A Chronotopic Analysis of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Al- Hakim’s The People of the Cave

This study sheds the light on the use of chronotopes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Al-Hakim’s The People of the Cave and demonstrates the differences and similarities between them accordingly. This paper depends on Bakhtin's theory of chronotope in examining the elements of time-space and clarifying its role in enriching the dramatic plot of both plays. The importance of this study is due to its novelty, as there is no previous study that analyzed the use of time-space in both plays exhaustively. The results of this study showed that there are similarities or commonalities between the two plays at the level of the chronotope of adventure, threshold, and parlors and salons, where the role of these chronotopes was equally influential in the construction of the plot and enriching the dramatic actions. Furthermore, there was a perspicuous and prominent difference in terms of presenting idyllic chronotopes, as this chronotope was tremendously violated in Hamlet, while The People of the Cave came in line with what Bakhtin elucidated in his interpretation of the moral role of these chronotopes. In a nutshell, Al-Hakim’s focus on presenting Islamic elements in a tragic theatrical framework is considered one of the most important differences between the two plays. Keywords— Hamlet, The People of the Cave, Chronotope, Time-Space, Bakhtin, Tragedy.


I. INTRODUCTION
Shakespeare's Hamlet is an immortal work whose importance will not diminish as time goes on, for its immersive comprehension of the human condition, but we cannot ignore the fact that it was written in a specific period for specific readers or audience where the Greek elements of the tragedy were dominant. Therefore, mentalities differed from what they were and what they have become in the twentieth century as Al-Hakim's The People of the Cave was written, in which Shakespeare displays the role of man's fate and the unseen power that determine the destiny of the hero in advance and the resulting events of that. Thus, in Hamlet, the "destiny, fate, stoicism, and courage Destiny and Fate are the controlling and often unseen powers of the Universe" (Stephen, 2013, p. 126). Consequently, the general technique of literature in the medieval period revolves around destiny and tragedy Furthermore, Al-Hakim's The People of the Cave also wrote for a specific audience, connotations and specific reasons, where Al-Hakim and other Eastern contemporary writers did not want to obliterate Islamic identity through the blind imitation of western tragic style in their literary works (Payne & Barbera, 2013), as they tried to get as far as possible from the western tragic elements, which denied the ability to interpret the destiny or unseen power from a religious point of view. Instead, they tried to use tragic elements through an Islamic perspective or framework, where the struggle of heroes is not with their inevitable fate of unknown forces, but with time and space which is a marvelous approach used by Al-Hakim to break the Greek elements of tragedy. In addition, it was the first real attempt to break the shackles of Greek tragedy elements, and create a new style away from those elements that Al-Hakim saw as contrary to the concepts of the East and IJELS-2021, 6 (Long, 2008).
The researcher found through choosing this topic, an important addition to the comparative studies. The key aspect of this argument is the heterogeneous combination of different cultures, mentalities, and orientations that this study is going to cover, in addition to the large time between the two texts and its reflection on the findings of the study. Moreover, it is important and interesting for the researcher to navigate and deduce similarities and differences among these texts, especially that both works are from entirely different environments. Another point worth mentioning is the fact that previous studies that were based on the theory of chronotope in analyzing those two plays are few or limited, which encouraged the researcher to highlight this topic comprehensively.

II. RESEARCH METHOD
The term chronotope is a composite word of time and space that refers to the interconnected and cohesive relationships of these two elements. As time is presented proportionally and harmoniously with the nature of that space, which reacts to the interaction of the time. Bakhtin derived the concept of chronotope from physics, and this cognitive overlap between the literary and scientific fields resulted in the dropping of the boundaries between the fields knowledge in general, in this context, critical literary studies manifestly got the benefit from scientific studies, which enhanced the influence of literary criticism, and this will contribute to making a certain idea clearer to the reader. He was interested in studying time in its relationship to space by creating the concept of chronotope, which expands to include other relationships inside and outside the text, where the relationship between time and space are "utterly interdependent" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 425). The main matter for the strong bonding that drives this relation is motion which is the mode in which the future belongs to the present, it is the present absence of just those particular absent things which are about to be" (Sachs, 1995, p. 59), where eventually results in the creation of an integrated artwork based on the Chronotopic elements that identified by Bakhtin.
However, chronotope is a Greek word and consist of two syllables, chronos, and tope, where chronos means time, in other sense "Chronos is physical linear time, characterized by regular periodicity (day and night, seasons), tope means space" (Lorino & Tricard, 2012, p. 212). Thus, time and place are interconnected and indivisible, so every change that occurs to one of the two elements causes a change in the other one. Chronotope is the source of the formation of identity and the role that it imposes on a character because a specific chronotope means specific identities and roles, where a "process perspective underscores for researchers how identity construction is historically situated in time and space" (Schultz et al., 2012, p. 4). This illustrates the importance of space-time in the formation of identity within a specific chronotope. Thus, any behaviors are limited by specific chronotope and the characters' behaviors of any literary works should be adjusted to that specific chronotope circumstances. Bakhtin attached the utmost importance to time and space while forming and explaining the concept of chronotope, as he emphasized the necessity and inevitability of "the inseparability of space and time" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 84). Time and space are mingled together as an entry to understanding the forms of changes that experience this interaction between them, especially after the new notion that recognized the "time as the fourth dimension of space" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 84). Consequently, Time and space transformed together into one new component called chronotope.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Al-Hakim wanted to introduce the Qur'anic story into literature, and create a boundary line between it and similar stories that were previously circulated in ancient texts, with the intention of moving away from Greek elements that dealt with this story before not recognizing religion or the existence of God (Hutchins, 2003, p. 94). In other words, Al-Hakim wanted to present the ancient story from an Islamic perspective that is not subject to modification, interpretation, or doubt. Moreover, he was opposed to the use of Greek tragedy elements in Islamic literature (Ali, 1994), that is not based on a logical and rational interpretation, such as a man's struggle with his fate and the unseen forces, but rather insisted on using the elements of conflict with time and space in those tragedy

