Hamlet, Shakespeare's Masterpiece

Hamlet, Shakespeare's Masterpiece

William Shakespeare has long been considered one of the most influential writers in English literature. To many critics, Hamlet is Shakespeare's greatest work, perhaps his masterpiece. However, some critics may consider his other plays to be his masterpiece, and even say that Hamlet is of his poorer works. To Voltaire, Hamlet is a dull, vulgar and barbarous drama lacking substance and written by "a drunken savage". Voltaire fails to see the greatness within Hamlet. Thus, wrongly critiques the play. Firstly, Voltaire fails to understand the significance within Shakespeare's writing in Hamlet. Secondly, Hamlet is a thought-provoking drama, calling one to reconsider their perception on complicated ideas. Lastly, it uses language both insightful and humorous.

Voltaire critiques Hamlet to be a play about a man and mistress becoming "crazy". Voltaire continues to say that is it a "vulgar and barbarous drama" written by a "drunken savage" because of senseless killing. For that reason, Voltaire believes Hamlet to be intolerable for any audience.

Voltaire perceives Hamlet to be a simple play of people becoming mad and also takes Hamlet's insanity at face value. To begin, Voltaire fails to understand the play, Hamlet, and misinterprets Shakespeare's writing. Voltaire believes Hamlet to be mad. Hamlet finds it beneficial to appear mad; thus, acts the part. In the play, Hamlet says he is "but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly..." (Shakespeare II, II, 376-377). Therefore, insists that he is only pretending to be mad. Surely, Voltaire is wrong in taking Hamlet's façade as true insanity. Clearly, Voltaire does not understand Hamlet as a character. To continue, Voltaire regards Polonius' death to be "on the pretense of killing rat". Again, Voltaire misinterprets Shakespeare's intention. Throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare uses metaphors to convey ideas. In this case, Hamlet shouts, "How now! a rat? Dead" referring to the person behind the arras (III, IV, 25). One can infer that Hamlet does not mistake the body of a man to be one of a rat's, but metaphorically calling the person behind the arras to be sneaky and cowardly. Again, Voltaire does fail to understand what Shakespeare intends to say in his writing. Thus, Voltaire has little understanding of the play, Hamlet.

Voltaire is wrong when he suggests that Hamlet is a vulgar and barbaric drama. Hamlet is a drama for the thinker, touching on themes of madness and right and wrong. Firstly, the play questions the audiences' perception of insanity. In the play, Hamlet's phony madness causes many characters to believe he has gone insane. Likewise, Ophelia is also believed to be mad. After Polonius' death, Ophelia sings "And will a'not come again? And will a'not come again? No, no, he is dead, Go