Psychological Awakenings In The Tragedy Of Hamlet

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Throughout The Tragedy of Hamlet , there are many psychological awakenings and changes that occur and have a significant impact on how the rest of the play unfolds. William
Shakespeare does an exceptional job of displaying the characters’ emotions and internal thoughts by using soliloquies and characters actions. Characters whose internal thoughts dramatically altered the structure of the play are: Prince Hamlet, Ophelia, Laertes, and King Claudius. If these characters never had a change in consciousness, the play would be very different and a lot more characters would have survived. The reason that everyone dies in The Tragedy of Hamlet is because everyone has revenge in their consciousness. Not only does Hamlet seek revenge on
Claudius, be …show more content…

This made Hamlet very bitter towards his mother and he felt like he had no one. Hamlet said his mother was quick “to post/With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!”(Hamlet 1.2.156-7). Also, Hamlet despised Claudius and believed his father was far superior saying his father was a “Hyperion”(1.2.140) and Claudius is a
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“satyr”(1.2.140). Hamlet's strong feelings along with his mother’s strange behavior led him to investigate his father's death. Then, he finds out about the ghost from Horatio, he “saw” Hamlet's
“Father” in ghost form the night before(1.2.189-91) while guarding the castle. Hamlet believes him and goes the next night to see his father. Hamlet's ghost father tells him that “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown”(1.5.39-40). This is where the entire dynamic of the play is changed. The ghost convinces Hamlet that his father is killed by his uncle who is now the king. The ghost tells hamlet to “Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/ A couch for luxury and damned incest./But howsomever thou pursues this act,/ Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive/ Against thy mother aught”(1.5.84-88). Shakespeare used this …show more content…

Shakespeare creates this mental shift in Laertes to add suspense to the play and to leave the reader to wonder who will live through this and who will die. The plan that Claudius and Laertes use is to have a fencing match between Laertes and
Hamlet, but Claudius tells him “you may choose/ A sword unbated, and in a pass of practice/
Requite him for your father.”(4.7.137-39). They agree on the plan, but also devise a back up plan, Claudius says “ I’ll have prepared him/ A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping,/ If he by chance escape your venomed stuck,/ Our purpose may hold there.”(4.7.159-61). They have developed a fool-proof plan to kill Hamlet, and Hamlet is still procrastinating and is very vulnerable at this point in the play. Then at the very end of the play comes another important shift in mental thoughts. Laertes is taking his last breaths after Hamlet stabs him and Laertes decides to turn his back on Claudius. He says “Thy mother’s poisoned./I can no more./ The king, the king’s to blame.”(5.2.314-16). This causes Hamlet to charge Claudius and stab him and make him drink the poison.
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As you can see the various psychological shifts that occur in Hamlet, Laertes,

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