Janelle StrubleMr. BlazekLiterature IIA3/9/14ARISTOTLE IN HAMLETIn The Dark Knight, the film begins with Batman, a well-regarded hero who saves the city only to fall and become Gotham City's enemy. Similarly in William Shakespeare's Hamlet, King Claudius is introduced as the new honored king of Denmark. As the play progresses, we find out that he has usurped power by killing King Hamlet, which will lead to his downfall. In Aristotle's Poetics, he believes that the objects of imitation are men in action and that men must be of a superior or inferior type. A tragedy should aim for characters of a higher status or better than those in real life. Hamlet makes for a good tragedy through its use of strong story structure, actions that arouse pity and fear, and the reversal of recognition. Aristotle believed that the story structure of every tragedy should contain six parts; Plot, character, diction, thought, show and song. Of these six, plot, character, and thought stand out most in the play Hamlet. First, Aristotle believes that the principles of plot make it the most important factor in a tragedy. For Aristotle the plot of a tragedy must be complete with a beginning, middle and end. Hamlet has a complete plot that begins with the guards of Elsinore seeing a ghost, leading them to tell Hamlet, who will go to seek revenge for his father's death, and ends with no open questions when Hamlet dies from the poisoned blade and Fortinbras becomes king of Denmark. Secondly, according to Aristotle, the characters in a tragedy must be good, must aim for correctness, must be true to life, and must be consistent. While Polonius sends his servant to interrogate Laertes' friends, Polonius tells Reynaldo that he can "put on him all the falsehoods that [he] liked - married, none so ra... middle of paper... when King Claudius he runs scared out of the room, like someone guilty of murder. Finally, an ironic reversal occurs between young Hamlet and his mother Gertrude As Hamlet begins to approach Claudius for murder, he goes to his mother advising her not to sleep with Claudius. and to remain pure.However, even though he told her to remain pure, Hamlet and his mother ended up having sex with each other, which was no better than the incest that took place between Claudius and Gertrude Hamlet's reversals and recognition they are very influential in how the play progresses towards the conclusion. Hamlet is a well written tragedy due to the use of Reversal and Recognition, pity and fear causing catharsis, and a strong story structure. Just as Batman falls in The Dark Knight, many characters who were initially popular fall in Hamlet.