On The Features Of Hamlet As A Problem Play

Shakespearean plays have been occupying a significant position in the history of English literature.Hamlet is considered as the greatest among them,and has attracted critics and readers of many generations.Traditionally,Hamlet is treated as a tragedy.But in 1896 a playwright named F.S.Boas proposed a new genre of play—problem play and grouped the play Hamlet with the other three,Troilus and Cressida,All's Well that Ends Well and Measure for Measure as problem plays.But Boas didn't demonstrate detailed analysis for such conclusion or systematically define the term then.After F.S.Boas,other critics have presented several definitions of problem plays,and the definition given by Ernest Schanzer is of great significance to the study of problem plays.Influenced by the ideas of Schanzer, Vivian Thomas systematically lists the unique features of problem plays,and among them,the following three are of prime importance.Firstly,they all concern with problems,especially social and moral problems.Secondly,they are full of contradictions,or in other words, incongruities.And thirdly,plays of this genre arouse a kind of feeling of uncertainty to the audience and reader.Now the other three plays,Troilus and Cressida,All's Well that Ends Well and Measure for Measure,are universally accepted as problem plays,but as for the classification of Hamlet into problem plays,many of the critics still hold doubts about it.And this thesis intends to demonstrate how Schanzer's definition of problem plays can be applied to the interpretation of Hamlet.The thesis is divided into three chapters:ChapterⅠis devoted to the study how the problematic feature of problem plays illustrated in Hamlet.The play is stuffed with various problems,but it is more concerned with the following three:order problem in Denmark,man-to-man relationship problem and love problem.ChapterⅡdiscusses the characteristic of contradiction revealed in the play.As a matter of fact,the feature of contradiction is presented in two aspects here:contradiction between appearance and reality and contradiction between reason and intuition. ChapterⅢexamines the last feature—uncertainty embodied in Hamlet.In fact,the feeling of uncertainty has been puzzling the reader and critic for many generations.This chapter tries to deal with the feature of uncertainty in relation to the reasons for Hamlet's hesitation and Shakespeare's moral outlook.