What caused the conflict in the tragedy Hamlet. The great tragedies of Shakespeare
The image of Hamlet is considered one of the eternal images of world literature, and Shakespeare's tragedy "Hamlet" is recognized as the largest of all the works of the playwright. Reading this tragedy is not easy. Because its core is not the rapid movement of the external plot.
The main action, the main tragedy, the main conflict of the play take place in the soul and thoughts of the protagonist. Hamlet himself. Whoever is nearby, but the main issues of the tragedy: the discovery of the existence of evil in life, the search for one's own attitude towards this evil, the choice of one's own position in the fight against this evil, responsibility for one's actions - Hamlet must deal with all these problems on his own.
The Danish Prince Hamlet of the unfolding of the events of the play is studying in Germany at a famous university, has a noble bride at home and a prosperous future is foreseen.
He is full of passionate love for life and faith in the perfection of man. But he is called home to the funeral of his father, who died suddenly. This is where the events begin.
Death is always sad, but very soon Hamlet learns that his father's death was not natural, that his father was killed by his own brother, the prince's uncle. And this is not enough - the killer, having seized the throne, married the widow of his brother, the mother of Hamlet.
So, to have changed not only the father, but also the son. Hamlet vows to fight for the death of his father. It becomes the main content of his life.
But the events themselves are the main thing in the play, and Hamlet's reaction, reflections, hesitation. Tragically destroyed all ideas about the world and humanity. Not a trace remained of true faith in man.
Evil demands punishment. But murder is evil even when a villain is killed! It turns out that in order to punish evil, one should also take the path of evil himself?
Run away from life to avoid the fight? But death will not lessen evil in the world; on the contrary, unpunished evil will spread.
Deal with evil? It doesn't matter what will help him. Yes, and conscience, and the shadow of the father will not allow you to calm down. In addition, Hamlet is a prince, he knows from childhood that the fate of his family can influence the fate of his country. This responsibility also prevents Hamlet from making a final decision and starting to act.
Hamlet is in a very difficult moral state, almost on the verge of insanity. His suffering causes suffering to those around him.
So the innocent Ophelia becomes a victim of Hamlet's difficult internal state. And Hamlet's soul is haunted by thoughts about the need to fight the injustice of the world.
Why did it fall to his lot to wage this war? And does he have a right to? Hamlet painfully understands his own shortcomings: vanity, ambition, vindictiveness...
So, he considers vindictiveness a disadvantage, an evil. And not to take revenge - by condoning evil ...
Doubts, torments, delays are natural for Hamlet. A smart, thinking person should understand that thoughtless choices, spontaneous actions cannot lead to anything good.
Finally, the prince's delay causes his doom. But we understand that, unfortunately, Hamlet had to die, because conflicts, contradictions in his soul cannot be resolved unequivocally and he would hardly have found peace in this life.
The seriousness of the hero's attitude to deep human problems arouses respect and admiration, since in our real life many are accustomed to thinking only superficially, and doing things without hesitation.
Hamlet is so responsible, he has such an agonizing desire to do the right thing that one cannot but admire.
MO Yeysk district
(territorial, administrative district (city, district, town)
Municipal educational institution
secondary school No. 3 of the city of Yeysk, municipality
Yeysk district
(full name of educational institution)
Open lesson in literature.
" Romeo and Juliet"
8th grade
Teacher: Demchenko O.S.
2012-2013 academic year
Lesson of literature with the use of elements of research activities and technology of problematic study of the material.
8th grade
“The experience of reading the tragedy of W. Shakespeare
" Romeo and Juliet"
The purpose of the lesson: get acquainted with the work of the great playwright,
consider different interpretations of the play Romeo and Juliet
Lesson objectives:
- identify the main problems of W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet";
Develop the skill of interpreting works of art;
Develop the concept of conflict as the basis of the plot of a dramatic work.
Equipment: presentation about the life and work of the playwright, an exhibition of various editions of W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet".
During the classes:
teacher's word :
Today, starting a conversation about the tragedyW. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the great playwright created his works in an era that later became known as the Renaissance (XIV- XVIIcentury). It was a time when the nobility lost its former power, and the church weakened its spiritual oppression. It was a time when trade and industry flourished, great geographical discoveries were made. Reviving ancient culture, this era proclaimed the main value of the worldhuman . The new humanistic ideology asserted a new view of man, which was based on faith in his strength and abilities, in his active creative energy.
According to humanists, a person must be honest, kind, spiritually and physically developed, and most importantly, free.
Having studied W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet", one of the research groups had to try to answer the question:
-Does this work belong to Renaissance literature? Let's listen to them.
2. The first group of "researchers" reports on the most interesting and important, in their opinion, facts of the biography and work of W. Shakespeare.
Information for the teacher:
(SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616), English playwright, poet, actor of the Renaissance. In world history, he is undoubtedly the most famous and significant playwright who had a huge impact on the development of all theatrical art. Shakespeare's stage works still do not leave the theater stage all over the world today.
Born in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1564. He came from a family of merchants and artisans. He studied at the so-called. "grammar school", where the main subject was the Latin language and the basics of Greek. At school, he received a wide knowledge of ancient mythology, history and literature, which was reflected in his work. In 1582 he married A. Hesway (Hathaway), from whose marriage he had three children. However, around 1587 he left Stratford-upon-Avon and his family and moved to London. It is considered likely that Shakespeare became a professional actor as early as the late 1580s; and from 1590 he began his dramatic work. In those years, little foreshadowed that Shakespeare would become not only the world's most famous playwright, but also one of the most mysterious personalities in history. Until now, there are many hypotheses (first put forward at the end of the 18th century) that his plays were written by a completely different person. For more than two centuries of the existence of these versions, about 30 very different applicants have nominated for the “role” of the author of these plays - from Francis Bacon and Christopher Marlowe to the pirate Francis Drake and Queen Elizabeth. There were versions that a whole team of authors was hiding under the name of Shakespeare - and this is undoubtedly prompted by the unprecedented versatility of Shakespeare's creative heritage: his palette includes tragedy, comedy, historical chronicles, baroque dramas, lyrical and philosophical poetry - let's recall the famous sonnets.
After 1603, the playwright was closely associated with the Globe, on the stage of which almost all the plays he wrote were staged. The design of the Globe hall predetermined the combination of spectators of various social and property strata at one performance, while the theater could accommodate at least 1,500 spectators. The playwright and actors faced the most difficult task of keeping the attention of a heterogeneous audience. Shakespeare's plays met this challenge to the maximum extent possible, enjoying success with audiences of all categories. Around 1610, Shakespeare left London and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. Until 1612, he did not lose touch with the theater: in 1611 the Winter's Tale was written, in 1612 - the last dramatic work, The Tempest. The last years of his life he moved away from literary activity, and lived quietly and imperceptibly with his family. This was probably due to a serious illness - this is indicated by the surviving will of Shakespeare, drawn up clearly hastily on March 15, 1616 and signed in a changed handwriting. April 23, 1616 in Stratford-upon-Avon died the most famous playwright of all time.)
3. Shakespeare's work is connected mainly with dramatic art. The author himself did not seek to see his works printed: they were intended primarily for staging on stage.
