The Presentation of Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Play

The Presentation of Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Play

“Hamlet”, the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the

prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne but the

prince manages to kill his uncle in revenge, is open to many forms of

interpretation since the play’s plot explores difficult themes of the

impossibility of certainty, the complexity of taking action, the

mystery of death and the nation as something “rotten”. Shakespeare

has made Hamlet a philosophically-minded prince who delays taking

action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain, he

blames himself for not taking action against his father’s murderer: “O

what a rogue and peasant slave I am!” and calls himself a coward.

Previous to this, in a soliloquy about suicide, (“O, that this too too

solid flesh would melt, / Thaw and resolve itself into a dew”) Hamlet

exclaims that he wishes he could die since the world is painful to

live in, he wishes bitterly that God had not made suicide a sin

however, within the Christian framework of the play, a person whom

commits suicide, commits them self to eternal suffering in hell. The

play can be seen in a political perspective; the welfare of the royal

family and the health of the state as a whole are continually

portrayed to be threatened and made ill yet Hamlet maybe the hero whom

resists this regime. According to a critic, Hamlet has fascinated

audiences and readers for centuries since he is “enigmatic”.

According to a critic, Hamlet is a “subtle and complex” character. He

is overcome by emotional trauma caused from his grief for his dead

father and his mother’s hasty and incestuous marr...

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political pressures of Denmark and I believe that this is the most

central and evident interpretation compared to the views that he has a

sexual desire for his mother or that he is the spirit of political

resistance to a corrupt regime. Polonius says “How pregnant sometimes

[Hamlet’s] replies are”, this can suggest Hamlet’s poetic ability to

use words in an artistic way; in this case, he is using them to appear

mad. We get a sense of sensitivity from Hamlet since he seems to be

morally righteous, for example, when wanting to take vengeance against

Claudius, he builds himself up since “honour’s at the stake” yet in

the end he says “my thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth”: he still

does not say “my deeds be bloody” which shows that he has a desire to

be a man of action but such action conflicts with his conscience.