Hamlet's SuccessIs this Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet a successful play as some critics say? Where is the success? Is the protagonist the main reason for the continued success?J. Dover Wilson in “What Happens in Hamlet” attributes much of the play's success to the characterization of the prince:Finally, this composite of extraordinarily convincing humanity and psychological contradiction is Shakespeare's greatest legacy to men of his own caliber. No "part" in the entire repertoire of dramatic literature is so sure of success with almost every audience, and yet is open to such a remarkable variety of interpretations. There are as many Hamlets as there are actors who play him; and Bernhardt proved that even a woman can achieve success. (101) Could Hamlet's enduring reputation be attributed to the “ultimate form” in which the Bard of Avon expressed his ideas? Robert B. Heilman says it in “The Role We Give Shakespeare”: It is the mode of venerable texts whose authenticity has been imprinted on the human imagination: it has said many things in what seems definitive form, and it is a source of quotation and universal center of allusion. “A rose by any other name” comes to the mouth as easily as “pride goes before the fall,” and it sounds no less wise. [. . .] The Ophelia-Laertes relationship is strongly felt towards the end of Goethe's Faust, Part I, and the Hamlet-Gertrude-Claudius triangle echoes throughout Chekhov's The Seagull (24-25). This work is considered by many to be the greatest ever seen. written. Cumberland Clark in “The Supernatural in Hamlet” provides the consensus on Hamlet that exists among today's literary critics: At least six or seven years pass from the writing of A Midsummer Night's Dream before finding Shakespeare engaged in Hamlet, the second of great theatrical works. with a major supernatural element and, in the opinion of many, the greatest tragedy ever written. (99)There is no higher ranking than the one above. Richard A. Lanham argues in the essay “Superposed Plays” that no other English tragedy has generated the literary commentary that this play has produced: “Hamlet is one of the great tragedies. It has generated more comments than any other written document in English literature, one might imagine, reverent and serious comments on it as a serious work.” (91).