Composition and artistic features

The basis of the dramatic composition of "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare is the fate of the Danish prince. Its disclosure is constructed in such a way that each new stage action is accompanied by some change in the position of Hamlet, his conclusions, and the tension increases all the time, until the final episode of the duel, ending with the death of the hero. The tension of the action is created, on the one hand, by the expectation of what the hero's next step will be, and, on the other hand, by the complications that arise in his fate and relationships with other characters. As the action develops, the dramatic knot becomes more and more aggravated all the time.

At the heart of any dramatic work is conflict, in the tragedy "Hamlet" it has 2 levels. Level 1 - personal between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, who became the husband of the prince's mother after the treacherous murder of Hamlet's father. The conflict has moral nature: two collide life positions. Level 2 - the conflict of man and era. (“Denmark is a prison”, “the whole world is a prison, and excellent: with many gates, dungeons and dungeons ...”

In terms of action, the tragedy can be divided into 5 parts.

Part 1 - the plot, five scenes of the first act. Hamlet's meeting with the Ghost, who entrusts Hamlet with the task of avenging the vile murder.

The plot of the tragedy is two motives: the physical and moral death of a person. The first is embodied in the death of his father, the second in the moral fall of Hamlet's mother. Since they were the closest and dearest people to Hamlet, then with their death that spiritual breakdown occurred, when for Hamlet all life lost its meaning and value.

The second moment of the plot is the meeting of Hamlet with a ghost. From him, the prince learns that the death of his father was the work of Claudius, as the ghost says: “Murder is vile in itself; but this is more vile than all and more inhuman than all.

Part 2 - the development of the action arising from the plot. Hamlet needs to lull the king's vigilance, he pretends to be crazy. Claudius takes steps to learn about the reasons for this behavior. The result is the death of Polonius, father of Ophelia, the beloved of the prince.

Part 3 - the climax, called the "mousetrap": a) Hamlet is finally convinced of the guilt of Claudius; b) Claudius himself is aware that his secret has been revealed; c) Hamlet opens his eyes to Gertrude.

The culmination of this part of the tragedy and, perhaps, of the whole drama as a whole is the episode "scene on stage". The accidental appearance of actors is used by Hamlet to put on a performance depicting a murder similar to that committed by Claudius. Circumstances favor Hamlet. He gets the opportunity to bring the king to such a state when he will be forced to betray himself by word or behavior, and this will happen in the presence of the whole court. It is here that Hamlet reveals his intention in the monologue that concludes Act II, at the same time explaining why he has so far hesitated:

"The spirit that appeared to me,

Perhaps there was also a devil; the devil is powerful

Put on a cute image; and, perhaps,

That, since I am relaxed and sad, -

And over such a soul he is very powerful, -

He leads me to death. I need

Return support. The spectacle is a loop,

To lasso the king's conscience" (5, p. 29)

But even having made a decision, Hamlet still does not feel solid ground under his feet.

4th part: a) sending Hamlet to England; b) the arrival of Fortinbras in Poland; c) Ophelia's madness; d) death of Ophelia; e) conspiracy of the king with Laertes.

Part 5 - denouement. Duel of Hamlet and Laertes, Death of Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, Hamlet.

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The basis of the dramatic composition of "Hamlet" by W. Shakespeare is the fate of the Danish prince. Its disclosure is constructed in such a way that each new stage of the action is accompanied by some change in Hamlet's position, his conclusions, and the tension increases all the time, right up to the final episode of the duel, ending with the death of the hero.

In terms of action, the tragedy can be divided into 5 parts.

Part 1 - the plot, five scenes of the first act. Hamlet's meeting with the Ghost, who entrusts Hamlet with the task of avenging the vile murder.

4th part: a) sending Hamlet to England; b) the arrival of Fortinbras in Poland; c) Ophelia's madness; d) death of Ophelia; e) conspiracy of the king with Laertes.

Part 5 - denouement. Duel of Hamlet and Laertes, Death of Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, Hamlet.

