As one of Shakespeare’s the four famous tragedies, Hamlet is the most remarkable one. It is also the sign of the maturation in the art of Shakespeare’s play. With abundant connotation of the time, vivid characters, complicated conflict and varied story, Hamlet gives people deep impression and moves them to appreciate it. This article aims to analyze the tragedy aspects in Hamlet from all the aspects of plot, character, conflict, and so on, according to which it reveals more information about England in the period of Renaissance. Based on the complicated plots, Hamlet reveals the confusion of England in 16th. In this play, there are many characters. With different character, each one reflects different feature of different stage and their social status, and also their value of life, which decide their final sufferance. The struggle between Hamlet and Claudius is about the conflict between the newly emerged capital humanists and the feudal evil force, which reflects the humanists’ hardship for their dreams to come true. As the essence of Renaissance, humanism is a newly emerged thought at that time, but unfortunately, it failed. On behalf of humanists, Hamlet confirms human’s value and dignity, and also the wisdom and power, but in front of the evil reality, all his dreams are destroyed completely. He just gets the spiritual victory with the cost of his life. As the mitigation of the time, Hamlet shows that it is destined to fail for humanists.
Key Words
Tragedy of Characters; conflict; humanism; tragedy of plots; fighting for throne
Abstract.......................................................................I
Key Words......................................................................I
摘要...........................................................................II
关键词.........................................................................II
Introduction...................................................................1
I. The General Introduction of the Story.......................................2
II. Three Simultaneous Plots of Revenge .......................................2
A. Laertes’s Simple Idea to Revenge........................................3
B. Fortinblas’s Abandonment to Revenge.....................................4
C. Hamlet’s Hesitation to Revenge..........................................4
III. The Tragedy of Characters.................................................5
A. The Tragedy of Hamlet....................................................5
1. Three Stages of Hamlet’s Tragedy.....................................5
2. Hamlet’s Death.......................................................6
B. The Tragedy of Claudius..................................................6
C. The Tragedy of Ophelia...................................................9
IV. The Failure of Humanism....................................................9
A. The conflict between Humanism and Reality................................9
B. The Failure of Hamlet’s Task............................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................12
Acknowledgements...............................................................13
Bibliography...................................................................14