Hamlet and the relationship between tragedy and modern political thought

Media Critical Analysis

Hamlet

Hamlet: The struggle of being and the power of passion

Hamlet: The struggle of being and the power of passion

Media critical analysis

The Struggle of Being and Power of the Passions attempts to show the role played by the tragedy in areas such as aesthetics and politics. To this end, the idea is to see, in broad terms, the relationship between tragedy and modern political thought. At the same time explore the influence of the tragedy itself in the work of performance art and psychoanalytic theory.

This study will also guide the thinking of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), subsequently to establish the relationship between the work of Sophocles (497-405 BC), Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus Complex Hamlet. Moreover, the aesthetic theory of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) will be used to observe the incidence of the artwork in the construction of subjectivity. Some important concepts when reading Hamlet: the masterpiece of Shakespeare (1564-1616)

Studying the works of Shakespeare is not easy. Not only for his wonderful sense of creation in which the characters do, but also for the remarkable and outstanding your use of the language. (Miller, 1997, p11-18) But beyond that, their study becomes even more complex if we consider that the time of Shakespearean literature can not neglect the national historical background. Why? For the period in which the author wrote was a time a little closed and confined and where the individual's problems were inseparable from the state's problems. (Aragay, 2005, p88-96)

Hamlet between politics and tragedy

To expand briefly the concept of tragedy, we will see how it appears not only manifested in art but also in political life since the advent of modernity, transcendental guarantees disappear and the political man begins to reflect more Acute its tragic element. (Hall, 2001, p166-76) In addition, there is a break between what we know as Greek tragedy, which took place in a time outside of time and the struggles that characterized the Elizabethan theater, but in turn, with the Renaissance there was a break between tragedy and life social. (Kilbourne, 1999, p270-91)

Following the definition of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) the tragedy could be defined as the central instrument of political life. So much so that Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) and Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) are the authors who inaugurated the modern political thought, as in the theories of both the idea of tragedy is visible. (Goodman, 2004, p237-49)

In Machiavelli we see two tragedies: the first is the tragedy of the values and the second is the tragedy of the action (policy subjective moment). As a thinker Machiavelli moral view that the policy contains a moral, i.e. there is a morality that is Christian, but in turn there is a moral policy that invites us to build strong republic. So much so, that you have to do is decide between different moral systems, so choosing one means giving up another, and then understanding that the choice involves the loss of something in the path-loss and that choice is what disturbs the human and disturbing tragedy marks us of Machiavelli in his tragedy of values. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

For its part, the second tragedy, action, invites us to think not only about choosing between almost incompatible values but also, once elected, this choice may not be appropriate. The latter is what shows us that we can not always be assured about our choice. Hobbes, considered that political theory is not central but rather the institutions, given that they are objective when politics. (Aragay, 2005, p201-19)

While this contractual arrangement establishes that there are three phones that lead man to be at war: mistrust: to achieve security, competition, to make a profit and glory to achieve reputation in Hamlet we see that the fundamental motivations that lead the characters to be sitting in front are: justice, revenge, guilt, corruption, ignorance of itself, the boundless love, deceit, decadence, pride, inordinate desire for power, envy, tyranny, but above all, the three motifs that appear in Hamlet to kill are: life, the crown and women (a subject of dispute and desire). (Hall, 2001, p166-76)

For these reasons, Hobbes says that to the extent that there is no common power to frighten all men, they were in a state of war of all against all, who survives while the men fight because they are objects desiring they fight in nature and that is where the tragic character appears (nothing can prevent the worst outcome). Only nature can leave the state by signing the agreement, otherwise the lack of guarantee obedience worst can happen at any time. (Epstein, 2002, p1-11)

"(...) Thus, in Hamlet, the figure of the war does not serve only to characterize the situations of struggle between men, groups or nations, but also beyond or here (as a game of mirrors, typically Renaissance, which suggests to individuals, society and the cosmos as levels or dimensions of a single being, and each of them, (Hall, 2001, p166-76) therefore, as a metaphor or expression of others), to characterize, in a direction - natural or atmospheric phenomena, and to describe, on the other, the state of the soul of the protagonists. (Gelder, 2004, p9-23)