MONOLOGUE
Behavior, actions of Hamlet, his thoughts - the search for answers to these questions. His thoughts about the meaning of life and doubts about the correctness of the chosen actions were reflected primarily in monologues, especially in the monologue of the third act "To be or not to be?" The answer to this question revealed the essence of Hamlet's tragedy - the tragedy of a person who came into this world too early and saw all its imperfections. This is a tragedy of the mind. Mind that decides for itself main problem: whether to fight the sea of evil or avoid the fight? Rise up "on the sea of troubles" and slay them, or submit to the "slings and arrows of a furious fate"? Hamlet must choose one of two possibilities. And at this moment, the hero, as before, doubts: is it worth fighting for a life that "produces only evil"? Or give up the fight?

Hamlet is worried about "the unknown after death, the fear of a country from which no one has ever returned." And therefore, probably, he cannot "calculate himself with a simple dagger", that is, commit suicide. Hamlet is aware of his impotence, but cannot part with his life, for he has the task of avenging his father, restoring the truth, and punishing evil. However, such a decision requires action from Hamlet. But reflection and doubt paralyze his will.

And yet Hamlet decides to go to the end. The choice is made - "to be!" To be the fight against evil, hypocrisy, deceit, betrayal. Hamlet dies, but before his death he thinks about life, about the future of his kingdom.

Monologue "To be or not to be?" reveals to us the soul of a hero who is unreasonably hard in the world of lies, evil, deceit, villainy, but who, nevertheless, has not lost the ability to act. Therefore, this monologue is really the highest point of Hamlet's thoughts and doubts.

Tragedies of Shakespeare. Features of the conflict in the tragedies of Shakespeare (King Lear, Macbeth). Shakespeare wrote tragedies from the beginning literary activity. 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 have associated these plays with the Aristotelian attitudes of the genre: main character should be an outstanding, but not devoid of vice person, and the audience should have a 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.

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's poem Spencer's The Faerie Queene. 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. Artistic text without conflict is boring and uninteresting to the reader, respectively, without an anti-hero and the 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. His best heroes often die, but villains and criminals always die. In "Macbeth" this law is shown especially brightly. W. Shakespeare in all his works pays Special attention 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 just like that internal conflict man and is the main theme of the tragedy "Macbeth".

Tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" (1595). The plot of this tragedy was widely spread in the Italian novelistics of the Renaissance. Bandello's short story ("Romeo and Juliet. All kinds of misadventures and the sad death of two lovers") and its processing by Arthur Brooke in the poem " tragic story Romeus and Juliet, which served as a source for Shakespeare.

The events of the play unfold in the city of Verona, which is overshadowed by the long-standing enmity of two influential families: the Montagues and the Capulets. At the Romeo Ball, Montague first saw the young Juliet Capulet and fell in love with her passionately. The monk Lorenzo secretly crowns them, hoping that this marriage will end the protracted enmity between the two families. Meanwhile, in revenge for the death of his closest friend, the merry Mercutio, Romeo kills the frantic Tybalt. He is sentenced to exile, and Juliet's parents decide to marry her to Count Paris. Lorenzo persuades Juliet to drink a sleeping pill that will temporarily create the appearance of her death. Mistaking the sleeping Juliet for the deceased, Romeo drinks the poison and dies. Awakened from a dream, Juliet finds her beloved husband dead and stabs him with a dagger.

The leading theme of "Romeo and Juliet" is the love of young people. One of the conquests of the European culture of the Renaissance was just a very high idea of human love.

Romeo and Juliet under Shakespeare's pen turn into true heroes. Romeo is ardent, brave, smart, kind, ready to forget about the old enmity, but for the sake of a friend enters into a duel. Juliet's character is more complex. The death of Tybalt, and then the courtship of Paris put her in a difficult position. She has to dissemble, pretend to be a submissive daughter. Lorenzo's bold plan scares her, but love removes all doubts.

Near Romeo and Juliet, a number of colorful figures appear in the tragedy: the lively nurse, the learned monk Lorenzo, the witty Mercutio, Tybalt, personifying the protracted turmoil, etc. And the story of Romeo and Juliet is sad, but this sadness is light. After all, the death of young people is a triumph of their love, stopping the bloody feud that has crippled the life of Verona for many decades.

"Othello" (1604). The love of the Venetian Moor Othello and the daughter of the Venetian senator Desdemona forms the plot basis of the play. Othello, believing Iago's slander, raises his hand against an innocent woman. Knowing well that the Moor is by nature a man of a free and open soul, Iago builds his low and vile plan on this. The world of Othello and Desdemona is the world of sincere human feelings, the world of Iago is the world of Venetian selfishness, hypocrisy, cold prudence. For Othello, the loss of faith in Desdemona meant the loss of faith in man. But the murder of Desdemona is not so much an explosion of dark passions as an act of justice. Othello avenges both desecrated love and the world that has lost harmony.

