Thou Art a Wayward Motley-Minded Knave:
Exploring Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a Psychological Insight into the Human Condition
An understanding of William Shakespeare’s philosophies reinforces the meaning of the human condition found in the play Hamlet. The revenge tragedy is an example in the exploration of good versus evil, deceit, madness, inter-turmoil, and utter existence. Shakespeare, fascinated by the human mind and human nature, clearly and completely illustrates the meaning of “self.” Hamlet is a drama that examines one’s personal identity. From the beginning of the story atop the castle when the guards enter the platform to the conclusion of the performance as Hamlet lies, dying in Horatio’s arms every characters’ psychological type is
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in question. Each character must cope with some type of human issue such as power, death, or fate. The study of Hamlet’s self-constitution brings a deeper understanding of human fragility and core values. In the complex and intertwined themes of the revenge tragedy, Hamlet, William Shakespeare effectively expresses what it means to be human through Hamlet’s struggle to explore the human conditions of social expectations, mortality and morality, reality, deception, and contemplation versus impulsiveness. Hamlet battles with the expectation of others and his own internal conflict between right and wrong. The understanding of the human condition as one interacts socially with others while dealing with individuals’ needs, ambitions, and conflicts is essential in order to comprehend the interactions of the characters in the play as they cope with the differences within each other and their ability to form relationships. Hamlet enlightens Horatio of a Danish custom he feels should be better broken: His virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault. The dram of evil Doth all the noble substance often doubt To his own scandal. (1.4.33–38) Hamlet believes that no matter how honorable one is, in the eyes of the world, a single fault can tarnish one’s reputation. A small amount of evil can outweigh the good. Individually or culturally, vision can become distorted and moral growth slowed. In order to learn, one must be taught about ethical expectations. It is impossible to teach someone to be a moral being. The lines between morality and immorality can become blurred when one’s human desires are in jeopardy. Psychotherapist Vincent McNamara defines human desires: They are great fears in us. And when we don’t get, or fear we won’t get, what we so elementally need, the reaction is from deep within us. We find ourselves consumed by anxiety, fear, jealousy, anger, envy, hatred and so on. We are unhinged in our emotional being. We can’t help it. It is how we are made. Our emotional reaction is not a pointless, random thing. It occurs because we detect that something precious, something, as we see it, essential to us, is in danger of slipping through our grasp (45–46). When needs are not met, it is human nature for one to become fearful and respond selfishly without regard. This reaction is not meaningless or accidental; rather it links a person to necessities that are imperative but outside their control. Hamlet, overcome with grief, questions his very will to continue to exist while struggling with his morals and the virtues of those around him. After promising his mother, he will remain in Elsinore, Hamlet contemplates his internal emotional state and the reality of his situation. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God, God, How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't, ah, fie, 'tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed. Things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this, (1.2.129–37) The tragic death of his father is more than Hamlet can bear, and he is unable to handle the situation. Corruption chokes out the beauty and harmony of his life, therefore life is no longer worth living. However, his traditional Christian ethics prevent him from committing suicide and force him to question morality. Shakespeare has the uncanny ability to exemplify psychological morality in his characters. Philosopher Colin McGinn expresses his views of Shakespeare as an extraordinary moralist, “In witnessing a Shakespeare play our consciousness is engaged morally in an intense and unavoidable way. The plays are about good and evil, and the human relationship to these ethical categories” (178). The audience is faced with countless moral questions as it evaluates the moral qualities of each character, relationship, and situation. It is Shakespeare’s insight and understanding of good and evil that allows the audience to form its own moral judgement. Hamlet lost in the sorrow of his father’s death must separate reality from illusion.
After King Hamlet’s death, Hamlet confides in Horatio, his trusted friend, that he has seen his father. When Horatio enquires as to where, Hamlet replies, “In my mind’s eye, Horatio” (2.1.185). Shakespeare utilizes the phrase, “mind’s eye,” to describe Hamlet’s sensory experience, a mental visualization of his deceased father. Hallucinations are a coping mechanism used to deal with grief and are a vital part of the human condition. They are common among people who have experienced great trauma or lose. Professor of neurology, Dr. Oliver Sacks writes, “Any consuming passion or threat may lead to hallucinations in which an idea and an intense emotion are embedded. Especially common are hallucinations engendered by loss and grief…Losing a parent, a spouse, or a child is losing a part of oneself…” (231). Life and death are a part of human nature. One may react to the death of a loved one by filling a void, which may provoke hallucinations. Because of Hamlet’s excessive grief, he is haunted by these illusions. He questions his own sanity and doubts the intentions of the ghost. For this reason, Hamlet reframes from taking immediate action as he searches for truth. As he journeys to find what is real, Hamlet encounters …show more content…
deception. Hamlet’s relationships with Gertrude and Ophelia are ones of deception and misunderstanding, which ultimately seal his fate by way of their actions and inactions.
