Structural Reading of Hamlet——Parallelism in Hamlet

趙亞力 郝雅楠 （石家莊職業(yè)技術(shù)學院外語部 河北石家莊 050000）

A literary works is just alike a building.The symmetry and the harmony of its structure give people a sense of beauty.This paper tries to conclude three parallelisms in this play.

Ⅰ.Hamlet’s madness VS Ophelia’s madness

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet， a kind of madness ultimately infects everyone， leading to an ending in which almost every major character is dead.Two of these maddened characters are Hamlet and Ophelia， who also share a love for each other.

Similarity between Hamlet’s madness and Ophelia’s is the fact that the abnormal behavior of both Hamlet and Ophelia is a direct result of their fathers' murders.They each share a common connection: the loss of a parental figure.Hamlet loses his father as a result of a horrible murder， as does Ophelia.Ophelia’s situation is more severe because it is her lover who murders her father and all of her hopes for her future as well.

The difference between Hamlet’s madness and Ophelia’s is that ， one is truly mad but the other is not.Hamlet provides his own self-torture and does fall victim to melancholia and grief.However， his madness is feigned.Hamlet is not sane.He puts on an antic disposition as a mask to protect him from Claudius's spies (Polonius， Guildentern and Rosencrantz) and he attempts to prove Claudius's guilt.Ophelia on the other hand is truely insane.She is driven to such a depth of depresssion that she can be labelled mad.The murder of her father by her true love， Hamlet， pushes her over the edge.Hamlet's behaviour and the fact that he does not regret killing Polonius， contribute to Ophelia's madness.Ophelia has no idea what she is saying and no concpet of thought.She appears at the castle singing and giving out imaginary flowers.She seems not to even know her own brother.

Ⅱ.The death of Polonius VS the death of Gertrude

In the tragedy Hamlet， all the important characters died one by one with the development of the story.Generally speaking， if someone is killed or murdered，there should be some reasons that prompt the murderers’action.In other words， someone will commit the killing in order to realize some special purpose， or for some important interest of his own.However， there were two characters in the play whose death is a mistake.Nobody intended to kill them， but they were killed by mistake.These two innocent persons are Polonius and Gertrude.Hamlet thought the person behind the curtain he killed was Claudius.As a matter of fact， although Hamlet did not like Polonius， he had no intension to hurt his lover’s father.As for Gertrude， she took the poisonous wine by coincidence that was prepared for Hamlet by Claudius in advance.So when trying to find the similarity between Polonius’ death and Gertrude’s， we can get the conclusion that they are two characters who are innocent but be killed by mistake.

On the other hand， there is a “cause and effect”relationship between these two persons’ death.After hearing that Polonius was killed by Hamlet， Laeters decided to revenge for his father’s death.At the same time， an idea came into Claudius’ mind that he could use of Laeters to kill Hamlet.So he tricked Laeters into a sword fighting with Hamlet and intended to allure Hamlet to drink a cup of poisonous wine during the intermission.Unfortunately， Gertrude took the poisonous wine without any information about Claudius’ plot.It seems that these two persons’ death are coincidence，but they related with each other.Gertrude’s death originated from the death of Polonius.

Ⅲ.Hamlet’s revenge VS Laeter’s revenge

Revenge is a major theme in the Tragedy of Hamlet.Revenge causes one to act blindly through anger， rather than through reason.This play also draws comparisons and contrasts between Laertes’revenge and Hamlet’s revenge.

Prince Hamlet and Laertes share some similarities in going to seek revenge for the death of fathers，however， they each use different methods to accomplish their deeds.

Hamlet does not have the single-minded determination to sweep unhesitatingly to revenge his father's death.His father informed him that he needed to be avenged by the death of his brother Claudius.By this time Claudius had become the king of Denmark and married Gertrude.Hamlet decided to take a passive approach to avenge his father.Claudius’ strange behavior cleared all the uncertainties as to whether or not Claudius murdered his father: Claudius was the murderer.But he still delayed his revenge.Hamlet seems to understand that his mere revenge upon his uncle would in no way solve the problems that trouble and upset him.Revenge is easy， but it is merely personal revenge that Hamlet seeks.What is more important is to expose the roots of the evil and to establish a reign of justice.His responsibility is thus enlarged into a radical transformation of society.

As for Laeters， there was no any delay or hesitation in the course of revenging for his father.Laeters’single-minded， furious desire to avenge Polonius stands in stark opposition to Hamlet’s inactivity with regard to his own father’s death.Upon learning about his father's murder， Laertes returns from Paris and quickly raises a rebellion against the King; he acts swiftly，without scruple， never pondering his actions.

The parallelisms reflect the similarities and differences between two things， or the relationships between them.The parallelisms in Hamlet enable us to feel the beauty of this play.

Bibliography

[1]Wilfred L.Guerin， A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature，F(xiàn)oreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2004，北京

[2]Raman Selden， A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory， Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press，2004，北京