Selfish Vs Selfish Nature

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Human nature dictates that every action, no matter how selfless it appears, is inspired by a selfish reason. Selfishness is a personality trait that every human has. Despite what people may believe, selfishness is a part of us and is the driving force behind decisions we make. According to the Oxford dictionary being selfish is being “concerned with one's own interests or pleasure.” People make decisions based on what they desire. They live as if the effect of their actions is non-important. All that matters is the benefits they will obtain even if they know that the end result can have negative consequences. Selfishness is all around us and without it there would be no motivation for humans to do anything. The extent of these selfish actions varies widely because it includes every action that humans make. They range from the mildly selfish action of doing voluntary work for a charity in order to "help society," but ultimately to give yourself the satisfaction of knowing you have done a good deed, to the extremely selfish action of taking something from someone for personal gain.
In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Shakespeare does a magnificent job at showing the readers how a man once of noble nature can fall so far into performing selfish actions. After Hamlet discovered the truth about his father’s death he feels the need for revenge. By becoming too involved in his pursuit, Hamlet’s actions proved that he was indeed selfish. In our opinion, we believe that Hamlet was selfish, rather than selfless in the play because while avenging his father’s murder, Hamlet is led down a road of self-protectiveness and cruelty, where he performs selfish actions on Ophelia due to his crafty madness and those in the Danish court involved in corrup...

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...ing wicked men. After Hamlet left the room Ophelia begins to state the difference in Hamlet’s behaviour “Oh, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!...../ That unmatched form and feature of blown youth/Blasted with ecstasy. Oh, woe is me/T' have seen what I have seen, see what I see!” (3.1.153-163). By Hamlet comparing his mother to Ophelia who was not involved in any of his mother’s actions, placed Ophelia in a sadden state as she fears she has lost that once noble Hamlet.
To conclude based on our three points; Hamlet murdering Polonius, his rude comments towards her and comparing Ophelia to Gertrude proves that Hamlet was selfish towards Ophelia. All of his actions were due to his selfishness. Hamlet performed these actions without thinking of the consequences that could offer. With Hamlet only thinking about himself, his actions resulted in the death of Ophelia.

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