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The human condition in hamlet
The human condition in hamlet
The human condition in hamlet
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Before Shakespeare led the idea of humanity into his play, everyone knew what humanity mean, but not completely. Many writer, poetic, playwrights, and philosopher interpreted that Hamlet was the first idea to prove humanity in the play by Shakespeare. As interpreted Hamlet, Shakespeare show the idea of humankind, however he did not create the idea of humanity. Shakespeare use Hamlet as an idea of the complex working of the human mind and how human choose their decision upon on their characteristic. In the play Hamlet, demonstrate the idea of humanity by giving Hamlet all different kind characteristics and performance that can lead the reader to understand and to more aware of humanity.
Shakespeare gave Hamlet all different kind of performance in the play to approach his meaning to the reader. In the play, Hamlet, "And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do the same villain send To heaven,"(71). The way how Hamlet use these words to describe what is he thinking about the way of getting revenged for his father. In depth, Hamlet decide not to kill Claudius because Hamlet knew that if Claudius pray while Hamlet kill him, Claudius will go to Heaven instead of Hell. Also, Hamlet want his uncle, Claudius, to suffer more because of his father's death. This quote allowed us to seek more on Hamlet's action because Hamlet had to decide when to revenge his father's death. According in Shakespeare and the Invention of the Human, Bloom stated, "Hamlet lacks faith in God and in himself", this confirmed that Hamlet doesn't have self-consciousness according to his actions. However, Hamlet seem to have faith in God because if Hamlet don't have faith in God; he would have kill Claudius by the time when Claudius was pray on his knee, and wouldn’t care if he go to Heaven. The way how Hamlet's actions prove that humankind need to be self-aware of the choices that going to be in their life. We have to think beforehand, so we do anything out of control. Hamlet chose to let Claudius to grieve more so his uncle understand what he had sin (murder).
Furthermore, Bloom believes that the reason Shakespeare invented the idea of humanity because Hamlet was "poem unlimited" where he has a lot of characteristic and has all the genre such as romance, tragedy, comedy, history, satire, and romance.
The vengeance of his father 's death is the prime cause of Hamlet 's obsession with perfection, his tendencies of over thinking philosophically, and idealistically, are what cause Hamlet 's delay. Hamlet is exposed to multiple opportunities to take the murderer of his father, Claudius ' life, the most notable being when Hamlet stumbles upon Claudius alone, praying; when about to act Hamlet says "When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed, at gaming, swearing or about some act that has no relish of salvation in 't: then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven and that his soul may be as damn 'd and black as hell, whereto it goes"(3.3.90-96) This inability to act when the chance is given exclaims how Hamlet is not willing to send Claudius to heaven and he will only act if he is to arrive in hell, which will in turn fulfill his need for the perfect
Othello, Hamlet, and Henry IV, Part 1 explore these concepts in various ways. Shakespeare’s plays show that people are not black and white. They react and act differently to situations. Their motives can either be transparent or ambiguous. Their masks may hide the truth for a time, but reality has a way of coming back around. The complexity of humans seemed to greatly intrigue Shakespeare, yet with characters like Iago, Hamlet, and Hal, Shakespeare realized that he could never fully figure out the human puzzle; so he created his own puzzles of the will, motive, and
The main character, Hamlet, is a character that is not true to others, nor to himself. When the Ghost of his father tells him he was murdered by Claudius, Hamlet doubts the truth. He does not trust the ghost of his father, so has to find a way to prove it. Deciding on how to prove or disprove the Ghost, Hamlet predicts: “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (2.2, 616-17). Because he distrusts the Ghost, Hamlet is not true to his father. However, when his plan proves to him that the Ghost’s words are true, Hamlet still does not act; he still cannot avenge his father’s murder. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius, using the fact that he is praying as an excuse. Hamlet does not want Claudius’s soul to go to heaven, therefore he decides not to kill him, explaining: “A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do the same villain send to heaven” (3.3, 76-78). However, after trying to pray, the King claims that his prayers were not heard: “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go” (3.3, 97-8). Therefore, had Hamlet chosen to kill Claudius at that time, his soul would have gone to Hell. Hamlet uses God as an excuse for not acting. He is not true and is lying to himself, because he wants to kill Claudius, yet does not.
One of Hamlet’s flaws is that he over thinks things a lot and it is first shown the most at the prayer scene with Claudius. Once Hamlet sees how Claudius reacts to the play he knows that Claudius killed his father and that the ghost was right, he has a chance to kill him and doesn’t take it . His only proof was the ghost and even though others saw the ghost no one else heard it talk except Hamlet. Hamlet was also considering a lot of other things at this time, like how if he killed Claudius now Claudius would be free of sin and would go to heaven. He was also thinking if his father didn’t get to die free of sin it wouldn’t be fair for Claudius to die free of sin either, which shows how vengeful Hamlet’s character is. At the same time, Hamlet has morals and understands the consequences so that’s why it’s harder for him to perform the act . After a l...
