Hamlet, Prince of Denmark에 나타난 Hamler 性格의 兩面性 = The Polarities of Hamlet's Character in Hamlet, Prince of Demmark

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark(1603) is generally called 'Dramatic Sphinx' or 'Mona Lisa of Literature' and can be stated as 'the tragedy of tragedies'. It is not because too many people are doomed to die in this play but because too sophisticated characteristics of Hamlet's character are doomed to follow the destined tragic flaw. In a sense the main issue in this play might be found in the following context; "Why does Hamlet delay?", sometimes expressed in short "Hamlet's delay" or "endless procrastination." Here the tragic characteristics of Hamlet's character might be traced in relation to the destined tragic flaw, namely, hamartia. Now we come to many kinds of theories on the character of Hamlet, connected with hamartia, such as Johann Wolfgan Goethe's 'Sentimental View', Schlegel Coleridge's 'Reflection Theory or Intellectual View', Professor Dowden's 'Emotional View', L. L. Schucking·John Dover Wilson·A. C. Bradley's 'Melancholy Theory, and so on. Furthermore, there are some critics who intend to express the character of Hamlet in view of modernism, in other words, 'Oedipus Complex.' In these respects, it might be said that the tragic characteristics of Hamlet's character, hamartias, are the keypoints of the tragic flaw in Hamlet.
The character of Hamlet, first of all, is shown by his own soliloquy. To give dramatic effectiveness to his characterization, Shakespeare dispenses throughout his play the four soliloquies of Hamlet, in which he represents out the sophisticated characteristics of Hamlet's character and thereby shows us what Hamlet is. Therefore, it can be said that the four soliloquies give us a secret mirror in which we look into Hamlet's reality, as is expressed by Mark Van Doren. The multiple viewpoints of spectators around Hamlet also play another important part in representing the complicated characteristics of Hamlet's character as well as his soliloquies. With the aim of doubling the dramatic effectiveness to his characterization, Shakespeare dispenses throughout his description several spectators' multiple viewpoints, in which he describes what Hamlet really is. In short, it might be said that the spectators' viewpoints represent their emotional sounding=board on Hamlet and thereby show us an open window through which we can look into Hamlet's reality, as is expressed by Thomas F. Van Laan.
The characteristics of Hamlet's character are too sophisticated and original to be regarded merely as stereotyped version of virtue or vice in pure form. However, by means of analyzing Hamlet's own soliloquies and the multiple viewpoints of spectators, four kinds of categories might be presented as follows;
First: a symbol of penetrating intellect
Second: an emblem of inactive intellect
Third: an incarnation of gentle humanity
Fourth: a model of heartless inhumanity
Here we can find the polarities of Hamlet's character: in other words, the polarity of penetrating intellect vs. inactive intellect, and that of gentle humanity vs. heartless inhumanity. Here we can state that Hamlet dramatizes the hamartias of Hamlet in the form of conflicts between the polarities of Hamlet's character. Furthermore, we also can state that the polarities of Hamlet's character are the consistent center of Shakespearean literary world in Hamlet.
But no less important, the character of Hamlet, in contrast with that of Othello or Don Quixote, is too much sophisticated and complicated; and neither the hero nor this play can be taken apart. The joints are invisible. The character of Hamlet would appear to be no character at all because a name cannot be found for it, or-which is the same thing-because too namy can be found. Here I'd like to call Hamlet 'a man of thousand faces'. In all this Hamlet is a symbol of man, with his highest idealism and best art, in our era, yet trammelled still in concepts of the Law, Justice, and Death. In other words, Hamlet is a Renaissance Gentleman who burried his honor in the chaotic concept of religion and confusion of Elizabethan era, as expressed by G. Wilson Knight.
Finally, I'd like to state that Hamlet is fighting, all through the play, against the stereotyped religion and confusion of Elizabethan era, just as we are fighting against ours in our own era. Shakespeare uses both Hamlet's soliloquy and spectator's multiple viewpoint devices in order to give the double effectiveness of dramatic characterization on the Renaissance gentleman in Elizabethan era. In brief Hamlet is like a sponge. Unless produced in a stylized or antiquarian fashion, it immediately absorbs all the problems of our time. Here are Shakespeare's greatness and modernity.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 序 論
• Ⅱ. Soliloquy에 나타난 Hamlet性格의 兩面性
• 1. 冷徹한 知性의 象徵
• 2. 儒弱한 無爲의 表象
• Ⅲ. 周邊人物들이 본 Hamlet性格의 兩面性
• 1. 溫柔한 調和의 權化
• 2. 冷酷한 非情의 化身
• Ⅳ. 結 論