One of the most amazing aspects of William Shakespeare’s plays is their diversity. While some playwrights fit into one genre and stay there, William Shakespeare had a far more diverse career. His body of work includes comedies, histories, dark comedies and, of course, tragedies. Out of all of William Shakespeare’s plays, it would be safe to say his tragedies were among his best and most famous works.

Understanding the Tragedies

The plays that fall under the category include MacBeth, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Hamlet. Needless to say, it is obvious why William Shakespeare’s tragedies are so well received. The aforementioned plays are among the most stirring work he had created. That is why they are still studied and performed to a significant degree while other plays receive significantly less attention. This brings about an interesting question. Why would these dark tragedies be more popular than lighthearted (yet brilliant) fare such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream?

Not Nihilism

If there was a major misconception about the tragedies of William Shakespeare is that they are nihilistic tales. That is, there is a (false) assumption these plays are downbeat and filled with misery. The world the heroes of these plays live often appears dark and ominous. It would seem the hero’s sad end betrays the fact that the world is without hope. “Seem” and “appear” are the operative word here. Such a dark view of the plays such an opinion of the plays is not exactly accurate. In actuality, the tragedies of William Shakespeare provide an insight into hope through their dark proceedings. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to consider the tragedies of William Shakespeare to be nihilistic at their core.

The MacBeth Example

Consider the tale of MacBeth. MacBeth is a character whose ambition leads him to commit acts of atrocity and murder. While these actions do allow MacBeth to arrive at the throne of power, they are ultimately his undoing. From this play, the reader/audience member is left with a very powerful message: ruthlessness comes with consequence and power achieved without legitimacy is fleeting. Again, on the surface, this would seem like a dark message but it is more of a cautionary tale. Actually, it is a very enduring cautionary tale. Even after several centuries have passed since the first performance of the play, the message of MacBeth is heeded. The power of the message of MacBeth still resonates today as it did 500 years ago. A dark, hopeless play or message could never have the ability to be so everlasting. It is the positive undercurrent of the play that allows it to maintain its relevancy.

Common Themes

Similarly, each tragedy William Shakespeare wrote had its own individual theme and moral tale. Hamlet’s obsession for revenge can be considered his undoing. Romeo and Juliet show the dire consequences of seething hatred. King Lear presents the problems inherent with being blind to one’s family’s difficulties. Yes, while within each play there are tragic consequences, there are also moral directions provided to avoid such consequences. That, in and of itself, provides the basis for positivism and not one of nihilism.

Among the most powerful tragedies in the English language, Hamlet is a drama set in Denmark, where Prince Hamlet exacts blood revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering his father, the King, usurpation of the throne, and for marrying his mother, who readily consented, much to his disillusionment, thus laying the foundation for real and feigned madness - from unspeakable grief to livid rage, thereby giving Shakespeare the grounds to explore the themes of tragic waste, revenge, incest and moral deprivation - all at once

The universality of Shakespeare’s genius is in some sort reflected in Hamlet. Hamlet has a mind wise and witty, abstract and practical, the utmost reach of philosophical contemplation is mingled with most penetrating sagacity in the affairs of life; playful jest, biting satire, sparkling repartee blended with the darkest and deepest thoughts which can agitate man. He swiftly divines the nature and motives of those who are brought into contact with him. He is equally at home whether he is mocking Polonius with hidden raillery, or dissipating Ophelia’s dreams of love, or crushing the sponges (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern - a pair of servants and childhood friends of Hamlet) with sarcasm and invective, or talking euphemism with Osric and satirizing while he talks it, whether he is uttering wise maxims or welcoming the Players with facetious graciousness, probing the innermost soul of others or sounding the mysteries of his own.

Shakespeare has created Hamlet by presenting him in all sorts of company. We see him with the girl (Ophelia) he loves and with the mother (Gertrude) he has adored. We see him with the closest friend (Horatio) whose temperament is the compliment of his, and we see him with his school fellows as he once knew them. He is a very different person with Claudius, Leartes and with Polonius. We laugh with him at Osric, with him we hold our breath in the dread presence of the Ghost. Perhaps he charms us most when he is with the common people, with the Players and the grave-digger. And then above all we listen to Hamlet when he is alone. He confides to us his many moods. We know what others think of him, we know what he thinks of others, and we know what he thinks of himself.

It follows that Hamlet is the most many-sided of Shakespeare’s creations. Hamlet might indeed say with the poet Walt Whitman: “I am large, I contain multitudes”.

Hamlet is at once individual and universal. He is Everyman, he is courtier, soldier and scholar - the Elizabethan ideal which combined the chivalry of the Middle Ages with the intellectual curiosity of the Renaissance. The fact that critics would never leave Hamlet alone, the futile endeavour to pluck out the heart of the mystery, is surely the best evidence that the real and the lasting mystery of the human situation has been greatly depicted.

Hamlet, then, is Hamlet; Hamlet is Sir Philip Sidney; Hamlet is Richard Burbage. He is Goethe and Coleridge. He is you and I. He is William Shakespeare. He is an individual and yet more than individual; he is larger than life. In Hamlet the prince Shakespeare has held up a mirror not merely to the age but to Nature or humanity. “I have a smack of Hamlet myself,” confesses Coleridge, and Hazlitt repeats the same view: “It is we who are Hamlet”.