Hamlet by William Shakespeare

736 Words2 Pages

Transcending its own context, Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Hamlet, has reached beyond its 17th century Elizabethan context to still be relevant today. Many believe it is not the play that changes, but the audience that views them. Despite this, Hamlet is still viewed today in a similar manner as a significantly noteworthy play, exploring issues involving corruption in society as well as one's inner struggle to maintain morality, of which are still relevant in contemporary, 21st century society. It is through the corruption of the state and the characterisation of Hamlet and his struggles which Shakespeare utilises to make transcending observations about the human condition, portraying an array of contextual values, consequently deeming it highly worthy of a critical study.

Hamlet's struggle between his consciousness and instincts reveal an insight into the human condition and values which are still pertinent today. Written during the period between the medieval world and Renaissance culture, Shakespeare challenges the structures outlined by Aristotle and Senecan revenge tragedies through his characterisation of Hamlet. Hamlet's inability to act is predominately caused by his inner struggle as a scholar and as a son wanting to avenge his father, revealed through "the time is out of joint. O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!". Cursing his own fate, Shakespeare utilises the rhyme to emphasise Hamlet's reluctance to carry out the revenge. Further depicted in "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all", Hamlet's consciousness is what causes his inner struggle to take action. Hamlet, as a young humanist, is conscious of how his rational beliefs prevent him from achieving his goals which require savagery inducing h...

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...otif of diseases to portray the underlying social corruption. Accentuated through the irony in "Diseases desperate grown by desperate appliance are relieved, or not at all", the recurring motif of diseases is again used to exemplify the drastic nature of corruption which has spread and the drastic means needed to be taken to rid the state of venality. Written during a period in which society believed in the natural order of the world, it was common ideology that the king was closely tied to the state. The metaphor in "A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forged process of my death" further reflects these values and reinforces the idea of corruption, underpinning the entire play. Shakespeare weaves throughout Hamlet the concept of corruption, which is correspondingly still evident in today's society to establish a play worthy of a critical study.

