Hamlet and Robinson Crusoe
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This study will provide a comparative analysis of the relationship between fiction and reality in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. The study will also consider what each work tells us about the respective societies out of which each work emerges. The argument of the study will be that while both works certainly display significant conflicts between fiction and reality, Shakespeare's work is more effective because it is more fearless in its pursuit of the core of the character as he evolves and defines reality with no external aid. Defoe's novel, on the other hand, finally has the character rely on God and Christ for the ground of his reality. In addition, Crusoe's need for hard work to survive further grounds him in reality, whereas Hamlet's abundance of free time allows him to drift in and out of self-deception, illusion, and the fictions of imagination. Defoe's novel is essentially the story of one man trying to discover what is fiction and what is reality, what is false and what is real. On the one hand, the author leads the hero toward the complete surrender of Christian conversion, but on the other hand he has him remaining as self-sufficient as any atheist. The problem in Defoe's novel is that he has not himself decided what to do with Crusoe in terms of reality and fiction, and so he has left it up to the reader: "It was the sixth of November, in the sixth Year of my Reign, or my Captivity, which you please" (Defoe 100).
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uld be no Hamlet. The play is specifically about the clash between reality and fiction, fact and appearance, truth and lies. We see most of the characters living a self-deluded life in a healthy society and government which does not exist, while Hamlet struggles to maintain his grip on a reality he hates and fears in a society full of rot and corruption. Hamlet's extended efforts to delay the action he knew he would some day have to take only intensify the conflict between fiction and reality and ultimately add to the tragedy.
The exploration of the relationship between fiction and reality in Robinson Crusoe differs from the same exploration in Hamlet in a number of ways which have to do with both protagonists and authors. In the first place, Defoe's novel at least appears to be a work far more based in reality than Shakespeare's play. Crusoe and his story are much more rooted in action than are Hamlet and his story. Hamlet is a man of the mind and is therefore more susceptible to the wiles of fiction than is Crusoe. Crusoe is a man of action, and his story is comprised of action designed to help him literally survive on the island. Hamlet, for all his worries and fretting and all his monologues about life and death, never has t
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Approximate Word count = 1726
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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