How far, and in what ways, do you agree that the story Essay

crossroads is a retaliation catastrophe a genre origin bothy genuine by pretends such as The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas tiddler from 1585-1590. The genre is calibreized by the inclusion of terminal, murder, betrayal, madness, poison, supervision and the supernatural in the narrative themes that all frequently occur in critical point. facilitate to what extent does the composition of Polonius, Ophelia and Laertes accommodate to this idea of a r up to nowge catastrophe and more broadly, how does the yarn of the family adjust to the genre of disaster as a full-length?One issue is how to define a calamity Thomas Heywood wrote Comedies begin in trouble and decision in quiet tragedies begin in calm and end in tempest, confession for Actors, 1612. By this explanation, calamity generally mickle be summarised as a sequence of events that stretch to the destruction of the majority of its char numeralers. In this experience, the theme of Polonius and his family confor ms to the basic form of a disaster by the end of the play Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia ar dead. except the familys story does non conform as simply to some other definitions of catastrophe.Tragedy would look with a sceptical spunk at what was happening in the sphere around, M. Mangan (1991). Tragedy would look with a sceptical eye implies that disaster has the fiber of both viewing and criticising conjunction. This image cease be utilise to Polonius, a face remarkably similar to Queen Elizabeth Is spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. Shakespe be spent the majority of his keep under Elizabeths rule so the Elizabeths gentry may beat aided Shakespe are in creating his constructs. Polonius is characterized by his long, dianoetic speeches, for example in Act 2 guesswork 2Either for cataclysm, comedy, history, pastoral, pastorical-comical, historical-pastoral, sad-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral boundless The absurd repetition of the words tragedy, co medy, history and pastoral punctuate the loquaciousness of Polonius, plainly is perhaps likewise mocking Sir Francis Walsingham. Shakespeare is crafting a stereotype that spymasters are loquacious, obsequious characters. Perhaps Shakespeare is criticising society society does not require spymasters spawning insincerity and deceit. If so, Shakespeare is use satire as a cats-paw to portray this viewpoint.Polonius may be employ by Shakespeare as a government agency to act as such a sceptical eye on society, conform to Mangans creation of the relevance of tragedy in real life. Aristotle was a call figure in defining tragedy, and utter in his Poetics that a typical tragedy consisted of a direful protagonist, with a tragic mar (tragic flaw), whose peripeteia (reversal of fortune) is brought ab divulge by an anagnorisis (moment of recognition). However it would be unwise to assume that Aristotles Poetics, written in c. 335 BC would still be completely relevant to Shakespeare an tragedy, written some two chiliad old age after.However several aspects of Aristotles tragedy can be applied to Polonius and his family. Polonius has his tragic flaw his obsession with spying. He tells Reynaldo before departing to France to spy on Laertes By indirections find directions out (Act 2 Scene 1) Not only does this indicate his unnatural interest in his sons affairs, so much that he is spontaneous to send a spy to expose his sons possible hedonism in Paris only it also shows that he is experienced as a spymaster. Such advice is most promising to be learned from several years of manipulating people to his advantage.Essentially what he is verbalism is the most direct method of purpose the truth is by dint of being indirect, which holds to be true as we see later in the play with small towns The Mousetrap a play inside a play which exposes Claudius villainy through indirect and subtle methods. Furthermore on the topic of tragic flaw Laertes has his tragic flaw of overreaction a stark contrast to Hamlet whose tragic flaw is procrastination. When asked by Claudius what he will do when Hamlet returns to Denmark to vindicate his father in Act 4 Scene VII, he replies To cut his throat i the church. This directly mirrors the church scene, where Claudius is undefend up to(p) yet Hamlet refrains from acting out his revenge. This displays Laertes as a traditional revenger, volition to act, unlike Hamlet who considers the legitimacy of the fantasms claims before even considering revenge. Laertes does not take much persuading from Claudius. However it is this over-willingness to act that is the start of his devastation. In his rage at the death of both his father and child, he plots with Claudius to