepest meaning of which lies in the awareness of evil, in the desire to comprehend its roots, understand the different forms of its manifestation and find means of fighting against it. The artist created the image of a hero shocked to the core by the discovery of evil. The pathos of the tragedy is indignation against the omnipotence of evil.

Love, friendship, marriage, relationships between children and parents, external war and rebellion within the country - these are the range of topics directly touched upon in the play. And next to them are the philosophical and psychological problems that Hamlet’s thought struggles with: the meaning of life and the purpose of man, death and immortality, spiritual strength and weakness, vice and crime, the right to revenge and murder.

In the tragedy “Hamlet,” Shakespeare most profoundly reflected the problems of contemporary England. The Danish prince Hamlet is a wonderful example of a humanist faced with a new world. The murder of his father reveals to Hamlet all the evil reigning in the country. For Hamlet, the duty to avenge the murder of his father is not just blood feud. For him it grows into a social duty to fight for a just cause, into a great and difficult historical task.

However, Hamlet hesitates in this struggle, sometimes severely reproaching himself for inaction. The reason for this slowness of Hamlet, the internal difficulties complicating his struggle, has been the subject of long debate in critical literature. In old criticism, there was a widespread false view of Hamlet as a naturally weak-willed person, a thinker and contemplator, incapable of action.

But a modern view of Hamlet reveals him to the reader as a complex, contradictory person, capable of impulses and decisive actions, but unable to withstand the world of lies and deceit due to his humanistic upbringing, philosophical views on life and high morality. The main thing is that Hamlet does not know how to direct his determination for good and hesitates, forcing the reader to doubt his identity.

In the suffering of thought, truthful, demanding, uncompromising, is Hamlet’s fate. Hamlet’s “I accuse” conveys the unbearableness of his position in a concrete world, where all concepts, feelings, connections are perverted, where it seems to him that time has stopped and will remain so forever.

Hamlet is a hero of intellect and conscience, and this makes him stand out from the entire gallery of Shakespearean images. Only Hamlet combines brilliant civilization and deep sensitivity, an educated mind and unshaken morality.

If Hamlet is so easy to love, it is because in him we feel to some extent ourselves; if it is sometimes so difficult to understand him, it is because we have not yet fully understood ourselves. At the end of the play, Shakespeare weighs the balance of forces for the last time, and we understand that the struggle is not over, the role of the play is to open our eyes to the search for truth.

List of used literature

1. All the masterpieces of world literature in a brief summary. Plots and characters. Foreign literature of ancient eras, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance: Encyclopedic edition. / Ed. and comp. V.I. Novikov - M.: “Olympus”; ACT Publishing House, 1997. - 848 p.

2. Goethe I.V., Years of teaching of William Meister, collection. op. in 13 volumes. - T. VII - M., Fiction, 1978. - P. 248.

3. Gililov I.M. A play about William Shakespeare, or the Mystery of the Great Phoenix / Preface. A. Lipkova. - M.: Publishing house “Artist. Director. Theater", 1997. - 474 p.

4. Gililov I. Shakespeare or Shaksper? // Knowledge is power, 1998 - No. 2.

5. Mints N.V. Old and always modern. Shakespeare's paradoxes: Shakespeare in the English theater of the 17th-19th centuries. - M., 1990.

6. Neklyudova M. Will to Shakespeare // UFO, 2005 - No. 74.

7. Shakespeare W. Favorites. In 2 parts / Comp. auto articles and comments. A. Anikst. - M., 1984.

8. Shakespeare W. Comedies, chronicles, tragedies: In 2 volumes - T. 1. - M.: Ripol classic, 2001. - 784 p.

9. Shakespeare W. Plays, sonnets - M., Olympus, 2002.

10. Shakespeare W. Plays translated by M. Kuzmin. - M., 1990.

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Slide captions:

Shakespeare. "Hamlet" Literature lessons in 9th grade

Repetition Let's remember what works of Shakespeare we read in 8th grade. What is tragedy? A tragedy is a dramatic work that is based on an insoluble conflict leading to tragic consequences. What conflict do you think underlies the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet - external or internal? Why is love between heroes impossible? Shakespeare wrote the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” in an earlier period than “Hamlet”; he looked for the reason for the imperfection of the world in the external world, and not in the soul of the hero.

