Guilt In Hamlet Essay

Hamlet and Fifth Business: The Theme of Guilt One particular human emotion can cripple humans mentally and physically. It can cause people to do things they do not want to do. It can lead them to twist the truth and lie not only to themselves, but people around them as well. It is something that they cannot hide. It is more like a disease, however, it is better known as guilt. Along with guilt, comes dishonesty, shamefulness, peculiar behavior, and even suicidal thoughts. Guilt is a recurring theme in both Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business and William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Every individual will experience guilt sometime in their life, but it is how they cope and handle it that defines who they are. Humans must face the feeling of guilt, accept

This again, reflects the fact that he is guilty for not avenging his father’s death. Like Dunstable, Hamlet lets his guilt take over his life, as he is invariably thinking about revenge. He pretends to be mad, so Claudius would not raise suspicion of him. He allows this sense of guilt and urgency to take revenge to take over his life, and be the reason for his actions. For example Hamlet befriends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and eventually causes their deaths, as he makes changes to the letter. In a series of events, Hamlet kills Polonius and feels no remorse for it. This shows how destructive and evil minded he has become. Hamlet feels no guilt for Polonius’ murder, and this is why karma hits him back. By killing Polonius, he causes Ophelia to go mad and that is eventually the reason for her demise. Hamlet returns to Denmark and discovers that Ophelia has died, and this is when the reader realizes Hamlet’s true feelings towards Ophelia. He says “I lov’d Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum…” (5.1.270-73) Hamlet feels guilty because he has not expressed his love lately for Ophelia due to his “fake madness.” He feels guilty for not loving Ophelia and realizes it is his fault that she has died. Seemingly, both Dunstable and Ramsay are very similar characters as they both do not try to cope with their guilt, but instead, they let the

Both Percy Boyd Staunton and Claudius are very similar. They are both power hungry and will do anything to make it to the top. Boy shows his dedication to succeed by saying “if you don’t hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you’ll get.” (Davies 120-21) This quote explains how if one does not take action, fate will take determine what you get. Different from Claudius, Boy captures his power and status legally, without hurting anyone, but through determination and hard work. However they both feel guilt and they both try to conceal their guilt, by not thinking about it and ignoring it, but eventually they cannot hide it any longer. In the end Dunstan confronts Boy about the snowball but Boy denies it, he says “I threw the snowball-at least you say so, and for argument’s sake let that go-and you dodged it. It precipitated into something which was probably going to happen anyhow. The difference between us is that you’ve brooded over it and I’ve forgotten it.” This quote shows how Boy tries to forget about the incident, and it shows how he makes excuses that it would have happened anyway. This is a way for Boy to mask his guilt. However, the confrontation with Boy and Eisengrim has made him realize the truth, the truth