The historical inevitability of the tragedy of“Hamlet”

刘灿光

【Abstract】From the perspective of Marxs tragedy，"the inevitable requirement of history" mainly refers to the reasonable requirements or ideals that embody the objective laws of historical development and represent the future development direction. The protagonist of the tragedy should have historical authenticity and history. Direction，ideality and inevitability of action，the essence of tragedy is "tragic conflict between the inevitable requirement of history and the inability to achieve this requirement."

【Keywords】Marxist view of tragedy，historical inevitability，Hamlet

Hamlet is an image of a humanist with ideals，a high sense of social responsibility，and a spirit of struggle. ①Hamlet was born in the royal family. He studied at Wittenberg University in Germany，the center of humanism communication at the time. He received a comprehensive education in humanism and formed a set of humanistic views on humanity，life，love，and friendship. But the father's death was violent，like a bolt from the blue sky，and gave him a heavy blow;less than two months after the father's death，the mother hurriedly remarried to his uncle's new king Claudius. This corrupt behavior made Hamlet feel humiliated and painful. The root cause of the tragedy should be objective social and historical factors. With the historical inevitability，Hamlets revenge for his father is inherently legitimate and historically progressive.② As a representative of the emerging bourgeoisie，overthrowing the old feudal forces is an inevitable requirement of history. But in the process of revenge，the delayed personality traits eventually lead to the tragedy of the death of all the main characters in the play. Hamlets delayed character is the direct cause of the tragedy，but there are profound social and historical factors behind the delay. First of all，from the perspective of Hamlets character weakness，he is a thinker rather than an activist，who is more than cautious but not decisive;second，from the perspective of social forces at the time，Hamlet，as an emerging bourgeoisie，is still unable to compete with the newly promoted King Claus In the struggle，Klaus could use the entire state apparatus to deal with Hamlet at any time，and Hamlet had to deal with it carefully. But the fundamental reason is that Hamlet was experiencing a serious ideological and spiritual crisis while deciding on revenge，which made him doubt the purpose and significance of revenge，which was related to the weakness of the humanist forces at that time. During the Renaissance，humanism did play a positive role in opposing medieval asceticism，obscurantism，and afterlife，establishing human-oriented values，and liberating individuality，but at the same time，humanism cannot be ignored under specific historical conditions and society. As some commentators have pointed out："Humanism opposes abstinence，and strives to affirm the value of man，and naturally affirm mans natural desire. But when the desire for carnal，material and even power is inflated infinitely，people inevitably will Unscrupulous means to realize these desires will inevitably accompany evil. Humanistic values bring evil. The destruction of humanism by humanism is exactly the crisis of humanistic ideals that Shakespeare experienced in the later period of his creation."

Shakespeares understanding of humanism has undergone a process of change. In the early stage，he was optimistic that humanism could be realized. However，in the mid-term，as the social situation deteriorated and egoism was rampant，Shakespeare felt humanistic thoughts and darkness. The huge contradiction between reality and the evil results of humanism in practice have led to doubts and reflections on humanism. ③Therefore，Shakespeares creation has turned from a happy comedy to a heavy tragedy，which is the embodiment of his doubt and reflection. And Hamlets hesitation from a happy prince to a melancholy prince is precisely the result of a crisis in his humanistic beliefs. The shock of reality has fundamentally shaken Hamlets belief in human beings，and he has doubts about human nature and human beings，so he has changed from an optimistic humanist to a skeptical humanist，from believing that human nature is good to believing that human nature is evil. . Hamlet rebuked his mother for betraying his father within a month for lust;he believes that his lover Ophelia，although pure as ice and snow now，will fall like a queen in front of lust;he also believes that his heart is full of sin，He said："My sins are so many that even my thoughts can't hold it." The delay in action made Hamlet pay the price of his life，and the historical mission of reorganizing the world was not completed，thus becoming a tragic figure. . It can be said that what destroys Hamlet is not the old world of asceticism，but the new reality of sin swelled by indulgence.

Under the historical background of the weak power of the emerging bourgeoisie and the crisis of humanism，Hamlets delay has its historical inevitability. Hamlets tragedy is not only his tragedy，but the tragedy of the humanists in the transitional period of the old and the new. It is the era. Tragedy. Marx believes that the deepest source of tragedy lies only in objective social contradictions，while the tragedy of humanists stems from their own limitations in a specific historical period and the irreconcilability of contradictions with dark reality.

Reference：

[1]Shakespeare："Hamlet"，translated by Zhu Shenghao，Xi'an Jiaotong University Press，2nd edition in August 2017.

[2]Zhang Fangfang. The combination of character tragedy and social tragedy——A tragic analysis of "Hamlet"[J]. Overseas English，2017.

[3]Jiang Shouyi. Ding Yunliang. He Wangsheng. "Marxist Literary Theory" [M]，Anhui University Press，1st edition，July 2017