. Taking Hamlet as an example, Hamlet represents the highest artistic achievement of Shakespeare's plays.
First of all, Shakespeare is good at portraying characters.
The characters in Shakespeare's plays are vivid, multifaceted and complex. At the same time, the characters change and become personalized with clean development and contradictory plans. The main characters in the play are representatives of certain classes and times. For example, Claudius symbolizes the "new belief and new morality" centered on satisfying personal desires in the late Renaissance. He was tempted by power to kill his own brother, Old Hamlet; Driven by lust, Claudius took possession of his brother and sister-in-law. In order to keep his position, he tried every means to kill Prince Hamlet. Claudius' behavior is a true portrayal of rampant selfish desires and social chaos in the Renaissance. The Norwegian prince Fortinbras represents the desperate spirit of adventure and plunder. He is an irrational adventurer. Hamlet is a typical humanist. He flaunted equality and mutual love and broke the traditional hierarchical concept. For example, Horatio said to Hamlet, "I will always be your humble servant." Hamlet replied, "No, you are my good friend, and I am willing to be commensurate with your friend." He regards friendship and love as the best things in the world, which is the life ideal of humanists. At the same time, Hamlet is a man with both ability and political integrity, which embodies the ideal of man in the Renaissance. We can best describe it as "courtiers' eyes, scholars' arguments, soldiers' swords, and a beautiful flower expected by the country" in the words of the character O' filia in the play. The mirror of the times, the elegant model of interpersonal relationship, the center that attracts worldwide attention … "She described to us her profound and insightful views on this issue; Good eloquence and quick thinking; Have military talent and good martial arts; Represents the hope of the nation and the country; At the same time, it is fashionable and can correctly handle various relationships; The image of Hamlet, which has attracted worldwide attention. In a few words, Hamlet's character is vividly portrayed, and Shakespeare's skill can be seen.
Shakespeare is good at portraying characters in internal and external conflicts, and revealing the depth of characters by describing their inner conflicts. In Hamlet, Hamlet conflicts with powerful dark forces represented by his uncle, and the objective reality that old Hamlet is killed and his mother Gertrude remarries Claudius. Hamlet's inner pursuit of ideals and the conflict of cruel reality formed an inner conflict. In the process of external conflicts and internal conflicts, the essential characteristics of Hamlet's procrastination gradually emerged. With the development and change of double contradiction, Hamlet's character has also changed. After the family changes, he changed from a "happy prince" to a "melancholy prince". After experiencing one thing and inner struggle, he finally became an "action prince". In the face of contradictions, different actions also show different characters. For example, after the Danish change of ownership, Hamlet's former friends Rosen Glanz and Gierden Stern betrayed Hamlet's friendship, while Horatio remained Hamlet's best friend and trusted person.
Shakespeare is very good at using the artistic means of inner monologue to show the inner world of characters and portray their personalities. Hamlet's monologue in the play takes up six paragraphs, such as "what a great masterpiece man is!" What a noble reason! What a great power! What a beautiful instrument! What an elegant move! How like an angel! What a wise god! The nature of the universe! The spirit of all things! " Through this passage, Hamlet fully affirmed people's arguments, and we can see that Hamlet was once an optimistic and ideal humanitarian. When the king showed false concern for Hamlet and said "My child-",Hamlet's narration "extraordinary relatives and indifferent passers-by" hit the nail on the head, telling his relationship with Claudius, Hamlet's attitude towards him and all kinds of emotional entanglements contained in it. Another example is his "To be or not to be, this is a question worth thinking about ..." This narrative vividly expresses his inner contradictions, anguish and hesitation, which is both philosophical and artistic, effectively portrays Hamlet's hesitant character and promotes the development of the plot. It also shows us the question that Hamlet thinks: Why do people live? What is the meaning of life? How powerful is fate? Where is the realistic way out? ..... The use of narrative can go deep into people's hearts, spy on their inner secrets and deepen the depth and complexity of the characters, which is a deep concern for people's spiritual world. These monologues endow Hamlet with depth and the characteristics of a thinker.
Shakespeare used contrast in characterization to make the characters rich, vivid and prominent. For example, there is a gripping episode in the play: Hamlet and Mr. Phil Jia's "madness". When they both lost their father and fell into love adversity, Hamlet pretended to be crazy and sold stupidity, on the one hand, he effectively protected himself, on the other hand, when faced with life difficulties, he had time to think about how to turn the crisis into a turning point and eventually grew into a "prince of action", which showed Hamlet's resolute and tenacious personality characteristics; However, Mr. filia was really crazy and eventually died, which led to a tragedy. It not only shows her innocence, but also answers Hamlet's sentence "Fragile, your name is a woman!" " Another solution based on. This is the contrast of the same kind of people in the play. In addition, there are many contrasts between positive characters and negative characters in the play, such as Hamlet's comparative evaluation of old Hamlet and Claudius: "elegance and nobility" to "moldy ears of grain", "vigorous posture" to "idle slaves" and "perfection and Excellence" to "villains" ... Shakespeare vividly portrayed these characters in many such comparisons.
