William  Shakespeare

1. The Significance of “Hamlet”

This great tragedy reflects Shakespeare’s time. Hamlet is not simply a son who sets out to revenge for his father. He stands for the renaissance humanist, who on one hand sees the great capabilities of man, but on the other hand, also sees all the evils of the society. Hamlet’s struggle with Claudius becomes a symbolic structure, an encounter with the society. Hamlet’s hesitation shows his inner contradictions between two things: strong desire against social evils. Shakespeare makes Hamlet a giant, who has an ideal of free man, has strong desire to frame the world, but cannot find its realization of the world. On the other hand Shakespeare makes Hamlet make many faults and finally died.  This is the best way to the solution. So this is not only a revenge for his father, but for the whole society.

2. The Character of Hamlet

     Without a knowledge of his character, Hamlet’s story would be hardly understood. Hamlet is neither a frail and weak-minded youth nor a thought-sick dreamer. The play itself doesn’t bear out such a character. Though he is deprived of his right to the throne, he is still loved and respected by everyone. Though he is a scholar, he is at the same time fearless and impetuous in action. We see him rushing after the ghost, killing Polonius, dealing with Claudius’s agents on the ship, boarding the pirate’s ship, leaping into the grave and at last completing his revenge. A mere scholar can never do any of these things.

  1). Hamlet is a humanist, a man who is free from medieval prejudices and superstitions. He has an unbounded love for the world rather than for heaven. Like other humanists, he cherishes a profound reverence for man, and a firm belief in man’s power over destiny. “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god!” Such a delight in nature and man is characteristic of the humanists of the Renaissance.

  2). This humanist love of man makes Hamlet turn to those around him with the same sincere eagerness. He loves good and hates evil. He adores his father, loves Ophelia and greets his schoolfellows with hearty welcome. In his contact with people around him, he cares for nothing but human worth and shows a contempt for rank and wealth.

  3). His intellectual genius is outstanding. He is a close observer of men and manners. He easily sees through people. His quick perception drives him to penetrate below the surface of things and questions what others take for granted. He is forever unmasking his world. Through the infidelity of his mother, the servility of the courtiers, the falsehood of his schoolfellows, and finally, the crime of his uncle, he discovers how wicked and unjust the world he lives in is. His observation on this world is summed up in a bitter sentence: “ Demark is a prison!”

   From here we get to know that Hamlet is not a mere scholar, simply meditative by nature. On the contrary, Hamlet is a man of genius, highly accomplished and educated, a man of profound perception and sparkling wit. He is a scholar, soldier, and statesman all combined. His image reflects the versatility of the men of the Renaissance.

3. Shakespeare’s Contribution to English Literature

Any summary of Shakespeare’s achievements will be inadequate. However, the following points may be of some help to you.

   1). Shakespeare is a realist.

Shakespeare is one of the founders of realism in world literature. His plays are a mirror of his age, reflecting the major contradictions of that time. Living in the historical period of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, Shakespeare paints, through his plays, a panorama of the decline of the old feudal nobility and the rise of the new Tudor monarchy (1485-1603), which represented the interest of the English bourgeoisie. He deeply understood the social contradictions of his time as well as the omnipresent power of money in the age of growing capitalism.

   For over 400 years Shakespeare has never lost his appeal to audience and actors of all countries. This is so because his plays have good plots and life-like characters. Shakespeare took his plot from Greek legends and Roman history, from Italian stories and English Chronicles. But whatever he touches sparkles with a peculiar beauty of his own and an old story thus turns into a superb work of dramatic art. Though his characters are often clothed in old, foreign dresses, their thoughts and feelings belong to the age of Shakespeare and so his drama becomes an expression, a monument of the English Renaissance.

  2). Shakespeare is a prolific writer.

  Within about 22 years of his writing career, Shakespeare gave to the world 37 plays, no two of which invoke the same feeling or image among the audience. And we are not forget that besides his dramatic output he was also the author of sonnets and poems. What is more, he was also a busy manager of theatres and player companies, and the affairs of Stratford-on-Avon, his home town, and all this came from a man who received no more education than “small Latin and less Greek”. We cannot but feel something great in the life of a single man who died at 52.

  3). Shakespeare is a great poet, skilled in many poetic forms: the song, the sonnet, the couplet, and dramatic blank verse. He is especially at home with the blank verse. In his hand, it becomes a vehicle of utterance to all the possible sentiments of his characters.

  4). Shakespeare is a great master of the English language.

  Shakespeare commanded a vocabulary larger than any other English writers. It is estimated that he had commanded of about 15000 words. Many of his quotations and phrases have been absorbed into the English language. He is especially successful in handling the different meanings of the same word, or words having the same sound but different meanings.

  5). Shakespeare is humanist.

  Shakespeare in his plays reflects the spirit of his age. He has been universally acknowledged to be the summit of English Renaissance, and one of the greatest writers the world over. The popularity of Shakespeare is not confined to the English or European people only. His name has been known to the Chinese people for more than a hundred years.