In this respect, it is interesting to compare Shakespeare's tragedy with Geraldi Cinthio's short story The Moor of Venice. This is the usual bloody short story about an unbridled Moor, who, due to bestial jealousy, with the help of a lieutenant, kills Disdemona and even under torture does not confess to the crime committed. Shakespeare's tragedy is written in a completely different vein. In it, Othello was able to arouse the love of the educated and intelligent Desdemona.

Let us now see how the main characters are connected with the action of the tragedy as a whole. Shakespeare was a master of multifaceted composition, in which the play has several independent lines of action that intersect with each other. The royal family is in the center of the tragedy: Claudius, Gertrude, Hamlet and the ghost of the murdered king hovering over the whole action. Nearby is the family of the royal minister Polonius: he, his son and daughter. The third line of action is formed by the history of the Norwegian royal dynasty; more is said about it and only Prince Fortinbras directly participates in the action, while his late father and his uncle are only mentioned.

From the very beginning, Shakespeare begins to connect different lines of action with different strokes. From the story of Horatio in the first scene, we learn that the father of Fortinbras challenged Hamlet's father to a duel and, having lost, was forced to give his lands to the Danish crown. Now Denmark fears that Fortinbras might try to take by force what his father had lost.

In the second scene, Claudius first of all sends ambassadors to the Norwegian king to stop the plans of Fortinbras. Having finished with state affairs, he begins to listen to the requests of those close to him, and his first word is addressed to Laertes. He satisfies the request to let him go to France not before asking what Polonius thinks about this. The king clearly favors Polonius, for, as we can guess, when the throne unexpectedly became vacant, the minister, apparently, facilitated the election of Claudius to the throne.

In the third scene, we learn that Hamlet is paying attention to Polonius' daughter, with her brother advising and her father ordering her to break off relations with the prince. So already in the first three scenes of the first act, Shakespeare wove three main lines of action. Further, the relationship between the royal family and the minister's family becomes more and more dramatic. Polonius helps the king in the fight against Hamlet, and the unsuspecting Ophelia is also involved in this. Hamlet kills Polonius. Ophelia goes crazy after that. Laertes returns from France to avenge his father. At the open grave of Ophelia, the first clash between Hamlet and Laertes takes place, then the king conspires with Laertes to kill the prince. The interweaving of the destinies of these two families runs through the whole tragedy.

And what does Fortinbras have to do with the plot of the tragedy? After the Norwegian king dissuades him from attacking Denmark, Fortinbras marches on Poland. To do this, he needs to pass through Danish territory, for which he receives permission. IN important point the two princes nearly come face to face. The example of Fortinbras, active in the struggle for his interests, is of great moral importance for Hamlet.

Returning from the Polish campaign, Fortinbras sees the complete death of the entire Danish dynasty. By feudal right, since the lands belonging to his father are included in the Danish possessions, he is the only legitimate claimant to the crown of Denmark, and she, we guess, will pass to him.

The background of the tragedy, the real basis of its action, is the interweaving of the destinies of three families, and personal relationships are combined with great political interests. In a certain sense, it can be said that the political center of the events of the tragedy is the inquiry about the throne of Denmark: Claudius usurped it, depriving Hamlet of the right to inherit his father, both die, leaving the crown to the Norwegian prince. The listed elements of action seem simple, readers and even more so viewers pass by them, taking everything for granted. Meanwhile, all this is the result of a carefully developed plan, translated into dramatic action. Nothing should have been superfluous, everything was built in such a way as to achieve a certain effect.

Not only that, the playwright diligently "fits" one line of action to another. He makes sure that the episodes are varied in tone.

The gloomy night scene of the appearance of the Phantom is followed by the front scene in the palace. The solemn atmosphere of the reception by the monarch of his close associates is replaced by the intimate home atmosphere of seeing off Laertes by Polonius and Ophelia. After two scenes in the “interior”, we are back at the castle grounds, where the Ghost is expected to appear at midnight. Finally, the terrible discovery by the Ghost of the secret of the death of the late king.