All dramatic works and comedies and tragedies and dramas have some commonality. At the heart of any dramatic action is conflict. Conflict- plot basis. It manifests itself in the clash of people, interests, positions. In tragedy, the conflict is insoluble, it, as a rule, leads the hero to death. The rest of the participants in the tragedy are involved in the conflict, it is experienced by everyone.
The experiences depicted in the tragedy are transmitted to viewers, readers. Through sympathy with the suffering, the tragic fate of the hero, one of the most important aspects of human life is revealed, the boundaries of good and evil are determined, true and imaginary values are revealed.
Back to tragedy « Romeo and Juliet".
4 . Romeo and Juliet - a tragedy in 5 acts tells about the love of a young man and a girl from two warring ancient clans - and.
The work is usually dated to 1594-95. The reliability of this story has not been established, but the signs of the historical background and vital motives present in the Italian basis of the plot give a certain plausibility to the sad story of Verona lovers.
The ancient analogue of the tragedy of faithful lovers is the story told in the Metamorphoses by a Roman poet (, 43 BC - 17 AD)
The play, entitled "The most excellent and sad tragedy of Romeo and Juliet" was officially published in London in 1599. The theme of the work in turn caused a long series of variations in literature and other arts, which continues to this day.
Prologue
Two equally respected families
In Verona, where events meet us,
Conduct internecine battles
And they don't want to stop the bloodshed.
The children of the leaders love each other,
But fate sets up intrigues for them,
And their death at the coffin doors
Puts an end to irreconcilable strife.
Their life, love and death, and moreover,
The peace of their parents on their grave
For two hours they will make up a creature
Played out in front of you were.
Have mercy on the weaknesses of the pen -
The game will try to smooth them out.
There is a feud between the noble families of the Montagues and the Capulets.
A fun holiday is being prepared in the house. Mercutio and Benvolio persuade Romeo to sneak with them to the ball at the Capulet's house, wearing masks. Rosalina, the niece of the owner of the house, will also be there. The ball is in full swing. Tybalt, Juliet's cousin, recognizes Romeo as a representative of a hostile family. Signor Capulet stops the hot-tempered Tybalt. But Romeo doesn't notice. Forgetting about Rosaline, he cannot take his eyes off the unfamiliar girl of radiant beauty. This is Juliet. She, too, feels an irresistible attraction to an unfamiliar young man. Romeo kisses Juliet. They will find out what a gulf separates them.
Juliet dreams of Romeo aloud. Romeo comes to her balcony and hears these speeches. He answers them with an ardent confession. Under the cover of night, young people take an oath of love and fidelity to each other.
5. The happy dreams of this loving couple were not destined to come true: death would end their lives in four days.
- What or who was responsible for this? (The second group of "researchers" reports their findings.(Probably, the heads of the two warring families will be named, Tybalt, fate. We should dwell on each version.)
G. Burton, one of the researchers of Shakespeare's work, argued that "to some extent, the sad death of young people is caused by their characters and temperament: they are young and hot, impatient and full of passion."
Another literary critic , Whitaker goes even further, arguing that the heroes "especially Romeo, for a variety of reasons, deserves moral censure and is partially responsible for their own tragedy".
-Do you agree with this opinion?
- Is it possible to say that the love of Romeo and Juliet was real?
- Prove your point.
(Of course, yes. The monologue of the main characters (act II, scene two) confirms this: we pay attention to various figurative and expressive means. Numerous metaphors, comparisons, rhetorical appeals, exclamations, etc. are a truly poetic expression of a strong feeling, in addition, having exchanged confessions, the heroes immediately decide to tie their lives by getting married secretly.)
On the same day, Tybalt and Mercutio come face to face. The quarrel quickly turns into a sword fight. Romeo tries in vain to separate the opponents. Tybalt mortally wounds Mercutio. Romeo, furious, rushes after Tybalt. After a long bitter struggle, Romeo kills Tybalt.
Tybalt, deliberately insulting Romeo, could not arouse reciprocal anger, Mercutio stood up for the honor of his friend ... and dies.
Romeo, furious, rushes after Tybalt. After a long bitter struggle, Romeo kills Tybalt.
Let's see how it was. (Staging scenes of two fights)
-Could it be otherwise?
( Mercutio is not accidentally called Romeo's best friend. For the honor of a friend, he simply could not stand up. But the duel could not end in death
Tybalt, although he was too quarrelsome and implacable and would probably soon find a new excuse. So, the dramatic plot has its own logic.)
6. A happy ending in a tragedy is unnatural. And the fate of our
The heroes have been touching to the depths of the soul of viewers and readers for four centuries.
-Why?(The theme of love and death is the main one in this work, it belongs to the category of “eternal” topics in literature. Let's listen to the report of the third group of our “researchers” about this.
The tragedy ends with the death of Romeo and Juliet, but on their grave the heads of the warring families reach out to each other. Peace is concluded. In Verona, a monument is erected to Juliet, "who kept her fidelity sacred", and Romeo, who was worthy of it.
Homework:
1. What questions would you like answered after reading the play?
2. Why does the tragedy of "Romeo and Juliet" continue to live and excite today's readers?
At the end of the lesson there is a small test.
Verification work on W. Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet".
Determine what the conflict of the tragedy is.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Give a short description of Romeo. Who is he: a noble young man endowed with an ardent heart, or a frivolous chatterbox (he loves Rosaline in the morning and Juliet in the evening)?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. Is this play about love? Whose love? Is this love? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
4.Which of the characters did you like the most? Why?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5. Why, in your opinion, was the play written?
External conflict in the most profound works of Shakespeare is the basis for a different kind of dramatic conflict that takes place in the spiritual world of his characters. However, before saying this, we must resolutely reject the underestimation of the external conflict. It is not true, and indeed it is impossible to reduce the essence of Shakespeare's drama to pure psychologism. If we draw an analogy between art and life, then the external action in Shakespeare's plays is an objective reality, life circumstances, while the states of mind of his characters are a subjective, deeply personal reaction of a person to the world. For a person, the life process consists in the interaction of these principles. People exist in the real world, and everything that happens in their souls, in their minds, is inseparable from reality, makes sense only in connection with it. In the same way, it is impossible to separate from each other the external dramatic circumstances and the spiritual dramas of Shakespeare's heroes. Shakespeare pays no less attention to the artistic reproduction of the conditions in which his characters live than to the expression of spiritual movements. From the point of view of plausibility, external circumstances in Shakespeare's dramas are not always accurate, but they are adapted to create exactly the environment that is necessary to add drama to the fate of the characters.
This is evident in a play such as Romeo and Juliet. The discord between the families of the Montagues and the Capulets gives a special drama to the passion of young heroes. Had their parents lived in peace, the children's love would have been idyllic. By themselves, the feelings of Romeo and Juliet are harmonious. But the hero and heroine are fully aware that external circumstances put their love in conflict with the conditions in which they live. This is emphasized in the words of the Chorus between the first and second acts:
Romeo loves and loves the beautiful
In both, beauty breeds passion.
He prays to the enemy; from a dangerous fishing rod
She must steal the lure of love.
As a sworn enemy of the family, he does not dare
To whisper tender words and vows of love to her.
