An Analytical Essay of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Originally titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, this tragedy has been reproduced more times than any other play written by William Shakespeare (en.wikipedia.org 1 of 9). Prince Hamlet also has the lengthiest appearance of any character in all of Shakespeare's plays (en.wikpedia.org 6 of 9). In the play, Prince Hamlet is caught between balancing his need to avenge his father's death, dealing with the disgust he felt for Gertrude and Claudius' love affair, and maintaining the relationship he has with Ophelia without exposing his plans to kill his uncle Claudius for the murder of King Hamlet. During the first act, Prince Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. His father's ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poured poison in his ear while he slept. The spirit also explains that he wishes for Hamlet to avenge his death, but not to punish Queen Gertrude for marrying Claudius. He tells Hamlet that she will have to answer to her conscience, and eventually God for her incestuous actions (absoluteshakespeare.com 1 of 4). It was believed during these times that when a person died, especially in such a tragic fashion, that their spirit lingered about while suffering in Purgatory. This could cause a normally virtuous person's spirit to become filled with malevolence and begin to meddle in living men's affairs (en.wikipedia.org 4 of 9). This belief caused Prince Hamlet to want to investigate his father's spirit's claims to ensure that they were indeed true. In order to do this, Prince Hamlet feigns madness in order to remain hidden from members of the court's suspicions while he plots his revenge on King Claudius (www.sparknotes.com 1 of 3). He also takes advantage of a group of actors who come to Elsinore Castle to perform by rewriting a play to recreate the scene of his father's murder. He does this with the hope of flushing a confession out of Claudius' guilty conscience. When Claudius sees the play, he stands up and leaves the room (en.wikipedia.org 5 of 9). After many more events, Claudius' guilt becomes more obvious. Claudius then begins to change his focus towards killing Hamlet, as he is beginning to become aware of the Prince's plans to kill him. Claudius then arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Polonius' son Laertes and has Laertes poison the blade of one of his swords to be used in the match (Hamlet).
Hamlet's tale is a tragic one because it presents a man who is in the center of a moral dilemma. It is difficult enough for a man to face what is making him angry even under normal circumstances. Hamlet's circumstances are certainly not normal.
By Act 3, Hamlet has made it is destiny to discover the truth of his father’s death: “Suit the action, the word to the action, with this special observance…reform it all together. And let those that play your clowns speak no more for what is down for them…” (Shakespeare Act 3 Lines 18-21, 40-2). Hamlet informs the players that he yearns for them to act the best they have ever acted in any play ever before. He needs the characters they portray to be as real and relatable as they can be so it could potentially strike emotions in Claudius as he watches the performance. Hamlet and Horatio believe that if Claudius has an anxious expression and/or body language then he is guilty of murdering the Ghost for selfish gain. If he has no reaction, he is innocent. King Claudius is guilty of the murder of King Hamlet: “The King rises…Give o’er the play. Give me some light. Away!” (Shakespeare Act 3 Lines 291, 294-5). The King expresses the reaction Hamlet is seeking. On the grounds that Claudius stops the play mid-performance, Hamlet is certain that Claudius is the culprit. Why would Claudius be overcome with so much anxiety that he was forced to stop the show? This is a question that Hamlet must continue answer. Shakespeare also gives depicts an ironic situation for readers. The common play that resembles the accusations of King
Sometimes, revenge can be utterly nasty and repeated. A Serbian patriot once slayed an Austrian archduke to exact his revenge for Austria’s occupation of his land. Austria retaliated by starting World War I. After the war, the Allied powers took revenge by enforcing massive fines and taking away land from the defeated countries. One of them was Germany. This led to Hitler’s rise to power and took revenge against France by making them sign their surrender in the same train where Germany gave up in World War I. Following World War II, Germany was obligated to repair some of the damage done by paying war reparations to the Allies and Jewish people after the war. When countries recur to revenge, history reiterates, more often than not, it means war. On a smaller scale, in Hamlet, the prince of Denmark begins an inner war that provokes quite significant inner struggles as well as an outer war with Claudius to avenge his father’s death. William Shakespeare masterfully portrays Hamlet, whose experiences and emotions drive him to alternate between the realms of sanity and insanity to achieve his ambition. As the ancient proverb states, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” These “desperate times” include the murder of his father Hamlet Senior, King of the Danes, by his malicious uncle, Claudius, the seeming suicide of his love, Ophelia, his mother's quick remarriage to Claudius after his father's death.