Choose one tragedy from your setlist of plays. Drawing on two or more different theorists of tragedy, discuss the different reasons why the play is regarded as an example of the genre.
Throughout this essay, I will be commenting on and analyzing, reasons why Hamlet can be referred to as a Tragedy. I will prove this fact by providing evidence from three different theorists, these are as follows, Aristotle, Plato, and Hume, these three theorists have different views and beliefs on what makes a play a tragedy, I will then compare their theories to the play Hamlet and attempt to link the theories to the ideas of the play. Hamlet is a play by Shakespeare that many have claimed to be a tragedy, I hope by diving into these three theorists that I can prove why it is.
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Aristotle comments that for a Play to be classed as a Tragedy it has to have six main elements: plot, character, diction, thought, spectacle, and music (Aristotle on Tragedy, n.d.). He also states that the plot is the most important factor in creating a tragedy as the plot is what carries the story, develops themes, and introduces characters to the audience. In fact, he puts plot before character as he comments ‘The most important of these is the arrangement of the incidents, for tragedy is not a representation of men but of a piece of the action’ (Aristotle, Poetics, section 1450a, 2021).
After the first time reading and watching Hamlet, I can already say that it fits into Aristotle's theory on tragedy, this is shown through the action-packed scenes near the end, written to create tension, and the way the lead characters are used to move the plot forward just like a thriller today. The characters in Hamlet are very important as each individual character adds to the fact that the play is tragic by being involved in shocking events that are used to keep the audience engaged. The first character that we can analyze is Hamlet, as the protagonist, we are automatically on his side of him. The first signs that this play is tragic are in the first part of the play where we find out that his father has died and his mother has remarried his uncle within a short space of time, and that in the time this was written incestual antics were frowned upon and forbidden. Although set in Denmark, Shakespeare has ultimately written it for the people of England so the audience they are already shocked and surprised by the fact that this is happening, this links to Aristotle's theory, as he also states that ‘In tragedy, imitation consists of a carefully controlled process that so arranges the elements of action and character as to lead us to an insight into the meaning of the human situation represented in a given drama’ (Golden, 1984). This statement could not link to Hamlet more if it tried, both the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia in this play contribute in many ways to show the effect on people due to events occurring, for Hamlet the death of his father and seeing his father in spiritual form leaned him towards grieve to fulfill the hole that his father left, to do this he has to pretend to Ophelia that he has fallen out of love with her, this is hard for him to do, we see in the play how distraught Ophelia gets after Hamlet says this, this starts Ophelia's downward spiral into madness, the tragic part of all this is Hamlet is only pretending to be mad was Ophelia is actually turned mad in the result of Hamlet seeking revenge of his father he causes more harm then he intended, he only wanted his uncle to die but in the result of revenge he kills his uncle, mother, Ophelia, Laertes and his two friends from school. Aristotle ultimately sees the tragedy as a resort of action involving pity and fear, ‘pity is a technical term that refers to the painful emotion we feel in the face of undeserved misfortune, and fear is a technical term that refers to the same emotion when it focuses on our own, personal vulnerability to such underserved misfortune’ (Golden, 1984). This again links back to Hamlet as Hamlet himself as he feels the painful emotion when he is face to face with his undeserved misfortune which is his father being murdered. Aristotle also created the idea of a tragic hero, Hamlet relates to this as he gains sympathy from us as an audience and this builds the relationship we have with Hamlet into one where we back all of his decisions, but as we know from the theory of a tragic hero they cause their own downfall, a tragic hero is a character who is the protagonist and has a hero like traits that we deem to be desirable and earns, which is true in the case of Hamlet as he dies at the end of the play.