Hamlet by WIlliam Shakespeare
1044 Words | 3 Pages
William Shakespeare was a Stratford Grammar School boy, who was a member of the Church of England, similar to just about everyone else in Stratford. However, due to some events that occurred in the Shakespeare family home, there is some evidence that could prove that the family may have had some Roman Catholic connections. When William Shakespeare was 10 years old, legal issues and debt took a toll on his family’s life. Shakespeare’s father’s stopped attending alderman meetings which resulted in the removal of his name to become an alderman, and he was also forced to sell his beautiful home. The cause of this crisis is unknown, however the records can be used to throw together the idea that there were peculiar religious events going on (Fox). Due to these mishaps, William Shakespeare’s religion is a bit of a mystery. The play, Hamlet, was written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan era, which happened to be a time when religious conflicts were a big deal (Alsaif). The protagonist in the story, Hamlet, is a character who seems to make his choices through his religious beliefs. Hamlet is a very indecisive person, but his thoughts on religion tend to persuade him. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the character of Hamlet to show the flaws in all religions. Hamlet does his best to follow the rules of Christianity, but he often questions the morality involved. Although Shakespeare belonged to the Church of England, he didn’t find any particular religion to be perfect.
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Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
1163 Words | 3 Pages
The play’s main conflict starts with King Claudius’ lie. At the beginning of the play, Claudius had become the new king of Denmark, and married his late brother’s widow only one month after the death of his brother. Not only is his action immoral, it is later revealed by the Ghost that he is the person that took his brother’s life by poison poured through the ear: “A serpent stung me. / So the whole ear of Denmark / Is by a forged process of my death / Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, / The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown” (I.v.43-47). Claudius places a lie in Denmark so the people believed that a snake kill King Hamlet while he’s sleeping in the garden. However, the Ghost revealed the truth to Hamlet. Shakespeare uses this lie as the spark to ignite the conflicts between Hamlet and Claudius that eventually lead to Claudius’ death at the end of the novel; however, it also speaks volume of Claudius’ personality. He is selfish and cruel enough to kill his own brother for power without any remorse: “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death / The memory be green, and that it us befitted / To bear our hearts in grief… / Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature / That we with wisest sor...
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Hamlet by William Shakespeare
1016 Words | 3 Pages
The complexity and effect of father-son relationships seems to be a theme that Shakespeare loved to explore in his writings. In Hamlet, the subject is used as a mechanism to identify the similarities between three very different characters: Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet. They have each lost their fathers to violent deaths, which leads them to seek vengeance. As different as they may seem, they all share the common desire to avenge their father’s deaths. The method they each approach this is what differentiates each of their characters, and allows the audience to discern their individual characteristics. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet’s intense loyalty to their fathers drives them to individual extreme measures of revenge, exemplifying Shakespeare’s masterful use of describing the human psyche during Elizabethan times.
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Hamlet by William Shakespeare
592 Words | 2 Pages
When in the course of human events, something’s are made self-evident, like having to read Hamlet and write about three soliloquies. These soliloquies tend to be very lengthy and have very sub surface meanings to them that require some enabled humanoids to use the frontal cortex of their neurological brains in order to understand these meanings. In other words, they are hard to understand, especially with them being written in the Shakespearean era of influence in the island Kingdoms that are Untied. However, they offer meanings unimaginable and crucial to the outcome of the play Hamlet. As I have just explained, the three soliloquies of Act I, II, III, of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare have very deep important meanings and messages to them.
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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...
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1242 Words | 3 Pages
Death threads its way through the entirety of Hamlet, from the opening scene’s confrontation with a dead man’s ghost to the blood bath of the final scene, which occurs as a result of the disruption of the natural order of Denmark. Hamlet is a man with suicidal tendencies which goes against his Christian beliefs as he is focused on the past rather than the future, which causes him to fall into the trap of inaction on his path of revenge. Hamlet’s moral dilemma stems from the ghost’s appearance as “a spirit of health or a goblin damned”, making Hamlet decide whether it brings with...
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Captain Ahab
1450 Words | 3 Pages
While the actual personality traits and each character’s motivations add more depth to Shakespeare’s overall belief, the language each character incorporates contributes more highly to the conviction – revenge causes one to act blindly in anger. By analyzing Hamlet’s use of language throughout the play, one can tell Hamlet is keen on avenging his father, but no heart or effort is put into the action. Speaking in disgust with himself, Hamlet says “That I, the son of a dear father murder'd, / Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, / Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, “ (2.2.584-586). Hamlet uses simile to compare himself to a coward and state that he has no...
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Hamlet Rhetorical Analysis
991 Words | 2 Pages
William Shakespeare’s enduring play The Tragedy of Hamlet; Prince of Denmark (1600) continues to resonate with and engage modern audiences through its dramatic treatment of human nature as it explores philosophical queries regarding the human condition and experience. Despite various interpretations of Hamlet, the text preserves its foundational meaning, allowing it to preserve its textual integrity in any contemporary context. Shakespeare’s manipulation of his revenge tragedy from plays a central piece in allowing him to place emphasis on various concerns regarding human condition such as the conflict between humanism and fate and the corruptive nature of loyalty. The dramatic treatment of the dynamics of human nature evokes philosophical
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Sanity In Hamlet
2032 Words | 5 Pages
One of the most popular characters in Shakespearean literature, Hamlet endures difficult situations within the castle he lives in. The fatal death of his father, and urge for revenge leads Hamlet into making unreasonable decisions. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet’s sanity diminishes as the story progresses, impacting the people around him as well as the timing and outcome of his revenge against Claudius.
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Theme Of Corruption In Hamlet
1110 Words | 3 Pages
Hamlet has an enormous amount of stress placed on him by the events of his father’s death and his mother’s hasty marriage. Hamlet’s mentality is further stressed by his father’s appearance in the form of a ghost telling Hamlet the true cause of his death, “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (Shakespeare 1.5.38-39), and more importantly telling Hamlet to avenge his death and to never forget him (1.5). This must weigh heavily on Hamlet’s mind as he tries to bring himself to carry out such a corrupt act. As Javed describes Hamlet’s ordeal as, “having taken on unwillingly the task of the revenge whose narrower function may have been to avenge a wronged kinsman, but whose wider one was to purge from society the evil which it could not otherwise escape” (332.) The corruption of Hamlet’s character is tragic because as Polonius says: “the safety and health of [the] whole state” depends on him (Shakespeare 1.3.20). The first drastic demonstration of Hamlet’s corruption is shown when he finds Polonius hiding behind a curtain . Hamlet, who believes his uncle Claudius is spying on him, stabs at the curtain, inadvertently killing Polonius. As Dr. Topchyan describes this act, Hamlet does it in “unrestrained passion,” unexpectedly even for himself. His deed, dictated by the situation, is impulsive, not deliberate – an instinctive action, a desperate
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Corruption In Hamlet Essay
1280 Words | 3 Pages
Claudius is the antagonist of the play and the heart of the play’s moral corruption, characterised as being a shrewd “smiling, damned villain”. He is a corrupt politician and is used a symbol to represent the rottenness that pervades Denmark, for it is his relationship with Hamlet’s mother Gertrude, that enrages Hamlet and brings sexual infidelity and incest to the Danish court. Shakespeare emphasises images of decay and disease repeatedly throughout the play to convey the corrupt nature of Elsinore and its court. The corruption is foreshadowed early on in the play through the dramatic device of the ghost, prompting Marcellus to exclaim “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Using pathetic fallacy, the disfiguring of the natural world is used to represent the rot at the heart of the Danish court. Shakespeare also uses the animal images of an “incestuous (…) adulterate beast” and “the serpent that did sting thy fathers life” to represent Claudius. The biblical reference highlights the devilish characteristics of Claudius for Shakespeare uses his physical and emotional state to represent the moral decay spreading throughout Elsinore. Moreover, Shakespreare presents the idea that the moral fabric of society in Elsinore is rotting because of the dishonest and corrupt behaviour of the king Claudius (who took
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Why Does Hamlet Delay His Revenge?
727 Words | 2 Pages
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Revenge In Hamlet Research Paper
793 Words | 2 Pages
William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Hamlet conveys a message of revenge through every character by extracting some form of revenge towards the people that have wronged them. For example, Hamlet after discovering the truth behinds his father’s death, becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge towards the murderer of his father. Shakespeare’s works through the ghost, Hamlet, Laertes, and the King, so readers may witness Shakespeare convey a theme of revenge and the extreme ends these characters will take to set things right. At the beginning of the book, readers are drawn into the chaos post the king’s death and the crowning of a new king.
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615 Words | 2 Pages
Throughout the iconic play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare is continually developing multiple characters such as the tragic hero, Hamlet. As the play progresses through the first two acts, Shakespeare is able to provide the viewers and readers with Hamlets motive, good and bad qualities, and his importance to the plot. Though no completely developed, he is able to depict a clear image of who Hamlet is and what he is trying to obtain. Early on in the play it is brought forward by Shakespeare that Hamlets motive is revenge for the murder of his father King Hamlets unwarranted murder. Within the first act of the play Hamlet vows to seek revenge saying; “… As meditation or the thoughts of love/ May sweep to my revenge.”
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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.
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Hamlet by William Shakespeare