Impressions Do you think Hamlet is a weak-willed person or a courageous fighter? What questions did you have while reading? What's unclear? Is he crazy or faking it? If he loves Ophelia, then why did he reject her? Why does he hesitate to take revenge, what is stopping him? Was the Queen involved in the murder of her first husband?

History of the plot of the tragedy The prototype of the hero was the semi-legendary prince Amlet, whose name appears in one of the Icelandic sagas. The first literary monument, which tells the saga of Amleth's revenge, belonged to the pen of the medieval Danish chronicler Sanson Grammarian (1150-1220).

History of perception In Shakespeare's time, tragedy was perceived as a tragedy of revenge. Goethe saw in Hamlet not an avenger, but a thinker. Goethe believed that in tragedy a great task is entrusted to a person who is beyond his strength. Belinsky wrote: “What brought him (Hamlet) into such terrible disharmony, plunged him into such a painful struggle with himself? – the inconsistency of reality with his ideal of life: that’s what. From this came both his weakness and his indecision.” We have to figure out which of these assessments is more correct, to understand the complexity of the content of the tragedy, which has always raised a lot of questions, if, of course, all the answers can be found.

What shocked Hamlet? The hero's life flowed happily. He was surrounded by the love of his family, grew up in the palace, not being denied anything. He studied his favorite science, was fond of theater, he himself loves and enjoys the reciprocity of girls, you have friends. And suddenly, at one moment, his world collapses. What shocked Hamlet? 3 facts shocked my soul: The sudden death of my father; The place of the father on the throne and in the heart of the mother was taken by a man unworthy in comparison with the deceased; Mother betrayed the memory of love.

The plot The filmmakers insert into the episode a scene of a celebration in the palace, showing the joyful faces of the king and queen to show even more outrage against the memory of the deceased, whose death has not even passed two months

What is the essence of the conflict? Hamlet, of course, knew before that evil exists in the world, but for the first time he learns that close people and relatives can cause evil to each other. Rot eats away at the very foundations of human life. The eternal foundations of life have been violated. And this strikes him to the very heart.

Let's follow the hero's thoughts To be Not to be “endure the shame of fate” “to resist” To forget yourself in sleep Why don’t people commit suicide? “unknown after death” Why don’t people resist evil? They are hindered by thinking. What choice does Hamlet make: to be or not to be?

“The Mousetrap” Firstly, Hamlet wants to make sure that it was Claudius who killed his father. Secondly, he wants to force Claudius to act, since he himself cannot begin, not wanting to become like Claudius and others like him. Thirdly, to make it clear to Claudius that he knows everything. Fourthly, this is an attempt to make everyone understand that Claudius is a murderer, that he needs to be punished. Hamlet feels not like an avenger, but a redeemer of the world.

Development of the conflict Who embodies evil in tragedy, except Claudius? Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstren, Laertes How does each of them destroy Hamlet's ideal world? Why does Hamlet behave insultingly towards Ophelia?

Internal conflict Hamlet has an internal conflict; it does not lie in the question: to avenge or not to avenge his father, but to fight or not to fight evil. What do you think could be stopping him? Why is he hesitating? From weakness? If you begin to fight evil, then you yourself commit evil, does the end justify the means?

The tragedy shows three ways of revenge for the father of Laertes Fortinbras Hamlet does not understand the reasons for the death of his father. Unconditionally accepts revenge and strives in every possible way to carry it out: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, blood for blood (Act 4, scene 5). Tries to understand the reasons for his father’s death (Fortinbras’s father dies in a fair duel with Hamlet’s father). Refuses revenge. ?

The tragedy resolves another question about the vanity of all things.

"Poor Yorick"

What does the conversation with the gravedigger reveal to us? Hamlet comes to the conclusion that any person, be it Alexander the Great, famous throughout the centuries, or poor Yorick, will all turn into the dust from which they came. So why then struggles and achievements? Moreover, human memory is so short, because his wonderful father was forgotten two months later by his closest people.