The Representation of Family Ties and Love Relationships
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the love relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is complex and mystified, as the audience does not know how they both feel about each other (Daniel, 2018). In the beginning, their relationship was like a circle full of peaceful and quiet passion, then everything is destroyed when she became mad because of Hamlet's actions, and then she commits suicide when she "fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide … Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death" (Shakespeare,  Through this dialogue, the nature of the intimate and loving relationship between this family is manifested, which is precisely the same thing that Bakhtin called for in this chronotope, as he insisted on focusing on the moral aspect of representing the family relationship and love in any literary work. In other words, "Bakhtin describes the idyllic chronotope (in its pure form) as a nostalgic representation folkloric, or unified time. In this chronotope, literature represents temporal unity (the coherence of life's events) through unity of place" (Ayers, 1998, p. 395). Therefore, time-space played a major role in the formation and strengthen this relationship. Besides that, the impact of time is represented by the persecution imposed on Mishilinya, Prisca, and their son because they believed in God, and the space represented by the palace in which they lived and their high social level in that period. All that drive them to represent love and the idyll family in the most beautiful form (Aman, 2007). Thus, the influence of the Idyllic chronotope is explicit in this relationship, since Mishilinya "is the typical lover, sensitive and impulsive: on account of his love for the princess, he has exposed his own life to danger and is prepared to do so again" (Badawi, 2005, p. 29). The key aspect of this argument is that Idyll's love and family return to their full form at the end of the play, where Mishilinya remains faithful to his wife and son "whereas intellect and common sense inevitably fail in trying to resist the movement of time, only love and the heart can triumph over it" (Badawi, 1988, p. 956). Thus, he decides to leave life and its temptations and go to the cave to die and chooses to meet his family in the next life.
Bakhtin believes that "the destruction of the idyll may be treated, of course, in a multitude of ways. The differences are determined by differing conceptions and evaluations of the forces that are destroying it" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 233). This explains the difficulty of interpreting the destruction of the Idyllic chronotope in this play from a literary point of view, as Mishilinya's long sleep is a miracle that is impossible to explain because it is a divine work, that cannot be elucidated or justified and it goes beyond our limited understanding.

The Manifestations of Ancient Adventure Chronotope
Bakhtin gave a great focus to adventure chronotope and he explained its advantages, types, and characteristics. In Hamlet, there is kind of an adventure that is difficult to explain, pushing the hero into a long and difficult adventure or tragedy that ends with his death and most of the characters around him. This adventure is embodied through the appearance of King Hamlet's ghost and his request to avenge his murder from his brother Claudius, where the ghost stated the following: Shakespeare did not explain how the ghost appeared and how did that happen. Bakhtin described such event as a "miraculous adventure" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 153) chronotope, where the events of this chronotope revolve around irrational events that may be unrealistic and describe extraordinary moments in a human's life, as the occurrence of this chronotope is tied to "a sinful life, filled with temptation, followed by crisis and rebirth" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 111).
In The People of the Cave, the element of miraculous adventure chronotope is also evident, which is represented in the long sleep of Mishilinya, Marnush, and Yamlikha for more than three centuries. The reader can observe the miraculous element in Marnush's realization of the long period they spent in the cave through the dialogue between him and Yamlikha: Al-Hakim in this play wanted to instill the divine miraculous element in the reader's mind, which cannot be explained and present the divine miracle in a theatrical framework (Fudge, 2007). Consequently, the aim is to inculcate a moral lesson in the mind of the audience since the play "has a strong cathartic effect on the reader" (

