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Hamlet character development
Characters and characterisation in hamlet
Characters and characterisation in hamlet
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In every good novel known to man, there is a hero and also a villain. The villain tortures the world, the hero saves the day, and the hero lives happily ever after with the woman or man they fell in love with during their journey. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, it does not follow the original guidelines of the other novels. It is different. The reader has their own perspective of which Hamlet is ethical or evil for his actions throughout the play. The question all readers ask themselves is if Hamlet is considered evil because he murders evil people, or if he is considered a hero, although he is a murderer? This is a worldwide question for every reader. Although Hamlet chooses broad decisions based on impulse, he is ethical in his actions …show more content…
because of his thought process as a man of clout. Throughout the play, Hamlet continues to go through an ample amount of trauma. Maynard Mack stated in The World of Hamlet, that “We have a character who is not only mad in himself but a cause that madness is in the rest of us.” He comes to realize that his own uncle is betraying him, which makes him desire revenge. Hamlet is human though, so he has a conscience that takes months for him to disregard. But in the end, almost everyone passes away. Whether they were a noble man or evil, they are all buried 6 feet underground in the end. Hamlet returns to Denmark to mourn for his father’s death and gets a visit from the Ghost who represents his father, the late King Hamlet. The Ghost reveals that Prince Hamlet’s uncle, the new king, Claudius, murders King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.” (59) Hamlet feels the betrayal from his own uncle and is unsure of whom he can trust in his life anymore. The definition of betray is to be “unfaithful in (a trust)”, according to The New American Webster Handy College Dictionary. Hamlet has his reasoning to not trust anyone any longer because his own uncle stabs him in the back, metaphorically. This whole situation blows his mind and he is unsure on what to do in life at this point. The Ghost asks Hamlet for a favor of revenging his father’s death by killing his uncle Claudius.
There lies the ethical reasoning behind the murder he commits in Act Five, Scene Two. “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? [Forces him to drink the poison.]” (281). Hamlet does what his father asks of him and murders King Claudius, but due to the anger he possesses inside, he also pours poison down his throat to have him suffer just as much as Hamlet has emotionally. Ronet Bachman states that “Violence manifested itself in many ways and encompassed both acts of self-destruction, such as suicides… and acts of aggression directed towards others.” Hamlet seems to be evil in his act of revenge, but then again, he has his reasoning. He has his …show more content…
purpose. Hamlet has several cases of overthinking things because he is human just like everyone else in the play.
Early in Act Three, Hamlet is questioning his life. He wants to revenge his father’s death but is so unsure if it is the right thing to do. He results in trying to kill himself instead of murdering someone whom he calls his “family”. “To be or not to be- that is the question… To die, to sleep- No more- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks…” (127) Hamlet kills as if he is an animal, but he is none of the sorts. “… ‘Hamlet is a man of indecision, but he was never a coward.’”, says Thomas G. Winner. Although he knew killing King Claudius might be the wrong doing, he does it for the love of his father. He does it to obey and will not let his conscience get in the way of
that. ‘What happens when you die? Does royalty automatically go to heaven?’ These are all questions that Hamlet has been thinking about throughout the play. “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust; the dust is earth, of earth we make loam; and why of that loam whereto he was converted might they stop a beer barrel?” (251) Alexander was Great. He is literally known as Alexander the Great and he had a normal skull just like every other skull that Hamlet has seen in the graveyard. “Sexuality and death have been linked in art and literature since ancient times” says Clayton G. MacKenzie. “… It reveals Cupid and Death as friends… They go off to fire arrows at their respective victims but end up killing young people and romantically energizing old folk.” This here shows that Hamlet’s love for his father gave him the reason to do everything that he will do in the play. It doesn’t matter anymore about who Hamlet is and if he is royalty. Everyone dies and they all die equally. Hamlet’s love for his father shows the moral aspect of it all. The betrayal, the revenge, the indecisiveness, the death, and the equality all shows the ethical reason for Hamlet’s actions. According to Myron Taylor, “The play shows that Heaven will accomplish its own revenge.” The question is now answered. Although Hamlet seems evil, he is not. He has a reason for every actions he takes and he is ethical. He does make decisions based on impulse, but in the end they are the right decisions for the morals he lives by and his love for his father.
The morality of the hero also plays a key role in the nature of his heroism. Hamlet holds himself to high moral standards and ethics. “We, the ...
