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Hamlet's tragic flaws
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In “Hamlet';; Literary Remains, Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes Hamlet as an intricate planner who’s thought process is slow and methodical. He describes Hamlet as someone having “Supercilious activities…of the mind, which, unseated from its healthy relation, is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without…throwing a mist over all common-place actualities.'; Cooleridge is explaining the fact that Hamlet seems to always be in his own fantasy world when it comes to thinking about things that are going on in his life. Hamlet appears to be very caught up in his own thoughts that he doesn’t have the time or ability to carry out his plans efficiently and effectively. Cooleridge contrasts Shakespeare’s use of a tragedy in Hamlet to the play MacBeth. Cooleridge shows that Hamlet proceeds in his schemes with the utmost slowness, while MacBeth has a pace that is crowded and moves with breathless rapididty. These two plays with themes of Greed and Revenge are both rooted in the same systems of belief but are carried out in totally different directions. Cooleridge goes on to say that perfection is usually only found in one’s mind and is rare if impossible to find in reality. This is again shown through the fact that Hamlet’s planning seems to take a backseat to luck and fate as the others end up dying from the poison, which they had planned to use against Hamlet. Cooleridge also stresses the inconsistency of Hamlet and his plans for revenge throughout the play. One minute the audience believes that he cares greatly for Ophelia, and the next minute we see him showing a sort of disrespect for her at her funeral.
Hamlet: Hamlet's Sanity & nbsp; & nbsp; “Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do. their bounds divide.” Though John Dryden's quote was not made in regard to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, it relates very well to the argument of whether or not Hamlet went insane. When a character such as Hamlet is under scrutiny, it can sometimes be difficult to determine what state he is in at. particular moments in the play.
Much of the dramatic action of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet is within the head of the main character, Hamlet. His wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled, mocking, nature of his mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love, as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishes for consummation and annihilation. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears, and also polite badinage.
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.
As human beings we are bound to be flawed & bound to act upon one’s natural instincts without foreseeing the effects those actions carried by us will bring. In William Shakespeare “The Tragedy of Hamlet” we are brought upon the true affect a death has brought towards a prince, not being just any death but of its father who has returned as a spirit to let hamlet acknowledge that he was murdered by his Uncle Claudius. Rage has filled this young soul and the desire to revenge his father takes him to what most of his family believes is insanity. He is tormented by a decision he’s yet to accomplish of making his father’s murderer who’s now married to his mother pay or to let him live and betray his word of vengeance he promised his father. According to Samuel Taylor Coleridge Hamlet is both “amiable and excellent in nature” but with one quality of waiting to long and not taking true actions, what Coleridge fails to acknowledge is that Hamlet is not made to be a perfected character he is flawed with sensitivity, a vulgar approach and a
Sometimes, revenge can be utterly nasty and repeated. A Serbian patriot once slayed an Austrian archduke to exact his revenge for Austria’s occupation of his land. Austria retaliated by starting World War I. After the war, the Allied powers took revenge by enforcing massive fines and taking away land from the defeated countries. One of them was Germany. This led to Hitler’s rise to power and took revenge against France by making them sign their surrender in the same train where Germany gave up in World War I. Following World War II, Germany was obligated to repair some of the damage done by paying war reparations to the Allies and Jewish people after the war. When countries recur to revenge, history reiterates, more often than not, it means war. On a smaller scale, in Hamlet, the prince of Denmark begins an inner war that provokes quite significant inner struggles as well as an outer war with Claudius to avenge his father’s death. William Shakespeare masterfully portrays Hamlet, whose experiences and emotions drive him to alternate between the realms of sanity and insanity to achieve his ambition. As the ancient proverb states, “desperate times call for desperate measures.” These “desperate times” include the murder of his father Hamlet Senior, King of the Danes, by his malicious uncle, Claudius, the seeming suicide of his love, Ophelia, his mother's quick remarriage to Claudius after his father's death.
“To be or not to be, that is the question.” It is a well-known quote from Hamlet who was created by Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is known as a great poet, playwright, and actor. He had written about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and many other writings (Bevington, 1). He was not only a playwright, but also he was the father of 1,380 characters (Bevington, 2), including Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, Claudio, Prospero and Henry V. Shakespeare successfully created different characters and each of them had their unique personalities. Most of the well-known characters were not only alive in the plays, but also their characteristics could be found in the reality.
"Hamlet was undoubtedly and incredible intellectual and throughout the play thoughts in his mind came too quickly for the actions of his body to keep up with"(Stokes 92). This intellectual quality provided a roadblock for Hamlet taking a quick revenge on Claudius. Nearly all of Hamlet's actions with the exception of his outburst at Ophelia's grave were carefully preplanned and precisely calculated. "His inborn thought process prolonged his revenge, and while Hamlet may have appeared sluggish with inaction, the wheels in his mind never stopped turning"(Stokes 92). Hamlet questioned everything. He may have thought too much for his own good at times, he wrestled with many ideas, thoughts, and feeling over the course of the play, delaying any real action until the time, in his eyes, was right. Hamlet questioned the validity of his own father's ghost.