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the king of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and as a ghost tells his son, Hamlet the prince of Denmark, to avenge him by killing his brother. The price Hamlet does agree to his late father’s wishes, and undertakes the responsibility of killing his uncle, Claudius. However even after swearing to his late father, and former king that he would avenge him; Hamlet for the bulk of the play takes almost no action against Claudius. Prince Hamlet in nature is a man of thought throughout the entirety of the play; even while playing mad that is obvious, and although this does seem to keep him alive, it is that same trait that also keeps him from fulfilling his father’s wish for vengeance
The play does not open with the protagonist, nor with the direct disclosure of the problem. It points to unanswered questions and reveals anxiety and unrest. There is said to be a ghost, but the reason and purpose for the ghost's appearance are unknown. Basically, we can say that the first scene creates an atmosphere and the basis for the disclosure of the specific problem. The first point dramatically established is that there really is a ghost, although the questions raised by its appearance are unanswered. Horatio, the scholar and the skeptic, comes to test the report given by the simple soldiers. The empirical proof that Horatio seeks is there; the ghost appears and it is seen to have a specific identity, that of the deceased King Hamlet. But the reason for his presence is not disclosed and the men on the platform, confronted by the upsetting mystery, have to guess in the dark, literally and metaphorically. Unable to offer an explanation, Horatio sees the apparition in convention terms as an omen of some evil. This is immediately connected with the expository fact that there are feverish military preparations in the kingdom. The indication is that there are pre-existing questions brought into the open in connection with the ghost. The specific question relating to preparations for war, concerning the kingdom and not necessarily the ghost, is answered by Horatio; he gives us expository background concerning the immediate past in the kingdom of Denmark, involving King Hamlet and King Fortinbras of Norway, we hear there was open, chivalric combat between them in which the Danish King vanquished and killed Fortinbras, as a result of which he obtained (fairly) the land which was gained by the Norwegians. But additionally we hear th...
In drama Hamlet, Shakespeare showed Hamlet in " war " for women. In the family, the son is " Hamlet " whose wish is suppressed both by his spiritual father (Superego) and by his corporeal father and whose Ego is torn between two fathers as between his good angel and his bad angel. Hamlet whose conscious mind, is in the conflict with his unconscious mind, while his intellect seems healthily above and his positions of real ego as a madman below, attracted by Gertrud , that is displaced occasionally by Ophelia, and suppressed by his parents. This way, the play is “ the strange eruption of Hamlet, ” that he gets torn between the attraction and the repression and he leaves the various expression on the mind of his reader. His “disposition of prank” (I, v, 180) has been disconcerting to the people about him. His speech and his behavior often seem inscrutable.
The significance of the players exceeds the sole purpose of entertainment, as each possesses the power to unveil the "occulted guilt" (3.2.75) and conscience of the King. Hamlet assumes the responsibility to advise these players with precise and adequate direction so that a "whirlwind of passion" (6) may not effectively separate Claudius from personally identifying with the play. Hamlet's enthusiastic approach toward direction may be so that he encourages the players to "suit the action to the word, the word to the/ action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not/ the modesty of nature" (16-18). However, this exercise of caution may justify Hamlet's too often delayed attempt toward the action of avenging his father's murder. His direction confines him to the overflow of words as he experiences imprisonment within the truth of his own identity.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known and most frequently performed plays. Many people have enjoyed reading and watching hamlet, both on stage and theatrically, Tragedy of Prince Hamlet revolves around the idea of tragedy, incest and revenge. However, Hamlet uses puns to lighten the mood.
