Hamlet from a Historical Overview

Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells the story of a Danish prince, Hamlet, who takes it upon himself to revenge the murder of his father at the hands of his father’s brother, his uncle. His uncle, Claudius, murdered Hamlet’s father by pouring a cup of poison down his ear. After that, Claudius assumes the throne and takes his brother’s wife into his bed. Hamlet is directed by his father’s ghost to exact revenge on his uncle, and it is this theme that drives the rest of the play. The play features the themes of the unlikelihood and impossibility of certainty, the mystery that is death, the complexity of action and the travails that nations suffer. Some identifiable motifs include death and suicide, darkness and the supernatural, incest, and misogyny. All these are central in any reasonable attempt to identify the genre of the play. One theme that stands out in such a deliberation is the theme of revenge. Hamlet is over and above everything else about revenge. In making revenge the central theme of the play Hamlet, and advancing the central conflict that Hamlet had his life destroyed, Shakespeare fashioned Hamlet as a tragedy.

Shakespearean histories have a number of elements in common. The first is that they feature an English, or sometimes Roman, monarch or historical figure (Hattaway 7). Most of the main characters in Shakespeare’s historical works are English Kings with some examples being King Richard III and King Henry V. Another common element in all Shakespearean histories is the inclusion of Elizabethan propaganda. Histories were inspired by patriotism, though of a rabid form, and glorified the monarchs of House Tudor while demonizing those of House York. King Richard III is for example characterized as “that bottled spider, that foul bunchback’d toad”, while the Usurper Henry VII is painted in a flattering picture (Hattaway 13). While this portrayal is untrue, it presents the most highly regarded perception of the monarch. The history genre in Shakespeare’s plays is also characterized by the embellishment of events and are not true to history (Hattaway). Further, a typical history would end in either an undignified catastrophe or a triumph, but one that came at great cost. For a work to be considered a history, it thus follows that it must be true to this general mold.

In light of the commonalities that accompany Shakespeare’s history, it is a reasonable conclusion that the play Hamlet is not a history. A categorization of Shakespeare’s works identifies three primary genres: history, comedy, and tragedy. Hamlet can be considered to be a tragedy. The principal consideration that forms the basis for this conclusion lies in how different Hamlet is compared to other Shakespearean history works. The playis not based on an English monarch or historical figure. A common convention in plays that fall under the history genre is to cast the main character as an immortal. Their immortality is seen in the fact that, in as much as they may reach tragic ends, they remain with us or their memories and acts persist. Moreover, since Hamlet lacks an established and true harmony in the end, we can rule it out itas a comedy. Further testament to the fact that Hamlet is a tragedy is seen in the fact that that it follows conventions, and plot devices consistent with tragedies.

A common thread in Shakespearean tragedy is that the main characters are people of high social standing. Hamlet is a Prince as his father was the former King and his mother is still queen as she is now married to her former husband’s brother. When talking of his uncle’s rule, Hamlet reveals “So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr.” (Shakespeare 15). In comparing his uncle to his father, he lets slip that he is a Prince of noble lineage. Moreover, the primary characters in a tragedy further the central conflict in the play to such a point as their lives are destroyed. Hamlet has fallen from grace, his uncle has exiled him to a foreign land where he hopes to have him secretly killed. Even his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spy on him. Hamlet expresses his own misery thus, “I have of late,—but wherefore I know not,—lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises” (Shakespeare 51). His perceives his situation as being so pathetic that he decries why God made suicide a sin.

Tragedy are also known for their gore and propensity to death. In Hamlet, all major characters meet an untimely death. King Hamlet is murdered by his brother for the throne, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are killed because of their own folly (Shakespeare 141). Ophelia’s drowning, whether intentionally or accidental, is unclear. However, it is not until Claudius arrange a “friendly” duel between Laertes and Hamlet that the violence and deaths pile up in earnest. During the duel, Gertrude drinks a poison meant for Hamlet, Hamlet carves Laertes with a poison laced sword, but not before Laertes has poked him with it. With his dying breath, Laertes confesses to Claudius’ hand in the affair. Hamlet finds Claudius, stabs him and forces him to drink the rest of the poison. Evidently, all the hallmarks of a tragedy are present. Also, redemption proves elusive to the principal characters. Those who were happy end up miserable, and those who were not are even more miserable.

To conclude, the play Hamlet is not a history, but a tragedy recounting the life of the character after whom the play is named. Since the play does not have an English monarch or incorporate any propaganda, it can be safely dismissed from the history genre. Moreover, in light of the incorporation of main characters who have or had high social standing but no longer do, Shakespeare clearly intended Hamletas a tragedy. Further evidence of this fact presents in the inclusion of violence and death in the play.

Works Cited

Hattaway, Michael. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare’s History Plays. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.

Shakespeare, William, Burton Raffel, and Harold Bloom. Hamlet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Print.