If the first scene in Polonius' house was completely calm, then the second begins with Polonius' concern about how Laertes behaves without his father's supervision, then disturbing news is learned from Ophelia - Prince Hamlet, out of his mind, has apparently lost his mind. The large scene following this is equal in volume to the whole act and consists of several phenomena: Claudius instructs Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out the reason for the strange change that has occurred with Hamlet, the embassy returning from Norway reports that the danger of Fortinbras's invasion has been removed, Polonius informs the royal couple that the reason for Hamlet's insanity is an unhappy love for Ophelia. If the first two parts of this scene were in a serious tone, then Polonius' reasoning exposes him in a comic form; the comic intensifies when Hamlet, talking to Polonius, showers him with ridicule. And then Hamlet's meeting with Roseicranz and Guildenstern begins in a secular conversation, the meeting with the actors takes place in a lively tone, it is replaced by tragedy when the actor reads a monologue from an old tragedy, the act ends with Hamlet's significant monologue about Hecuba. It is worth noting all this, and it becomes obvious how thoughtful the construction of the action is, not only from the point of view of the variety of events, but also the difference in tonalities between the individual parts of this act.

Hamlet, written in 1601, is one of Shakespeare's most brilliant creations. In it, under the allegorical image of "rotten" medieval Denmark, England was meant in the 16th century, when bourgeois relations, replacing feudal ones, destroyed the old concepts of honor, justice, and duty. The humanists, who opposed the feudal oppression of the individual and believed in the possibility of re-liberation from any oppression, were now convinced that the bourgeois way of life does not bring the desired liberation, infects people with new vices, gives rise to self-interest, hypocrisy, lies. With amazing depth, the playwright reveals the state of people experiencing the breaking of the old and the formation of new, but far from ideal forms of life, shows how they perceive the collapse of hopes.

Plot " " written at the end of the 12th century. Saxopus Grammaticus in his History of Denmark. This ancient Jutlandian was repeatedly subjected to literary processing by the authors different countries. A decade and a half before Shakespeare, his talented contemporary Thomas Kpd turned to her, but his tragedy has not been preserved. Shakespeare filled the plot familiar to the audience with a sharp topical meaning, and the "tragedy of revenge" acquired a sharp social sound under his pen.

In Shakespeare's tragedy we are talking about power and tyranny, the greatness and meanness of a person, about duty and honor, about loyalty and revenge, questions of morality and art are touched upon. Prince Hamlet is noble, smart, honest, truthful. He indulged in the sciences, appreciated the arts, loved the theater, was fond of fencing. A conversation with the actors testifies to his good taste and poetic gift. A special property of Hamlet's mind was the ability to analyze vital phenomena and make philosophical generalizations and conclusions. All these qualities, according to the prince, were possessed by his father, who "was in the full sense of the word." And in it he saw that perfect harmony of the spirit, "where every god pressed his seal to give the universe of man." Justice, reason, fidelity to duty, concern for subjects - these are the features of the one who "was the true king." This is what Hamlet was preparing to become.

But in the life of Hamlet, events occur that opened his eyes to how far from perfection the world around him is. How much in it is apparent, and not true well-being. This is the content of the tragedy.

Suddenly his father died in the prime of his life. Hamlet hurries to Elsinore to comfort the Queen Mother in grief. However, not even two months have passed, and the mother, in whom he saw an example of female purity, love, marital fidelity, "and did not wear out the shoes in which she went behind the coffin," becomes the wife of the new monarch - Claudius, brother of the deceased king. Mourning is forgotten. The new king feasts, and volleys announce that he has drained another cup. All this haunts Hamlet. He mourns for his father. He is ashamed of his uncle and mother: "Stupid revelry to the west and east shames us among other peoples." Anxiety, anxiety is felt already in the first scenes of the tragedy. “Something is rotten in the Danish state.”

Appearing ghost father confides to Hamlet a secret about which he vaguely guessed: the father was killed by an envious and treacherous man, pouring a deadly poison into the ear of his sleeping brother. He took both the throne and the queen from him. The ghost calls for revenge. Envy, meanness, lies and filth in people close to him shocked Hamlet, plunged him into a severe spiritual despondency, which those around him perceive as madness. When the prince realized this, he used his apparent madness as a means to lull Claudius's suspicions and figure out what was happening. Under the circumstances, the prince is very lonely. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz turned out to be spies assigned by the king, and the astute young man very soon figured this out.

