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Analysis of the tragedy of Hamlet
William Shakespeare hamlet analysis
William Shakespeare hamlet analysis
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Recommended: Analysis of the tragedy of Hamlet
Hamlet by William Shakespeare has been a play loved for several centuries. How has this play been a long-standing global favorite? Yes, Shakespeare’s writing is spectacular; some of the best written. But, as times change so do the people. Presently, most individuals cannot comprehend modern English. Yet, even young adults enjoy this play. There could be numerous reasons for Hamlet’s resilient popularity. For starters, this play is full of mysteries. There is suspense written around every corner of every page. This story is embedded with psychosis and hidden motives. It casts a light onto today’s society; where people remain the same. Human minds are as similar as they were centuries ago. Hamlet by William Shakespeare intrigued me for a few reasons, the mysterious presence of the ghost, the questionable dark character motives, and the concluding …show more content…
The dialog also states Claudius poisoned King Hamlet for his power, his money, and his wife. All the motives are depicted in the conversation with the Ghost. The Ghost could be seen as a symbol for these motives. This is because he was killed for money, sex, and power; and the Ghost sought revenge. As a result, these motives drove most of the characters in the play mad; Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia. Hamlet was obviously driven crazy due to his desire for revenge. The madness of Claudius began when he killed King Hamlet, for money, sex, and power. But why has Gertrude and Ophelia been driven mad? Claudius had seduced Gertrude causing her to betray her husband blindly. She was insane and completely unware. Lastly, Ophelia was driven crazy as a result of these motives. Due to Hamlet madness, caused by revenge, he killed Ophelia’s father Polonius. This, in turn, resulted in her lunacy. Yet, even in a state of madness, Ophelia still voiced her love for Hamlet. These motives and desires do not go unnoticed in Shakespeare’s
...ter development was sophisticated and artisitic. In this version, the audience was absorbed with Hamlet’s character. This introduced a variety of thought and reflection making the film more appealing to a widespread audience.
Hamlet, Ophelia’s lover, accidentally kills her father and “confesses” he never loved her, Hamlet toys with Ophelia's emotions intentionally and unintentionally to solidify his madness. Even though she was the who initiated the “breakup”, her sorrows of the relationship are much more public than Hamlets. Hamlet’s madness scares Ophelia away which he used as a defense mechanism to not be hurt anymore. His madness looks as though he had been "loosed out of hell to speak of horrors" (2.1.83-84) and she "truly [did] fear it"(2.1. 86). His insanity and rudeness suffocated any love she had for him. She admits that their "their perfume [has been] lost" (3.1. 99). This helped Hamlet solidify his insanity by cutting ties with the ones he loves, and having them tell others he is mad. This comes with the cost of discontinuing his relationships: especially with Ophelia. Both have hinted around in the text of an intimate affair. This makes the emotions and breakup even more difficult for both of them. Their relationship was a love, not an innocent crush or courtship. Poor Ophelia initially thought she caused Hamlet's madness due to the abrupt ending of their affair. But because of her naivety, she lacks to see his other internal struggles. Ophelia’s trust in Hamlet left her heartbroken. Hamlet’s agenda of or getting justice for his father occupied his mind more than Ophelia did. Which left her feeling
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most produced plays of all time. Written during the height of Shakespeare’s fame—1600—Hamlet has been read, produced, and researched by more individuals now than during Shakespeare’s own lifetime. It is has very few stage directions, because Shakespeare served as the director, even though no such official position existed at the time. Throughout its over 400 years of production history, Hamlet has seen several changes. Several textual cuts have been made, in addition to the liberties taken through each production. In recent years, Hamlet has seen character changes, plot changes, gender role reversals, alternate endings, time period shifts, and thematic alternations, to name only a few creative liberties modern productions of Hamlet have taken.
The causes of Ophelia's decent into madness start long before she is raving and signing rude songs. It is a madness brought of mistreatment; a mistreatment that started with her father. Upon first hearing of Hamlet's affection for her Polonius is very dismissive of it. He even tells her not to waste her time with him as a result "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth Have you so slander any moment leisure As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet." (Shakespeare & Bevington, 2009, pp. P1105 L133-135) This is given as an order, which Ophelia says she will obey. The earlier exchange is quite dismissive of the affection between Ophelia and Hamlet, despite her defending it in terms of Hamlet having shown that love both in words and gifts and the defense of him courting her in an honorable fashion. Polonius is again quick to dismiss his daughter's view of the world saying "Affection? Pooh! you speak like a green ...
