The Loneliness of Hamlet

693 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays on hamlet and his behavior

The Loneliness of Hamlet

Hamlet was a lonely, isolated character, with few friends, and little faith in humanity. His loneliness played a great role in his downfall, by alienating him from his friends and family and eventually taking control of his actions. He did not share the knowledge of his father's murder or the appearance of the ghost with anyone. He couldn't even trust his friends and family, and he hid his true feelings from his only love, Ophelia, driving her to suicide. These events lead eventually to his downfall, and could have been avoided by sharing his dilemma.

Two of Hamlets friends, Horatio and Marcellus, were standing watch at the castle one night when they witnessed the first apparition of the ghost of Hamlet's father. They decided to confide in their friend, and tell Hamlet of what had taken place. The following night, the three of them all stood watch to wait for the ghost. It appeared, and informed Hamlet that his uncle, Claudius, had murdered his father. Immediately following this, Hamlet declared that the event must be kept in secrecy "Never make known what you have seen tonight (I;v;144)." In order to prove the validity of the ghost, Hamlet would have to find proof of his father's murder, without sharing his ideas with anyone. He decided to make believe he was mad, so that the members of the king's court could excuse his behavior as he plotted his revenge. However, as he kept to himself, he became overwhelmed by his "madness" and fell into a deeper state of loneliness, ignoring those close to him, as he contemplated the value of life. "...it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'er hanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire-why it appears nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors...(II;ii;289)"

As Hamlet tried to prove the murder of his father and have his revenge, Claudius discovered that Hamlet knew the truth. Claudius hired two of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on Hamlet in secret, "...be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no (II;ii;278-79)." Later on, Claudius and Polonius, the father of Ophelia, also spied on Hamlet when he was with Ophelia, trying to discover the cause of his madness "Ophelia, walk you here.

Show More
Related

  • The Influence of the Supernatureal in Shakespeare's Macbeth

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    Macbeth’s heroic deeds at the beginning of the play soon seem insignificant next to the primary event in the Act: the revelation of the witches’ prophecy. Their insightful proclamation that he will be king someday is both shocking and pleasing to Macbeth. Without this occurrence, this play might not have traveled a road of ambition and death, but instead one of calm acceptance and enjoyment of an already-elegant lifestyle. The seeds of desire were here planted, however, eliciting what became a bloody ordeal. The spark ignited, and a plan began to take shape.

    Read More

  • Hamlet Adam And Eve Analysis

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet wonders whether to live or die, to suffer or take arm. Given to the pain he feels at his father's murder, and his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle, to the murderer. he wonders if it is nobler to bear his grief, or to take action. His dad’s ghost has told him what really happened at the night his father died and told him to revenge. Now Hamlet has another choice to make. To trust the ghost or not. When Hamlet made the choice to listen and believe the apparition of his dead father, he willingly buys into the spirit's claim that he has been murdered by Claudius. This decision has huge repercussions for the rest of the play.

    Read More

  • Hamlet's Sanity in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark and has returned from college to find that his father has died. Naturally he would be sad from the passing of his father but soon after that sadness is escalated into anger when he learns that his mother is to be married to his uncle Claudius just two months after his father’s death. Hamlet then falls into the grieving process in which he begins to seclude himself from the people who live within the castle. He starts spending most of his time alone, but when people of the castle do see him, he is normally walking by himself and talking to himself. From an outsider’s point to view, one would assume that Hamlet is going crazy. What the outsider may not know is that Hamlet has had a life changing experience, his father’s ghost has came to him and told/showed him how Hamlet’s father died. His father did not just die, in fact he was murdered. The breaking point for Hamlet about his father’s murder was the fact that Claudius, his uncle and mother’s new ...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Relationship Between Macbeth And Lady Macbeth

    1809 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the play of "Macbeth" written by William Shakespeare there is an on-going relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This relationship is one of the functions of the play that creates most of the actions, reactions, moods, feelings and attitudes.

    Read More

  • Macbeth's True Tragic Flaw

    559 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years between 1603 and 1607, the famous playwright William Shakespeare wrote one of his most famous tragedies, The Tragedy of Macbeth. The play tells the story of Macbeth, a Scottish thane that is visited by three witches and told that one day he will be king. With this prophecy in hand Macbeth, urged on by his wife, kills King Duncan and takes the throne. However, he soon descends into madness, murdering anyone that threatens his claim to power. It is only when a rebel army storms his castle that Macbeth’s reign of terror comes to an end. Many argue that Macbeth’s tragic flaw is his unbridled ambition. However, a flaw that is even more glaring is Macbeth’s passiveness. He cannot stand up to his wife and is therefore led into folly by her, and it is this flaw that is the most tragic.

