Sociological Perspective In Hamlet

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September 1st: Sociological versus psychological explanations In this entry, I will relate the concept of the “sociological imagination” to my personal experiences with the phenomenon of “culture shock” while studying abroad. The sociological imagination encourages researchers to consider the broader social and cultural forces that come into play when it comes to considering the behaviors of subjects, rather than the individual circumstances of each person’s reality. This can be difficult enough to keep in mind when in one’s own home state and country; I found this particularly challenging to immediately grasp during the summer of 2014, when I studied abroad for six week in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The commonality of language, I …show more content…

Although Prince Hamlet does not, in the end, actually commit the act of suicide, he definitely does consider committing the act during an earlier point of the play. The drama begins several months after the untimely and surprising death of Hamlet’s father, the king. This event begins the list of social connections (i.e. integrations) that are severed and taken from the young prince involuntarily. His mother, the queen, then marries his uncle Claudius, placing her social connection to her son at odds with his negative emotions towards his uncle/new father-in-law/king. Although she attempts to reach out to her troubled child, he does not seem capable of forgiving her for her seemingly incestuous behavior. Left without any meaningful parental connections, Hamlet is then placed in the troubling position of not knowing whom he is able to trust. His supposed friends from university, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are summoned by the king and sent to spy on the young prince, under the guise of friendship. This behavior subsequently causes Hamlet to question every relationship and interaction in which he participates, as well as cuts him off from the social integration offered by his life at university. This pervasive suspicion of betrayal brings Hamlet to violently cast aside one of his only remaining relationships of meaning: his budding romance with the gentle and naive Ophelia. Left without social support and integration from parental units, educational life, or a romantically significant other, plagued by doubt and supposed visions of his murdered father, the young Danish prince questions both his own sanity and the purpose of life in general, easily demonstrating Durkheim’s belief in the importance of social

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