Hamlet: S Poetics In Hamlet And His Father's Tragedy

The play Hamlet is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. The play is about a Prince who was called from the school of Denmark to attend his father’s funeral. He was shocked to see his Queen mother already remarried to his uncle Claudius whom he suspects to be responsible for his father’s death. Hamlet then promised to take revenge on his father’s murder.
The play Hamlet is considered as Aristotle’s Poetics because it is a well-written tragedy. According to Aristotle, the most important element of the tragedy is plot and followed by others such as character, diction, thought, song and spectacle. The Aristotle defined tragedy as an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude. Aristotelian tragedy is not a

The play Hamlet uses decorated languages which have many literary devices like personification, downfalls, metaphors etc. Diction is used extensively in the play. For instance, the soliloquy by Hamlet, “To be or Not to be”. (Act III, Scene I, Line 56). Here Hamlet is basically reflecting suicide and thinking about being alive and dead. So, it also indicates the suicide which Ophelia going to commit later. Hamlet’s plot is straight forward as we clearly know Hamlet wants to take a revenge on his father’s death. In Aristotelian tragedy, the protagonist must be good throughout and Hamlet shows that through his action. For example, Hamlet performs his duty well as a prince and remains loyal especially to his friend Horatio and his father. Song according to Aristotle is related to musical rhythm. For example, in Hamlet, the sad background music is played on the Ophelia’s madness scene. Aristotle states Spectacle as least connected with the art of poetry and it is arrangement of the stage which are require conveying the setting of the poem. For instance, the play Hamlet constructs up to several swords fights and at the end of the play, several dead bodies litter the stage with blood depending on the direction (Gonclaves,