No more opportunity
She see him somewhere.
But passion will give strength, time will give a date
And with sweetness alleviate all their suffering.(II, Ex., 5. TSC)
We are talking here not just about external obstacles that prevent the connection of Romeo and Juliet, but about a fundamentally new attitude to love that arose in the Renaissance.
Medieval knightly love was extramarital love - the knight worshiped the wife of his feudal lord, and they had to keep the secret of their relationship. The Renaissance strives for the unity of love and marriage. In The Comedy of Errors, Adriana ensures that her relationship with her husband is not a formal union, but based on mutual love. In all Shakespeare's comedies, the Renaissance understanding of love, which is crowned with marriage, is affirmed. Romeo and Juliet do the same. The first proof of love that Juliet demands is Romeo's consent to get married immediately, and he gladly goes for it. But, as we know, they are not given the simplest happiness in the eyes of a Renaissance person - an open recognition of their love and its legal registration in marriage. This gives a special sharpness to their feelings, which is always the result of obstacles that make it impossible for lovers to communicate openly. The enmity of families invades the spiritual world of the heroes.
When Romeo, after a secret wedding with Juliet, encounters Tybalt, he tries to establish a new relationship with him:
I, Tybalt, have a reason
To love you; she forgives you
All the fury of angry words.(III, 1, 65. TSC)
But the murder of Mercutio puts an end to the conciliatory attitude of Romeo, he fights with Tybalt and, avenging his friend, kills him. The tangle of relationships turns out to be very complicated:
My best friend - and well, mortally wounded
Because of me! Tybalt my honor
Scolded! Tybalt - the one with whom
I got married an hour ago!(III, 1, 115. TSC)
What a spiritual storm Romeo is going through: love for a friend clashes with love for Juliet. For Juliet's sake, he would not have to take revenge on her kinsman, but friendship and duty of honor require otherwise, and Romeo follows their orders. Without thinking about the consequences, he acts under the impression of the death of a friend. This act, as we know, turns out to be fatal: Romeo, who wanted to take the first step towards reconciliation of the clans and extended his hand to Tybalt by killing him, incites hostility even more, and exposes himself to ducal punishment. True, it turns out to be relatively soft - Romeo is not executed, but only expelled, but for him separation from Juliet is tantamount to death.
Juliet also does not stay away from family strife. Like Romeo, she, too, at first thought that the barrier separating their families was easy to cross. It seemed to her that Montecchi was only a name and that the human essence was more important than tribal strife. But, having learned that Romeo killed Tybalt, Juliet ignites with anger like a real Capulet; she curses the killer (by the way, in magnificent oxymorons):
O bush of flowers with a lurking snake!
Dragon in a charming guise!
A fiend with an angelic face!
Fake pigeon! Wolf in sheep's clothing!
A nonentity with the features of a god!
Empty view! Controversy!
Saint and villain in one flesh!
What is nature doing in the underworld.
When she infuses satan
In such an endearing appearance?(III, 2, 73. BP)
But love quickly conquers family affections in Juliet. The individual turns out to be stronger than the generic feeling, and Juliet begins to say the exact opposite:
Should I blame my wife? Poor husband
Where is a good word for you to hear,
When his wife does not say
At the third hour of marriage? Ah, robber
Killed my cousin!
But would it be better if in a fight
Did this robber kill you, brother?(III, 2, 97. BP)
The mental struggle was short-lived for Romeo and Juliet - they are generally quick in feelings. Not duration, but strength serves as a measure of their experiences, and their passion is great.
However, it must be admitted that although Romeo and Juliet feel the contradictions of their position, there is no internal conflict in their very love. This does not deprive the work of tragedy. Beautiful a, ideal passion turned out to be in conflict with the enmity of loving families, Hegel himself recognized such a collision as quite tragic.
In "Julius Caesar" we already meet with an internal conflict, which is closely connected with the state conflict. Brutus admits:
I've been sleep deprived ever since Cassius
He told me about Caesar.
Between the fulfillment of terrible plans
And the first impulse between
Looks like a ghost or a terrible dream:
Our mind and all members of the body are arguing...(II, 1, 61. MZ)
Macbeth says almost the same thing (cf. I, 7, 1, see p. 130). It is alien to the open nature of Brutus to enter into a secret conspiracy, the very idea of \u200b\u200ba conspiracy is deeply unpleasant to him. Resorting to the figure of personification, Brutus says:
Oh conspiracy.
Are you ashamed to show yourself at night,
When it's free to evil. So where is the day
Such a dark cave you will find
To hide your terrible face? Such is not.
You better cover it with a smile:
'Cause if you don't embellish it,
That Erebus itself and all the underground darkness
They won't stop you from being discovered.(II, 1, 77. MZ)
Brutus here expresses an objective, authorial attitude to the conspiracy, but it coincides with what he, as an honest Roman, should feel. This can be seen from his further behavior in the collusion scene. When Cassius demands that everyone swear, Brutus declares: "There is no need for oaths" (II, 1, 115). With a Roman, a word is enough, honor is a reliable guarantee of loyalty to the cause. Cassius offers to crack down on Caesar's supporters. Brutus is against turning the plot to restore the republic into a bloodbath:
We rebelled against the spirit of Caesar,
But in the human spirit there is no blood.
Oh, if without killing we could
Break the spirit of Caesar!(II, 1, 167. MZ)
Brutus regrets that a bloodless coup is impossible. He would like to do without the shedding of blood, not only on the principle of humanity in general, but also because of the feelings that he has for Caesar. Cassius convinces Brutus that the conspiracy has noble goals in mind. Brutus hoped that it would be possible to confine himself to the removal of Caesar. An idealist in politics, he makes a fatal mistake for himself and for the whole cause, insisting that Antony should not be killed. When, after all the vicissitudes, Brutus commits suicide, he utters significant words:
Oh, Caesar, do not grieve,
I'd rather kill myself than you!(V, 5, 50. MZ)
The fact that Brutus remembers Caesar before his death reflects his constant checking whether he did the right thing by raising his hand to the dictator. After initial hesitation, Brutus seemed to be convinced of the need to kill Caesar, but then everything did not go as he expected. A just cause was defeated, and this, in his eyes, casts doubt on the expediency of a conspiracy against Caesar. Brutus to the end retains his mental stamina in the face of danger and death, but the thought of Caesar that does not leave him is the best evidence that he could not justify in his own eyes the murder he committed.
If we ignore many philosophical and psychological conjectures about the hero of Shakespeare's most famous tragedy, then for Shakespeare and his contemporaries the central moral problem of Hamlet was close to that outlined in the internal conflict of Brutus. Without in any way rejecting the philosophical meaning of the tragedy, one should nevertheless not neglect its plot and the real dramatic situation in which the hero is placed.
Recall: the ghost imposes on Hamlet the debt of revenge for two crimes of Claudius - the murder of the king and the incestuous marriage with his brother's widow (I, 5, 25 and 80). Critics wondering why Hamlet, after a meeting with a ghost, does not immediately rush at Claudius and pierce him with a dagger, forget about many of the circumstances that Shakespeare introduced into the traditional genre of revenge tragedy in order to take it beyond these narrow limits and give it universal interest.
