Topic > Hamlet – his universality - 1931

Hamlet – his universalityWhat secrets of dramatic genius underlie the universal acceptance of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet so long after its composition?Harold Bloom in Introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations : Hamlet explains a very solid basis for the universal appeal of this play - the popular innovation in characterization made by the Bard:Before Shakespeare, plays in literature may change as they speak, but they do not change because of what they say. Shakespearean play causes its people to listen to themselves simultaneously with our listening, and to learn and change even as we learn and change. Falstaff delights as much as we delight, and Hamlet changes himself by studying his own changes. Since then, Falstaff has been the inevitable model of almost all spirit, and Hamlet the paradigm of all introspection. (3) Another feature of the work is that the Bard presents characters who are realistic and with whom the audience can identify. William Hazlitt comments in “Characters of Shakespeare's Plays” on Prince Hamlet: It is we who are Hamlet.[. . .] he who has felt his mind sinking within him, and sadness clinging to his heart like a disease, who has had his hopes ruined and his youth baffled by the appearances of strange things; who cannot feel at ease, while he sees evil looming over him like a specter; whose forces of action have been devoured by thought, he to whom the universe seems infinite and himself nothing; whose bitterness of soul makes him careless of the consequences [. . .] -- this is the real Hamlet. (74-75) Brian Wilkie and James Hurt in Literature of the Western World conclude that the Bard's “sharply etched characters,” representing universal types, are the secret to his astonishingly broad appeal (2155-56). “Clearly etched characters” imply heterogeneity. Harry Levin in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare explains: Universal as its appeal has been, it is best understood through particulars.[. . .] The book learning that Shakespeare displays here and there is much less impressive, in the long run, than his fund of general information. His frame of reference is so broad, and he is so concretely versed in the tricks of so many trades, that lawyers have written to show that he was trained in law, sailors for his expert seamanship, naturalists for his botany, and so on. across all professions.