Plato, although he agrees with generally what Aristotle says believes ‘it is a lot broader than just pity and fear, he states that any form of tragedy provides pleasure through the art of deception’ (Halliwell, 1984). This heavily links to Hamlet in many ways, Hamlet himself deceives many characters in the play, for example, his uncle, his mother, and Polonius (Ophelia's Father). This creates suspense and tension for the receiver as we know the truth and ultimately the truth always comes out in the end which is proven in this play as I've already said, deception is a really interesting way of describing Hamlet's actions in the play, he is a smart character who is good at the manipulation of others, this is shown where he makes fun of Polonius right to his face without him even knowing, this is what also makes Hamlet such a good and interesting character, we know what he is doing will end in disaster but we follow him anyway, he is not just good at the manipulation of the character's in the play but the manipulation of the audience, as an audience member we know that from the start Hamlet is pretending to be insane but as the play develops we don't know if he is pretending anymore (Hamlet: Madness | SparkNotes, 2021), Shakespeare has decided to do this to make us decide on whether or not we understand and agree with Hamlet, he is the protagonist but it is ultimately up to us whether we decide to take an interest in him. Plato also had an argument for censorship 'he states that it is needed for the protection of our society. He argues that there is a specific reason that we need to censor potentially corrupting material from the youth, and that is because when they grow up the survival of the country will depend upon them' (Fieser, 2017). This quote shows that although Plato was all behind the idea of tragic plays, he believed that people of a certain age should not be allowed to view them, I completely agree with this as there are a lot of factors in the play Hamlet that are deemed inappropriate for those of a younger age, for example, death and the insane. There are nine in total deaths in Hamlet, from the eleven main characters in Hamlet only two at the end of the play survive, these are Horatio and Young Fortinbras, Horatio is the character at the end of the play who must tell the prince of Norway, Young Fortinbras the events that occurred, he says that he will have a funeral as if he was a soldier, a high honor for any man at the time to have.
The last theorist is Hume who talking about tragedy says ‘It seems an unaccountable pleasure, which the spectators of a well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety, and other passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and uneasy.’ (Hume, 1742). What Hume is saying is that people want to watch plays that make them feel a certain way and for him, a tragedy is a play that is able to make the audience experience feelings that are usually negative but in this scenario are weirdly pleasurable as escapism. This basically implies that we enjoy the fact that when someone else is distressed we feel distressed with them, but we are glad that we are not in that situation in real life. This strongly links to the story of Hamlet, as an audience member, we know we are witnessing a play but are still feeling all of the intense emotions that Hamlet, Ophelia, and the other main characters are going through. Hume believed that this is why we are more accepting of the idea of a tragedy because we find pleasure in being made to feel distressed (Dadlez, 2004). I believe that this is relatable to Hamlet as whilst watching as was glad of the fact that his uncle was wanting to send him away to England as we know from finishing the play that he comes back unscathed from the help of pirates, all of these clever tricks that Shakespeare has used so that we are in the driving seat, we then find pleasure in the fact that we know the ins and outs of the play and its characters. Hume also 'conceived of philosophy as the inductive, experimental science of human nature' (Jessop and Cranston, 2021). This can relate to the first point I made about Hume. A tragic play is a test to see how the audience reacts to the events taking place, as Hume believes that his theories were in fact experiments of human nature we can see that Hamlet is a perfect example of how we could test his theory, as an audience member I had a conflict of thoughts on who I feel empathy for, at the start of the play I felt empathy towards the character of Hamlet but as the play develops it switched to the side character of Ophelia, Hamlet is the reason why everybody dies at the end of the play, that is an easier way of not blaming Hamlet, but this all spirals down from the fact his father was murdered and his mother married his uncle without even mourning his death properly.' O, God! A beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn'd longer'married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father, Than I to Hercules'. (Shakespeare, 2010, 1:2:150). This can be said to be the start of Hamlet's wicked idea to kill his uncle, this is just after the meeting he has with his father who is in ghost form, so this also proves the theory of Plato and that we should be censored, the fact that he is calling his mother a beast shows the lack of remorse and feelings he has towards his mother at this time proving once again his spiral into madness. This play completely made me question who I trust, the reason why I feel more empathy towards Ophelia near the end of the play is the fact that what started as a plan to kill the king ultimately kills her, as I stated in my first paragraph, he is the reason whether he likes it or not that she, unfortunately, dies near the pivotal point of the film, Ophelia is the catalyst for the rest of the characters dying in the end.
Overall I believe in the three theorists at hand, Plato is where I have some issues, although previously I agreed with the fact that children need to be censored by the events in many tragic plays I now have a completely different outlook on this matter if we raise children with the outlook that everything has a fairy tale ending, the theme of tragedy will slowly become unfashionable, in today's times there is a lot of focus on the importance of mental health and I believe tragedies are a great way of showing the importance of this, Hamlet, especially with the character of Ophelia, which my essay focuses on a lot throughout. Aristotle and Hume have similar views, they believe in the idea of if we are not the ones in the tragic event we enjoy and find pleasure from this, I could not agree more with them, whilst watching and reading Hamlet I found this to be the case throughout.
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