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Is Hamlet A Tragedy Essay

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The play Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. The play is about a Prince who was called from the school of Denmark to attend his father’s funeral. He was shocked to see his Queen mother already remarried to his uncle Claudius whom he suspects to be responsible for his father’s death. Hamlet then promised to take revenge on his father’s murder.
The play Hamlet is considered as Aristotle’s Poetics because it is a well written tragedy. According to Aristotle, the most important element of the tragedy is plot and followed by others such as character, diction, thought, song and spectacle. Aristotle defined tragedy as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude. Aristotelian tragedy is not a narrative …show more content…

The play Hamlet uses decorated languages which has many literary devices like personification, downfalls, metaphors etc. Diction is used extensively in the play. For instance, the soliloquy by Hamlet, “To be or Not to be.”(Act III, Scene I, Line 56). Here Hamlet is basically reflecting suicide and thinking about being alive and dead. So, it also indicates the suicide which Ophelia going to commit later. Hamlet’s plot is straight forward as we clearly know Hamlet wants to take a revenge on his father’s death. In Aristotelian tragedy, the protagonist must be good throughout and Hamlet shows that through his action. For example, Hamlet performs his duty well as a prince and remains loyal especially to his friend Horatio and his father. Song according to Aristotle is related to musical rhythm. For example, in Hamlet, sad background music is played on the Ophelia’s madness scene. Aristotle states Spectacle as least connected with the art of poetry and it is arrangement of the stage which are require conveying the setting of the poem. For instance, the play Hamlet construct up to several swords fights onstage and at the end of the play several dead bodies litter the stage with blood depending on direction (Gonclaves, …show more content…

Hamartia is a flaws or character’s own error which brings a terrible result. For example, Hamlet hesitates to kill his cruel uncle leads to bring his own destruction. Stabbing Polonius behind the curtain and his painful action towards his lover Ophelia and declaring that she should be sent to nunnery which seems to have lost his mind. This leads to his downfall. The second concept according to Aristotle is Anagnorisis/Recognition which is when the character recognizes the hard truth. When Hamlet returns to Denmark after his ship is hijacked by pirates, he learns that Ophelia has committed suicide because of her madness and over her father’s death, he realized his flaw of having mistakenly murder her father and he is unsuccessful in expressing his love and proposing her for marriage. Another example is, by the end of the novel, Hamlet and audiences both are convinced that Uncle Claudius killed his father and planning to kill him as well. Another example is when Hamlet realizes and recognizes his faults after seeing his enemy actively seeking justice and honor and

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