In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” there are many different events throughout the play that affect and shape the main character Hamlet. The biggest event being when Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, the king, who then proceeds to tell him that his uncle murdered him. This event will lead Hamlet to madness with sanity while plotting his revenge on his uncle which will ultimately end in his, his uncle and several other’s deaths at the end of the play.
One of William Shakespeare’s greatest works is a play entitled Hamlet. This play is about Prince Hamlet whose father, the king, was killed by his Uncle, Claudius, who then took the throne. Shortly after the death of his father, Gertrude, his mother, married Claudius. His father comes back as a ghost and tells him about the murder and asks him to seek revenge on Claudius. This is when a great controversy arises that is debatable to this day. Hamlet begins to act mad to set up his revenge on Claudius. The question is, does Hamlet still truly possess his sanity, or is he really mad?
Hamlet lead his life in circles, never comfortable enough with his current conditions to settle down. The crisis’ placed upon him were never resolved, because he couldn’t handle decisions, leading to a severe downfall in his family’s life. Such demise began in a terrace of the palace Hamlet called home, with a sighting of a ghost that foreshadowed troubles in the near future.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the king of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and as a ghost tells his son, Hamlet the prince of Denmark, to avenge him by killing his brother. The price Hamlet does agree to his late father’s wishes, and undertakes the responsibility of killing his uncle, Claudius. However even after swearing to his late father, and former king that he would avenge him; Hamlet for the bulk of the play takes almost no action against Claudius. Prince Hamlet in nature is a man of thought throughout the entirety of the play; even while playing mad that is obvious, and although this does seem to keep him alive, it is that same trait that also keeps him from fulfilling his father’s wish for vengeance
Hamlet's problem is not exact; it cannot be pinpointed. In fact, Hamlet has numerous problems that contribute to his dilemma. The first of these problems is the appearance of King Hamlet's ghost to his son, Hamlet. Hamlet's morality adds a great deal to his delay in murdering the current king, Claudius. One of Hamlet's biggest drawbacks is that he tends to think things out too much. Hamlet does not act on instinct; however, he makes certain that every action is premeditated. Hamlet suffers a great deal from melancholy; this in turn causes him to constantly second guess himself. The Ghost is the main cause of Hamlet's melancholy. Also, Hamlet's melancholy helps to clear up certain aspects of the play. These are just a few of the problems that Hamlet encounters throughout his ordeal.
To begin with, many scholars have suggested that Hamlet’s motives directly correlate to Shakespeare’s own life and experiences. With such an intricate work of literature, it is easily assumed that "anything which will give us the key to the inner meaning of Hamlet will necessarily provide a clue to much of the deeper workings of Shakespeare’s mind" (Jones 25). While this may be true, one cannot necessarily assume that unlocking Hamlet’s motives and frame of mind will bring us closer to William Shakespeare, as a person and personality. Rather, it is safe to say that in exploring Hamlet’s intentions, one can find insight into the mentality of Shakespeare; the ideas which he molded into the character of Hamlet, in order to build the persona which he used to explore the subject of revenge. Like with many great works, a reader cannot always assume that the main character is modeled after the author who penned it. This is a biased way to look at literature, and often detracts from the piece as a whole. One should only take that the ideas portrayed in the work are those that stemmed from the writer’s mind, and therefore links the dramatist with the piece, as in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
There are many reasons why Hamlet had his downfall. One being his decision to keeping the murder of his father a secret. Another one being the betrayals of his closest friends. Perhaps if Guildenstern or Rosencrantz had been there for Hamlet, to rely and place trust upon, he might not had to fell so alone. A little sympathy from his girlfriend Ophelia, and even his mother Gertrude would have been nice as well. Unfortunately Ophelia is held back from Hamlet, due to her father. Gertrude marries his uncle Claudius, who is responsible for his fathers death, and is looking to kill him next. And Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are ordered by Claudius to spy on Hamlet, and betray him as a friend.
Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” is a subtle reflection on the political and religious atmosphere of the early 1600’s and late 1500’s, that was dominated with conversation of the successor to the throne of England, and their religious denomination. Hamlet was written with the intention of mimicking the political world and all its machinations from treachery, duties to family, religion and country. Hamlet, begins with armies being mobilized to the threat of an invasion from Norway, helmed by Fortinbras, like the rumors that the eventual successor James VI would need to take the throne by force. Soon after, this we have Hamlet and his father’s ghost, they converse on the details of his untimely death at the hands of his brother Claudius. In this