What is Hamlet like? Does he look like an ideal person? No, Hamlet is not perfect. He was a whole person until his father died. But the need to take revenge leads Hamlet’s personality to split. He commits crime after crime: he kills Claudius by mistake, becomes the unwitting cause of Ophelia's death, kills Laertes and Claudius.

Conversation What qualities does Hamlet and all the heroes show in this scene? This scene demonstrates Shakespeare's idea of "all the world's a stage." Heroes: Claudius, Gertrude, Laertes - all wearing masks. And only in the face of death do they take off their masks, become natural, and show feelings. Which? Has the world changed since Hamlet's death? Hamlet leaves the world still imperfect, but he alarmed it and focused the attention of those who remained alive on the terrible fact: “the age has been shaken.” This was his mission, like that of other great humanists of Shakespeare's era.

Hamlet's monologue performed by V. Vysotsky

Conversation based on a video How did director Lyubimov see Hamlet at the Taganka Theater? How does it differ from Hamlet performed by Smoktunovsky? What amazes Vysotsky’s performance? What role does the curtain move across the stage play?

Pasternak “The hum has died down...” performed by V. Vysotsky What aspects of the problems raised by Shakespeare does Pasternak take on? How does he reinterpret the character of Hamlet? Who does Pasternak bring Hamlet closer to? Why?

Sources: Kashirskaya T. G. “Suffering of Thought.” – Publishing House “September 1. Open lesson" Lapteva O. V. Literature lesson in the 9th grade on the topic: "William Shakespeare's "Hamlet". The central conflict of the tragedy. Hamlet as the bearer of the main idea of the work" - Publishing House "September 1. Open lesson "Shakespeare V. Selected / Compiled. A. Anikst. – M.: Education, 1985 Literature: 9th grade. Textbook for general education Institutions. Part 2; under. Ed. Korovina. : M. - Education, 2008

Preview:

William Shakespeare "Hamlet". The central conflict of the tragedy. Hamlet as the bearer of the main idea of the work.

Goals:

1. To introduce students to the features of the English Renaissance.

Give an idea of the life and work of W. Shakespeare. Expand the basic theoretical concepts: tragedy, conflict (external and internal), character.

2. Improve the skills of analysis of a dramatic work, the ability to monitor the development of character, identify the main problems that the author poses in the text.

3. Introducing students to the classics of world literature.

Design: portrait of W. Shakespeare, illustrations for the tragedy “Hamlet”, theoretical apparatus.

PROGRESS OF THE LESSON

1. Teacher's word

2. Theory	Tragedy Conflict The beginning Climax Denouement Character
3. Tragedy “Hamlet” Teacher's word

The main question of the lesson
4. Working with text
What are his first speeches about?
What is the origin of the tragedy?	So, 3 facts shocked my soul: Sudden death of father; Mother betrayed the memory of love.





	What is the significance of this scene?