    Read More

  • Hamlet - Ghost

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    makes the metaphysics of the play dark. The ghost says nothing despite the valiant efforts on the parts of Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. Suspense is created when the audience is ignorant as to the purpose of the ghost. Later in the play the ghost is utilized to allow Hamlet and the audience knowledge of the vile murder of the king by Claudius, the kings own brother. When the ghost finally speaks, he tells Hamlet,

    Read More

  • Hamlet Betrayal Analysis

    1552 Words  | 4 Pages

    After the initial betrayal by his mother, Hamlet discovers that Claudius has also betrayed him when he learns that it was Claudius who murdered his father. This revelation, as told to Hamlet by the ghost of King Hamlet, shocks and enrages him. The ghost sets Hamlet out on a quest to revenge his father’s “foul and most unnatural murder” (I.v.31). Hamlet agrees to carry out the ghost’s wishes, also agreeing to spare his mother from harm. From that point forward in the play, Hamlet feigns being mad in order to set up his revenge against Claudius, and decides to carry out numerous tests to make sure it was indeed Claudius who killed his own brother in order to be

    Read More

  • Indecision, Hesitation and Delay in Shakespeare's Hamlet - Needless Delay?

    684 Words  | 2 Pages

    The question of why Hamlet delays in taking revenge on Claudius for so long has puzzled readers and audience members alike. Immediately following Hamlet's conversation with the Ghost, he seems determined to fulfill the Ghost's wishes and swears his companions to secrecy about what has occurred. The next appearance of Hamlet in the play reveals that he has not yet revenged his father's murder. In Scene two, act two, Hamlet gives a possible reason for his hesitation. "The spirit that I have seen / May be a devil, and the devil hath power / T' assume a pleasing shape" (2.2.627-629). With this doubt clouding his mind, Hamlet seems completely unable to act. This indecision is somewhat resolved in the form of the play. Hamlet comes up with the idea of the play that is similar to the events recounted by the ghost about his murder to prove Claudius guilty or innocent. Due to the king's reaction to the play, Hamlet attains the belief that the Ghost was telling the truth the night of the apparition.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Complex Hamlet

    623 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many factors that lead Hamlet into putting himself in a difficult position. There are many incidents where it’s not Hamlet’s poor attitude that gets him in trouble, but his great ambition to uncover the truth. Once Hamlet discovers that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are spying on him, he never lets them out of his sight. Hamlet suspects that his mother, Gertrude, was an accomplice for the murder of his father. Polonius was slain by Hamlet who had mistaken him for Claudius. His pretense of madness drove Ophelia to her death. All of these incidents show that its Hamlet’s great ambition to uncover the truth that gets himself in difficult positions.

    Read More

  • Hamlet, the Existentialist

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hamlet: The Bewildering Human Condition

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Why Is Doubt Important In Hamlet

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the beginning of the play, doubt already has begun to submerge in the play. Hamlet sees this ghost, who says that he is the Hamlet senior. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by his Claudius, his uncle. Hamlet wants to believe the ghost,

    Read More

  • Hamlet – A Psychological Drama

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.

    Read More

  • Summary of Hamlet

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his anger, Hamlet seems to act like a madman, prompting King Claudius, his wife Gertrude, and his advisor Polonius to send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet and figure out why he is acting mad. Hamlet even treats Polonius' daughter Ophelia rudely, prompting Polonius to believe Hamlet is madly in love with her, though Claudius expects otherwise. Polonius, a man who talks too long- windedly, had allowed his son Laertes to go to France (then sent Reynaldo to spy on Laertes) and had ordered Ophelia not to associate with Hamlet. Claudius, fearing Hamlet may try to kill him, sends Hamlet to England. Before leaving, however, Hamlet convinces an acting company to reenact King Hamlet's death before Claudius, in the hopes of causing Claudius to break down and admit to murdering King Hamlet. Though Claudius is enraged, he does not admit to murder. Hamlet's mother tries to reason with Hamlet after the play, while Polonius spied on them from behind a curtain. Hamlet hears Polonius, and kills him through the curtain, thinking the person is Claudius. When finding out the truth, Hamlet regrets the death, yet Claudius still sends him to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with orders from Claudius that the English kill Hamlet as soon as her arrives.

    Read More

  • Macbeth Tragedy Analysis

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Macbeth, like the any other tragic hero, has a great flaw. Due to his unbridled desire, for

    Read More

More about The Loneliness of Hamlet

Open Document