The melancholic dimension of the heroes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Navoi’s Farhod and Shirin

Abstract

This study explores the aesthetic and psychological dimensions of melancholia in two emblematic literary figures - Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Alisher Navoi’s Farhod. Drawing on comparative poetics and psychoanalytic criticism, the paper argues that both heroes embody melancholic traits but within contrasting cultural paradigms. While Hamlet’s melancholy reflects the existential anxiety of the Renaissance individual, Farhod’s melancholy embodies the Sufi concept of spiritual purification through love and devotion. The study demonstrates how both characters transform inner suffering into artistic and moral self-realization, bridging Eastern and Western notions of tragic consciousness.