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Shakespeare Hamlet as a tragedy essay
Shakespeare Hamlet as a tragedy essay
Analytical essay on the play hamlet
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William Shakespeare is known for his dark, romantic theatrical productions, and an example of Shakespeare’s world renowned work is the play Hamlet. In this play there are a variety of characters that contribute to the play’s plot and tones. For example, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravedigger include comedic relief to certain tones in the plot whereas Claudius, Laertes, and Fortinbras provide a sense of dark, sinister deceit within the plot. The main character, Hamlet, contributes to the play in a distinct way because he is portrayed in two different ways. The first way he is portrayed he is seen as the heir to the throne who is full of sorrow for his father’s death and distaste for his mother’s quick remarriage. Yet, Hamlet takes it upon himself One of the main reasons Hamlet’s madness is undeniably real is because he shows signs of mental instability long before he develops his plan to avenge his father’s death by fabricating a new personality. In the opening acts of the play Shakespeare provides a soliloquy for Hamlet that reveals the true thoughts, emotions, and feelings he possesses. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy he proclaims “His canon ‘gainst (self-slaughter!) O God, God,//Seem to me all the uses of this world!/ Fie on ‘t, ah fie! ‘Tis an unweeded garden” ( I.ii.136-139). Shakespeare uses a metaphor within Hamlet’s soliloquy to compare how Hamlet’s world is dreadful and unfavorable similar to the defected weeds of the earth. This metaphor enhances the dark, pessimistic view Hamlet has on his life and his situation, and it reveals Hamlet’s raw depression because he only feels despair and misery. Hamlet views the world through a negative lens because he feels like he is alone in the world mourning his father’s death while everyone else is busy celebrating his mother’s remarriage to his uncle. This causes Hamlet to contemplate self-slaughter or suicide because his heartache is too strong for him to withstand alone, and his suicidal thoughts symbolize how mentally unstable he is even before he discovers the murder behind his father’s death. Another example of how Hamlet was mad long before it was part of his plan The main reason he wants to be seen as weak is so that those people in position of power like Claudius and Polonius would undermine him. Thus, Hamlet only plans to act crazy whenever Polonius and Claudius are around him. However, Hamlet shows his mad or crazy behavior even when they are not around. For example, when Hamlet confronted Ophelia he did not know that Polonius or Claudius were listening in on their conversation. Yet, he still continued to act mad towards Ophelia by telling her “ You should not have believed me, for virtue / cannot so (inoculate) our old stock but we shall / relish of it. I loved you not.” (III.i.127-129). These cold and harsh words state a completely different attitude than his previous behaviors and tones he used when addressing Ophelia. This break up along with his father’s death adds even more misery than Hamlet expected to take, and that caused him to take an offensive stance against Ophelia. Hamlet genuinely reacts mad and crazed towards Ophelia even though he knows no one else but him and Ophelia are in the room, but the reader is able to understand that Claudius and Polonius are eavesdropping. This is an example of Shakespeare’s use of dramatic irony, and it enriches this scene because it illustrates that Hamlet’s madness is real. Thus, Hamlet maintains disturbed and unhinged qualities towards people
He is mentally disturbed by the thought of his uncle killing his father to the point where he loses touch with sanity. Hamlet is a tragedy that will never have a straightforward answer as to if he faked being crazy or not. My belief is that Hamlet had in fact lost touch with reality. The slow decline of his mental health throughout lead me to believe he did go crazy, even if he might have been faking it at first. After seeing his father’s ghost, I believe he started acting like he had lost his mind to blame his future actions on the fact that he was crazy. I also believe he truly did lose his mind shortly after when he found out about Claudius murdering his
Hamlet only claims madness because it allows him to say and perform actions he otherwise would be prohibited from, while keeping people from taking his actions seriously. This seems to be part of his initial plan that is first mentioned when he asks Horatio and Marcellus not to make any remarks in relation to his ?antic disposition (1.5.192).? Hamlet?s madness allows him to talk to Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia, and Polonius in a manner unsuitable for a prince. He is often disrespectful and insulting in his remarks. Although his acting backfires during his speech to Gertrude, Hamlet is able to severely criticize her for her actions because she thinks he is insane. During the play he also makes many sexual innuendos and even blatantly sexual remarks towards Ophelia such as ?That?s a fair thought to lie between maids? legs (3.2.125).? His convincing insanity act gives him the chance to vent his anger towards Ophelia for her abandonment.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare utilizes his ability to use words to paint emotion, the story, and characters into the readers mind. Shakespeare creates the memorable character of Hamlet Junior in his poem, Hamlet, through the characteristics of insanity and madness and suicidal tendencies or thoughts of suicide. His capability of doing so enlarges the ability of the reader to understand the story, but also to construct the storyline.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, must seek revenge for the murder of his father. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to murder Claudius. Throughout the play, Hamlet becomes more and more believable in his act, even convincing his mother that he is crazy. However, through his thoughts, and actions, the reader can see that he is in fact putting up an act, he is simply simulating insanity to help fulfil his fathers duty of revenge. Throughout the play, Hamlet shows that he understands real from fake, right from wrong and his enemies from his friends. Even in his madness, he retorts and is clever in his speech and has full understanding of what if going on around him. Most importantly, Hamlet does not think like that of a person who is mad. Hamlet decides to portray an act of insanity, as part of his plan to seek revenge for his fathers murder.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