Hamlet Act 2 starts with a conversation between Polonius and Reynaldo, his servant, about how Reynaldo is to find out about the behavior of Laertes, Polonius’ son. This event foreshadows the Queen and King’s conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about how Hamlet’s two friends will uncover the reason for Hamlet’s recent behavior change. In their conversation, Polonius tells Reynaldo that he is to ask random people about Laertes and to tell the people about how Laertes, in his youth, gambled, was intoxicated and got into fights. He then tells Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Through these actions, Polonius shows that he will do almost anything to control his children and their reputations. Throughout this Act, one general theme is revealed. This theme is the scheming of characters to
It was my observation after reading Hamlet, that the play and its main character are not typical examples of tragedy and contain a questionable "tragic flaw" in the tragic hero. I chose this topic because Hamlet is a tragedy, but one that is very different from classical tragedies such as Medea. I also found quite a lot of controversial debate over the play and its leading character. While reading through my notes, I found that, according to Aristotle, "the tragic hero will most effectively evoke both our pity and terror if he is neither thoroughly good nor evil but a mixture of both; and also that the tragic effect will be stronger if the hero is better than we are in the sense that he is of higher than ordinary moral worth. Such a man is exhibited as suffering a change in fortune from happiness to misery because of a mistaken act, to which he is led by his hamartia ("error of judgment") or his tragic flaw." It is important that this be clear, because I plan to demonstrate how Shakespeare makes Hamlet an atypical tragedy to begin with, and how controversial an issue Hamlet's tragic flaw is.
Hamlet's problem is not exact; it cannot be pinpointed. In fact, Hamlet has numerous problems that contribute to his dilemma. The first of these problems is the appearance of King Hamlet's ghost to his son, Hamlet. Hamlet's morality adds a great deal to his delay in murdering the current king, Claudius. One of Hamlet's biggest drawbacks is that he tends to think things out too much. Hamlet does not act on instinct; however, he makes certain that every action is premeditated. Hamlet suffers a great deal from melancholy; this in turn causes him to constantly second guess himself. The Ghost is the main cause of Hamlet's melancholy. Also, Hamlet's melancholy helps to clear up certain aspects of the play. These are just a few of the problems that Hamlet encounters throughout his ordeal.
At first, Hamlet sees the ghost of his dead father and vows to avenge his death. “Christianity forbids followers to seek out spirits for advice or communication” (Ja) Hamlet has his faith tested because he is unsure about what his father is telling him. If the truth is that Claudius is the one who murdered Hamlet’s father then Hamlet will need to commit murder himself in order to fulfill his promise to his father’s ghost. “Hamlet, after the shock of his discoveries, becomes virtually another person and re-evaluates the situation in accordance with his religious views. Perhaps the ghost is just an illusion or mental disorder making him imagine this tale, and the murder of his father is illusory because he is not able to accept this kind of marriage and he wants to justify his crimes.” (****) Hamlet wrestles with his feelings and decides he must arrange for Claudius to admit to the murder instead of murdering Claudius himself. He is aware of the moral dilemma he finds himself in, if he kills Claudius then he, Hamlet may go to hell. If he refuses to kill Claudius then his father may be sent to hell. Hamlet knows from his religious background that murd...
Keys to Interpretation of Hamlet & nbsp; William Shakespeare's Hamlet is, at heart, a play about suicide. Though it is surrounded by a fairly standard revenge plot, the play's core is an intense psychodrama about a prince gone mad from the pressures of his station and his unrequited love for Ophelia. He longs for the ultimate release of killing himself - but why? In this respect, Hamlet is equivocal - he gives several different motives depending on the situation. But we learn to trust his soliloquies - his thoughts - more than his actions.
There are many reasons why Hamlet had his downfall. One being his decision to keeping the murder of his father a secret. Another one being the betrayals of his closest friends. Perhaps if Guildenstern or Rosencrantz had been there for Hamlet, to rely and place trust upon, he might not had to fell so alone. A little sympathy from his girlfriend Ophelia, and even his mother Gertrude would have been nice as well. Unfortunately Ophelia is held back from Hamlet, due to her father. Gertrude marries his uncle Claudius, who is responsible for his fathers death, and is looking to kill him next. And Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are ordered by Claudius to spy on Hamlet, and betray him as a friend.
In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.