vil. Both of their actionsinvoke disgust. Aristotle would have objected to Hamlet's treatment ofOphelia because of his aforementioned belief in the character attributes ofthe hero. The only characters who act particularly heroic are Horatio, whois devoted to Hamlet, and Fortinbras. These two characters are the onlyones who survive. The rest of the characters are left dead and bleeding. Asanother classical critic, Horace, wrote in Ars Poetica "I shall turn indisgust from anything of this kind that you show me (Horace 85)." When wesee the bodies lying on the ground at the end of the play we realize thefutility of Hamlet's actions and that evokes disgust. It is the evocationof this emotion that Aristotle would have disagreed with. Shakespeare's character's in Hamlet illustrate the theme of the drama,however Aristotle would have disagreed with Shakespeare's choices. Tounderstand character in terms of theme one must compare the characters.Samuel Johnson calls Hamlet "through the whole piece rather an instrumentrather than an agent". This is giving too much credence to the soliloquies,when Hamlet ponders, and gives too little credence to the fact that he sentRosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths without hesitating, and thefact that he was the first on the pirate ship when attacked on the highseas. It is the type of revenge that Hamlet insists on that shapes hischaracter and forces the bloodshed at the end of the play. This contrastswith a play of which Aristotle did approve. In Oedipus the King, Sophocleshas created a character who tries to do the greater good, and in doing sofind his fate has been damned from the start. Hamlet has the chance to dogood, in this case revenge on a murderer and lets passion sway his reason.This "madness" is what leads Hamlet astray, is what leads him to killPolonius, is what leads Ophelia to commit suicide and is what leads to thecarnage of the final scene. Rather than learn from experience, Hamletfollows...