5. Lesson summary	PERSON
6. Homework	What would you say to Hamlet if you met him? (student discussion possible)

1. Teacher's word	Today we will talk about the work of the great English writer W. Shakespeare. I would like to start with the words of A.V. Lunacharsky about this writer: “...He was in love with life. He sees her in a way that no one before him or after him has seen: he sees terribly broadly. He sees all evil and good, he sees the past and the possible future. He knows people deeply, the heart of every person... and always, whether he looks into the past, or expresses the present, or creates his own type, from his heart, everyone lives life to the fullest.” We will discover the correctness of these words when analyzing Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” and make sure that, indeed, his works give rise to feelings of fullness of life. Unfortunately, we know less about the life of William Shakespeare than we would like, because in the eyes of his contemporaries he was by no means such a great man as subsequent generations recognized him. There are no diaries, no letters, no memoirs of contemporaries, not to mention any detailed biography. Everything we know about Shakespeare is the result of long and careful research by scientists since the 18th century. But this does not mean that Shakespeare's personality is completely hidden from us.
2 students present reports on the biography and work of Shakespeare	Now that we know some facts from the writer’s biography, let’s move on to the tragedy “Hamlet” itself. But first, let's define literary concepts.
2. Theory (you can assign students the task of finding definitions of literary concepts)	Tragedy Conflict The beginning Climax Denouement Character
3. Tragedy “Hamlet” Teacher's word	The tragedy “Hamlet” is one of the most important peaks of Shakespeare’s work. At the same time, this is the most problematic of all the writer’s creations. This problematic nature is determined by the complexity and depth of the content of the tragedy, full of philosophical significance. Shakespeare did not usually invent plots for his plays. He took plots that were already existing in literature and gave them dramatic treatment. He updated the text, somewhat modified the development of the action, deepened the characteristics of the characters, and as a result, only the plot scheme remained from the original plan, but with a new acquired meaning. It was the same with Hamlet.
History of the plot of the tragedy (student message)	The prototype of the hero was the semi-legendary prince Amleth, whose name appears in one of the Icelandic sagas. The first literary monument, which tells the saga of Amleth's revenge, belonged to the pen of the medieval Danish chronicler Sanson Grammar (1150-1220). A brief retelling of the story of Prince Amleth. This is the true story, which was taken as a basis by Shakespeare. It should be noted that the main change that Shakespeare made in the plot of the ancient legend was that above the entire interweaving of events he placed the personality of the hero, who seeks to understand why a person lives and what is the meaning of his existence.
The main question of the lesson	What is the meaning of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet? Are the problems raised in the tragedy relevant today?
4. Working with text	Let's start with the fact that the basis of the dramatic composition is the fate of the Danish prince. Its disclosure is structured in such a way that each new stage of the action is accompanied by some change in Hamlet’s position or state of mind.
When does Hamlet first appear before us? What are his first speeches about?	The hero's first words reveal the depth of his grief; no external signs are able to convey what is happening in his soul.
Analysis of the first monologue. What is the monologue about? Why does Hamlet say that he is sick of the whole world? Because of what? Is it only because of the death of his father? What is the origin of the tragedy? 1. Physical and moral death of a person (the death of the father and the moral fall of the mother). 2. Hamlet's meeting with the ghost.	The first monologue reveals to us a characteristic feature of Hamlet - the desire to generalize individual facts. It was just a private family drama. For Hamlet, however, it was enough to make a generalization: life is “a lush garden, bearing only one seed; the wild and evil reigns in him.” So, 3 facts shocked my soul: Sudden death of father; The place of the father on the throne and in the heart of the mother was taken by a man unworthy in comparison with the deceased; Mother betrayed the memory of love. From the ghost, Hamlet learns that his father's death was the work of Claudius. “Murder is vile in itself; but this is the most disgusting and most inhuman of all” (1d., 5th ep.) More vile - since the brother killed his brother and the wife cheated on her husband, the people closest to each other by blood turned out to be the worst enemies, hence the rottenness eats away at the very foundations of human life (“Something is rotten in the Danish state”). Thus, Hamlet learns that evil is not a philosophical abstraction, but a terrible reality located next to him, in people closest by blood.
How do you understand the words “The century has been shaken”?	The eternal foundations of life have been violated (there was another life before and evil did not reign in it).
Why does the task entrusted to him feel like a curse?	Hamlet makes the task of personal revenge the task of restoring the entire destroyed moral world order. Before he begins to truly live, as befits a person, he must first arrange his life so that it corresponds to the principles of humanity.
So how does Hamlet appear to us at the beginning of the tragedy?	Truly noble. This is a person who encountered evil for the first time in his life and felt with all his soul how terrible it was. Hamlet does not reconcile himself with evil and intends to fight it.
What is the conflict of the tragedy? What is the external and internal conflict?	External – the prince and the low-lying environment of the Danish court + Claudius. Internal – the hero’s mental struggle.
Why does Hamlet declare himself insane? Is his madness just feigned or is he really going crazy?	Hamlet is a man who felt what happened with his whole being, and the shock he experienced undoubtedly brought him out of his emotional balance. He is in a state of deepest confusion.
Why didn't Hamlet act immediately after taking on the task of revenge? Determine the climax of the tragedy. Monologue “To be or not to be...” (3d., 1st episode) So what is the question (“which is nobler in spirit?”)	The shock deprived him of the ability to act for some time. He had to make sure to what extent he could trust the ghost's words. To kill a king, you must not only convince yourself of his guilt, but also convince others. “Scene within a scene” is a “mousetrap”. What is the significance of this scene? We must act according to the highest concept of humanity. The question “To be or not to be?” closes with the question “To live or not to live?” Before Hamlet, death appears in all its painful tangibility. The fear of death arises in him. Hamlet has reached the highest limit in his doubts. So. He decides to fight, and the threat of death becomes real for him: he understands that Claudius will not leave alive a person who accuses him of murder in his face.
Why doesn't Hamlet kill Claudius when he is praying in one of the palace galleries?	Prayer cleanses the soul of Claudius (his father died without remission of sins). Claudius is kneeling with his back to Hamlet (a violation of the principles of noble honor).
What is the outcome of the tragedy? How do we see Hamlet now?	Now we have before us a new Hamlet, who does not know the previous discord; his inner calm is combined with a sober understanding of the discord between life and ideals. Belinsky noted that Hamlet in the end regains spiritual harmony. He faces his death painfully. His last words: “Then – silence.” Hamlet's tragedy began with the death of his father. She aroused the question in him: what is death? In the monologue “to be or not to be...” Hamlet admitted that death sleep could be a new form of human existence. Now he has a new view of death: sleep without awakening awaits him; for him, with the end of earthly existence, human life ends.
So what is the tragedy of Hamlet?	The tragedy is not only that the world is terrible, but also that he must rush into the abyss of evil in order to fight it. He realizes that he himself is far from perfect; his behavior reveals that the evil that reigns in life, to some extent, denigrates him too. The tragic irony of life's circumstances leads Hamlet to the fact that he, acting as an avenger for his murdered father, also kills the father of Laertes and Ophelia, and Laertes takes revenge on him.
5. Lesson summary What is the main problem of the tragedy, its main question? (student presentations)	The work can talk about the problem of revenge and regicide. What would you say to Hamlet if you met him? (student discussion possible) At the center of the tragedy is the question ofPERSON , embodied in the entire figure of Hamlet. The solution to this issue is connected primarily with the person himself, with his ability to become worthy of his ideal. Hamlet shows the image of a man who, going through incredible suffering, acquires that degree of courage that corresponds to the humanistic ideal of the individual.
6. Homework	What would you say to Hamlet if you met him? (student discussion possible)