Unlike previous images of the avengers in the English Renaissance drama, Hamlet is not a character who embodies only one retribution. If so, the question of why he hesitates would be valid. But Hamlet is not a one-sided character, having only one goal in life - revenge, but a multifaceted human personality. The content of the tragedy goes far beyond the theme of revenge. Love, friendship, marriage, relations between children and parents, external war and rebellion within the country - such is the range of topics directly touched upon in the play. And next to them are the philosophical and psychological problems over which Hamlet's thought struggles: 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. But no matter how extensive) the content of the tragedy, it has a dramatic core.
Hamlet's revenge is not decided by a simple blow of a dagger. Even its practical implementation encounters serious obstacles. Claudius is heavily guarded and cannot be approached. But the external obstacle is less significant than the moral and political task facing the hero. To carry out revenge, he must commit murder, that is, the same crime that lies on the soul of Claudius. Hamlet's revenge cannot be a secret murder, it must become a public punishment for the criminal. To do this, it is necessary to make it obvious to everyone that Claudius is a vile murderer.
Hamlet has a second task - to convince the mother that she committed a serious moral violation by entering into an incestuous marriage. Hamlet's revenge must be not only a personal, but also a state act, and he is aware of this. Such is the outer side of the dramatic conflict.
It is complicated by a deep spiritual breakdown - Hamlet has lost faith in the value of life, in love, everything seems vile to him. To accomplish the task entrusted to him, one must have an inner conviction that it makes sense to fight. We are witnessing the spiritual struggle experienced by the hero. For our time, this side of the tragedy is of the greatest interest, because it reveals the birth of the psychology of a person of modern times. But, unfortunately, too often the drama of this process is overlooked due to neglect of the unity of action, character and thought in the play. Contradictions in the behavior and speeches of the hero are the consequences of a special artistic method applied by Shakespeare. If we believe in one of the axioms of Shakespearean criticism - that the character of Hamlet develops - then it remains only to recognize that development does not necessarily go in a straight line. Shakespeare shows the development of the personality in a dramatic way, so it is natural that it occurs in leaps and transitions from one extreme to another.
Above, we have repeatedly cited individual passages of the tragedy "Hamlet", in which the problems facing the hero are unambiguously expressed, so it is enough here to confine ourselves to a brief indication of how external and internal conflicts are defined in the tragedy itself. The crime of Claudius is a moral ulcer that has infected the whole country. This is realized not only by Hamlet, but also by other characters, in part even by Claudius himself. General corruption puts before the hero the question of human nature, and he loses faith in the optimistic ideal of humanism, that man is inherently good. The difficulty of the task requires Hamlet to comprehend the ways and goals of revenge. On this basis, a discord arises between thought and will, desire and action. In an effort to be guided by reason, Hamlet, however, acts impulsively, and his rash actions create an opportunity for Claudius to find an ally in the fight against the prince, which becomes the direct cause of the death of the hero.
Hamlet is aware of the inferiority of his personality, understands the danger of his inner discord. He understands that not only vice, but even a small flaw, weakness stains a person. Using the technique of dramatic irony, Shakespeare sometimes puts general thoughts into the characters' speeches, and at first it seems that they have a purely external meaning, while in fact they relate to the essence of the action. When Hamlet goes with the guards at the beginning of the tragedy to see if a ghost appears, a feast takes place in the palace. Hamlet argues that under Claudius in Denmark, general drunkenness developed, disgracing the whole country. Although the love of wine is not the most terrible of vices, but the trouble from it is great for the reputation of the people. In this regard, Hamlet remarks:
Happens with individual
What, for example, a birthmark,
In which he is innocent, for, true,
I did not choose my parents
Or a strange warehouse of the soul, in front of which
Mind surrenders, or defect
In manners, insulting habits, -
It happens, in a word, that an empty flaw,
Whether in the family, whether his own, destroys a person
In the opinion of all, be his valor,
As the grace of God, pure and innumerable.
And everything from this stupid drop of evil,
And immediately all the good goes down the drain.(I, 4, 23. BP)
All surrounding life is decomposing from a drop of evil penetrating into human souls. But that's not all. The heroes of Shakespeare are endowed with a special sense of personal dignity; they have little inner consciousness of their virtue. Humanistic morality borrowed from chivalry the idea that moral virtues should be displayed publicly and receive public recognition. Therefore, for Hamlet the question of his reputation is important. In order to fight, he pretended to be insane, behaved strangely, but when the last moment of parting with life comes, he does not want to leave it stained. His last desire is for Horatio to tell the truth about him to the "uninitiated" (V, 2, 352). He is afraid to leave behind a "wounded name" (V, 2, 355). When Horatio wants to drink poison in order to die with a friend, Hamlet stops him:
Be my friend and give bliss,
Breathe the heavy air of the earth.
Stay in this world and tell
About my life(V, 2, 357. BP)
Needless to say, the circumstances of Hamlet's life and death are complex, but the thought of his nobility as a person and how difficult it is to remain unstained in a world poisoned by evil runs through the whole tragedy.
In Othello, the hero falls into error, and the true meaning of what he has done is revealed to him too late. In Macbeth, the hero knows from the very beginning what the essence of his tragedy is; Shakespeare puts into Macbeth's mouth words expressing the essence of the hero's inner conflict:
A little bit of life you set a bloody example,
She will teach you a lesson.
You pour poison into the goblet, and justice
Brings this poison to your lips.(I, 7, 8. BP)
Having committed the murder, Macbeth deprived himself of rest - he stabbed the dream, -
Innocent dream, that dream
Which quietly winds the threads
From a tangle of worries, buries the days in peace,
Gives tired workers a rest,
Healing balm of the soul
Sleep is a miracle of mother nature
The most delicious of dishes in the earthly feast.(II, 2, 37. BP)
By his crimes, Macbeth placed himself outside of humanity. Instead of the expected benefits, the crown brought him constant anxiety, he rejected everyone from himself and was left in terrible loneliness:
I lived
Until autumn, until the yellow leaf.
To what brightens up our old age, -
On devotion, love and a circle of friends, -
I have no right to count. curses
Covered with cowardly flattery, -
That's what's left for me, yes the breath of life,
Which I wouldn't mind stopping
Whenever he could part with her.(V, 3, 22. BP)
The terrible mental struggle he experienced, the horrors with which he filled the life of the country - everything turned out to be in vain. Macbeth comes to the conclusion that life is generally barren, he equates it to an ephemeral theatrical performance, and a person to an actor who does not grimace for long on stage. These thoughts are expressed in such impressive poetic form that they can be mistaken for the opinion of Shakespeare himself. But this magnificent monologue is inseparable from Macbeth's personal fate: "noise and fury" turned out to be useless in his life, and not in general, because this is opposed by the "official" morality of the play, expressed in Malcolm's victory. But this undoubtedly positive character looks pale next to the "negative" Macbeth and does not evoke any emotions, while there is a certain magical appeal in the personality of the villain. Unconditionally condemning the criminality of Macbeth, Shakespeare revealed his human tragedy, without any mitigation of his guilt.
