Free Hamlet Essays: Hamlet’s Fatal Mistake

580 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Claudius's bad deeds in the play Hamlet

Hamlet’s Fatal Mistake

When you play a part or a role to disguise your true character it harms you in the end. Hamlet’s antic disposition was a tragic error on his part because it let to his eventual demise. Hamlet displays the antic disposition in order to fool Claudius, although Claudius is the only character to not be fooled. When Hamlet denies Ophelia his love, she goes mad and takes her life. Hamlet becomes confused as to whether he is insane or not. For these reasons, Hamlet’s decision to portray an antic disposition is a tragic error.

When Hamlet found out that Claudius killed his father Hamlet was furious, and got right to work on how to get his fathers revenge. Hamlet went to work by coming up with a plan to act mad so that it would hide the truth from Claudius, which was that Hamlet was going to kill Claudius. Hamlet has no such luck. Claudius does not believe Hamlet’s attempt at pretending that he is mad. "Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul" (III; I; 161). This means that Claudius does not believe that Hamlet is insane, but rather has some sort of plan being brewed. Claudius also has a plan that is to kill hamlet. This is ironic because in the end they end up Claudius is in the end murdered by Hamlet.

Hamlet must act mad if he wants Claudius to believe him, so Hamlet uses his confrontations with Ophelia to display it. Ophelia is manipulated by Hamlet for his own personal gain. Hamlet uses Ophelia to get the word that he is mad around the kingdom. This is sad because Ophelia is innocent and she ends up committing suicide in the end. One of the way’s Hamlet fools Ophelia into believing that he is insane is by scaring her. (II; I;75). " I have been so affrighted". Hamlet fools Ophelia into believing that he is mad by killing Polonius behind a curtain in the Gertrude’s room. This incident drives Ophelia into becoming insane and leads to her taking her own life.

Hamlet spends much of his time pretending to be mad, that he starts to believe that he really is insane. Hamlet feels as if he is losing control when he sees his father’s ghost in Gertrude’s chambers. Every other time the ghost appeared, someone else saw it as well, only this time his mother did not see it.

Show More
Related

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Little Control in Hamlet

    804 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though Hamlet is a prince, he has little control over the course of his life. In that time many things were decided for the princes and princesses such as their education and even who they married. This was more or less the normal way of life for a child of the monarch. But in the case of Hamlet, any of the control he thought he had, fell away with the murder of his father. Having his father, the king, be killed by his own brother, sent Hamlet into a state of feeling helpless and out of control. Cooped up in a palace with no real outlet, he tries to control at least one aspect of his life. Hamlet deliberately toys with Ophelia's emotions in order to feel in control of something since he cannot control the situation with Claudius.

    Read More

  • Macbeth - Conflict

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    Initially MACBETH is seen as a great soldier, a fearless fighter who has loyally defended his King against a treacherous rebellion. However, he is corrupted by evil in the form of three witches and their supernatural prophecies, and by ambition, not so much his own at first but by Lady Macbeth's ambition for him to murder Duncan, thus attaining the crown of Scotland.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Lonely Hamlet

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet’s decision to keep the murder of his father a secret to himself, along with the betrayals of many of his close friends and family, leads to his eventual downfall. If someone was there for him, whether it was his mother Gertrude, his girlfriend Ophelia, or Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, maybe his timeless death could have been prevented. Instead, his mother sides with Claudius who wants to kill him, Ophelia won’t go behind her father, Polonius’, back to be with him and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go behind Hamlet’s back and spy on him for Claudius.

    Read More

  • Macbeth - Manipulation

    945 Words  | 2 Pages

    When we first hear about Macbeth from the sergeant’s report, we are led to believe that he is very much a person who does only what he believes is right. Furthermore, when he first appears in the play, his fellow nobleman, Banquo, accompanies him. Given this, we would think that he does what is right, and makes all his own decisions. However this belief is proven wrong. Although Macbeth starts off as a loyal subject of Duncan, he is ambitious and this is a weakness, which allows him to be manipulated by a few factors in the play.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Hamlet Interpreted

    517 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is clear Hamlet can be interpreted from a multitude of perspectives on numerous levels. I cannot quite grasp Mr. Bloom's contention that this is a work of near biblical importance nor can I accept his allusions to Jesus or the Buddha. "Hamlet remains apart; something transcendent about him places him more aptly with the biblical King David, or with even more exalted scriptural figures."(Bloom, 384). My immediate response is that when Mr. Bloom shuffles off this mortal coil, I don't believe Billy Shakespeare will be waiting with a pint of ale.

