Importance Of The Creative Imagination In Hamlet English Literature Essay

In this essay I am going to discuss about the importance of the creative imagination in Shakespeares vision of the human in “Hamlet”, as well as in “As You Like It”, concentrating mostly on the main characters and themes of each play. Shakespeare was known as a master of the stage, he played with stage in many ways. In “Hamlet” for instance the stage was Elizabethan, almost round, had a balcony and a door underneath. In “Hamlet” there is an imaginative element of a ghost. The stage had a trapdoor in the middle for the ghost. The play begins with “Long live the king” it sets the atmosphere of the play. Hamlet is left alone after royal social gathering which for him emphasizes the general corruption of the society and the un loyalty of women. He is still very upset over his father’s the king death, when everyone around him got over it. He is especially mad on his mother who married his uncle soon after king’s Hamlet death. During that time the courtiers saw something that they couldn’t explain, and they turn to Horatio a friend of Hamlet from school. Horatio believes what he can see in his eyes. When Horatio sees the ghost it seems as an “illusion” of the dead king. Horatio as well as Hamlet are both skeptical, but Hamlet is skeptical because he finds difficulty in understanding of the reality as it is, the fact that his father is dead and life goes on. Hamlet is being in a state of grief, Gertrude tries to cheer him up by saying that everything dies eventually in nature. Hamlet answers that everyone is pretending to be in grief while he really is. After he is left alone on stage he speaks his first soliloquy. Shakespeare hints in this speech that things are not always as they seem. Hamlet wishes he could melt away, and he is depressed about the fact that suicide is a sin. He speaks basically of corruption, “beast would mourn longer”. At this point he doesn’t suspect murder and his father’s ghost is not revealed to him yet. When Hamlet meets Horatio he thinks that he sees his father vision in his imagination. Horatio says to Hamlet that he saw it yesterday, this time the ghost of hamlet’s father is revealed only to Hamlet. After the ghost mentions that the king was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet swears to revenge his father’s death by killing his uncle, the king Claudius. He says that he will do whatever it takes to complete the wish of his father’s spirit, and when he notices Rosencrantz and Guildenstern two of his friends from school spying on him, he decides to pretend that he lost his mind. In this way he disguises his real intentions in an imaginative twist. Ophelia Hamlet’s love is the first one to be traumatized by his visit. Her father Polonius diagnoses Hamlet’s condition as madness resulting Ophelia’s ignorance of him. When Hamlet suspects that Ophelia is collaborating with others he completely ignores her. In act 3 scene 1, appears Hamlet’s one of the most known speeches “to be or not to be” which keeps repeating several times during the play. It is written in third person, he is asking a question not necessary willing to kill him self as was mostly thought. The speech deals with “the undiscovered country”, he can’t gasp that there is another dimension to the existed. The fact that he is going to an undiscovered country after his death doesn’t comfort him. He is stuck in between “to be” and” not to be” as long as he didn’t commit his revenge. Hamlet goes to speak with his mother, noticing Polonius spying and kills him right away without thinking. Ophelia goes mad after the last incidents and especially after her father’s death. She loses grip of reality, and ends up drowning in the river after trying to pick up flowers. After Hamlet heard that Ophelia is dead he says that he loved her more than her brother, the problem is that he acts to late. Hamlet has an idea of how to make Claudius admit that he killed his father. With a play named “The Murder of Gonzago” which is the reenactment of Claudius murdering king Hamlet. Horatio and Hamlet noticing that Claudius shows guilt while watching the play. Claudius admits killing king Hamlet in a prayer:”…since I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder; my crown, mine own ambition and my queen…”(3.3, 57-59). The ghost told hamlet about that fact before Claudius admits it. Ophelia’s brother with the king Claudius plan to kill Hamlet. Horatio tries to urge him to save himself but Hamlet isn’t afraid from death. The incidents that happened later were: the death of the queen after she drank a poisoned cup, Laerts and Hamlet were wounded by the foil. Laerts is the first one to die, Hamlet kills Claudius, “the point!-envenom’d too! Then, venom, to thy work”. Finally Hamlet dies too, after he is no longer worried about “not being” anymore. In Hamlet the ghost was seen “broad day light” rather than in sleep, that is part of Shakespeare’s creative imagination and in this way it looks more real to the audience.” Hamlet” has a meta-theatrical end of the play. Everyone is dead accept Horatio and he is the one who Hamlet asked from to retell the true story of what had happened in that place.

Referring to “all the world’s stage” speech in both plays- in “As You Like It” the speech is about stepping out of the world, but with reference to “Hamlet” Hamlet is trapped in the play, he has been given this role without wanting it. In other words his world is the stage, the ghost commands him to act, to eventually die even.

Shakespeare used supernatural elements such as ghosts and witches (in Macbeth) , just to say that the world is mysterious and most of the things are unknown and there is more out there than someone can ever grasp.

In order to write such a variety of plays Shakespeare needed to do some research and study of the human mind and emotions. He observed others life and completed the rest with his imagination, that’s how he kept his originality in plays. what’s important in Shakespeare’s creative imagination in his vision of the human in his drama, is that none of the characters or plays were alike everyone was unique. With the help of creative imagination the plot got twisted in times and became prolonged and the characters were more developed. That’s what caught the audience and fascinated it, this made the audience or the readers feel interested as if they were actors in the play or on stage and in the different situations that were played like in reality.