Is Hamlet a Tragedy?
In the century after Sophocles, the philosopher Aristotle analyzed tragedy. His definition: Tragedy then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions. Serious and magnanimous? Certainly true about Hamlet. Artistic? Without a doubt. And if there were no action in Hamlet, I doubt that two films wo…
