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The theme of free will and fate in hamlet
The three dilemmas faced by hamlet
The theme of free will and fate in hamlet
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Hamlet Struggles with Fate
Man has, and always will, continually struggle with drawing the line between Fate and chance – the fork in the road down which one believes there is order and purpose that leads all beings to a final destination in the universe, and the other believes there is only chance and coincidence that result from each individual’s next action. As Charles K. Cannon indicates, “The play that continually looks inward to observe itself as a play – suggests a pattern of diminishing concentric circles moving from what seems to be real to what seems to be illusion” (Cannon, 208). The scholarly critic points to the cycle and predestined path that the characters of Hamlet follow, as the royal characters of Denmark’s kingdom each take their own path into a tailspin of death and doom. Shakespeare’s play follows Hamlet’s revenge with the preconceived fact that every character introduced is already en route to their personal deaths. But on the other side of this coin, A.C. Bradley supports the idea that Hamlet and the surrounding characters are merely subject to the random wheel of fortune’s next spin. For example, when Hamlet encounters the pirate ship when searching for a way of transportation back to Denmark, he considers the occurrence to be divine providence; however, A.C. Bradley continues to believe that it is simply luck and good fortune that allows Hamlet to find the favorable pirates willing to grant him passage. Thus, in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the characters – especially Hamlet – wrestle between the two forces of Fate and chance, with Fate ultimately prevailing over the mere mortal playing pieces of the story.
At the start of Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet is introduced to both Fate and the spirit that is thought to ...
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... all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is ‘t to leave betimes? Let be” (v.ii.233-238). Hamlet realizes that Fate will have its way, eventually taking his life – regardless of how hard he fights to swim upstream. As Preston Thomas Roberts, Jr., published author of The Journal of Religion at the University of Chicago, recalls, “[Hamlet] is finite because he is more implicated in the course of events and meanings than a wise man should be” (Roberts, 368). This identifies Hamlet as a direct victim of fate. Hamlet has the ability and intelligence to know better, but he still follows Fate and eventually comes to terms with the predestination of all mankind. From these two scenes, Hamlet understands that there is more to life than living in safety, and decides to accept Fate as it leads him into the bloodbath that is looming within the walls of Denmark’s palace.
One source says, “Between acts 1 and 4, Hamlet works against fortune to some extent, not fully understanding it and its power. He questions his own fate, and the fate of others” (Fortune, Fate, Providence). This claim seems to be highly flawed. Throughout the text Hamlet is trying to work against fortune but it appears that he seems to be fighting against it more so. In his life it is more that hamlet is attempting to separate the good and evil. It’s not that he believes in fate it’s that he has a moral dilemma of the act of murder. It is against his Christian beliefs for him to murder anyone no matter how horrible of a man the object of those violent ideas were. Most people do not need to evaluate whether or not they should kill a person but hamlets religious aspect makes it so the idea of killing a person seem horrible because they think that if they murder someone they will be forced to spend an eternity in a hell worse than what he was currently living
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.
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.
all the events which form the play's framework are reduced to a symbolic representation, to an internal unrest which no action will resolve, and no decision will quell. The deepest theme, masked by that of vengeance, is none other than human nature itself, confronted by the metaphysical and moral problems it is moulded by: love, time, death, perhaps even the principle of identity and quality, not to say 'being and nothingness'. The shock Hamlet receives on the death of his father, and on the remarriage of his mother, triggers disquieting interrogations about the peace of the soul, and the revelation of the ghost triggers vicious responses to these. The world changes its colour, life its significance, love is stripped of its spirituality, woman of her prestige, the state of its stability, the earth and the air of their appeal. It is a sudden eruption of wickedness, a reduction of the world to the absurd, of peace to bitterness, of reason to madness. A contagious disease which spreads from man to the kingdom, from the kingdom to the celestial vault':
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
Hamlet tries to articulate that his grief for his father's death and the prospect of his mother's unfaithfulness is almost inexpressible. He is left alone to bear the burden of suspicion toward the people he once loved. To a man bereft of a sense of purpose there is no possibility of action because it wouldn't have any meaning. No act but suicide seems rational.Yet Hamlet seeks to escape his life of woe when he is commanded by his father's spirit to a great act--revenge.
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.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the influence of Hamlet’s psychological and social states display his dread of death as well as his need to avenge his father’s death. In turn, these influences illuminate the meaning of the play by revealing Hamlet’s innermost thoughts on life, death and the effect of religion. Despite the fact that Hamlet’s first instincts were reluctance and hesitation, he knows that he must avenge his father’s death. While Hamlet is conscious of avenging his father’s death, he is contemplating all the aspects of death itself. Hamlet’s decision to avenge his father is affected by social, psychological and religious influences.
In the opening of the play, Hamlet is confronted by the ghost of his father and told to revenge his "foul and most unnatural murder". Later on, however, Hamlet begins to doubt the ghost. He then thinks up the Murder of Gonzago to verify the truthfulness of the ghost and also to allow himself more time. After learning the truth, Hamlet still continues to procrastinate the killing of Claudius. Although Hamlet is full of purpose, he lacks the ability to carry out his intentions, and thus allows his character flaw to eventually destroy him. Another characteristic that acts against Hamlet is his excessive melancholiness. Hamlet experiences rejection from his true love, anger from the murder of his father, betrayal from his friends and family, and fear from what lies ahead. These feelings of pain and sorrow are embedded deep inside Hamlet, and eat at him like a terrible disease. Unfortunately, by the end of the play Hamlet has stopped fighting this disease and leaves his future up to fate. As he begins his duel with Laertes he says: "the readiness is all", meaning that fate will decide the future and if it means death he will accept it.
As often associated with a tragedy, a conflict usually ensues between a protagonist and another force in the play. A tragedy is ‘a serious drama typically describing a conflict between the protagonist and a superior force and having a sorrowful or disastrous conclusion that elicits pity or terror’ (Webster's dictionary). Given its structure and depth in characterization, this play will or can be analyzed and interpreted from various perspectives and beliefs. However, my analysis of the play is conducted on the basis of various components which are: Hamlet as a tragic hero, the ironic message conveyed in the play, the roles of its characters, the role and personification of madness, the role of paranormality, the role of friends and family, the role of inaction, the role of sex and violence, and the role of death as portrayed in the play. Based on literary definitions and portrayal of his character, there is popular belief that Hamlet as the protagonist acted to satisfy his own conscience but could his actions be attributed purely to his desire or was he being influenced by other factors?
Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
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.
Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.
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.