Contrary to the well-known words from this work, “There is no sadder story in the world // Than the story of Romeo and Juliet,” this is the brightest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, in which, in essence, the concept of the playwright’s mature comedies is realized.

In Romeo and Juliet, literally before our eyes, a new, harmonious world is born, created for the happiness of the heroes: the church is on their side (in the person of Brother Lorenzo, who secretly marries them); authorities condemning family feuds; and the Montague and Capulet families themselves do not remember the reasons for the feud and are ready to reconcile.

Now let’s imagine that the feud between the families is truly irreconcilable and that the events described in the work took place (Romeo kills Juliet’s brother Tybalt; Juliet, in order to avoid marriage with the unloved Paris, drinks her brother Lorenzo’s potion and falls asleep in a sleep similar to death, she is buried; Romeo, by coincidence, does not find out in time that Juliet is alive, and poison is being prepared to drink from her body). Let's imagine that - under all these circumstances, Romeo waited a few seconds. Juliet would wake up (at the moment when he is poisoned, she is already breathing), the heroes would find happiness.

Only the play of accidents (unfortunate, as opposed to happy accidents in comedies) and the excess of vitality of other heroes, forcing them to rush to live and rush to feel, leads them to death. However, it would be a mistake to see only an accident in the death of heroes - it triumphs only on an external level, as in comedies.

The outcome of the tragedy is logical: victory still lies with love, not with hatred, and over the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, their parents renounce their enmity. The combination of the tragic and the comic is found not only in the concept of this tragedy, but also directly in the comic scenes associated with the colorful image of the Nurse and such a colorful character as Romeo’s friend Mercutio. The language of the tragedy, rich in metaphors, eufuistic expressions, and wordplay, also confirms the cheerful, Renaissance basis of this early Shakespearean tragedy.