Having comprehended the true state of things, Hamlet comes to the conclusion: in order to correct the vicious age, it is not enough to fight with one villain Claudius. Now he perceives the words of the ghost that called for revenge as a call to punish evil in general. “The world has been shaken, and the worst thing is that I was born to restore it,” he concludes. But how to fulfill this most difficult mission? And will he be up to the task? In the struggle, he even faces the question of “to be or not to be,” that is, is it worth living if it is impossible to overcome the dark forces of the age, but it is also impossible to put up with them. Exploring the psychological state, V. G. Belinsky notes two conflicts experienced by the prince: external and internal.

The first is the clash of his nobility with the meanness of Claudius and the Danish court, the second - in a mental struggle with himself. “The terrible discovery of the secret of his father’s death, instead of filling Hamlet with one feeling, one thought - the feeling and thought of revenge, ready for a minute to be realized in action - this discovery made him not go out of himself, but withdraw into himself and concentrate in his insides. spirit, aroused in him questions about life and death, time and eternity, duty and weakness of the will, drew his attention to his own, her insignificance and shameful impotence, gave birth to hatred and contempt for himself.

Other On the contrary, they consider the prince to be a strong-willed, stubborn, decisive, purposeful person. “The reasons for such a sharp disagreement in determining the dominant features of that character,” writes Ukrainian researcher A. Z. Kotopko, “in our opinion, lie primarily in the fact that Shakespeare’s characters, in particular Hamlet, are characterized by a multifaceted character. As a realist artist, Shakespeare possessed an amazing ability to combine opposite sides human nature- its general and individual, socio-historical and moral-psychological features, reflecting in this the contradictions of public life. And further: “Doubts, hesitations, reflections, slowness of Hamlet are doubts, hesitation, reflections of a resolute, brave man. When he became convinced of the guilt of Claudius, this decisiveness is already manifested in his actions.

Need a cheat sheet? Then save it - "The plot and composition of Shakespeare's tragedy" Hamlet ". Literary writings!

In the situation of the first of the tragedies of the 600s, one feature is striking, which cannot be found in any other tragedy of Shakespeare. The hero arrives from distant Wittenberg, where his student years- and, apparently, for many years, since in the fifth act it turns out that Hamlet is thirty years old - to the court of King Claudius. In the exposition, the hero is transported to a world that is spiritually alien to him.

From the very beginning of the action, the Danish prince, therefore, feels different in Denmark than the Veronese couple in Verona, Timon of the first acts in Athens, or even the Venetian Moor in Venice - not on his own land. Already at the first appearance on the stage, he wants to return to Wittenberg and, only obeying the insistence of his mother and the king, remains at court. At the meeting, Hamlet asks his friend Horatio twice with surprise - why he is here, and not in Wittenberg, but to his university comrades - why they were so "guilty" that they ended up in Elsinore.

This Hamlet, for whom Denmark is a "prison" and, moreover, "one of the worst prisons," this prince with decidedly non-court tastes - a "non-Danish" Hamlet and a very strange prince - apparently belongs entirely to Shakespeare's invention. Neither in the chronicle of Saxo the Grammar nor in the French retelling of Belfort is there a motive for the hero's arrival from another land, there is no alienation of Hamlet from the environment. As for Kid's lost play - supposedly the direct source of Shakespeare's tragedy - all we know about this "great-Hamlet" is that it already appears there, crying out for vengeance, the ghost of the old king, and what was probably typical of the Kid's bloody tragedy of revenge. But then, presumably, its plot did not need the paradoxical motif of "a stranger in his own country."

On the contrary, this motif plays the role of the most important psychological prerequisite for the situation of Shakespeare's play, which borrows only raw material from the sources. The Hamletian plot itself is transferred, like a hero, into a world quite alien to it. As in no other tragedy, Shakespeare modernizes the time of the action here: the hero of the ancient saga studies at Shakespeare's modern Wittenberg, the seat of the Reformation, at the university founded in 1502; in front of the Danish court, the "murder of Gonzago", which took place in 1538, is played out, the characters - a clearly emphasized displacement - discuss the topical events of London theatrical life around 1600, etc. The ancient legend of Amlet, the epic plot-plot, is transformed into a plot-situation New time, based on the irreconcilable contrast between the individual and society, between the freedom-loving prince and the newest absolutist court, between the hero, who is entrusted with a specific task (revenge), and "not his" world, in which, as it turns out in the course of action, she can be resolved only anachronistically: as an ancient duty of revenge, as an attack powerless against the established world order (against "time").

