Module B Essay - English ADV
Shakespeare’s Hamlet engages its audience through its exploration of personal crisis; to what extent does your interpretation of Hamlet align with this view?
Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the universality of personal crisis through both physical and perpetual representation of human mortality and morality. Through Shakespeare’s comprehensive expression of the tensions between Renaissance Humanism, religious orthodoxy and aristocratic responsibility, an audience is moved to a deeper acceptance of the atypical revenge hero’s contradictory rhetoric and actions. As a result of the play’s enduring representation of the complexity of human mortality, the contemporary audience can still be thoroughly invested and engaged in Shakespeare’s perplexing representation of the human issue, that of convoluted and conflicting ideologies and the illustration of personal crisis. Ultimately, Hamlet’s indecisive moral crisis serves as both his distinguishing Renaissance humanist feature, and the flaw that leads to his eventual destruction.
Shakespeare represents the milieu of Elsinore and the contextual relevance of the Elizabethan era as a defining factor in Hamlet’s internal disjuncture. Shakespeare’s illustration of Elsinore as an “unweeded garden”, torn apart by regicide, demonstrates the relative inability of the environment to facilitate stability for Hamlet. Additionally, the transitionary context of the Elizabethan age fuses feudal and modern ideals, Maynard Mack states, “Hamlet’s world… reverberates with questions,” thus, its uncertainty compounds hamlets ponderous nature. Consequently, Hamlet, who is innately a contemporarily thoughtful man, hesitates when confronted with his feudal task of revenge. This inherent humanism is displayed through dramatic monologue as he questions, “What a piece of work is man.”As he reflects on humanity as “noble in reason” and “infinite in faculties,” Hamlet comes to the realisation that, within his current moral framework, he is unable to take a life. However, his impotence to abandon his task, due to his fundamental duty to his late father; traps him within a vice of procrastination. As such, the transition of Elsinore into the modern era deprives Hamlet of the stability he requires to negotiate the morality of his task, which is prevented by his humanist tendencies.
Despite his modern ideological leanings, the contextual power of Christian morality is still readily apparent in Hamlet’s preoccupation with sin and divine judgement. This power is evident through his incapability to kill Claudius while he is praying, as he avoids sending “this same villain to heaven.” Therefore, Hamlet is faced with the paradox that killing Claudius would result in the spiritual sin of regicide, whilst not killing him would be an immoral sin against his father. Further self doubt is caused through Hamlet’s self-destructive desire for death, and the ultimate relief it would bring from his moral antagonism. This is exhibited as he contemplates that his “sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,” as he longs for freedom for his duty without directly neglecting it. However, his fear of “what dreams may come...must give us pause,” indicates his apprehension towards the eternal condemnation that would follow his suicide. Therefore, Hamlet is unable to find solace in Christian tradition, and instead is further detached from his duty, and is deeply wracked with guilt at the thought of immorality.
Hamlet’s stifling indecision is represented as his personal crisis within the play as a whole, requiring resolution in order to achieve progress. Thus, this culminates in his antic disposition; which is demonstrated as a reflection of the internal disjuncture which has driven him throughout the play. Hamlet’s metatheatrical performance of The Murder of Gonzago exhibits an ultimate representation of his insanity, as he aims to “catch the conscience of the King.” However, despite the culmination of these measures, what truly coerces his eventual transformation is his recognition of his own mortality. Thusly, this is explored through the perpetual imagery of Yorick’s skull, Hamlet realises that “a man’s life [is] no more than to say ‘one’,” and as such, his moral deliberation is futile. As Henry Mackenzie notes, “the imminence...prompts Hamlet’s actions,” which in turn, enables him to become the atypical revenge hero he has long aspired to be. Hence, his cathartic death, subsequent to his fulfilment of his filial duty, therefore relieves him of the tension and struggle that has characterised his passage throughout the play, and as such, ultimately allows him to achieve peace.
In Conclusion, Shakespeare’s Hamlet engages and involves contemporary audiences through the perplexing conflicts between religious responsibility, filial duty and expression of renaissance humanism. Through these three pillars, the representation of personal crisis can be thoroughly explored. Moreover, it is Hamlet’s hesitative internal antagonism that serves as his fundamental humanist trait, and as such, it inevitably culminates to his downfall.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Topic: English Advanced Essay Marking (Modules Only) (Read 732970 times)