A brief comment on Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Ⅰ.Introduction
In this essay, I write down my study on William Shakespeare and his work Hamlet. I summarize and analyze different point of views toward Hamlet and also have my own argument.
⑴ An introduction to William Shakespeare
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William Shakespeare (1564—1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely
regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. With his 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 long poems, he has established his giant position in world literature. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. ⑵ An introduction to Hamlet
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Hamlet, the first of the great tragedies, is generally regarded as Shakespeare’s most
popular play on the stage, for it has the qualities of a “blood-and-thunder” thriller and a philosophical exploration of life and death. The play opens with Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, appearing in a mood of world-weariness occasioned by his father’s recent death and by his mother’s hasty remarriage with Claudius, his father’s brother. While encountering his father’s ghost, Hamlet is informed that Claudius has murdered his father and taken over both his father’s throne and window. Thus, Hamlet is urged by the ghost to seek revenge for his father. Trapped in a nightmare world of spying, testing and plotting, and apparently bearing the intolerable burden of the duty to revenge his father’s death, Hamlet is obliged to inhibit a shadow world, to live suspended between fact and fiction, language and action. Ⅱ.Literature Review 1. From Humanism Aspect
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Margreta De Grazia and Stanley Wells. Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
张伯香selected readings in English and American Literatures 北京，外语教学与研究出版社，1998，第33页。
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Shakespeare, as a humanist of the time, was shocked by the tyranny and disunity
and internal struggle for power at the court which led to civil wars. In his play Hamlet, he doesn’t hesitate to describe the cruelty and anti-natural character of the civil wars, but he doesn’t go all the way against the feudal rule. There are most authors illustrate their points from the humanism aspect. The struggle between Hamlet and Claudius is about the conflict between the newly emerged capital humanists and the feudal evil force, which reflects the humanists’ hardship for their dreams to come true. As the essence of Renaissance, humanism is a newly emerged thought at that time, but unfortunately, it failed. On behalf of humanists, Hamlet confirms human’s value and dignity, and also the wisdom and power, but in front of the evil reality, all his dreams are destroyed completely. He just gets the spiritual victory with the cost of his life. As the mitigation of the time, Hamlet shows that it is destined to fail for humanists. 2. From Religion Aspect
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It is seeping the philosophy, the religion, the history, the culture of this time, and
all sorts of factors, therefore a lot of characteristics. These authors illustrate their points from the religion aspect. They thought that most of the Shakespeare’s play has the humanities thought, and have inevitably influenced by the Christianity culture which is nourished by the time and historical factors. Because of the cosmic awareness and spiritual transition the old systematic theology can’t satisfy people’s demand and supply also the new ideology didn’t establish already. People lost their inner sustenance, Hamlet lost it as well. Different times has different tragedy ideas, the losing of demand and supply, make the character of Hamlet. He have no confidence and he immersed ideology mist keep up suspect and pursue. As we know, the ancient Greece Plato's philosophy theory has provided for Christianity many
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张春玲 苏跃 《人文主义在<哈姆雷特>》中的体现 载《北方论丛》 哈尔滨师范学外国语学院
宋华 《莎士比亚戏剧<哈姆雷特>的人文主义特征》 载《黑龙江教育学院学报》 辽宁对外经贸学院 关晓燕 索明茹 《<哈姆雷特>中的人文主义》 载《长春师范学院学报》长春金融高等专科学校基础部; 张泗洋：《莎士比亚戏剧研究》。长春：时代文艺出版社
关晓燕 索明茹 《<哈姆雷特>中的人文主义》 载《长春师范学院学报》长春金融高等专科学校基础部; 陈达 《<哈姆雷特>超自然主义与人文主义的有机结合》 载《西华大学学报（哲学社会科学版）》西华大学外国语学院四川成都 4
孙秀丽 《论莎士比亚<哈姆雷特>问题剧特征》 河北师范大学 肖四新：“莎士比亚戏剧的潜宗教结构”，《四川戏剧》
宗亦耘 悲剧与基督教观念—对莎剧《哈姆雷特》的分析 载《外国文学研究》 肖四新：“莎士比亚戏剧与基督教对人的存在意义理解的异同”，《外国文学研究》
precious theory, his idealism, the teleology, take set of ideas as the world model's thought that the dualism, discuss the proof which mystically to material and the feeling world despite, the soul does not die, degenerates the theory with the humanity. They are all stem from the Judea Christianity which originated from one century. 3. From Sociolinguistic Aspect
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Some authors said that Shakespeare, the great English poet and dramatist, is
known as the greatest drama genius of all the times. When it comes to Shakespeare, everyone thinks of his masterpiece Hamlet, of the leading character Hamlet, of the famous line To be or not to be, that is the question and of the sad and graceful love. Hamlet is not a one act drama. It leaves its mark on history not only because of its rich social content and profound philosophical meanings but also because of its ingenious use of language. These authors apply the theories of sociolinguistic and conversational analysis to the study of literature. These are the latest approaches. The related theories used are power, age, and gender in Sociolinguistic; and turn-backing in conversational analysis.
Ⅲ.The Significance of the Research and the Main Argument
After doing research for this essay, I have a further study of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. Hamlet gives people deep impression and moves them to appreciate it. There are three simultaneous plots of revenge, from which, the tragedy of characters is described more complicated. There is also some description of characters. Hamlet represents the few number of the advanced person emerging in the feudal society. He is the melancholic scholar-prince, faces the dilemma between action and mind. His life is one of constant role-playing, examining the nature of action only to deny its possibility, for he is too sophisticated to degrade his nature to the conventional role of a stage revenger. Claudius, who is the head of the reactionary force, is also a schemer, the model character of double-dealer. He is dissolute, insidious and sham. But finally, such unforgivable man bears what he should do.
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张建 《哈姆雷特》新论 载《江西社会科学》 江西师范大学文学院；
石静 “a Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Employment of Turn-taking in Hamlet” 北京交通大学 徐坤：“试析莎士比亚戏剧中散文体对白的运用”，《内蒙古大学学报(人文.社会科学版)》 蒋恬恬 《从语义和交际翻译理论评<哈姆雷特>》 浙江工商大学
A brief comment on Shakespeare’s Hamlet