In the 18th century, the motif of a hero transferred to an environment (country) alien to him will become a characteristic device for the "philosophical" genres of the story, fairy tale, poem, the plot of which is often built on an educational "journey". The hero observes an environment that is unusual for him ("detached") environment with a fresh, non-automated look of a foreigner, usually more prone to generalizations. Like the character of the "philosophical" genres of the Enlightenment, Hamlet sees the world in its originality, is able to evaluate it critically. The protagonists of later tragedies, up to Timon of Athens, begin with illusions about their friends, children, home city-state, in order to come to conflict and tragic awareness of the real nature of their society through actions based on illusions. With a student of the Wittenberg University, such illusions are ruled out from the very beginning. From the first monologue (I, 2), the world of tragedy for him is "boring, dull and unnecessary", "a lush garden where only wild and evil rules."

In Hamlet, therefore, the plot is not built on an act - at the beginning of the action ("Lear", "Macbeth"), in the middle ("Coriolanus"), or both at the beginning and at the end ("Othello") - on a tragic act. The main act of the hero in the Danish tragedy (revenge) only concludes - moreover, unexpectedly for himself - a plot about the tragic situation of a person who from the very beginning anticipates the truth, understands his world and too early (from the end of the first act) was convinced that the "prophetic soul" he was not deceived. In Shakespeare's theater, Hamlet is the first (both in time and in meaning) complete tragic consciousness, and, unlike other tragedies, from the very beginning of the action. The action in Hamlet does not prepare the act and does not unfold as the consequences of the act (in Othello both), but shows why there was no act for so long, why the hero hesitated, hesitated, tormented by his slowness. For the dying Hamlet, therefore, it is so important that what the spectators know, "silently contemplating the game," become known to the world and posterity - which he bequeaths to his only friend. Hamlet is the tragedy of the knowledge of life.

Not only the hero, but also the viewer (reader) of "Hamlet" is in a different position than in other tragedies in relation to the world of the play and its characters. In other Shakespearean tragedies, we are independent of the protagonist in our judgments, we see from the very beginning the errors of Othello, Lear, Timon in the assessments of Iago, Lear's daughters, Timon's friends; we navigate the world better than the heroically naive protagonist. In Hamlet, we see the world through the eyes of a hero, he is more penetrating than us, he reveals to us the behind-the-scenes side of what is happening, he prompts us to assess the whole and finds for his world accurate, universal formulas that have become popular expressions.

In Hamlet, the hero knows more about his environment than the protagonists of other tragedies, more than any of the characters in his own tragedy (probably, he alone knows the secret of Claudius' crime), and often more than the readers (spectators) who usually stay in theaters. plays, including those of Shakespeare himself, in the privileged position of omniscient gods. The composition of the action in Hamlet is such that the hero, although he new person in Elsinore, ahead of us in the understanding of the Danish court. Some scenes seem to be given to even out this "uneven development" of the hero and the audience - without such an assumption, they will seem superfluous.

The first act, for example, ends with the Ghost's story and the prince's oaths to fulfill his duty. Two months pass * - and by the beginning of the second act we are preparing to find out how far Hamlet has advanced towards the goal. Instead, in the first scene of the second act, we are in the house of Polonius at the moment when he sends a servant to Paris on a mission to secretly find out about the behavior of his son, and along with other Danes in a foreign capital. This motive is no longer developed - we will never know how Reynold's mission ended, what information he brought about Laertes. The passage of seventy lines completely falls out of the plot, but on the other hand it perfectly introduces us into what Hamlet calls his "time", "the curse of his fate" - into the atmosphere of the Danish court, where the prince must act in order to fulfill his duty. Here the father so entered into his role as Minister of the Interior, so fused with his duties that he spies on his own son abroad; instructions to the departing Reynold - the cunning detailed instructions a secret agent who is allowed to do anything. In the same scene, the minister's daughter is interrogated, since she is known to be in touch with the prince; love letters are taken away from her, and in the next scene they will be loyally presented to his majesty, who for some reason is very interested in the prince.