    Read More

  • Macbeth: Corruption of Power

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Macbeth's desire to become king is strongly supported by his wife, Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is a highly ambitious woman who, like her husband, is willing to do anything to obtain power. Shakespeare uses a series of imagery to vividly portray the desire for power in Lady Macbeth's soliloquy: “Come, you spirits/That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty!” To achieve her ambition, Lady Macbeth urges Macbeth “to catch the nearest way.” This means she wants him to kill Duncan so that he can become king. However, she fears that Macbeth is “too full o' th' milk of human kindness” to “catch the nearest way.” When Macbeth is reluctant to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth starts attacking his masculinity. “Then you were a man,” she said. Lady Macbeth also uses the power of emotional blackmail to manipulate Macbeth into killing Duncan.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Deceit and the Downfall of Hamlet

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    Deceit is a major cause of the downfall of Hamlet. This is demonstrated in three instances in the play. First, Polonius spies on Hamlet while he is talking privately with his mother Gertrude. Second, Claudius sends Hamlet away to England. Finally, Laertes and Claudius scheme to kill Hamlet.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: The Great Actor in Hamlet

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is sane, not insane.  He is putting on an act making people think that he is really insane when he is really just acting.  Hamlet was ordered to avenge his fathers death by his father's spirit.  The spirit told Hamlet that how he died.  The spirit said that he was sleepong in his garden when the uncle came and poured poison into his ear.  The spirit told Hamlet to avenge his death by killing his uncle.   Hamlet wanted to prove that his uncle really killed his father.  His uncle married his mother shortly after the murder of Hamlets father.  I think Hamlet is crying inside beacuse he suspects what really happened.

    Read More

  • Macbeth - Shakespeare

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    1.) Banquo’s attitude at the beginning to Macbeth having become King, is one of suspicion. He suspects Macbeth had something to do with it.

    Read More

  • Macbeth's Desire For Power

    1584 Words  | 4 Pages

    Macbeth is a brave general who fights for his country Scotland, defeating the King of Norway. He is loyal to his king Duncan, but Macbeth has ambition to take over the kingdom for himself. He has lots of doubts of if he is doing the right thing, but still murders Duncan and then Banquo who is another general who fought with Macbeth. These murders and guilt about his treason are leading Macbeth to become insane. This essay shows that although Macbeth’s strong desire for power is influenced by the three witches in the play and also the planning and ambition of his wife Lady Macbeth, in the end he is responsible for his self-destruction.

    Read More

  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, Macbeth loses his sense of integrity slowly throughout the play until he has none remaining. Macbeth is introduced as a valourous and successful general. His drive for power, however, causes him to taint the perfect image of himself he has created. Once the witches flaunt the idea of being king in front of the man, his natural impulse to gain power and prestige is ignited and he begins a rampage in order to achieve his goal. Its this human quest for power that causes his mind to disregard truths he once held selfevident, such as valour, loyalty and patriotism, giving way to a cruel wrath. The goal of increased power causes Macbeth’s mind to distort his morality and make diabolical deciscions, such as killing the king he once loved so dearly. Futhermore, the threat of losing power also causes Macbeth great mental distress and leads to further loss of loyalty and morality. He fears Banquo is plotting against him shortly after his coronation and hires murderers to kill his old best friend. This demonstrates Macbeth’s paranoia being placed above rationality, due to his fear of losing power. “ We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it;”(III,ii,15). This quotation demonstrates Macbeth’s desire to hold on to his fleeting power by illustrating that he does not feel safe in his current position. He is prepared to defy his moral compass and loyalty and kill those he loves...

    Read More

  • Macbeth by William Shakespeare

    1445 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by questioning his manhood. She insists: “When you durst do it, then you were a man”. Macbeth is a proud soldier, in a culture where men are defined by their courage and masculinity. By challenging his manhood, Lady Macbeth is in effect questioning his professional and social status. Furthermore, the slur becomes all the more effective, coming as it does from the one person who should surely be a source of admiration and tenderness rather than humiliation. It is clear that Lady Macbeth’s affections are conditional and, unless he meets her expectations, she will continue to deny his role as a protector and husband. Seeing a king being humiliated by a female would have made the Elizabethan audience particularly uncomfortable, especially given the strong patriarchal society of the time. To recap, Lady Macbeth attacks Macbeth’s masculinity to manipulate him into doing what she wants.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Hamlet's Inability to Take Action

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hamlet

    1500 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet’s plan of faking insanity to avenge his father’s death eventually backfires and he winds up hurting those closest to him. What began as feigned madness slowly becomes reality. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet could be characterized as a respectful, well-mannered son who is mourning the death of his father and shows signs of depression. In the end of the play, Hamlet turns into an irrational, unforgiving maniac who is unaware of the complete and utter chaos that he inflicts on himself and everyone he loves. Instead of controlling his “antic disposition”, Hamlet's antic disposition controls him, resulting in tragedy and death.

    Read More

  • Women in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ophelia is manipulated by Hamlet to display to the King and the rest of the court that he is in fact mad. When Hamlet enters her room wearing disheveled clothing and acting quite strange towards her, he knows that Ophelia will tell her father and the King. Ophelia then reports this strange occurrence to her father, telling him about his strange composure of taking her “by the wrist and” holding her hard and then “shaking” when he was about to let go. (Act 2, Scene 1 Lines 86-91) The team of Polonius and the King also exploits Ophelia in order to dig deeper into Hamlet’s madness.

    Read More

More about Free Hamlet Essays: Hamlet’s Fatal Mistake

Open Document