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare utilizes his ability to use words to paint emotion, the story, and characters into the readers mind. Shakespeare creates the memorable character of Hamlet Junior in his poem, Hamlet, through the characteristics of insanity and madness and suicidal tendencies or thoughts of suicide. His capability of doing so enlarges the ability of the reader to understand the story, but also to construct the storyline.
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
Hamlet is a normal person which brillant ideas. He waited so long to kill Claudius because he wanted people to be able to know the story of really happened and did not want to seem like a bad guy. Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (Act 3,Scene 1 Line 64) also means should he live to do as his father or or die to betray him. Hamlet knew everything that was going on in the kingdom but wanted to act as if he did not to get even further in and have more information. He did this because he wanted to think a more brilliant plan to kill Claudius and anyone else that was dealing with it, that is how he killed
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
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.
As illustrated through his speeches and soliloquies Hamlet has the mind of a true thinker. Reinacting the death of his father in front of Claudius was in itself a wonderful idea. Although he may have conceived shcemes such as this, his mind was holding him back at the same time. His need to analyze and prove everythin certain drew his time of action farther and farther away. Hamlet continuously doubted himself and whether or not the action that he wanted to take was justifiable. The visit that Hamlet recieves from his dead father makes the reader think that it is Hamlet's time to go and seek revenge. This is notthe case. Hamlet does seem eager to try and take the life of Claudius in the name of his father, but before he can do so he has a notion, what if that was not my father, but an evil apparition sending me on the wrong path? This shows that even with substantial evidence of Claudius' deeds, Hamlet's mind is not content.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet the king of Denmark is murdered by his brother, Claudius, and as a ghost tells his son, Hamlet the prince of Denmark, to avenge him by killing his brother. The price Hamlet does agree to his late father’s wishes, and undertakes the responsibility of killing his uncle, Claudius. However even after swearing to his late father, and former king that he would avenge him; Hamlet for the bulk of the play takes almost no action against Claudius. Prince Hamlet in nature is a man of thought throughout the entirety of the play; even while playing mad that is obvious, and although this does seem to keep him alive, it is that same trait that also keeps him from fulfilling his father’s wish for vengeance
In the first place, he does not respect his mother and verbally hurts her by saying, “A horrible act- almost as bad, my good mother, a killing a king and marrying his brother.” (3.4 29-30) After that, Gertrude says, “O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart into twain.” However, Hamlet feels no shame and guilt about what he said and what he did to his dearest mother, showing he lacks conscience and responsibility. Furthermore, Hamlet says, “And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and I, my father’s only son, send this same villain to heaven. Seems like I just did him a favor.” (3.3 75-79) He does not want to murder Claudius since he is thinking about sending him to the hell. Due to the revenge, he has become a man who is full of
In the play, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle Claudius. Claudius killed Hamlet’s dad and then married his mom to become the leader of Denmark. Later in the play, Hamlet sees his dad’s ghost and is informed of the horrific act committed by his uncle. Hamlets’ dad’s ghost says, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I. V. 25). Hamlets’ dad says this to Hamlet so that his uncle could get retribution for his action. Hamlet has many opportunities to kill Claudius but is unable because of the wrong timing. While Claudius is praying, Hamlet has an opportunity to slay him but doesn’t because if he killed him in his prayers he will make him go to heaven instead of hell. Another minor reason for Hamlet’s revenge against his uncle is his affection towards his mother. As the play progresses, we are able to determine that Hamlet’s relationship with his mom is close to incest status. With this information, we are able ...
Once Hamlet has learned of his father’s death, he is faced with a difficult question: should he succumb to the social influence of avenging his father’s death? The Ghost tells Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.31) upon which Hamlet swears to “remember” (1.5.118). Hamlet’s immediate response to this command of avenging his father’s death is reluctance. Hamlet displays his reluctance by deciding to test the validity of what the Ghost has told him by setting up a “play something like the murder of (his) father’s” (2.2.624) for Claudius. Hamlet will then “observe his looks” (2.2.625) and “if he do blench” (2.2.626) Hamlet will know that he must avenge his father’s death. In the course of Hamlet avenging his father’s death, he is very hesitant, “thinking too precisely on the event” (4.4.43). “Now might I do it…and he goes to heaven…No” (3.3.77-79) and Hamlet decides to kill Claudius while “he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed” (3.3.94-95). As seen here, Hamlet’s contradicting thought that Claudius “goes to heaven” (3.3.79) influences him to change his plans for revenge. Hamlet eventually realizes that he must avenge his father’s death and states “from this time forth my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth” (4.4.69). From this, Hamlet has succumbed to the social influence and has vowed to avenge his father’s death.
Hamlet’s wit and play of words deceits everyone. He seems to be philosophical and existential being with a certain interest to the meaning of life. Many may see him as the tragic hero fighting against a superior force. This image of a tragic hero seems to be just a façade. Although there can be many reason why he may be seem as a tragic hero he is corrupted by those around him making him evil.