Hamlet: The Modern Day Tragedy

993 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Comparing hamlet to other works of literature

In modern day society, nothing is as valuable as it was once believed. Respect is now a figment of the imagination and other values and morals that were once instilled in all are slowly starting to be corrupted or either vanished. Some things society considers acceptable now was heavily frowned upon in the past. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare displays a tragedy and its effects through complex dialogue of Hamlet, which can directly be associated with similar events we experience today.

Hamlet’s tragedy is reflected everyday in various forms. Reality TV has made life’s events a skeptical for everyday enjoyment. Modern day shows like “The Maury Provich Show” highlight demoralizing actions and publicize them for compensation. Negative actions such as betrayal, incest, and revenge are being broadcast through cable television everyday for watchers at home. These same events are what Shakespeare cleverly developed into the fuel for Hamlet’s anger, and the reason for his quest for revenge.

Shakespeare’s method of storytelling leads readers to believe he is a man before his time. The episodes Hamlet encounters show that Shakespeare seems to have an insight on the precise nature of those who would experience similar circumstances today. In fact, one can infer that Hamlet’s reactions could be described as human nature. According to Michael Cameron Andrews, “Hamlet is not an individual at all, but everyman, haunted by the fear of being dead, and burdened by original sin” (Andrews). In present day, when a person experiences situations such as Hamlet, their actions aren’t usually premeditated. Their reactions are usually just acts of confusion, hurt, and other mixed emotions which drive the person to do something that could put both themse...

... middle of paper ...

...zen Harris. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research, 1984. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

Klein, Holger. "Hamlet: Overview." Reference Guide to English Literature. Ed. D. L. Kirkpatrick. 2nd ed. Chicago: St. James Press, 1991. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

Showalter, Elaine. "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism." Shakespeare and the Question of Theory. Ed. Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman. 1985. 77-94. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Dana Ramel Barnes. Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

Skulsky, Harold. "Revenge, Honor, and Conscience in Hamlet." PMLA 85.1 (Jan. 1970): 78-87. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Dana Ramel Barnes. Vol. 35. Detroit: Gale Research, 1997. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

Show More
Related

  • To Be or Not To Be Loved

    1398 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Madden, Frank. Exploring Literature. 4th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print 539-663

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Hamlet

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet is a character that we love to read about and analyze. His character is so realistic, and he is so romantic and idealistic that it is hard not to like him. He is the typical young scholar facing the harsh reality of the real world. In this play, Hamlet has come to a time in his life where he has to see things as they really are. Hamlet is an initiation story. Mordecai Marcus states "some initiations take their protagonists across a threshold of maturity and understanding but leave them enmeshed in a struggle for certainty"(234).  And this is what happens to Hamlet.

    Read More

  • Self Doubt in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    795 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Shakespeare is widely known for his ability to take a sad story, illustrate it with words, and make it a tragedy. Usually human beings include certain discrepancies in their personalities that can at times find them in undesirable or difficult situations. However, those that are exemplified in Shakespeare’s tragedies include “character flaws” which are so destructive that they eventually cause their downfall. For example, Prince Hamlet, of Shakespeare’s tragedy play “Hamlet,” is seemingly horrified by what the ghost of his father clarifies concerning his death. Yet the actions executed by Hamlet following this revelation do not appear to coincide with the disgust he expresses immediately after the ghost alerts him of the true cause of his death. Thus, it is apparent that the instilled self doubt of Prince Hamlet is as the wand that Shakespeare uses to transform an otherwise sad story to an unfortunate tragedy.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Fear in Hamlet

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    Goldman, Michael. "Hamlet and Our Problems." Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Hamlet. Ed. David Scott Kaston. New York City: Prentice Hall International. 1995. 43-55

    Read More

  • A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

    1266 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: Norton, 2013.1709-1804. Print.

    Read More

  • Fathers and Sons in Hamlet

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    Boklund, Gunnar. "Hamlet." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.

    Read More

  • Justification of Death in Hamlet

    2588 Words  | 6 Pages

    Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.

    Read More

  • Theme of Revenge in Literature and Movies

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Hamlet Shakespeare is able to use revenge in an extremely skillful way that gives us such deep insight into the characters. It is an excellent play that truly shows the complexity of humans. You can see in Hamlet how the characters are willing to sacrifice t...

    Read More

  • Hamlet, The Protagonist

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    As often associated with a tragedy, a conflict usually ensues between a protagonist and another force in the play. A tragedy is ‘a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror’ (Webster's dictionary). Given its structure and depth in characterization, this play will or can be analyzed and interpreted from various perspectives and beliefs. However, my analysis of the play is conducted on the basis of various components which are: Hamlet as a tragic hero, the ironic message conveyed in the play, the roles of its characters, the role and personification of madness, the role of paranormality, the role of friends and family, the role of inaction, the role of sex and violence, and the role of death as portrayed in the play. Based on literary definitions and portrayal of his character, there is popular belief that Hamlet as the protagonist acted to satisfy his own conscience but could his actions be attributed purely to his desire or was he being influenced by other factors?

    Read More

  • Hamlet’s Madness

    1882 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bristol, Michael D. “The Customary and the Ethical: Understanding Hamlet’s Bad Habits.” Shakespeare Studies 40 (2012): 70–76. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Condemned: Hamlet’s Moral Dilemma

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.

    Read More

  • Hamlet- A Revenge Tragedy

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: A Tragic Hero

    685 Words  | 2 Pages

    The tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most popular and greatest tragedy, presents his genius as a playwright and includes many numbers of themes and literary techniques. In all tragedies, the main character, called a tragic hero, suffers and usually dies at the end. Prince Hamlet is a model example of a Shakespearean tragic hero. Every tragedy must have a tragic hero. A tragic hero must own many good traits, but has a flaw that ultimately leads to his downfall. If not for this tragic flaw, the hero would be able to survive at the end of the play. A tragic hero must have free will and also have the characteristics of being brave and noble. In addition, the audience must feel some sympathy for the tragic hero.

    Read More

  • Hamlet as the Tragic Hero

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hamlet – A Psychological Drama

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...World of Hamlet.” Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: Oxford University P., 1967.

    Read More

More about Hamlet: The Modern Day Tragedy

Open Document