The scene in Polonius' house "pulls" the reader up to the level of Hamlet; indirectly, it answers to a certain extent the question that interests us. During these two months, Hamlet managed to sort out court customs and appreciate the police "faithful scent" of Polonius*, who forced his own daughter to become his agent. Now the reader is prepared for the prince's sarcastic remarks in the next scene to Polonius, in particular, as the father of Ophelia - Hamlet sees through the minister. And in the same scene, the hero will be able to recognize in his former friends the current court spies - what the reader knows from the beginning of the scene where the king instructed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out from the prince his intentions.

The hero is invisible - as if together with the audience - in those scenes where there is no actor on the stage who plays his role. Thanks to sharp insight, Hamlet knows what the viewer sees due to his advantageous position - we, the audience, should always keep this in mind when evaluating the behavior of the hero. In the scene of the explanation with Ophelia, we are usually struck not so much by the pessimistic view of the woman, prompted by the general deep despair of the hero - his state can be judged by the monologue just uttered "To be or not to be", but by the extremely harsh tone in this scene of a break with his beloved , the deliberate rudeness of Hamlet, a clear desire to offend Ophelia. In interpreting a scene, therefore, directors sometimes, with some right, proceed from the assumption (for which there is no direct basis in the text) that Hamlet knows, or at least guesses, that his meeting with Ophelia is set up by the king and Polonius, that it is overheard. To make sure that Ophelia has been sent, Hamlet asks where her father is now, and after an embarrassed answer: "At home," he conveys to Polonius through his daughter the caustic advice "to play the fool only at home." In the following remarks, the hero's indignation reaches highest point. Hamlet is annoyed by Ophelia's weak will, her submissive compliance (which the viewer knows from the previous scenes II, 1; III, 1), the fatal "weakness of a woman", which this time, as in the story of the Queen Mother, is used by the scoundrel Claudius.

This eavesdropping scene in Hamlet is directly opposite to that in Othello, where the Moor overhears Iago's conversation with Cassio (IV, 1). Both here and there, the eavesdropping is set up by an insidious antagonist, it finally convinces the hero of the moral weakness of the heroine and leads him to renounce his former love. But in "Hamlet" the situation and the reaction of the hero are based on understanding, in "Othello" on a lack of understanding of what is happening before his eyes. Othello, who was assigned the role of spectator, unwittingly played the main actor in this scene and was fooled by its director, Iago. Hamlet was assigned the role of an actor, but he figured out the performance, figured out, no worse than omniscient spectators, the situation - the director Polonius turned out to be a "fool".

But to what extent do we know everything that Hamlet knows about his world? What you need to know in order to be at the level of Hamlet and have the right to judge the reason for his slowness? The nature of a hero and actors around him are outlined no worse than in other tragedies, we imagine Hamlet's attitude to any character (this is approximately our attitude), and an assessment of Danish life in general (tragically negative). In other tragedies, this is enough to understand the actions of the hero and his fate, but not enough for the Hamletian situation. This is a situation where a hero who is active by nature does not perform the expected action because he knows his world perfectly. This is the tragedy of consciousness, consciousness (“So consciousness makes us cowards”). But to what extent do we know all the experience that formed its basis - what prompts the hero to tragically exclaim that Time itself has become across his fate? Obviously, this experience is much wider than the Ghost's story, immeasurably more significant than the circumstances of the death of the father and the marriage of the mother.

The tragedy of the knowledge of life, which is considered to be the most "philosophical" in Shakespeare, in this respect differs markedly from the "philosophical" works of art knowledge (cognition - as a process) of life, like "Candide", "Faust" or "Cain". There we have before us the entire artistic argumentation of the hero, approximately his entire life experience, the path of development, the process of cognition - to understand his conclusions. As for Hamlet, it has grown so much in volume that it is as if the author intended it to be read as well as a poem or a novel; when staged, the play, as a rule, is subjected, apparently, since the time of Shakespeare, to a strong reduction *. And yet we lack important links in the transition from the objective world, from the Danish court, to the subjective side of the situation, to the tragic consciousness of the Danish prince.

