"Hamlet: Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift, / As meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge. (1.5.31-37)." Hamlet's uncle murdered his dad, the king of Denmark so he can take the throne. No one but Hamlet knows about the truth about King Hamlet's death and not even the queen. His uncle Claudius becomes king and marries Hamlet's mom Gertrude but he is in comfortable about the arrangement so he seeks to have Claudius tell the truth. Hamlet is on his own quest to avenge his fathers death, he is not motivated by his rage but by to desire the citizens of Denmark the truth. Hamlet is influenced by his goal to bring out the truth about his fathers death. However, he encounters the ghost of his father and accepts …show more content…
However he questions himself on whether the ghost he saw was really a ghost or the devil. "Hamlet: The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil: and the devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, / Out of my weakness and my melancholy, / As he is very potent with such spirits, / Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds / More relative than this. The play's the thing / Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King." (2.2.627-634). Hamlet doesn't trust the ghost at this point because if he was lying to Hamlet then he would be left astray. Hamlet wants to be sure Claudius is guilty so he comes up with a plane to make sure the ghost's story it true and justice will be done to Claudius. Here Hamlet finds the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius but he figures out what will happen to him after he dies. "HAMLET: Now might I do it pat, now he is praying, / And now I'll do 't. [He draws his sword.] / And so he goes to heaven, / And so am I revenged. That would be scanned: / A villain kills my father, and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / To heaven." (3.3.77-83). He doesn't want to kill Claudius because he will only ascend to heaven but he wants him to suffer for what he did. His revenge isn't about just killing but about making Claudius suffer in hell. Hamlet opportunities to kill Claudius will only do …show more content…
However, when one of the actors gives a speech he berated himself. "HAMLET: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! / Is it not monstrous that this player here, / But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, / Could force his soul so to his own conceit / That from her working all his visage wanned, / Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, / A broken voice, and his whole function suiting / With forms to his conceit—and all for nothing!" (2.2.577-584). After getting moved over a fictional character, he is ready to face of what's in front of him. Hamlet is motivated to complete his goal to let the people of Denmark the truth about his father and uncle. Hamlet watched Fortinbras send an army across Denmark and wonders that so many men are going to die of a small piece of land. "HAMLET: Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed / Makes mouths at the invisible event, / Exposing what is mortal and unsure / To all that fortune, death and danger dare, / Even for an eggshell. Rightly to be great / Is not to stir without great argument, / But greatly to find quarrel in a straw / When honor's at the stake. How stand I, then, / That have a father killed, a mother stained, / Excitements of my reason and my blood, / And let all sleep, while, to my shame," (4.4.53-61). He looks at the men marching and says that this is pointless over land and at this moment Hamlet's thoughts turn into full on revenge on Claudius. He's fueled
Hamlet sees a ghost of his father and learns that he was killed by his own brother, Claudius. This is when Hamlet falls into an ocean of thought. The philosopher devises ways to unmask his step father to his mother and Denmark and obtain justice and revenge for his father’s smeared death.
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).
Once Hamlet stumbles upon his uncle praying he says: “Now might I do it pat now a is praying. / And now I’ll do’t, / and so a goes to heaven, / And so I am revenged. That would be scanned. / A villain kills my father, and for that / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / to heaven” (3.4.73-77). Hamlet had the perfect opportunity to commit regicide here yet instead of going to Claudius and killing him Hamlet stays back and once again begins to ponder the possibilities of whether or not this is really a good time to do it. Hamlet’s religious beliefs surely play a strong role here because he starts to question what will happen if he kills his uncle while he is praying. Hamlet does, as the quote reveals come to the conclusion that if he were to kill his uncle now he would go to heaven, and not hell where the ghost claimed to have to return to “My hour is almost come. / When I sulph’rous and tormenting flames / Must render up myself” (1.5.4-6). Hamlet did prove that the ghost was his father so knowing that his father is suffering because of his uncle hamlet has no desire to kill Claudius while he is in a position to go to heaven. Normally religious arguments are based on pure speculation however this is not the case for Hamlet; because he has seen the spirit of his late father who did confess to Hamlet that there was in fact a hell to go to because he has to
Shakespeare once wrote that “we know what we are, but not what we may be.” What Shakespeare is saying is that other forces along the path of life can change who one can become. In the Shakespearean play Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet finds himself in the presence of what appears to be his father’s ghost. Is this ghost the devil in disguise trying to make Hamlet do his bidding, or did newly appointed king Claudius actually do devil 's work by killing Hamlet 's father? The word devil illuminates the true meaning of the play, which is men may believe they know who one is, however the devil can change who they will become. Such as Hamlet who sets out to avenge his father’s murder became a murderer himself.