"Julius Caesar". In Julius Caesar there is a departure from this cheerfulness. The development of the tragic principle in this “ancient tragedy” indicates a transition to new positions predetermined in the tragedies of the next period. This tragedy is close to the chronicles (it is no coincidence that Julius Caesar, after whom the work is named, dies in Act 3, i.e. in the middle of the play).

"Great tragedies". This term is used to refer to four of Shakespeare's tragedies that constitute the pinnacle of his work: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. According to L. E. Pinsky, the main plot of tragedies is the fate of an outstanding personality, the discovery by man of the true face of the world. The character of the tragic changes: Renaissance optimism disappears, the confidence that man is the “crown of all living things”, the heroes discover the disharmony of the world, the power of evil previously unknown to them, they must make a choice how to exist in a world that encroaches on their dignity.

Unlike chronicles, which are linked together, Shakespeare's tragedies (including early ones) do not form a cycle. If they contain the same characters (for example, Antony in “Julius Caesar” and in “Antony and Cleopatra”), then these are essentially different people; the problem of character identity in tragedies is not worth it. The appearance of twins in tragedy is unthinkable: the genre requires the uniqueness of the individual.

The hero of Shakespeare's tragedy is a powerful, titanic figure, he himself builds the line of his fate and responds to the choice he makes (in contrast to the genre of melodrama that developed by the end of the 18th century, in which the hero, and more often the heroine, pure but weak creatures, experience blows unknown fate, suffer persecution from terrible villains and are saved thanks to the help of patrons).

As Pinsky noted, in Shakespeare’s comedies the hero is “not free”, he is subject to natural instincts, while the world, on the contrary, is “free”, which is manifested in the play of chance. In tragedies, the opposite is true: the world is inhumanly ordered and unfree, but the hero freely decides “to be or not to be,” based only on “what is nobler.”

Each of the tragedies is unique in its structure. Thus, the composition of “Hamlet” with its climax in the middle of the work (the “mousetrap” scene) is in no way reminiscent of the harmonious composition of “Othello” or the composition of “King Lear,” which essentially lacks exposition.

In some tragedies, fantastic creatures appear, but if in “Hamlet” the appearance of a ghost follows from the concept of the Unified Chain of Being (this is the result of a crime committed), then in “Macbeth” witches appear long before the hero’s crime, they are representatives of evil, which becomes not temporary (in periods of chaos), but a constant component of the world.

"Hamlet". The sources of the plot for Shakespeare were the “Tragic Histories” of the Frenchman Belfort and, apparently, a play that has not reached us (possibly by Kyde), in turn dating back to the text of the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammaticus (c. 1200). The main feature of the artistry of “Hamlet” is syntheticity: a synthetic fusion of a number of plot lines - the destinies of the heroes, a synthesis of the tragic and the comic, the sublime and the base, the general and the particular, the mystical and everyday, stage action and words, a synthetic connection with the early and late works of Shakespeare.

Interpretations of the image of Hamlet. Hamlet is one of the most mysterious figures in world literature. For several centuries now, writers, critics, and scientists have been trying to unravel the mystery of this image, to answer the question of why Hamlet, having learned the truth about his father’s murder at the beginning of the tragedy, postpones revenge and at the end of the play kills King Claudius almost by accident. J. V. Goethe saw the reason for this paradox in the strength of Hamlet’s intellect and weakness of will.

A similar point of view is developed by V. G. Belinsky, adding: “Hamlet’s idea: weakness of will, but only as a result of decay, and not by its nature.” I. S. Turgenev in the article “Hamlet and Don Quixote” gives preference to the Spanish hidalgo, criticizing Hamlet for inactivity and fruitless reflection. On the contrary, film director G. M. Kozintsev emphasized the active principle in Hamlet.

One of the most original points of view was expressed by the outstanding psychologist L. S. Vygotsky in “The Psychology of Art.” Having rethought the criticism of Shakespeare in a new way in L. N. Tolstoy’s article “On Shakespeare and Drama,” Vygotsky suggested that Hamlet is not endowed with character, he is a function of the action of the tragedy. Thus, the psychologist emphasized that Shakespeare is a representative of old literature, which did not yet know character as a way of depicting a person in verbal art.