Hemlet and Postcolonial theory

Postcolonial theory was born as a result of the publication of the famous work of Edward Said, Orientalism (1978). This theory claim that some authors (Paul Gilroy, Achille Mbembe, Francoise Verges, etc.) and that seem so elegant in its formulation, in my opinion raises three fundamental problems: At a time when we are witnessing the emergence of new expressions of colonialism (colonialism, cultural, political and economic globalization, neo-colonialism nestled in the relationship between the hegemonic colonial past and their old colonies, colonialism in disguise that structure the relationship between international institutions and developing countries, institutions from the rest behest of the former colonial powers according to their interests), speak of post-colonial era seems a utopia. (Elsaesser, 1998, p9-26)

At a time when some thought and creative dynamic scramble to raise new concepts to identify the problems of today, new concepts that go beyond the usual talk of post-colonial era seems redundant, boring and not very inventive. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

The school intends to study postcolonial "engaging postcolonial" as exceeding colonial studies (African studies, for example) and as an over the political discourse of decolonization discourse, according to Verges (2005, 88-89) Limit analysis of political and cultural societies formerly colonized an indictment of colonialism. (Baetens, 2007, p226-38)

The name given by Freud in "Oedipus Complex" was based on Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. This complex is the set of hostile feelings and death wishes of rival or parent of the same sex, and sexual desires towards the opposite sex parent, generating a non-differentiation between self and other. (Aragay, 2005, p88-96)

Internalization becomes the process by which relations between people in relationships are transformed, that is what is reproduced above was taken in the individual psychic agencies such as the relationship of authority between father and son becomes on SUPER YO-YO, which lays the groundwork for instance lead to a social or collective in the relationship between the self and the ego ideal. (Balides, 2000, p139-60)

Now, having made the above caveats and considering that Freud demonstrated the importance of sexuality to humans through the development of his personality theory is that we want ourselves to the study of the tragedy of Oedipus Rex and Hamlet.

The psychic apparatus has two ends, one sensitive and one that ends with conscious motor activity. As the player who dominates the external world, the psychic apparatus of the individual dual matches the shape of one's subjectivity, also mixed. (Elliott, 2003, p52-59)

The censorship that is in it selects everything that can happen to consciousness and motor activity there to be mediated from the structure and socio-historical. The historically determined I play the role of repressor, making their own foreign domination, limiting thinking, feeling, acting, its own desire of being. (Hall, 2001, p166-76)

Now the Greek tragedy of Oedipus, the constitution of the primitive horde and alliance fraternal mediated killing of father in law both make us look like from Freud includes the resolution of the Oedipal duel in the family, the power despotic internalized subjectivity rather than as domination and appropriation of a previous collective power. (Collins, 2002, p117-28)

The fact that the father appears as the external and absolute law is determined by the external system, which thus ensures domination and obedience of subjects. Thus institutions are inserted into the child's subjectivity and will continue to adults through schools, family, economy, state and religion as a form consistent with this structure have so internalized the subjects. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

Hemlet, Sexuality and Queer Theory

Peripheral sexualities are those that pass through the frontier of socially acceptable sexuality: heterosexual, monogamy between persons of the same age and class, with practices soft sex, sadomasochism rejecting the exchange of money and sex change. In contrast, peripheral sexualities resistance is based on traditional values, and the ASU- transgression many times the price you have to pay is the social rejection, discrimination and stigma. In response to the marginalization that is present in all social institutions, from family to educational spaces and labor, the theory Queer try to change the direction to make it a subject of study, and even pride. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49)

In short, in the Oedipal myth, murder the father implies the possibility of access to the enjoyment of the mother, since that father acts in the eyes of the child as a law of prohibition, is not erroneous perception by the child, as the father wants to separate from the mother and to do so carries out different types of mechanisms in each of the members (mother-son). So much so that Freud to figure this opens a space more than tragic drama, giving a high density situations that are not perceived as such. (Hermann, Edward and Noam, 2002, p52-56)

