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How far do you support the view if god is dead, or if god is clearly known, the tragedy cannot exist in your analysis of Hamlet?

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  • Essay length: 1995 words
  • Submitted: 17/12/2010
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University Degree Hamlet

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HOW FAR DO YOU SUPPORT THE VIEW 'IF GOD IS DEAD, OR IF GOD IS CLEARLY KNOWN, THE TRAGEDY CANNOT EXIST' IN YOUR ANALYSIS OF HAMLET?

Derived from the influential piece by Aristotle detailing the nuances of tragedy, 'Poetics', many of the commonly accepted characteristics of tragedy transpire as a result of uncertainty, and so the removal of one the greatest uncertainties in all human history, the debate over the existence of a God, would indubitably cause a collapse in the tragic play form, as it is the impossibility of certitude which allows tragedy to unfold at all.

The quote in the title comes from one Lucien Goldmann, a French philosopher and a prominent Marxist theorist: a well-known and key fundamentalist Marxist dogma, as stated by Karl Marx himself, is: "Religion is the opium of the people"1. This lends a degree of insight into the precise meaning behind Goldmann's view: he believed that tragedy could only occur when God provides hope for people, a possibility of absolution, but the existence of a God is unknown, thus blinding people with faith to injustices in society, as they live with the hope of some final judgement which they

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