Hamlet Analytical Essay

Trying to classify a literary work can prove to be quite a pain. Trying to fit a unique piece into a rigidly structured template which we call genres is just bound for failure. Take Hamlet for example. Many people are so quick to call it a tragedy, and then call it a day. It’s hard to argue, since from the very first line, "Who's there?", we're dumped into a world of uncertainty, anxiety, and the possibility of ghosts. Aside from the comedic relief provided through the gravediggers, Hamlet is a dark play full of suspicion and betrayal. The audience is constantly faced with soliloquies from Hamlet about mortality, betrayal, and the futility of life, only to end with his death. However, there is so much more to Hamlet than what we see. Each action,

It shaped literature for centuries to come. The mystery surrounding death was most definitely in the minds of many. Shakespeare decided to play with these emotions. In the aftermath of his father’s murder, Hamlet becomes obsessed with the idea of death. He ponders both the spiritual aftermath of death, embodied in the ghost, and the physical remainders of the dead, such as by Yorick’s skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery. Hamlet hopes that death may bring the answers to his deepest questions, ending once and for all the problem of trying to determine the truth. And, since death is both the cause and the consequence of revenge, it is intimately tied to the theme of revenge and justice—Claudius’s murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet’s quest for revenge, and Claudius’s death is the end of that

A subtle motif of incestuous desire can be found in the relationship of Laertes and Ophelia, as Laertes sometimes speaks to his sister in suggestively sexual terms and, at her funeral, leaps into her grave to hold her in his arms. However, the strongest overtones of incestuous desire arise in the relationship of Hamlet and Gertrude, in Hamlet’s fixation on Gertrude’s sex life with Claudius and his preoccupation with her in general.

Misogyny

Shattered by his mother’s decision to marry Claudius so soon after her husband’s death, Hamlet becomes cynical about women in general, showing a particular obsession with what he perceives to be a connection between female sexuality and moral corruption. This motif of misogyny, or hatred of women, occurs sporadically throughout the play, but it is an important inhibiting factor in Hamlet’s relationships with Ophelia and Gertrude. He urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery rather than experience the corruptions of sexuality and exclaims of Gertrude, “Frailty, thy name is woman.”

Ears and