In the case of Hamlet, he feels he lives in a world of deception and corruption, that feeling is confirmed by the murder of his father and unbridled sensuality of his mother. (Miller, 1997, p11-18) The dominant feature of his character is an immense love for his mother, an exaggerated love. It was the little boy loved his mother more painfully jealous than a lover, Hamlet does not have an incestuous relationship with his mother but potentially more incestuous. The latter is what sets Sophocles' play of Shakespeare, the theme of the potential of incest, the first concrete and symbolic in the second. (Cahir, 2006, p74-79)

Therefore, we can say that to some extent, Freud reconstructed the oedipal childhood episodes of every human being from the plot of Oedipus Rex, where extracted, the idea that the child wants his mother (hence in the tragedy is home with her) and to keep it must eliminate his rival (thus killing the father). Not knowing is killing the father may be symbolically representing the repression of the idea because of its culpogeno. Similarly, tearing eyes once learned the truth could be representing the negation of the crime and committed incest. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

Hamlet despises his mother as object of his desire and his father and of his jealousy. The embodiment of this double feeling is Claudio, which overwhelms insults and throughout the piece. Despite this deeply Hamlet can not blame her uncle for a crime he committed himself dreams. However, one might ask is why Hamlet continues to evoke his mother in the most sensual or despise the king by his lust? One possible answer is because incest is obsessed.

In this order of ideas and to "close" this issue, we can say that unlike Sophocles' tragedy in Hamlet we see is the drama of desire. Because according to Lacan began to understand that in this work the Oedipal drama is open to beginning and no end, as Hamlet crime known to exist. So much so that from the beginning he must choose: "to be or not to be" is what gives us the base of the style of his position. (Jenkins, 2006, p154-88)

Hamlet: Theater and Aesthetic Construction of Subjectivity critical analysis

Aesthetics as Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804 is the science that studies and investigates the systematic source of pure feeling and its expression: art. But understand that art is no exception to the values and the way they were understood by the following questions what is the intended purpose of man? And what is the goal to which they aspire and which performs certain acts in its cultural life? We say that man made the culture because it conquers a purpose considered valuable. (Aragay, 2005, p88-96)

So what is the value itself is considered as worthy of conquest, first because they transmit from generation to generation and secondly because the value is the content of culture is something that man seeks, yearns and seeks win in their task, although it should be infinite. Returning then the concept of aesthetic for Kant, is that we say that for him had to do with aesthetic theory of perception, theory of power to have perceptions or sensitivity theory as a power to have perceptions. (Miller, 1997, p11-18) However, today it is usually interpreted as a theory of aesthetics of art and beauty, though without neglecting (because illogical) the philosophical sense that makes this science in the explanation of art as a cultural manifestation. (Collins, 2002, p117-28)

But not only includes art pottery, blacksmithing, pottery, tapestry, woodwork, embossing and mosaic art forms that have to do with what is known as industrial-utilitarian art. The art also includes painting, sculpture, architecture; music, dance, theater, opera and literature are obviously arts par excellence, since they are the ones that create the full range of aesthetic values no purpose to create them. Focusing on the literature, the cultural baggage that it brings is critical to building critical thinking but also to the deepening of the sensitivity of the reader.

Unlike painting and sculpture, where we already see an image and our task is reduced to trying to interpret the image, literature invites us to think not only what the author is implying but also opens a space, open to the imagination where paint build it ourselves through what we read. However, as they say the average is most appropriate as long as that environment is sought would not undermine the art that tries to show. (Miller, 1997, p11-18) Therefore, the theater can be considered a shade between the various forms of artistic expression because it combines the scene, scenery, choreography, costumes, books and characters display inviting viewers to enjoy the piece and understand the meaning of the work, or in some cases the sense that the author wanted to give a classical piece by a new version.

Recall that the drama in its theatrical version includes works tragic solemn, written in verse and structured scenes (episodes), between characters (never more than three speaking actors in a scene) and interventions in the form of choir songs (odes), as seen in Hamlet.

But keep in mind that many issues of different nature are involved in the development of the tragedies of logical or paradoxical moral (as the case of Hamlet, Oedipus Rex, etc.), aesthetic (also here we locate Hamlet), of a philosophical, etc.. So much so that from the great Greek tragedies, this literary genre throws existential issues more or less mediate.