We judge Hamlet's consciousness indirectly - by his behavior, clashes with courtiers, poisonous remarks (in which wisdom, after all, dresses up in the clothes of buffoonery and madness) - and directly by conversations with friends, with his mother, especially monologues. But these monologues and conversations already consist of pessimistic conclusions about life and of bitter reproaches to oneself for inaction - from them we will never know what, besides two family events, led the hero to a deep spiritual crisis. In monologues, it is not what is happening on the stage that is comprehended; Hamlet in them often does not touch the Danish court. The tragic consciousness of the hero in the monologues is, as it were, independent of the action and his own participation in the action; it is rooted in something greater than the small world presented on the stage. lifeblood the tragically inactive hero is wider than the action of the tragedy and leaves us - there, behind the scenes.

The monologue "To be or not to be" can serve as an example. He is usually recognized as central to the part of Hamlet, in him the source of the hero’s despair is revealed, his inner world, this is, as it were, the key to understanding the whole tragedy of the prince. But first of all, the monologue is formally in no way connected with what is happening on the stage. It would seem that now, when Hamlet is absorbed in staging the play (in the next scene he is working with the actors), when the story of the Phantom must be confirmed and the killer will finally be exposed before the hero and the whole court, the question "to be or not to be" is least of all appropriate. The tragedy of consciousness (the hero's reflection) runs parallel to the tragic action (the hero's stage position), and does not follow from it. For a moment, the inner world of Hamlet opened up before us, but we still don’t know what the main question arose about, we don’t know (after all, it’s like internal monologue!) neither the beginning nor the end of this reflection, it breaks off with the appearance of Ophelia. The last "inner" words of the monologue of the third act: "But be quiet!", as well as the last words of the first monologue (I, 2): "Break your heart, for I must be silent" (literal translation), echo the dying "The rest is silence" * . Obviously, according to the very artistic conception, something significant and unsaid should remain in the hero's thoughts, which, after the death of Hamlet, perhaps Horatio is unlikely to be able to fully tell the world.

Then - moving on to the content of the monologue - "To be or not to be" lists "disasters", "lashes and mockery of time"

None of these "calamities" comes into play, in this situation, in the position of the Prince of Denmark himself. Let's compare the key monologue of Hamlet with the indignant speeches of Lear, Timon, Coriolanus, with Macbeth's dying monologue ("So burn out, cigarette end") - there is always comprehended the hero's experience, and the hero's thoughts follow from the action, from what the viewer saw. In Hamlet, the action seems to point to something greater than itself ("The rest is silence"), as the main source of Hamlet's melancholy. There, behind the scenes, the evil of life converges, dramatically embodied (what the viewer sees) and lyrically only expressed (what torments the hero).

On this basis, sometimes they came to the conclusion about the imperfection of the theatrical-dramatic form of "Hamlet", recognizing, however, its poetic significance as a "dramatic poem". But such a conclusion is resolutely refuted by the unfailing stage success of Hamlet, Shakespeare's most popular drama among his contemporaries, among posterity, in our time. It has been noted more than once that the notorious obscurities of Hamlet are felt more in reading than in the theatre.

The dramatic form in Hamlet is the only one like its hero; it only applies to Hamlet. This is - as in all tragedies since "Romeo and Juliet" - a characteristic ("internal") form. The difference in structure (correlation between dramatic and lyrically expressed) between Hamlet and subsequent tragedies stems from the difference between the protagonist, who intellectually rises above other characters, knows an important secret that they do not know, knows his "time" from the very beginning - from the more naive than other characters, the protagonists of other tragedies, who only in the course of the action and through the action that they are aware of, recognize their "time".

But such a structure raises the hero above both the viewer and the reader. It creates in "Hamlet" an ideal (eternal) situation with a hero - the norm of a "thinking person" (Homo sapiens), a person "knowing his time". It is also designed for the thinking reader, as a co-creator, for his own idea of time, of his own time. Each epoch, each staging of "Hamlet" in its accents creatively fills in the missing links between the small, dramatically represented time (of the Danish court) and the greater Time that opposes the hero and makes up his tragedy - each time fills in according to his understanding of time, comprehension of the role of time in human life- and according to his idea of a "thinking person." The flexible dramatic form of "Hamlet" - perhaps the most poetic and capacious in Shakespeare's tragedies, except for "King Lear" - excludes the final solution of the problem (for any time). This is confirmed by the richest history of the interpretation of "Hamlet" in criticism and in the theater.