WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S 'HAMLET': A SAGA OF TRAGEDY

Abstract

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, widely known as Hamletby Shakespeare, is popular for its tragic elements as well as its themesof revenge and internal conflict of the protagonist that has created astory worthy of applause. In this paper, a thorough analysis ofShakespeare’s Hamlet as a tragedy is presented.The motivation for the study was to analyse the different elementspresent in the play that establishes it as a unique tragedy through theamalgamation of diverse elements of the ancient and the modern. Thus,the true nature of it as a tragedy can be manifold which is consideredthe research problem in this paper.An empirical study design is adopted for the article, using Formalism asthe primary critical theory to analyse each part of the text and unearththe elements of tragedy- both in the ancient Greek and modernShakespearean sense.The results of the paper indicate that Hamlet is a unique synthesis of theancient notions of tragedy and a modern tragic hero with internalconflicts and self-doubt as well as a revenge tragedy by virtue of itsprimary theme. It is concluded that Hamlet is rooted in ancient Greekprinciples in terms of plot and dramatic devices yet the theme makes ita revenge tragedy and its modified character sketch establishes it as atragedy of thought.