Hamlet
Introduction
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most famously problematic plays ever written. It has inspired critics to argue over it, since it first appeared on the stage in 1601.
• John Dennis implies that there is no clear moral lesson in the play, since both good and bad characters die, but he refers to Hamlet as the best of Shakespeare’s tragedies.
• Samuel Johnson generally praises Hamlet for its entertaining variety and balance but he dislikes its resolution.
• Johann von Goethe sees the character of Hamlet as lacking in heroism.
• T.S. Eliot felt that Hamlet was an artistic failure.
• A.C Bradley says “It was not that Hamlet is Shakespeare's greatest tragedy or most perfect work of art; it was that Hamlet most brings home to us at once the sense of the soul's infinity, and the sense of the doom which not only circumscribes that infinity but appears to be its offspring”.
The layers of Hamlet seem endless. Even after more than four hundred years of critical debates, there is no consensus about the play. Interestingly, Hamlet begins with a question and it remains infinitely open to interpretation. It is therefore a play of mystery. One of the central concerns of the play is the nature and the role of the Ghost who takes the form of Hamlet’s dead father. In order to understand it, we firstly ought to consider the theatrical impact of ghosts and spirits on Shakespeare’s audience.
Ghosts in Shakespeare’s Time
Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed in ghosts. Apparitions were either closely linked with the Devil’s power and Hell’s dominion on Earth, or with the spirit of God, being its representations usually in the shape of angels. Thereforeghosts were not universally dreaded. Shakespeare understood that he needed to create interest in the audience from the very first scene of the play. That is why
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