L. E. Pinsky connected the image of Hamlet not with the development of the plot in the usual sense of the word, but with the “main plot” of the “great tragedies” - the hero’s discovery of the true face of the world, in which evil is more powerful than what humanists imagine.

It is the ability to know the true face of the world that makes Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth tragic heroes. They are titans, surpassing the average person in intelligence, will, and courage. But Hamlet is different from the other three protagonists of Shakespeare's tragedies.

When Othello strangles Desdemona, King Lear decides to divide the state between three daughters, and then gives the share of the faithful Cordelia to the deceitful Goneril and Regan, Macbeth kills Duncan, guided by the witches' predictions - Shakespeare's heroes are mistaken, but the audience is not mistaken, because the action is structured so that they could know the true state of things.

This elevates the average viewer above the titanic characters: the audience knows what they do not know. On the contrary, only in the first scenes of the tragedy does Hamlet know less of the audience. From the moment of his conversation with the Ghost, which is heard in addition to the participants only by the audience, there is nothing significant that Hamlet does not know, but there is something that the audience does not know.

Hamlet ends his famous soliloquy “To be or not to be?” with the meaningless phrase “But that’s enough,” leaving viewers without an answer to the most important question. In the finale, having asked Horatio to “tell everything” to the survivors, Hamlet utters a mysterious phrase: “What follows is silence.” He takes with him a certain secret that the viewer is not allowed to know. Hamlet's riddle, therefore, cannot be solved. Shakespeare found a special way to build the role of the main character: with this structure, the viewer can never feel superior to the hero.

THE MYSTERY OF THE TRAGIC

Considering Shakespeare's tragedies, we will further see the entire complex dialectic of good and evil, as it manifests itself in the characters, actions and experiences of the heroes. However, the tragic in Shakespeare is always associated with consequences for society as a whole. Man is not only the architect of his own happiness or misfortune. He is responsible for the well-being of others, for the entire society. A grain of evil upsets the balance of the entire social organism and leads to disharmony throughout life.

The tragic in Shakespeare is deeply social at its core, for the life of each person is connected with the lives of everyone else by thousands of threads. This is all the more true, since Shakespeare's heroes occupy a high social position and each of their actions most directly affects the state of society and the state.

The power of Shakespearean tragedy is determined by the strength of the characters of his heroes and the involvement of the entire society in the tragic conflict. Not only society, but also nature is involved in the upheavals that occur in the life of an individual.

Here we come to a question that is especially significant for understanding the nature of the tragic.

Why did subsequent centuries, no less saturated with tragic contradictions, give rise to such a high and organic form of tragedy as the one created by Shakespeare?

First of all, this is due to reasons of a social and moral order, more precisely, what, philosophically speaking, the subject of the tragedy is, or, simply put, what the people are like who suffer a tragic fate.

The tragedies depicted by Shakespeare are possible only where people have completeness and integrity of character, but where, at the same time, life begins to demand that they sacrifice precisely these qualities of theirs, cease to be themselves.

As a result, a duality arises, more or less characteristic of tragic heroes. They cease to understand life, themselves, and the world becomes mysterious to them. The ready-made life concepts that they possess turn out to be incompatible with reality. Life and man thus become mysterious.

This comes into conflict with the naive poetic consciousness bequeathed to Shakespeare and his contemporaries by previous centuries, when a comprehensive cosmogony was created, both poetic and scholastic, as is clearly seen in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Such consciousness replaces the real laws of life with fantastic ideas about the causal connections of life phenomena. It creates a solid scale of evaluation for various manifestations of good and evil.

The consciousness of Shakespeare himself and his heroes is still full of poetic ideas about the world, and the memory of how eternal morality evaluates what is good and what is bad, but all this is no longer consistent with life. In short, the tragic is inevitably associated with the “death of the gods.” As in the golden age of Ancient Greece, when tragedy flourished, the consciousness of the Renaissance is still poetic in its tone and, at the same time, it is no longer satisfied with a naive mythological explanation of the world. In part, it is already rational consciousness.

