ABSTRACT
This chapter reads Hamlet using the tenets of rasa. There is the discovery of a dynamic interplay of rasas that gives aesthetic vitality to the play. Though karuṇa has been identified as the pradhāna rasa, bībhatsa too plays an important role in the play’s emotional structure. Hamlet’s soliloquies reveal his disgust with the world, that is, with the situations and characters in the play and with himself. Śṛṅgāra in its pure form (the love between Hamlet and Ophelia) and Śṛṅgārābhāsa (the lust of Claudius and Gertrude) together form a dominant part of the plot. Hāsya rasa adds to the tragic and leads the play to the final śānta. Though Hamlet is no vīra nāyaka (valiant hero), we find traces of the vīra rasa too in his character. Jugupsa, though an overpowering bhāva, is not developed as the pradhāna rasa as it is karuṇa which is often the spectator’s reaction to the sthāyī bhāva of jugupsa rather than its corresponding rasa, bībhatsa. There is no rasabhaṅga (breach in the rasa realisation) despite the presence of what are traditionally called opposing rasas mainly because characters other than the hero and the many situations in the play all influence the rasa experience. The various rasas blend together and help the emotion packed plot to unfurl successfully.