In King Lear, it is hardly necessary to speak of the hero's guilt at all. Shakespeare very accurately determined the degree of guilt of the old king, putting the words into his mouth:
I'm not so
Sinful before others, like others -
In front of me.(III, 2, 60. BP)
The old king admits that he made a mistake, and the jester does not tire of reminding that even Cordelia, who was expelled by him, Lear did not deprive him of the way his elder daughters deprive him. The tragedy of Lear is not connected with the crime, although he violated the order of life by dividing the kingdom and cursing his youngest daughter. But the misfortune that happened to Lear is the external side of the tragedy. Its essence, as you know, consists in a spiritual upheaval, through which he comes to a completely new understanding of life. His ideal becomes pure humanity, freedom from those social obligations and ties that prevent people from being people in the true sense of the word. This ideal, after all the trials, he finds in Cordelia. It is a real happiness for him that she, having forgotten the offense, driven by pure love, returned with the sole purpose of helping him. The return of Cordelia, as it were, crowns the truth about life that Lear found in his suffering. It lies in love and mercy. Cordelia is their living embodiment. To lose Cordelia, now that the whole meaning of life is focused on her, means for Lear to lose everything. Having taken his daughter out of the noose, Lear thinks that she will come to life, and then hope awakens in him:
this moment
Redeem everything that I have suffered in life.(V, 3, 265. BP)
But he was wrong, and his grief knows no bounds:
The poor thing was strangled! No, not breathing!
A horse, a dog, a rat can live,
But not to you. You are gone forever
Forever, forever, forever, forever, forever!(V, 3, 305. BP)
The most beautiful of living beings perishes, but the lower species of the animal world (the reader, of course, remembers the great chain of being) survive. This is how the victory of evil over good is metaphorically expressed. In his old age, Lear has experienced too much, more than a man can bear, and he dies. When Edgar tries to revive Lear, Kent stops him:
Don't torment. Leave
At rest is his spirit. Let him go.
Who do you have to be to pull up again
Him on the rack of life for torment?(V, 3, 313. BP)
Mark Antony is twice depicted by Shakespeare. The first time we see him is in Julius Caesar, and here he appears as a cunning politician, a clever demagogue and, most importantly, a man who is in complete control of himself. In "Antony and Cleopatra" he is no longer like that. True, he retained the ability to be cunning in politics, but everything that he decides with reason is then overturned by passion.
The tragedy of Antony is already defined in the first speech, which opens the dramatic story of the Roman triumvir and the Egyptian queen:
Our commander is completely mad!
That proud look that before the army
Sparkled like Mars, clad in armor,
Now forward with prayerful rapture
In a pretty gypsy face
And a powerful heart, from whose blows
The shell fasteners were torn in battles,
Now humbly serves as a fan,
The love ardor of the harlot of the studio.(I, 1, 1. MD)
In essence, this is nothing more than a prologue, a speech that sets out the content of the play, its main dramatic situation. When Antony experienced all the bitterness of Cleopatra's betrayal and the hopelessness of defeat, he repeats the same thing:
O deceitful Egyptian creature!
O sorcery! She should have looked
And I threw troops into battle.
To think that her embrace was
The crown of my desires, the purpose of life!
And here she is, like a true gypsy,
I was scammed
And I became a beggar.(IV, 10, 38. MD)
Anthony lost dominion over the world, but he did not lose his human prowess. The passion for Cleopatra turned out to be fatal, but his life was by no means shameful. Having been defeated, he commits suicide, but without the spiritual breakdown of Macbeth. Anthony's life was not free from mistakes and compromises, but he always remained himself, although his soul was split in two when he had to choose between his political interests and passion for Cleopatra. And yet he has the right, summing up his life, to say about himself to Cleopatra:
Don't think about the sad turn
And my death, but come back with a thought
To past, happier days,
When, wielding the greatest power,
I made good use of it.
And now I end not ingloriously
And I do not ask for mercy, taking off the helmet
Before a countryman, but a Roman I perish
From Roman hands.(IV, 13, 51. BP)
This self-characterization of Antony is supported by the opinion of opponents who learned about his death. One of them, Agrippa, says:
Rulers with such a soul are rare,
But the gods, so that people do not ask,
We have been given weaknesses.(V, 1, 31. AA)
Antony is not a criminal, like Macbeth. If his behavior caused harm, then first of all to himself. He is a man with weaknesses, making mistakes, but not vicious. This needs to be emphasized; Agrippa's maxim had to be translated again because all available translations say that people are endowed with vices, while in the original it is only about mistakes, shortcomings, weaknesses - some faults. The detail is essential for the moral characterization of the hero.
Among Shakespeare's plays, "Antony and Cleopatra" more than others has the right to be called a heroic tragedy. It dramatizes the fate of a man of a rare spirit, whose greatness and nobility is emphasized by everyone - both adherents and opponents.
In Coriolanus, Shakespeare did not use his usual method of expressing the central ideas of the play through the lips of the characters. This is natural, for it is not in the nature of Coriolanus to be concerned with ideas. He is a man of action, not thought, and also extremely impulsive. He is guided by feelings, and he does not know how to manage them. But in the play there is another character who is given the function of an intermediary in all the dramatic situations of the play - Menenius Agrippa. He is, one might say, a reasoner, although his personal attitude to what is happening is by no means impartial. He is an interested participant in events, occupying a well-defined position.
Menenius gives such a characterization of Coriolanus, which explains the inevitability of the hero's irreconcilable conflict with the Roman plebs. According to Menenius, Coriolanus is "too noble for this world", proud and adamant, -
Neptune with a trident and Jupiter with thunder
And they will not force him to flatter them.
His thought is inseparable from the word:
What the heart says, the tongue repeats.
He will forget in moments of anger,
What does the word "death" mean?(III, 1, 255. UK)
Although, under pressure from his mother and the patricians, Coriolanus made attempts to compromise with the crowd and pretend to be submissive, the tribunes Brutus and Sicinius, knowing his nature well, easily provoked a conflict. Before meeting with Coriolanus, Brutus taught Sicinius:
You try to piss him off right away.
He is used to everything, including in disputes,
To be first. If you piss him off,
He will completely forget caution
And lay out to us everything that is in the heart
heavy. And there it is enough
To break Marcia's spine.(III, 3, 25. UK)
And so it happened. The only thing the tribunes made a mistake about was that they could not break Coriolanus, but succeeded in quarreling him forever with the people. The proud commander is ready for anything, but not for humility:
I won't buy mercy with a meek word
I will not humble myself for all the good things in the world ...(III, 3, 90. UK)
He is sure that without him, without his military prowess, Rome is nothing and can perish, and in response to the sentence of exile he answers: “I myself expel you” (III, 3, 123). He leaves Rome convinced that the most important thing is to remain himself. Saying goodbye to relatives and friends, he says: “Never / Will they tell you that Marcius has become different / Than he was before” (IV, 1, 51. YuK).
