Is Hamlet an ‘artistic failure’? Give reasons for your
answer.
Hamlet, according to T.S.ELIOT, “so far from being Shakespeare’s masterpiece,
is most certainly an artistic failure.” Though the charge of ‘artistic
failure’ against Hamlet is mainly brought by T.S.ELIOT, there are others who
point out the artistic blemishes to be found in the play. Robertson calls the
play “a stratification of the various Clements of UR –Hamlet.” Some
critics point out that there are scenes and episodes hanging loosely and having
no bearing upon the play. The confusion is sure to increase if we think of such
tricky questions as Hamlet’s age or Horatio’s exact social status. But the
ardent supporters of Hamlet would often say that these are only minor
imperfections that can easily be ignored.
Eliot probes deeper and argues that
Hamlet is an artistic failure chiefly because its central character is
dominated by an emotion which is inexpressible, because it is excess of the
facts as they appear. According to Eliot, the only way of expressing emotion in
the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative,’ i.e., a set of
things, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that
particular emotion. Shakespeare, according to Eliot, unfortunately failed to
provide Hamlet with any such ‘objective correlative’.