It is also through these women that Shakespeare alludes to various symbols of dishonesty and hidden truths. Ophelia struggles to tell Hamlet the truth of what she sees, hears, and feels. It is for this reason Ophelia’s disloyalty enrages Hamlet: “Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them / I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another” (3.1.132–37). Hamlet commands Ophelia to go to a convent in order to remain virtuous, on the other hand, if she is to marry, marry a fool who will not recognize she is cheating on him. He continues expressing his disgust by alluding to the fact that women are frauds that paint themselves to be something they are not for the sake of deceiving men. Shakespeare utilizes women characters to balance their male counterparts and add a different dimension to the relationships, hierarchies, and social changes in his works. Tina Packer, founder and artistic director of Shakespeare & Company writes, “The actor Shakespeare could feel in his body the truth; the writer Shakespeare could record what he saw in the outside world and he gave to the women the words to expose the dichotomy between what lay within and what was expected from
without” (299). Shakespeare gave women the power of influence, a voice in which to express the differences between what is expected and what is desired. Both women failed Hamlet, with Ophelia choosing to obey her father and Gertrude choosing her desires over her love Hamlet or his father. In the same fashion, Hamlet failed to protect the women in his life unable to look pass their faults dwelling on deception. Hamlet’s inability to take charge creates a paralyzing effect on his actions, which ultimately leads to his death. Hamlet’s confusion with the world around him as he tries to navigate through the decisions of vengeance versus Christian beliefs cripples him from taking immediate action. In Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy, he contemplates suicide: To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep— No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished—to die, to sleep— To sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil Must give us pause—there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry And lose the name of action. (3.1.56–88¬) Hamlet struggles with the will to go on with his life, however, he also fears the unknown. Reflecting on his life causes him to reject his first impulse to commit suicide. He cowers and inaction takes hold. While analyzing a situation may help to slow impulsive actions, it may also serve to increase the risk of overall failure to act. Professor John Whitney debates, “Realistic beliefs and expectations about our external worlds are important, as are the resources necessary to carry out our plans. But without the will, these are hollow concepts” (284). Hamlet elects to withdraw and feign madness, which leads to rash decisions. In addition, Hamlet does not reach out and create alliances to help him succeed in his plot to kill Claudius. Horatio seems to be the only friend Hamlet truly trusts. He does not allure the support from anyone of stature. Ironically, due to Hamlet’s lack of decisive planning, leadership ability, and desire to succeed the death toll, including himself, rose from one to eight. Hamlet achieves his father’s vengeance resulting in a Pyrrhic victory. William Shakespeare links the intricacy of being human with the difficulties of life as seen through the struggles Hamlet must overcome both socially and internally: life and death, good versus evil, reality, and excessive introspection. Shakespeare’s insight into the psychology of the human condition begins by following Hamlet on his journey to discover his true “self.” While dealing with his father’s death, Hamlet questions his own mortality and battles to separate reality from illusion. In addition, Hamlet’s relationships are plagued with deception and unrealistic expectations, which further exacerbate his madness and inter-turmoil. Equally important, the lack of maturity to assess his thoughts and actions productively forces Hamlet to withdraw unable to strategically plan retribution for his father’s death. Unfortunately, human nature makes it easy to give in to immoral desires as one battles between right and wrong. As a result, it only takes an insignificant quantity of evil to tip the scales of righteousness and tarnish ones “self.”