However, Coriolanus is soon forced to admit that he has by no means remained the same as before. Changing the world, changing people, changing relationships: friends turn into enemies, and enemies into friends:
Isn't it the same with me? I hate
The place where I was born and fell in love
This is the enemy city.(IV, 4, 22. UK)
Coriolanus, who once risked his life for Rome, is now ready to give it up in order to avenge the offense inflicted on him by Rome. However, as we know, Coriolanus refused revenge when his mother, wife and son came to him. There was discord in his soul. Aufidius noticed this: “Your honor and compassion / Entered into a quarrel” (V, 4, 200. YuK). In the name of his honor, desecrated by Rome, Coriolanus would have to take revenge, as he intended, but the entreaties of his loved ones, compassion for them broke his will. He is aware that such a change may be fatal for him, and says to his mother:
happy victory
You won for Rome, but know
That the son of a formidable, perhaps deadly
Exposed to danger.(V, 3, 186. UK)
Premonition did not deceive Coriolanus. Aufidius took advantage of the fact that the Roman commander showed mercy that was not characteristic of him before. This is what ruined him. The paradox of the fate of Coriolanus is that both good and bad were equally disastrous for him. He did not show gentleness where it could not only save, but also exalt him; instead, he manifested it when it made his death at the hands of the Volscians inevitable.
Of great interest is one of the speeches of the opponent of Coriolanus - Aufidius. Reflecting on what quarreled the Roman hero with the people, he names several possible reasons. Quoting, I break the speech into separate passages:
1. Is it pride that accompanies success,
Confused him;
2. either inability
Use wisely what was
In his hands;3. and at the same time, as you can see,
He could not change his nature,
And, taking off his helmet, sitting on a bench in the senate,
During peace he behaved menacingly
And commandingly, as in war.(IV, 7, 37. AA)
According to Aufidius, one of these reasons is enough to arouse the hatred of the people and be expelled from Rome. He himself does not know which of them led to the break of the hero with his native city. The audience can see: Coriolanus was overly proud; failed to take advantage of the fruits of his victory in order to occupy a dominant position in Rome; he did not know how to change his nature and pretend.
"Timon of Athens" is a work whose external conflict is closely intertwined with the internal one. Timon was ruined by generosity. His butler clearly defines the tragedy of the hero:
My poor lord, you have fallen forever
Destroyed by your kindness!(IV, 3, 37. PM)
He emphasizes that this is strange - kindness becomes a source of misfortune for the one who is kind. Convinced of human ingratitude, Timon is imbued with hatred for people. However, as mentioned above, his hatred is the stronger, the more he loved people. This is the difference between Timon and Apemantus, who always had a low opinion of people. Cynic Apemantus laughs at people, Timon suffers from the fact that they change true humanity.
The content of the tragedies is wider than those that are touched upon in the statements of the characters. The problems of life posed by Shakespeare have been the subject of many thoughtful studies, and what is said here does not pretend to illuminate Shakespeare's masterpieces in their entirety. The task was much more modest - to show that the main motives of the tragedies were revealed by Shakespeare himself. Criticism that deviates from what the playwright said may be interesting in itself, opening up new aspects in the modern understanding of the problem of the tragic, but if it is not based on Shakespeare's text, then its significance for understanding the works of the great playwright will be very relative.
At the same time, although it is customary to say that Shakespeare is unlimited, there are limits to his thought. Shakespeare gave so much in his work that there is no need to raise his significance for our time, attributing to him something that could not be in his thoughts in any form. We sometimes confuse the stimuli received for thought with what is contained in the work that evoked them.
Although the general opinion considers Shakespeare's tragedies the pinnacle of his work, for him they were not the last word about life that he, as an artist, could say. His creative thought was not satisfied with what had been achieved. Having created such majestic and beautiful works, Shakespeare began to look for new ways.
Notes
N. Berkovsky. "Romeo and Juliet", in his book: Literature and theater. M., Art, 1969, pp. 11-47; V. Bakhmutsky. On Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet, in: Shakespeare on Stage and Screen. M., ed. VGIK. 1970, pp. 55-76.
See Hegel. Aesthetics, vol. 1. M., Art, 1968, p. 224.
Y. Shvedov. "Julius Caesar" Shakespeare. M., "Art", 1971.
From the latest literature on Hamlet, see: I. Vertsman. Shakespeare's Hamlet. M., "Fiction", 1964; Shakespeare Collection 1961. Ed. WTO, articles by A. Anikst, I. Vertsman, G. Kozintsev, M. Astangov, D. Urnov, V. Klyuev, N. Zubova; A. Anikst. "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", in the book. Shakespeare, Collected works in eight volumes, vol. 6. M, Art, 1960, pp. 571-627; M.V. Urnov, D. AD. Urns. Shakespeare, his hero and his time. M., "Nauka", 1964, pp. 125-146; G. Kozintsev. Our contemporary William Shakespeare. Ed. 2nd. M.-L., Art, 1966. In: William Shakespeare. 1564-1964. M., "Science", 1964, articles: A. Kettle. Hamlet, pp. 149-159, C. Muir. Hamlet, pp. 160-170.
N. Berkovsky. Articles about the literature. M.-L., GIHL, 1962, pp. 64-106. Y. Shvedov. Othello, Shakespeare's tragedy. M., "Higher School", 1969; J.M. Matthews. Othello and human dignity. In: Shakespeare in a Changing World. M., "Progress", 1966, pp. 208-240; Shakespeare Miscellany 1947. Ed. WTO, articles by G. Boyadzhiev (pp. 41-56) and G. Kozintsev (pp. 147-174).
V. Komarova. "Coriolanus" and social contradictions in England at the beginning of the 17th century. In the book: Shakespeare collection 1967. M., ed. WTO pp. 211-226.
It will probably take a long time before the heroes of other works of world literature can somehow push back, weaken my attention to the image of Shakespeare's Hamlet. And no matter how much I re-read the tragedy, each time I will sympathize with him, be captured by his mind and stubbornly seek an answer to the question, what is the tragedy of his fate. I am sure that every reader will find in "Hamlet" something of his own, close to his heart and mind. And the main thing will always come first - these are ethical problems: the struggle between good and evil, the appointment of man on earth, the opposition of humanism and anti-humanity. You read a play - and all the time it seems that you have a kind of scales in front of you, on both sides of which Shakespeare puts virtues on shortcomings throughout the story. Perhaps that is why the story of Hamlet is, in my opinion, a depiction of a chain of conflicts. The very conflicts that together represent the conflict between Prince Hamlet and reality.
I would like to outline the three most significant components of this conflict. The main thing is the rejection by Hamlet the humanist of the ugly shortcomings of the royal court. For the prince, the castle in Elsinore is a model of world evil. He understands this, and gradually his personal conflict connected with the murder of his father turns into a historical conflict. Hamlet is in despair, because he is opposed not only by Claudius and not even by the evil of Elsinore, but by the evil of the world. Therefore, the young man is faced with the question: “To be or not to be?” Probably, only by solving it, Hamlet is again able to respect himself as a person:
* To be or not to be - that is the question.
* What is nobler? obey fate
* And endure the pain from her sharp arrows,
* Or, faced in the heart with a sea of calamity,
* Put an end to it? Sleep, die
* And that's it. (…)
It is from here, I think, that the second component of Hamlet's conflict with reality arises: protest, the desire to fight evil, to deal with one's own impotence. The power of the surrounding evil is stronger than the honesty and decency of the hero. To overcome it, Hamlet must first destroy purely human feelings in himself: love (break with Ophelia), family relations (break with his mother), sincerity (playing like a madman), honesty (the need to lie to everyone except Horatio), humanity (Hamlet kills Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, arranges the death penalty of Rosenranz and Guildenstern, causes the death of Ophelia and Gertrude).