However, the stories were based mostly in ancient myths and stories, but the goal was not simply retell these stories, but rather to make considerations about the nature of the characters, the role of humanity in the world and consequences of individual actions. (Jenkins, 2006, p154-88)

The construction of the idea of tragedy took place around the concepts of pity and terror with a strong cathartic and pessimism. In Hamlet, for example catharsis is what enriches too much to Hamlet, who pretends to be crazy not only but also to some extent it actually is. His monologues reveal to the reader and/or spectator his melancholy but also the high content of catharsis. So much so, that the criterion of Aristotle (384-322 BC) when he says that through the tragedy could reach catharsis is vital to understand the piece of Shakespeare, since each monologue and in each "mourning "Hamlet exercised a kind of" purification "of your spirit that impact emotions. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

We say that the word tragedy refers to any of its uses to the pitiful, disastrous or terrible, what arouses pity and deeply moved, in short, pathetic. On the other hand, what distinguishes the tragedy of any other literary invention is its unhappy ending irrefragable. (Collins, 2002, p117-28)

The last we see clearly in Hamlet, Horatio all die less, but we see the tragedy of Oedipus Rex in which Jocasta commits suicide and he starts to learn the eyes of incest. Both works have an unhappy ending and show how the tragedy is the aesthetic category that best expresses the essential condition of man and teaches him to know in the deployment of passions that describe both his greatness and meanness. The tragedy has been expressed not only in literature and theater but also in the visual arts by many artists such as Miguel Angel of Mercy, Goya and Picasso's Guernica squad among others. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49)

For his part, Hegel stated that the tragedy is made up of three elements: conflict, suffering and a miserable end, although the latter is not necessary according to the author, do exist in the tragedy the first two elements, antimony is subjected to the man, and intense pain of the frustrations result from the human inability to fully arisen I deem. If not mentioned so far, we infer that throughout the history of mankind, the subjectivity of the subject has changed and this is because such subjectivity is closely related to socio-historical context in which they live, showing in turn, subjects as subjects restrained. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

As mentioned, the myths have served not only inspiring but also plays have been used to control the actions of all I do. The ways of thinking, feeling, desire, drive, etc. are internally controlled by something as abstract as external and yet appear to us as our most intimate ways of thinking, doing, feeling and desire. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49) And not only through the myths, but also education, social norms and family in particular, have developed along modern history of this most vicious forms of domination ... because controlling subjectivity, so that part own, is the most despotic but sure to play all systems. (Jenkins, 2006, p154-88)

Conclusion

The multiplicity of issues that Shakespeare played Hamlet in his work has allowed us to our study from two perspectives, one sociological and one psychological. The way this piece unfolds and political connotations that it has an incentive to use elements of philosophical, aesthetic and political order to achieve a clearer understanding of the issues studied above. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49)

In Hamlet, Shakespeare, deepen themes such as madness, leading to doubts about the adulterous mother and an accomplice in the murder of the father, and marks the struggle between reason and madness, between good and evil, delving into the feelings and passions, which highlights the subjective problems of the subjects. (Miller, 1997, p11-18)

Having seen this masterpiece went, taking into account that this is a revenge tragedy that reflects all the time about the genre it belongs to and observing how the characters came to this tragic end is that we can say that Hamlet is as a consciousness without action. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49) Well, throughout the play deliberating about who might commit acts not committed and not committed for several reasons, one is to blame, which highlights the Christian precepts that are part of the work. Although certain act, mainly in the death, such precepts seem to disappear. (Collins, 2002, p117-28)

Also suggests Hamlet is functional as politics to aesthetics, but in turn invites us to think in the dialectical relationship between political theory and aesthetic theory. (Doyle, 2002, p45-49) Finally, during this study could be seen as both theories are fed back and reflected in all its manifestations the tragic element, which not only accounts for the construction of the subjectivity of time in which to write the piece but at the same time marks a way that reveals that: in the shadow of history or tradition, and even aesthetic trends, the artwork also emerges as an event, so W. Benjamin states that "The uniqueness of the artwork is identified with its assembly in the context of tradition. (Jenkins, 2006, p154-88)

This tradition is certainly something alive, something changed dramatically. An ancient statue of Venus, for example, was in a traditional context with the Greeks, which made it a cult and another between the medieval clerics who looked like an evil idol.