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Shakespeare's Hamlet: The Tragedy of Knowing Thyself

Hamlet: The Tragedy of Knowing Thyself

Poet T. S. Eliot (1920) maintained that ôHamlet is the Mona Lisa of literatureö (1). Eliot makes such a comparison because ShakespeareÆs Hamlet is as immune to absolute analysis as is DaVinciÆs immortal portrait of Mona Lisa. Such a dilemma might also apply to knowing oneÆs self, as brilliantly expressed in the play by Shakespeare. In his review of John LeeÆs ShakespeareÆs Hamlet and the Controversies of the Self, Arthur F. Kinney (2002) argues that ôhis study confronts the problem of defining the self, of establishing a sense of interiority in the protagonist that is in keeping with the thought of late Elizabethan and early Stuart timesö (88). It is exactly the difficulty in establishing such an interiority that is HamletÆs tragedy. Human beings are thought capable, by their cognitive abilities and ration, to add meaning to the unpredictability and indifference that are often the stuff of life. However, Hamlet is preoccupied throughout the play with trying to determine if such meaning is possible in the face of his or anyone elseÆs circumstances. The difficulty in making such a determination immobilizes Hamlet for a majority of the play, unable to take action until he has fully deliberated upon the events within the play. This analysis will demonstrate HamletÆs awareness that to know thyself is often a futile preoccupation, one that is fraught with errors and hampered by the limitations of human understanding.

The Poetics of Aristotle is generally viewed as the definitive definition of tragedy. Of all the defining elements Aristotle lists as encompassed by a true tragedy, the most significant is hamartia which translates to an equivalent of error or frailty. In Romeo and Juliet error is Romeo believing Juliet is dead and then hastily killing himself. In Macbeth, the frailty is vaulting ambition which oÆerleaps itself. In Hamlet, Claudius is greedy and unscrupulous a...

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Shakespeare's Hamlet: The Tragedy of Knowing Thyself. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 19:32, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710777.html