Hamlet oversteps his humanity, but we see that he neglects it not of his own free will. And we understand: this is another component of the tragic conflict of the Danish prince. All his life cultivating high feelings in himself, he is now forced to destroy them under the pressure of ugly reality and commit a crime. A person's knowledge of himself - that is the tragedy of Hamlet, and not the perception of this matter - the source of the hero's conflict with reality.
…Hamlet entered my life as a wise elder friend, giving a worthy answer to the age-old question about life choice. For centuries, Shakespeare taught his readers the dignity, honor and wisdom of self-knowledge, telling a tragic story about a Danish prince, about complex philosophical and moral problems. And I am convinced that new generations, just like the past and present, will reread the tragedy in a new way, already from their own positions, discovering the existence of evil in life and determining their own attitude towards it.
A terrible crime - fratricide - arises as a circumstance that caused the development of the plot. But not the events, but the reaction of Hamlet, his choice is at the center of the play, and predetermines the philosophical and ideological content. In other circumstances, under other conditions, thinking decent people have always had to make a similar choice of their own, since there is a lot of evil, and sooner or later everyone faces its manifestations in their own lives. Putting up with evil is almost the same as assisting it, conscience will not allow you to calm down, and life will turn into continuous suffering. To evade the fight, to run away (after all, in this case, death becomes a kind of flight) - this will help to lose suffering, but this is also not an option, since evil will continue to expand with impunity. It is no coincidence that later, having already decided, Hamlet takes away the goblet with poison from Horatio: death is too easy and not worthy of a real person a way to overcome difficulties. But to comprehend this, he had to go through a difficult path.
To start a fight for Hamlet is to betray his own moral principles (you have to kill your own uncle), because again moral suffering. They are further complicated by the fact that the murderer, the enemy of Hamlet, is the king, the personification of power, and every action of Hamlet can also affect the fate of his country. So it's no surprise that he hesitates before he starts thrashing about. However, the procrastination itself finally predetermines the death of the hero. But he could not be. Doubts and delays are natural to Hamlet's character and to the circumstances themselves. A thoughtless choice cannot lead to anything good either, an intelligent person cannot be unaware of this.
Shakespeare's Hamlet posed many philosophical questions to humanity. A significant part of them are eternal, and each new generation of readers, discovering the literary heritage of Shakespeare, thinks and will think after the hero of "Hamlet" over these philosophical problems.
- New!
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Tragedies of Shakespeare. Features of the conflict in the tragedies of Shakespeare (King Lear, Macbeth). Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning of his literary career. One of his first plays was the Roman tragedy "Titus Andronicus", a few years later the play "Romeo and Juliet" appeared. However, Shakespeare's most famous tragedies were written during the seven years of 1601-1608. During this period, four great tragedies were created - Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth, as well as Antony and Cleopatra and lesser-known plays - Timon of Athens and Troilus and Cressida. Many researchers associated these plays with the Aristotelian principles of the genre: the main character must be an outstanding person, but not without vice, and the audience must feel certain sympathy for him. All tragic protagonists in Shakespeare have the capacity for both good and evil. The playwright follows the doctrine of free will: the (anti)hero is always given the opportunity to get out of the situation and atone for sins. However, he does not notice this opportunity and goes towards fate.
Features of the conflict in the tragedies of Shakespeare.
Tragedies are the creative core of W. Shakespeare's legacy. They express the power of his brilliant thought and the essence of his time, which is why subsequent eras, if they turned to W. Shakespeare for comparison, first of all comprehended their conflicts through them
The tragedy "King Lear" is one of the most profound socio-psychological works of world drama. It uses several sources: the legend of the fate of the British King Lear, told by Holinshed in The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland according to earlier sources, the story of old Gloucester and his two sons in Philip Sidney's pastoral novel Arcadia, some moments in Edmund Spenser's poem The Fairy Queen. The plot was known to the English audience, because there was a pre-Shakespearean play "The True Chronicle of King Leir and his three daughters", where everything ended happily. In Shakespeare's tragedy, the story of ungrateful and cruel children served as the basis for a psychological, social and philosophical tragedy that paints a picture of injustice, cruelty, and greed prevailing in society. The theme of the anti-hero (Lear) and the conflict are closely intertwined in this tragedy. A literary text without conflict is boring and uninteresting to the reader, respectively, without an anti-hero and a hero is not a hero. Any work of art contains a conflict of "good" and "evil", where "good" is true. The same should be said about the significance of the anti-hero in the work. A feature of the conflict in this play is its scale. K. from a family develops into a state and already covers two kingdoms.
W. Shakespeare creates the tragedy "Macbeth", the main character of which is such a person. The tragedy was written in 1606. "Macbeth" is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies - it contains only 1993 lines. Its plot is taken from the History of Britain. But its brevity did not in the least affect the artistic and compositional merits of the tragedy. In this work, the author raises the issue of the destructive influence of sole power and, in particular, the struggle for power, which turns the brave Macbeth, a valiant and illustrious hero, into a villain hated by everyone. Even stronger sounds in this tragedy by W. Shakespeare, his constant theme - the theme of just retribution. Just retribution falls on criminals and villains - a mandatory law of Shakespeare's drama, a kind of manifestation of his optimism. Its best heroes die often, but villains and criminals always die. In "Macbeth" this law is shown especially brightly. W. Shakespeare in all his works pays special attention to the analysis of both man and society - separately, and in their direct interaction. “He analyzes the sensual and spiritual nature of man, the interaction and struggle of feelings, the diverse mental states of a person in their movements and transitions, the emergence and development of affects and their destructive power. W. Shakespeare focuses on the critical and crisis states of consciousness, on the causes of the spiritual crisis, the causes of external and internal, subjective and objective. And it is precisely such an internal conflict of a person that constitutes the main theme of the tragedy Macbeth.
The theme of power and mirror reflection of evil. Power is the most attractive thing in an era when the power of gold has not yet been fully realized. Power - this is what, in the era of social cataclysms that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the new time, can give a sense of confidence and strength, prevent a person from becoming a toy in the hands of capricious fate. For the sake of power, a person then took risks, adventures, crimes.
Based on the experience of his era, Shakespeare came to the realization that the terrible power of power destroys people no less than the power of gold. He penetrated into all the bends of the soul of a person who is seized by this passion, forcing him to stop at nothing to fulfill his desires. Shakespeare shows how lust for power disfigures a person. If before his hero knew no limit in his courage, now he knows no limit in his ambitious aspirations, which turn the great commander into a criminal tyrant, into a murderer.
Shakespeare gave a philosophical interpretation of the problem of power in Macbeth. Full of deep symbolism is the scene where Lady Macbeth notices her bloody hands, from which traces of blood can no longer be erased. Here the ideological and artistic conception of the tragedy is exposed.