Ophelia’s madness is because of what she encounters throughout the play by everyone around her. Her character is often looked past, people really don’t give her a second thought, and her emotions and wellbeing are almost entirely forgotten about. When her father and brother are telling her to stay away from Hamlet, she tries to speak up and tell them that she knows that Hamlet truly loves her. She tells them her feelings, but they say no, she is not to speak to Hamlet again and must obey. They didn’t take a second to try and look things over from her perspective. After Polonius and Claudius plan for Ophelia and Hamlet to meet and talk while they hid to listened, Ophelia is verbally abused by Hamlet and her father is too caught up with Hamlet’s
(Hamlet: IV.v.51). It is clear that the corruption in the kingdom causes Ophelia to become insane. She cannot cope with or overcome her father’s unfortunate death because it was committed by her love, Hamlet. As Ophelia becomes insane due to her father’s death, she is also affected by Hamlet’s treatment of her. Ophelia wants to trust Hamlet and does not understand his antic disposition, but still tries to be loyal to him.
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
Today we can see remnants of Hamlet throughout modern literature and TV. Before kids even know who Shakespeare is they are learning the underlying theme of Hamlet while watching “The Lion King.” When sitting down for the Monday night drama Heroes, millions throughout the world are watching revenge stories based off of Hamlet, come to life.
Shakespeare consists of classic tales, as some would say. He uses such a beautiful language and a strong depiction of his characters, atmosphere, background and even the overall message he tries to send through his productions. Specifically, Hamlet is a very important play because it covers a broad range of themes that we encounter today in the 20th century ranging from love, betrayal, politics, war, death, insanity, espionage and so on. Shakespeare’s work was a form of art and you can get a lot out of his
Hamlet’s insanity is an extremely odd and clever tool that the prince uses to confuse those around him, so he may complete his plan of killing King Claudius. When madness is reasonable for Hamlet's goals, he puts on an "antic disposition" (I.v.173). On the other hand, when sanity is needed, Hamlet returns to being logical. Hamlet explained that he is "mad north-north-west" (II.ii.376), meaning he is insane at times and quite normal at others. Therefore, Hamlet uses this strategy to complete his scheme, but ironically, slows down the process. To begin, Hamlet shifts into the realm of insanity to achieve his short-term goals. Hamlet uses his craziness as a tool, changing insanity into the form of being witty, with clever word choice and actions. Furthermore, Hamlet only acts insane towards his enemies or their allies. One example, Hamlet attacks Ophelia, who is with Claudius, with words: "are you honest" (III.i.104), "are you fair" (III.i.106). Hamlet "speaks daggers" (III.ii.387) to Gertrude, because she is the only thing that sep...
William Shakespeare is seen to many as one of the great writers in history. More specifically, the characters in his plays are reviewed and criticized and have been so for nearly four centuries. The character that many have revered Shakespeare for is perhaps the greatest such character ever in literature, Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The commentary and response to this legend of literature is of wide array and opinion, though most, such as Pennington, believe him to be a truly magnificent character: "Hamlet is perhaps the cleverest hero ever written, the subject of the first European tragedy, a form of genius. A type Shakespeare despaired of writing thereafter, having perceived that the heroes of tragedies must be sublime idiots" (185). However, despite his clear gifts and aura, Hamlet was a doomed character from the beginning: Hamlet is dominated by an emotion that is inexpressible. It is thus a feeling he cannot understand, he cannot objectify it, and it therefore remains open to poison life and to obstruct action" (Eliot 25). Thus, Hamlet, while possessing the traits of no other men of his time, a true Renaissance man, was doomed from the beginning of the play partly by forces he could not control, and also partly by his own character. It leads to a slow but definite ending to one of literature's great characters, one that he could not control. In the end, Hamlet was out of place in his environment, he was simply not meant to be.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most revered literature. The main character, Hamlet, is arguably one of the most intriguing characters the playwright ever developed. Hamlet is daring, philosophical, mentally unstable at times, and clever. Throughout the play though, these characteristics change and/or diminish as Hamlet is put through a plethora of unfortunate events. His father is murdered by Claudius, his mother soon after marries Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray him, and his girlfriend most likely commits suicide. While Hamlet is incredibly philosophical, indecisive, and full of resentment in the beginning of the play, he becomes violent, instinctive, caring and sympathetic towards the end of the play.
Hamlet is a well-written tragedy because of the use of Reversal and Recognition, the bringing about of pity and fear to cause catharsis, and a strong story structure. Just as Batman falls in The Dark Knight, many characters, that start out as appreciated, fall in Hamlet.
Thus, the first appearance of ghost in front of hamlet is a huge impact and sets the action in motion for the entire plot. The appearance becomes the most important scene in the play. To Hamlet, Hamlet really admired his father, and his father’s death entirely affected his emotion and life. As Hamlet knew that the ghost was the symbol of his father and the unnatural murder. The nightmare...
The tragedy and situation in the play ‘Hamlet’ has been commented on as ‘universal.’ Audiences of many different cultures can enjoy ‘Hamlet’ even though it is set in an alien culture to them. The reasons for this are that many people can relate to the play, they feel that they are living though a profound experience, even if nothing in the plot of Hamlet has ever happened to them. The experience of ‘Hamlet’ is not restricted to the plot and its characters.