Not All Tragic – Shakespeare’s Comedy "Village"

One of the key elements of Hamlet, aside from revenge, and amidst all the bloodshed, there is a dark sense of humor taking place in Hamlet’s key character. This black humor is used most effectively. An example in Hamlet would be scene 2 of Act 4, where Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go looking for Hamlet just as he hid Polonius’s corpse. In this scene, it opens with Hamlet saying “safely kept!” This indicated black humor and here Hamlet speaks of the corpse as if it were a piece of meat which he keeps for safe keeping. He goes on to say “Who calls Hamlet?” You can see that this is deliberately bringing out the farce element.

One of the good characteristics of Hamlet is his constant and subtle ability to use humor in every situation. It is used almost in every serious situation or immediately after a serious situation and shows the essential solidity of his mind. This also consistently goes on to show that Hamlet is not actually consumed by madness or insane at any point, even though it may appear to other Hamlet characters that he is. Although Hamlet is preoccupied with the events that happen to those around him in his task of revenge and also being told this by a ghost is enough to unbalance almost any mind, Hamlet maintains a calm and collected mind in every situation, even in the most difficult times. more complex. one is.

The quality of humor is important in comedy, it is more important in tragedy, whether it is the tragedy of life or the tragedy of the theater. As for the element of humor in the play of Hamlet, for example, the darkness of tragedy is made blacker by the jewels of humor with which it is performed. This can best be shown in Act 1, Scene 2, where Hamlet says “A little more than kind and less than kind.” This is said in the form of a play on words, for here Hamlet, in his characteristically typical humour, makes a play on words by indicating that kings designate themselves not only as Hamlet’s father, but also as his uncle and is acting in a way that could be seen as unnatural. The reason this would be seen as unnatural is that the king is Hamlet’s uncle, but he is taking on the role of his father and trying to bond with Hamlet on a father figure level that can be seen as unnatural. After Hamlet says this, the King replies “how come the clouds still hang over you?” “Not so, my lord; I am too much in the son,” says Hamlet, playing on the pain. Once again, we see the humorous side of Hamlet, especially while he is depressed, as the king uses the cloud metaphor to imply that Hamlet is still upset and depressed and, in typical Hamlet fashion, his response is a play on words. sarcastic with the words sun and son.

In the graveyard scene in Act 5, Scene 1 with the clowns, Hamlet is shown to engage in a gloomy, melancholy mood. On the first skull he says: “It could be the head of a politician…one who would elude God, couldn’t it?” In my opinion, this would be the best example of the most efficient and effective use of the comic tool, since essentially here Hamlet is making fun of the dire situation he finds himself in in a graveyard while coming face to face with the skulls of those who once lived but are now dead. There is also a theme of light humor when the gravedigger throws the skulls out of the graves.

In conclusion, I think that Shakespeare uses the tool of comedy very well in Hamlet. Evidence of how effective Shakespeare is with the use of comedy as a tool in Hamlet is best shown in the gravedigger scene. In this scene, Ophelia is being buried after committing suicide in the church, when the play was first written, in a time when Catholicism was powerful, so a person who committed suicide and was buried in the church would have caused some people. to anger, the serious mood is quickly lightened through the humor of the verbal joust that takes place between Hamlet and the gravedigger.