The blood on Lady Macbeth's fingers is the climax of the development of the main theme of the tragedy. Power comes at the cost of blood. The throne of Macbeth stands on the blood of the murdered king, and it cannot be washed off his conscience, as well as from the hands of Lady Macbeth. But this particular fact passes into a generalized solution of the problem of power. All power rests on the suffering of the people, Shakespeare wanted to say, referring to the social relations of his era. Knowing the historical experience of subsequent centuries, these words can be attributed to a proprietary society of all eras. This is the deep meaning of Shakespeare's tragedy. The path to power in bourgeois society is a bloody path. No wonder commentators and textual critics pointed out that the word "bloody" is used so many times in Macbeth. It, as it were, colors all the events taking place in the tragedy and creates its gloomy atmosphere. And although this tragedy ends with the victory of the forces of light, the triumph of the patriots who raised the people to the bloody despot, but the nature of the depiction of the era is such that it forces one to raise the question: will history not repeat itself? Will there be other Macbeths? Shakespeare evaluates the new bourgeois relations in such a way that there can be only one answer: no political changes guarantee that the country will not again be given over to the power of despotism.
The real theme of the tragedy is the theme of power, and not the theme of boundless, unbridled passions. The question of the nature of power is also essential in other works - in Hamlet, in King Lear, not to mention the chronicles. But there it is woven into a complex system of other socio-philosophical problems and was not posed as the cardinal theme of the era. In "Macbeth" the problem of power rises to its full height. It determines the development of the action in the tragedy.
The tragedy "Macbeth" is, perhaps, the only play by Shakespeare where evil is all-encompassing. Evil prevails over good. Good seems to be deprived of its all-conquering function, while evil loses its relativity and approaches the absolute. Evil in Shakespeare's tragedy is represented not only and not so much by dark forces, although they are also present in the play in the form of three witches. Evil gradually becomes all-consuming and absolute only when it settles in the soul of Macbeth. It corrodes his mind and soul and destroys his personality. The cause of his death is, first of all, this self-destruction and already secondarily the efforts of Malcolm, Macduff and Siward. Shakespeare examines the anatomy of evil in tragedy, showing various aspects of this phenomenon. Firstly, evil appears as a phenomenon that contradicts human nature, which reflects the views on the problem of good and evil of people of the Renaissance. Evil also appears in tragedy as a force that destroys the natural world order, the connection of man with God, the state and the family. Another property of evil, shown in Macbeth, as well as in Othello, is its ability to influence a person through deception. Thus, in Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth" evil is all-encompassing. It loses its relativity and, prevailing over the good - its mirror image, approaches the absolute. The mechanism of the impact of the forces of evil on people in Shakespeare's tragedies "Othello" and "Macbeth" is deceit. “Macbeth” this theme sounds in the main leitmotif of the tragedy: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. Evil is all-encompassing and in the figurative sphere of tragedy, as evidenced by the development of the main leitmotif of the play “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, the predominance in the tragedy of gloomy, ominous images such as night and darkness, blood, images of nocturnal animals that are symbols of death (raven, owl), images plants and repulsive animals associated with witchcraft and magic, as well as the presence in the play of visual and auditory images-effects that create an atmosphere of mystery, fear and death. The interaction of images of light and darkness, day and night, as well as natural images reflects the struggle between good and evil in the tragedy.
The problem of the Renaissance man or the problem of time in Hamlet. Conflict and the system of images. The Tragical Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or simply Hamlet, is a five-act tragedy by William Shakespeare, one of his most famous plays, and one of the most famous plays in world drama. Written in 1600-1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play at 4,042 lines and 29,551 words.
The tragedy is based on the legend of the Danish ruler named Amletus, recorded by the Danish chronicler Saxo Grammatik in the third book of the Acts of the Danes and is devoted primarily to revenge - in it the protagonist seeks revenge for the death of his father. Some researchers associate the Latin name Amletus with the Icelandic word Amloði (amlóð|i m -a, -ar 1) poor fellow, unhappy; 2) a hack; 3) fool, blockhead.
According to researchers, the plot of the play was borrowed by Shakespeare from Thomas Kidd's play The Spanish Tragedy.
The most probable date for compositions and first production is 1600-01 (Globe Theatre, London). The first performer of the title role is Richard Burbage; Shakespeare played the shadow of Hamlet's father.
The tragedy Hamlet was written by Shakespeare during the Renaissance. The main idea of the Renaissance was the idea of humanism, humanity, that is, the value of every person, every human life in itself. The time of the Renaissance (Renaissance) first approved the idea that a person has the right to personal choice and personal free will. After all, only the will of God was previously recognized. Another very important idea of the Renaissance was the belief in the great possibilities of the human mind.
Art and literature in the Renaissance come out from under the unlimited power of the church, its dogmas and censorship, and begin to reflect on the "eternal themes of being": on the mysteries of life and death. For the first time, the problem of choice arises: how to behave in certain situations, what is right from the point of view of the human mind and morality? After all, people are no longer satisfied with the ready-made answers of religion.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, became the literary hero of a new generation during the Renaissance. In his person, Shakespeare affirms the Renaissance ideal of a man of a powerful mind and strong will. Hamlet is able to single-handedly go out to fight evil. The Renaissance hero seeks to change the world, influence it, and feels the strength to do so. Before Shakespeare, there were no heroes of this magnitude in literature. Therefore, the story of Hamlet became a "breakthrough" in the ideological content of European literature.
The conflict in the tragedy "Hamlet" occurred between Hamlet and Claudius. The reason for this conflict was that Hamlet was superfluous in society, and Claudius wanted to get rid of him. Hamlet loved the truth too much, and the people around him were liars. This is one of the reasons why Claudius hated Hamlet. After Hamlet learned that Claudius killed his father, he decided to take revenge. The conflict between Hamlet and Claudius is so strong that it could only end in the death of one of them, but Hamlet is the only fair person, and power was on the side of Claudius.
But the desire for justice and grief for the dead father helped Hamlet to prevail. The cunning and deceitful king was killed.
The central image in Shakespeare's tragedy is the image of Hamlet. From the very beginning of the play, the main goal of Hamlet is clear - revenge for the brutal murder of his father. In accordance with medieval ideas, this is the duty of the prince, but Hamlet is a humanist, he is a man of the new time and his refined nature does not accept cruel revenge and violence.
The image of Ophelia evokes different emotions in different readers: from indignation through the meekness of the girl to sincere sympathy. But fate is also unfavorable to Ophelia: her father Polonius is on the side of Claudius, who is guilty of the death of Hamlet's father and is his desperate enemy. After the death of Hypnoigius, who was killed by Hamlet, a tragic break occurs in the girl's soul, and she falls ill. Almost all heroes fall into such a whirlwind: Laertes, Claudius (who, seeing his obvious “negativity”, is still tormented by pangs of conscience ...).
Each of the characters in the work of William Shakespeare is perceived by the reader ambiguously. Even the image of Hamlet can be perceived as a weak person (is it possible that in our modern world, partly brought up on comics and films of dubious quality, does not the one who does not look like a superhero in the fight against evil seem weak?), or as a person of extraordinary intelligence and life wisdom. It is impossible to give an unambiguous assessment of Shakespeare's images, but I hope that their understanding is formed over time in the minds of everyone who has read this majestic work, and will help to give their own answer to Shakespeare's eternal "to be or not to be?".