Secondly, Hamlet is full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and vivid and rich.
The plot of a play is determined by the complex personality characteristics of the characters and the complex situation in which the characters are located. Hamlet is a sad and hesitant prince. After his beautiful ideal was shattered by reality, as a humanist, he faced up to reality, looked for a way out, and finally shouldered the heavy responsibility of "reversing Gankun". Hamlet's thinking is gradually integrated into the plot, and his hesitation also leaves the enemy a breathing space. I think that if Hamlet is decisive and impulsive, just like Othello in Shakespeare's Othello, then the tragic revenge of the prince may be a perfect ending.
Shakespeare's sentences often have multiple plot lines, and Hamlet is no exception. Hamlet's revenge has three lines: the first is that the protagonist Hamlet of Denmark avenges his father, which is the main line; There are two sub-lines, the first is the revenge of Norwegian Prince Fuding Brass on his father, and the second is the revenge of Minister Leontes on the son of Lohnes. These three plot lines constitute a tense and sharp drama conflict, which contrasts with each other, intensifies contradictions and is exciting, and * * * expresses the theme of the whole drama. In addition, Hamlet also described the process of the intensification of the contradiction between Hamlet and his mother Gertrude. By describing the story of Hamlet with O 'filia and Horatio, the beauty of love and friendship praised by Hamlet is expressed, and the plot of betrayal of friendship between Rosen Glanz and Gierden Stern is also written, which plays an auxiliary and promoting role in the main plot.
Hamlet shows a wide range of social life. The play not only describes the court life, but also describes the funny scenes of soldiers standing guard, performers acting, grave-digging clowns, priests, attendants, servants, sailors and captains and other people in all aspects of social life. Their images are vivid and distinctive, with the characteristics of the times, and their words and deeds and psychology reflect the essence and depth of life.
Thirdly, Shakespeare can comprehensively use the creative factors of drama. In Hamlet, Shakespeare takes realism as his main creative principle. Hamlet is based on the Danish history of 65,438+0,200 years, and comes from the Danish History written by Saxon Glama Tiku. However, this story is full of realistic content and the spirit of the times. Through the story of Hamlet, the Danish prince, revenging his father, the play truly depicts the true face of English and European society in the late Renaissance. The humanistic spirit of Hamlet, the protagonist in the play, is also the basic idea of the Renaissance, which has the characteristics of the times. As Hamlet said in the play: "Since its birth, the purpose of drama has always been to reflect nature, show the true colors of good and evil, and show its own model of evolution and development to its time." Hamlet also uses romantic expressions, such as Shakespeare's bold imagination to let ghosts come out and tell Hamlet the truth; "Play in Play" cleverly sets up the organs and achieves the expected results. In addition, Shakespeare's tragedies generally do not completely separate tragicomedy from comedy, but combine them without damaging the tone of tragedy. For example, the playful performance of the grave digger in Hamlet sets off the tragic atmosphere of the play, deepens the depth and appeal of sadness in the contrast between sadness and joy, and sublimates the theme. Shakespeare also used imagery techniques, such as the image of "disease" in Hamlet. In addition, Shakespeare also used a variety of artistic techniques, so I won't go into details here.
Fourthly, the language of Shakespeare's plays is vivid and vivid, which is regarded as the language of prose poetry. It is rich, lyrical, diverse and unique. As Goethe said, "it is to impress people with vivid words." For example, "wearing a reddish-brown coat this morning, I have walked through the dew on the east mountain over there." Such beautiful words, can we not revel in them? Shakespeare is also good at using various rhetorical devices, the most commonly used is metaphor, which is also called "Shakespeare-style metaphor". For example, Hamlet describes the world with a "depressed mood": "The earth loaded with everything, this beautiful framework, is just a barren wasteland; This sky that covers all sentient beings, this gorgeous tent, this solemn house dotted with golden fireballs are just a pile of dirty miasma ... "This is the perfect embodiment of Shakespeare's sentence" Truth, goodness and beauty are as glorious as you ".
Shakespeare's tragedy is both a tragedy of society and a tragedy of character. In Hamlet, it is obvious that the social cause of Hamlet is that the hostile forces are too strong, and he is a feudal group. At the same time, he has to face the obstacles of people who do whatever it takes for money and power in the primitive accumulation period of capitalism. Hamlet's own strength is too thin. As a humanist, he is far away from the people and hopes to change the society with his own strength. The reason for his character is that Hamlet is indecisive, slow in action and too meticulous in thinking, giving the enemy time to breathe and prepare. Hamlet's tragedy is the tragedy of a generation of humanists. The image of Hamlet is the most general and typical. Hamlet reveals why Shakespeare's tragedies have such great and charming charm. Shakespeare's plays are immortal in the history of literature.