Killing someone is not like Hamlet and he knows the consciences that he has if he does it and not repent. Hamlet does not think that he can do it and has many soliloquies debating if he should. When Hamlet is talking to himself he says, “To be or not to be” (Act 3, Scene 1 Line 64). Hamlet is basically saying should he kill himself or live. Hamlet rather kill himself than deal with any problems that go on which makes him insane also. Since The ghost told Hamlet exactly how he was killed hamlet came up with an idea. Hamlet had previously watched a play and decided to take the actors from the play and make a play of his own. The play was going to be a reenactment of what happened to his father. Depending on the reaction that Hamlet got out of Claudius it would show if he did it or not and if he would kill him. Before the play Hamlet old the actor, “Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue” (Act 3,Scene 2 Lines 1-2). Hamlet is telling the actor to act the play exactly as he had told him with many
... His desire to obey his dead father’s request and exact revenge on Claudius warred against his qualms and doubts of killing another human being. When he finally accepted the role Fate plays in the lives of mankind, Hamlet could proceed to “accept the necessity of killing Claudius. [because] he would simply be acting as the instrument of divine justice at work in the world.” (Ahlman)
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the main protagonist Hamlet, is presented with the opportunity to avenge his father and kill his uncle Claudius, but in the moment decides against it and further delays the eventual murder of King Claudius. One reason for this decision is Claudius was in the process of praying and repenting for his sins. Another reason is Hamlets mental weakness and reluctance to kill his step-father. Lastly, he wished to retain his sanity and carry out the murder in an ethical manner providing proper justice for his father.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play. Most of the characters in the play have selfish motives at heart. Lust, greed, pride, and revenge are just a few sins that are committed in the play. There are few instances within the play that show goodness and kindness. Hamlet has so many people around him trying to bring him down, but he had one friend that was loyal to him, and that was Horatio.
Hamlet's reasons for revenge against Claudius are fairly straightforward. The ghost of Hamlet Sr. informed Hamlet that Claudius killed Hamlet Sr. In doing so, he weakened Hamlet by robbing him of his central role model of masculinity, his father. He also committed the moral sin of killing is own brother and taking his wife. Claudius also deprived Hamlet of his rightful kingship. In addition, Hamlet now knows that his love of his mother is corrupted since she is affectionate towards his enemy.
Hamlet is a melancholic young man who does not value human life; however, he will do anything it takes to accomplish his main goal: revenge on Claudius for the death of his father. In his seven soliloquies we learn that Hamlet has become melancholic, violent, and suicidal. There are several incidences where these emotions are expressed. His melancholic attitude is very apparent in the second scene of Act I, when he suggests that his mother, in mourning his fathers death, is simply acting the part of a grief stricken widow, while he is a truly heart broken son. Another example from his first soliloquy of his melancholic state occurs when he discovers the rapid marriage of his mother and his uncle, where he finds himself both sad and mad at the fact that his mother could move on so quickly. Hamlet’s violent attitude can be blamed on the fact that his father was murdered and he wants revenge. An example of his violent attitude is in his sixth soliloquy where he sees the king praying in the church. Hamlet feels as though he should just kill him in that same instance, but then decides not to. Another instance of his violent behavior is when he sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths and feels no remorse in doing so. Hamlet’s suicidal state can be accounted for because he is a confused young man. Throughout the play his father had been murdered, his mother almost instantly re-married, he himself had gone mad, and thus he is confused because he has so many negative feelings towards himself and the easiest way out is suicide. Another example occurs in his forth soliloquy when he reasons whether suicide would be the better and quicker solution. All of Hamlet’s emotions cause him to have a clo...
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
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.
From this play we learn of the difficulty associated with taking a life as Hamlet agonises as to how and when he should kill Claudius and furthermore whether he should take his own life. Hamlet being a logical thinker undergoes major moral dilemma as he struggles to make accurate choices. From the internal conflict that the playwright expresses to us it is evident that it can kill someone, firstly mentally then physically. The idea of tragedy is explored in great detail through conflict where the playwright’s main message is brought across to the audience; Shakespeare stresses to his audience the point that conflict be it internal or external it can bring upon the downfall of great people and in turn have them suffer a tragic fate. It is Shakespeare’s aim to show us the complexity of man and that moral decisions are not easily made.
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’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.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.
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.