The Time-Space of Threshold/ Crisis
This chronotope is evident in both plays with the same level of importance, is considered one of the main similarities between the two plays. The chronotope of threshold has an equally major role in both plays, where Bakhtin describes the time in this chronotope as "highly charged with emotion and value … decision that changes a life or the indecisiveness that fails to change a life … places where crisis events occur, the falls, the resurrections, renewals, epiphanies, decision, that determine the whole life of a man" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 248). In this chronotope, the protagonist is often in a state of anxiety, constant crisis, and problems that never end except at the end of the story, and usually, its events occurred in a specific place such as corridors, stations, doorways, entrances, and ancient places.
In Hamlet, the threshold chronotope is embodied in the first moments in which Hamlet realizes the harsh truth, when the "father's Ghost revealed that he did not die of Snake-bite in the garden but was slain by his own brother" ( Time and place are integrated with this chronotope and become absolute because emotional meetings and crises exceed time and space. Hamlet reached the utmost states of madness, anger, and an absolute desire for revenge after this pivotal moment in the play. Thus, Bakhtin describes this chronotope as "the chronotope of crisis and break in a life" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 248), where the event in this chronotope is a crucial event that pushes the play to its most dramatic climax and builds on which all subsequent major events are built.
In The People of the Cave, threshold chronotope is also evident, where Al-Hakim focuses on the pivotal event in the play when the three sleepers discover that they woke up in a different era. In this pivotal event, all the meanings of the moral lessons that Al-Hakim wanted to instill in the reader's mind are embodied. In addition to other events when they fully realize that they do not belong to this time, and it is impossible for them to live in it and harmonize with it after all the people that they knew had died a long time ago. For instance, the crisis moment that Mishilinya experienced after he realized that the current Prisca is just one of his wife's descendants and she has nothing to do with her except for the likeness between them and it is evident in Mishilinya reaction when he stated the following: Furthermore, the reader can observe the role of this chronotope in crystallizing the events of the play and make the reader indulge in these events and instill the moral aspect in their mind. where Bakhtin asserts that this chronotope is characterized by "a higher degree of intensity in emotions and values" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 243).

The Significance of The Cave's Vestibule and other Parlors
The reader can observe another great similarity between Hamlet and The People of the Cave from a Chronotopic point of view. For instance, the chronotope of parlors and salons plays a major role in enriching events in both works. The events of this chronotope occur in rooms, salons, or ancient halls, which is a place for literature, business, and politics where dialogues and machinations take place among the characters, as well as an intimate meeting that may occur between lovers and even the opponents (Bemong et al., 2010 The chronotope of salons contributes to revealing the features of the historical period that is determined by the time which mixed with the features of the space. where it gives the reader an integrated idea of the features of that period through the simplest details contained in the salon of furniture, costumes, signs, etc. This chronotope is also observed in the final scene of the play, specifically in the ancient hall of the castle where the duel took place and all the main characters were killed. The chronotope of parlors and Salons has assumed great importance in the narrative authorship of events, Bakhtin explains the reason for that importance and attributes it to the following: In Salons is found the barometer of political and business life; political, business, social, literary reputations are made and destroyed, careers are begun and wrecked, here are decided the fates of high politics and high finance as well as the success or failure of a proposed bill, a book, a play, a minister, a courtesan-singer. (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 247) Furthermore, the chronotope of salons plays a key role in The People of the Cave, where the reader can observe it in more than one event. For instance, the cave and specifically the hatch or vestibule in which they slept, where its importance is signified when they wake up from their deep long sleep. As well as the castle's hall, in particular when they realized in it that they have slept for more than three hundred years in that cave. The reader can realize the importance of this chronotope through the last scene in the play, and the distressing farewell to each other in the cave, where time blends with the space to produce a tragic event that attracts the reader and instills in his mind the moral lesson presented by these men. perspective in making the heroes of the play face and struggle with time, which is a miraculous act from God, which cannot be explained, doubted or clarified, as the purpose of which is to understand the moral lesson this story offers to the reader. Moreover, the role of the chronotope of threshold in enriching the dramatic plot in the two plays was fundamental, where this chronotope is of equal importance and effectiveness in both works. Besides that, the chronotope of parlors and salons has a key role in both works, as the plot of the two plays is entirely based on this chronotope, as it represented in the cave, the castle's hall, Gertrude's room, and the ancient hall at the final scene in Hamlet. Thus, the importance of this chronotope in the two plays is observable and evident to the reader. Second, the main difference between the two plays is intelligible in the two plays' treatment of the Idyllic chronotope. Since Hamlet has violated the concept of this chronotope, there is no idyll family or idyll love in the play as Bakhtin illustrated in his examination of Idyllic chronotope, while in the People of the Cave this chronotope is evident as most of the events of the play focused on highlighting the moral aspect of the family and love, which is the same thing that Bakhtin elucidated. Finally, Al-Hakim tried to highlight the Islamic features in the theatrical work by ostensibly quoting a story from the Noble Qur'an and employing it in a dramatic form to instill Islamic morals in the reader's mind, where he achieved his goal by rejecting the Western or Greek elements in understanding fate and destiny. He believes that the ancient works should be reformulated within an Islamic framework, where he rewrites Oedipus and One Thousand and One Nights from an Islamic perspective. Furthermore, Al-Hakim neglect the Greek elements in his plays that are far from belief and logic. However, quoting the general idea of the People of the Cave from the Noble Qur'an and presenting it with a theatrical work is one of the most important works in the last century, as other plays blindly imitated ancient Western works without taking the Islamic values and morals into consideration in the relevant literary works.