At first, Hamlet is successful, and society is convinced Ophelia is the reason for his madness, thus granting Hamlet more time to plot Claudius’s murder. This is achieved in Hamlet’s “to be or not to be speech” [3,1,57] when Claudius and Polonius spy on the conversation between Hamlet and Ophelia. During the Act, Ophelia displays traits of dishonesty and Hamlet uses this to his benefit and appears to go insane to convince Ophelia, Claudius and Polonius that Ophelia is responsible for his madness. Hamlet insists his madness is an “antic disposition” [1,5,179] and that “Thou this be madness, yet there is method in it”. [2,2,204] In the play, Hamlet uses his “antic disposition” [1,5,179] to refuse Ophelia’s affections, which is powerfully portrayed when he exclaims to her “get thee to a nunnery.” [3,1,138] By denying Ophelia’s love, Hamlet’s power in the relationship is effectively demonstrated, and it is shown he is in control of their relationship. In addition, this is reflected in Ophelia’s self-destruction, as she has no purpose to live a life without Hamlet or a man. Overall, Hamlet is successful in using his power over Ophelia for the sake of his
More tragic play The tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark is the most popular works of William Shakespeare. Probably the popularity of this play lies in the use of character of Hamlet in exemplifying the human mind through its complex workings. Hamlet’s internal dilemma of making the decision whether he should revenge the death of his father or not was a crucial turn in his life as the state of mind was the main reason which effected the decision power one makes in his life. His uncle Claudius was the one who murdered his father and the moment when the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and asks Hamlet as to when the revenge of his foul and most unnatural murder is to take place. From this point onward Hamlet is under a constant dilemma. He does not find himself ready to take the revenge. If Hamlet had killed Claudius at the first opportunity than the revenge would have been taken but his internal dilemma would have never been solved. This play became very popular and the reason for the popularity was Shakespeare’s use of the character Hamlet and through this character he has tried to exemplify the complex workings of human’s mind. Shakespeare used emotion, reason and attitude of Hamlet to allow the readers to form an opinion or make a judgment about the basic aspects of the life of human beings. The reason the prince could not take the revenge of his father’s death was that he was a man of great moral integrity and to take revenge was an act which was against his deepest principals. Some of the other behaviors of the prince was that after the death of his father Hamlet became so disenchanted with his life that he lost all his desire and will to take any kind of revenge. Due to the delay in revenge Shakespeare was able to develop th...
A debate on whether or not the madness of Hamlet, was legitimate or feigned. However, it may also be true that Hamlet slipped into madness due to his depression which was caused by several factors to include the murder of his father Hamlet Senior by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius or the seeming suicide of his love, Ophelia or his mother's quick remarriage to Claudius after his father's death. His madness could have been triggered by any one of these, but can it be proved that his madness was legitimate? Because in the end he blames his madness for his wrong doing and assumes that all will be forgiven because he has claims that he’s cured from his madness. He does not want to be held countable on his tragic action on murdering Laertes father, Polonius.
As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
Hamlet’s mourning about the death of his father and the remarriage of his mother drives him to madness. This is the main characters inner tragedy that Shakespeare expresses in the play. First he considers suicide but the ghost of King Hamlet sends him on a different path, directing him to revenge his death. Shakespeare uses Hamlet to articulate his thoughts about life, death and revenge. Being a moral character he must decide if revenge is the right thing to do. Shakespeare relays many scenarios of reasoning to the audience about mankind His hero sets the wrongs on mankind right again.
In the play Hamlet, Hamlet mentions to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that “Denmark’s a prison.”(Act 2 Scene 2 Line 262) Throughout the play, it is made apparent that there is no physical entity that is imprisoning Hamlet. Rather, Hamlet is mentally imprisoned by his mind. Throughout the play, Hamlet is physically free to do many things, but his mind traps him into taking action on some things and prevents him from doing other things. He does not wish to murder Claudius but is bound by vow to commit the act. Whenever he wishes to commit suicide, his beliefs prevent him from doing so. Throughout the play, Hamlet feels as if he is in a prison, as he is being constantly watched by everybody.
Will Hamlet avenge his father’s death? Who killed King Hamlet? Is Hamlet really mad? These are the things that keeps the reader intrigued throughout Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, is shown to be the tragic hero of the play. A tragic hero is a literary character who makes a judgement error that inevitably leads to his or her own destruction. A Greek philosopher, by the name of Aristotle, said that any tragic hero must have a tragic flaw. Hamlet is a perfect example of a tragic hero because of the many tragic flaws he has. Hamlet also experiences suffering in the play and he also learns lessons. The tragic hero is an important character; without one, there wouldn’t be a tragic play.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.
Although Hamlet has many significant soliloquies throughout the play, two show very different sides of Hamlet’s character to the naked eye. His “O all you host…” soliloquy portrays an enraged, passionate Hamlet while his “O, what a rogue…” demonstrates how Hamlet’s rationality has stopped him from taking action. Both soliloquies use dark diction, vivid, scholarly imagery and syntax to characterize Hamlet, and portray common Shakespearean themes of revenge and deception.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.