This combination predetermines the entire structure of Shakespeare’s work, and his tragedies in particular. In Shakespeare's comedies, the collision of poetry and reason creates that bizarre poetic irony that gives special charm to these works. In tragedies, thought struggles in the snares of naive consciousness, strives to break out of it, but neither the old nor the new conquers completely. Therefore, both Shakespeare’s heroes and he himself both know and do not know the causes of misfortune. They are both understandable and yet largely incomprehensible. There is no longer fate as the personified embodiment of the mysterious reason for the inevitability of the death of the hero, but still, in the chain of causes and consequences, mystery remains - a certain fatal inevitability of the hero’s involvement in a tragic conflict that cannot be analyzed and the equally inexorable necessity of the catastrophic outcome of the conflict.

Shakespeare's tragedies are distinguished by clarity and extreme expressiveness of antagonisms, but their endings are full of uncertainty. Not a single conflict ends with a solution that would provide definite, unique answers to the entire sum of questions raised by the heroes’ struggles with circumstances and with themselves. They are not completed by any positive moral, conclusions that would contain a clear lesson. This is a natural consequence of the state of consciousness that forms the basis of Shakespeare's tragic worldview.

The powerful mind of the artist-thinker reaches to the very roots of evil. He exposes the ulcers of predation and selfishness, sees social injustices, the heavy hand of despotism, the yoke of inequality, the perverting role of gold, and yet a terrible, fatal, inexplicable riddle remains: why a person, knowing what interferes with happiness, cannot destroy evil and it becomes more and more afflicts even the best and strongest souls?

The field of action of the tragedies (with the exception of Othello) is the entire state. The political side of conflicts receives a clear solution. Troubles and civil strife end with the restoration of order and the establishment of more or less legitimate power. But this is the only thing that gets a solution in tragedies. Such endings could be satisfying if the conflict had its focus in the sphere of statehood and the passions of the heroes were political. However, there is no need to prove that for all the involvement of the characters in conflicts of a state-political nature, the essence of the tragedies is not in them.

The roots of conflicts are social, but Shakespeare's tragedies are human. Why a person suffers and how he suffers can only ultimately be explained by social causes. The social is created by people themselves, but a person is not a simple sum of social qualities that make up his relationships with others. The social orientation of life is one thing, and another thing is what is happening in the human being itself, that spring from which all living things flow. Why is one kind in poverty and the other cruel, why does excess make one stingy and another generous, what makes one devote his energies to the common good) and the other to personal good, in short, why, under equal external conditions, people are not internally equal ?

I repeat, the question does not boil down to establishing the social foundations of the tragic. Shakespeare already showed an understanding of them in his early works, and over the years it deepened more and more. He solved this riddle with insight surprising for his time. But the mystery of the birth of evil in man himself, in his brain, in his soul, remains. How Maybe insult a person, trample him into the dirt, kill another person? What is this terrible force that is hidden in the human mind and suddenly breaks out in order to sow evil, destruction and death? Hamlet asks his mother: “What demon has confused you?” What kind of demon has entangled the heroes of tragedies who commit violations of humanity?

The easiest way to answer this is in relation to Othello. There this demon appears in human form, and we know his name. It is not difficult to see that Macbeth was also confused by a demon in the guise of his wife. But all demons are helped by something located in the souls of those who are being seduced; this demon lurks in them themselves, and not only in Othello and Macbeth, but also in Lear, and in Coriolanus, and in Antony, and even in Brutus and Hamlet, which is the latter, by the way to say, he is fully aware.

Renaissance humanism began with the affirmation of the good nature of man. In Shakespeare's era he doubted it. Marlowe was the first playwright to discover the satanic principle in man. Shakespeare came to this, and with him Chapman and Ben Jonson and later Webster.

Shakespeare's tragedies reveal to us a picture of an ever-deepening awareness of contradictions and the absence of real prerequisites for solving them. Shakespeare knew this, and hence the increasing darkness of the tragic pictures he created.

The problem of human nature posed by him in his tragedies does not receive a theoretical solution in them, reduced to a convenient and encouraging formula. The death of the best, and especially the best of the best, like Desdemona and Cordelia, can be explained, but cannot be justified. A world in which this is possible has reached the limit of inhumanity.