One single moment or event during the course of an individual’s life can effectively alter their priorities and transform their identity drastically. In The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare introduces the readers to the protagonist Hamlet who is draped in anger and emotions and has a new-found mission in life. Initially, Hamlet is portrayed as an individual in mourning over his father's death and his mother's haste in remarrying to her brother-in-law and Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. However, Hamlet’s character and personality were drastically altered after meeting the Ghost and discovering the true nature of his Father’s death. Hamlet is now a man with a lust for revenge and a willingness to do anything that will enable him to accomplish this goal. When burdened with the task of killing Claudius, Hamlet chooses to sacrifice all he holds dear by transforming his identity in a noble effort to avenge his father’s death.
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.
Self-image plays a big role in how people act. Hamlet’s inability to know himself or to understand his own motives leads to the restless battles between right and wrong in his conscience, which is the reason for his unpredictable tragic actions, and behaviors. Hamlets’ confusion is clearly shown in his soliloquies. His confused mind can be broken into five categories. Hamlet suffers from his own moral standards, the desperate need to seek the truth, lack of confidence and trust in his own impulses, self-hatred, and melancholy. Each of these categories contribute to Hamlet’s troubled mind.
On the journey through the path of life, there are encounters with many different incidents and situations where we must act accordingly. Depending on what type of personality is possessed, there are numerous ways that we can deal with these encounters. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the main character is confronted with a cluster of dilemmas and is in emotional distress. The ghost that encounters Hamlet, the monarchs’ incest, and the contemplation of murder, are the major conflicts which he must deal with one way or another. As a result of these three issues, as well as Hamlet’s particular character, he handles these issues internally which causes internal struggle and a passive response.
The play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, shows human nature to be greedy, self-involved and vengeful. Claudius is driven by his greed to commit murder. Polonius is always looking out for himself, currying favor at the expense of anyone in his way. Hamlet thinks only of vengeance from the moment he finds out about Claudius murdering his father. Human nature has been all of these things, but it has also evolved through the ages. We can be base and cruel, but we can also show great compassion and kindness.
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...
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is a complex and ambiguous public exploration of key human experiences surrounding the aspects of revenge, betrayal and corruption. The Elizabethan play is focused centrally on the ghost’s reoccurring appearance as a symbol of death and disruption to the chain of being in the state of Denmark. The imagery of death and uncertainty has a direct impact on Hamlet’s state of mind as he struggles to search for the truth on his quest for revenge as he switches between his two incompatible values of his Christian codes of honour and humanist beliefs which come into direct conflict. The deterioration of the diseased state is aligned with his detached relationship with all women as a result of Gertrude’s betrayal to King Hamlet which makes Hamlet question his very existence and the need to restore the natural order of kings. Hamlet has endured the test of time as it still identifies with a modern audience through the dramatized issues concerning every human’s critical self and is a representation of their own experience of the bewildering human condition, as Hamlet struggles to pursuit justice as a result of an unwise desire for revenge.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
For being considered one of the greatest English plays ever written, very little action actually occurs in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play is, instead, more focused on the progressive psychological state of its protagonist, after whom the play is named, and his consequent inaction. It is because of this masterpiece of a character that this play is so widely discussed and debated. Hamlet’s generality, his vagueness, his supposed madness, his passion, his hesitation, and his contradictions have puzzled readers, scholars, and actors for centuries. In this paper I will attempt to dissect this beautiful enigma of a character to show that Hamlet is much more self-aware than many people give him credit for and that he recognizes that he is an actor in the theatre of life.
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.
An individual’s response to conditions of internal and external conflict is explored throughout literature. In his play, Hamlet, Shakespeare delves into the themes of appearance versus reality, lies versus deceit, rejection versus self doubt and tragedy, and in doing so attacks the frivolous state of humanity in contemporary society. In order to explore these themes, however, he uses several forms of conflict to project his opinions and expand his ideas relating to the themes of the play. Internal conflict, as well as external conflict are dominant features of his works, and in Hamlet are made evident through a succession of dire events which can attack and destroy someone. However perhaps the most captivating form of conflict Shakespeare uses to expand and explore the ideas presented within the text is the conflict between the self and the universe.
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.
Like all Shakespearean tragedies, Hamlet’s ending is no different in end-result. Hamlet’s separation from society and his self-imposed confusion caused by over-thinking results in the unnecessary deaths of most of the major characters. In turn, Hamlet’s pre-occupation with factors inessential to his mission of revenge slows down his action. It is this internal struggle that illustrates the intensity and complexity of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, something that is often looked at from a psychological perspective.
The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.