Hamlet’s inner course of action was further intensified with his encounter with the ghost. The information that Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father, was given to Hamlet by ways of the mysterious spirit, and this immediately provoked animosity in himself. In Act I, scene v, line 29-31, Hamlet states, “Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift/ as meditation or the thoughts of love,/ may sweep to my revenge”. This statement shows the rage and fury of Hamlet wanting to seek full revenge on his uncle; He still does not act upon this as quickly as he proclaims, which shows his inability to step into action.
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
Hamlet does not take the opportunity to slay Claudius as he prays because he believes it will save his soul. His contemplative nature takes over regarding the ghost’s revelation and he decides to devise a play to pique Claudius’ conscience and make sure he is really guilty.
Hamlet wishes to avenge the murder of his father and rectify this great injustice. The conflict between his desire to seek revenge and his own thoughts of incompetence is the cause of his initial unrest. "Haste me to know't , that I , with wings as swift / As meditation or thoughts of love , / may sweep to my revenge (1.5.29-31). Here Hamlet pleads to the Ghost of King Hamlet to reveal the name of his murderer.
In Hamlet, the protagonist Hamlet faced many dilemmas that led to his transformation throughout the play. The people around him and the ghost of his father dramatically affect him. Seeing his father’s ghost had changed his fate and the person he had become. The path he chose after his encounter with his father’s ghost led to his death.
Hamlet endured severe tragedies throughout the play that shaped his character. Hamlet had come back from his schooling in Germany back to his throne as the prince of Denmark due to his father King Hamlet’s death. His father had come back to their castle in ghost form to explain to Hamlet how his uncle Claudius had murdered him, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Act one scene five). Hamlet agrees to this request out of honor for his late father and respect for his family, “Haste me to know, that I, with wings as swift
In addition to this internal struggle, Hamlet feels it is his duty to dethrone Claudius and become the King of Denmark. This revenge, he believes, would settle the score for his mother’s incestuous relationship and would reinstate his family’s honor. These thoughts are solidified in Act I, Scene 5, when his father’s ghost appears and informs Hamlet that is was Claudius who murdered him, and that Claudius deprived him “of life, of crown, and queen” (line 75). This information leads to Hamlet’s promise to kill Claudius, while not punishing his mother for their incestuous marriage. His statement, “thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain” (lines 102-103), demonstrates his adamant decision to let nothing stand in the way of his promise for revenge.
Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
As illustrated through his speeches and soliloquies Hamlet has the mind of a true thinker. Reinacting the death of his father in front of Claudius was in itself a wonderful idea. Although he may have conceived shcemes such as this, his mind was holding him back at the same time. His need to analyze and prove everythin certain drew his time of action farther and farther away. Hamlet continuously doubted himself and whether or not the action that he wanted to take was justifiable. The visit that Hamlet recieves from his dead father makes the reader think that it is Hamlet's time to go and seek revenge. This is notthe case. Hamlet does seem eager to try and take the life of Claudius in the name of his father, but before he can do so he has a notion, what if that was not my father, but an evil apparition sending me on the wrong path? This shows that even with substantial evidence of Claudius' deeds, Hamlet's mind is not content.
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...
In this scene, Hamlet is beckoned by a ghost, who later is revealed to be the ghost of Hamlet Senior. Hamlet listens as the ghost explains to him the details of his’ death. The ghost reveals to Hamlet that he was murdered by none other than Claudius! This sends Hamlet into a passionate rage and he again delivers a soliloquy, where his intentions are revealed. He states that “I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, [will ] sweep to my revenge” (1.5.33-35). This immense passion that Hamlet is feeling contradicts reason because reason would cause Hamlet to contact law enforcement and usurp his uncle from the throne, rather than taking justice into his own hands, and therefore becoming a murderer