The Poetics By Aristotle & Hamlet By Shakespeare

Poetics and Hamlet

Centuries ago, Aristotle laid down guidelines for criticizing dramatic works in his Poetics. This paper considers whether that structure is adequate for analyzing William Shakespeare's Hamlet that was composed after Aristotle.

The Poetics is too short to go into great detail, so we'll have to use only the most basic of his definitions and guidelines for what dramatic works should entail. He begins by discussing poetry, then moves to tragedy, which he says is "an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of this emotions" (Aristotle). By "embellished" language he means language "into which rhythm, 'harmony' and song enter"; and by "separate parts" he means some should be spoken and some should be sung (Aristotle).

The tradition of literature includes many genres. One of the oldest and most important of these genres is tragedy. One of the foremost Elizabethan tragedies in the canon of English literature is Hamlet by William Shakespeare and one of the earliest critics of tragedy is Aristotle. One way to measure Shakespeare's work is to appraise it using the methods of classical critics to see if it retains its meaning. Hamlet is one of the most recognizable and most often quoted tragedies in all of English literature. Aristotle is concerned with the proper presentation of tragic plays and poetry. Aristotle defines tragedy as: "a representation of an action that is worth serious attention, complete in itself, and of some amplitude; in language enriched by a variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play; presented in the form of action, not narration, by means of pity and fear bringing about the purgation of such emotion" (Aristotle). Perhaps the most important part of his observation, and one this is always mentioned in connection with him, is the idea that tragedy should result in "the proper purgation of these emotions" in the audience members. That is, tragedy results in catharsis, the release of great emotion and the peace that follows such release.

Aristotle kindly gives us a ranking for the various aspects of theatrical production. The plot is the most important; next is character; third is "order thought - that is, the faculty of saying what is possible and pertinent in given circumstances" (Aristotle). The fourth element is diction, song is fifth. Finally, within the plot there must be completeness; magnitude (the story must be of some importance); unity of plot - meaning incidents shown have to be connected and make sense; determined structure (if one part of the play is lost the whole ceases to make sense); and universality - this could happen to anyone.

To recap, we need a play that tells of a serious situation, it uses both language and song, it results in catharsis, it has an important plot, solid characters, it makes sense, it is complete, the events are interconnected and sensible, and none of it is superfluous. How does Hamlet measure up?

The situation could hardly be more serious: Hamlet has come home from college to find his Father dead, and his Mother remarried to Hamlet's Uncle, Claudius, who is now the king. Even worse, Hamlet's Father, King Hamlet, cannot rest, because he has been murdered. He lays a charge on his son to avenge him. The play deals with the fate of the royal house of Demark, and as such is very grave indeed.

Language and song are both used; Ophelia sings her sad little song after she has gone mad. But much more important for our analysis is the fact that there is a play-within-the-play. When the actors come to Elsinore, Hamlet asks them if they can change their play, and use some new lines that he will write: "You could for need study a speech of some dozen lines, or sixteen lines, which I would set down and insert in't, could you not?" (II.ii. 540-543). Hamlet is, in a sense, writing his own story here, and the play that is performed

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