kill Hamlet a conk which kills him as he himself is poisoned by the brand name intended for Hamlet.Over-willingness to act is Laertes hamartia and so Laertes also conforms to this tragic skeleton laid out by Aristotle. However perhaps more trag ic, although not conformist to Aristotles works, is the question why is Laertes so willing to act? His father was voyeuristical, useless and loquacious he used Ophelia as a in additionl to gain choose with the king, and spied on Laertes to ensure his name was not tarnished. He was a far from noble man, his life summarised accurately by his death behind an arras spying on someone. In this regard, it is questionable whether Laertes brashness in relation to revenge is justified.From the aspects of Polonius character seen in the play, it does not appear that he was a good father in fact he seems villainous at measure for example when he disallows Ophelia to express her deal for Hamlet, then makes her feel to blame when Hamlet puts on his jest disposition. It is questionable whether Polonius deserves to be avenged. Hamlet seems to simply shrug gain the murder of Polonius, noting of what the little worth he was when referring him simply as guts. This could be seen as tragic, as the worthlessness of Polonius character implies that Laertes died for nothing.One explanation is that Laertes may switch been inclined to act out revenge with such little persuasion ascribable to the fact Polonius was all he and his sister had. Since Hamlet put on his antic disposition, Ophelia lacked a fare interest, as did Laertes assuming he did not confound a lover in Paris save they were not allowed to have a love interest due to Polonius caring too much about his image than the wishes of his children. With no love interests, and apparently no motherly figure, they were left with no figure of federal agency but Polonius, which may be the cause for Laertes brash attitudes towards revenge.Also likely is the concept of family honour driving Laertes revenge, a concept which an Elizabethan audience may have em routeised with. The death of Ophelia in a novel twenty-four hours sense is considered tragic, like both suspected suicide. However during Elizabethan clock her deat h would be considered on a more religious basis the priest comments on the questionable constitution of her death, and whether it would insure a Christian burial. This is an example of how the definition of tragedy shifts over time even Laertes does not seem as move by the announcement of his sisters death compared to his fathers, perhaps due to the nature of her death.Ophelias death is considered a tragedy in a contemporary twenty-four hours sense, but at the time her death not so much tragic, but rather symbolised the death of innocence in the play, as part of the build up to the climatic deaths in the final act. However, Ophelias death is an example of how Hamlet is able to transcend traditional ideas on tragedy, and can hold relevance to modern day interpretations of what is considered tragic. In the 21st century, a tragic event is where an individual or conference suffers to a greater extent than they are perceived to deserve.It could be argued that however you keel the story of Polonius and his family, they will always conform to this modern interpretation of tragedy, as nearly as the traditional tragedy theorised by Aristotle. Ophelia is being perpetually commanded and ordered end-to-end the play by the significant characters in her life first Laertes, when he displays his comment of her intimacy with Hamlet, and Polonius when he conducts his own play within a play, request her to talk to Hamlet while he observes behind an arras.She has little to no freedom, despite the fact she has done nothing faulty unlike her brother who had enjoyed the primrose path of dalliance while in Paris, and the voyeuristic indulgence of Polonius. The death of Ophelia to a modern audience is tragic, so in this sense the story of Polonius and his family is a tragedy. I condition that the story of Polonius and his family should be considered a tragedy within a tragedy. Their story contains many of the frequently occurring aspects of a tragedy death, love, murder , revenge and surveillance.As well as this, the family conforms to the concept of a tragedy as laid out by Aristotle. Finally, the story of Polonius and his family conforms to what is considered tragic in the present, as the tragedy has transcended the period in which the play was written.References primary Text Shakespeare, W (1600) Hamlet capital of the United Kingdom Penguin (2005) Secondary Texts Aristotle (350 BC) Poetics London Penguin (1997) Heywood, T (1612) An Apology for Actors New York Scholars Facsimiles & Reprints (1999) Mangan, M (1991) A say to Shakespeares Tragedies London Longman.