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The moral behind hamlet
The moral behind hamlet
There is a clash of cultures in "Hamlet": the medieval traditions of revenge and the more modern renaissance thinking
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In “Hamlet”, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, there are themes of moral truths, a just society, and redemption. Moral truths are cultural and religious traditions, where people are expected to have proper behavior. Moral means concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. Of the three themes, I believe moral truths is the most common in Hamlet because it is shown throughout the whole tragedy, mainly through murder as a form of revenge and whether suicide is justified or not. The ghost, King Hamlet, appeared to Hamlet and informed him that Claudius was the one that murdered him, then took over the throne and married Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. Ophelia became depressed after Hamlet accidentally murdered her father, Polonius, and decided to drown herself in a river. After finding out that both his father and sister were dead, Laertes was furious. Claudius used Laertes’ fury and desire for revenge to plan Hamlet’s death. The plan was a fencing match between Laertes and Hamlet, where Claudius would poison Laertes’ blade as wel...
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is the dramatic story of a son who felt betrayed by both his mother, and the woman that he loved. Written in the Elizabethan era, around 1600, “Shakespeare's focus on Hamlet's intellectual conflicts was a significant departure from contemporary revenge tragedies… which tended to dramatize violent acts graphically on stage” (Hamlet). The play depicts Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who it visited by the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. The ghost reveals how he was murdered by his brother Claudius, who then claimed the title of King, and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Hamlet vows to avenge his father’s untimely death. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, but her brother, Laertes, and father, Polonius, warn her that Hamlet can never really love her. Ophelia, following her father’s wishes, is unwittingly enlisted to spy on Hamlet, which leaves him feeling betrayed. Hamlet rejects Ophelia, accidently stabs and kills Polonius, and then hides the body. Ophelia becomes so distraught over her father’s death, that she ultimately drowns herself. Hamlet is devastated when he learns of Ophelia’s death. The play culminates with a sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet’s mother dies from inadvertently drinking poisoned wine that was intended to kill Hamlet. Laertes and Hamlet are both stabbed with a poison-tipped sword, but before dying, Laertes confesses that Claudius was the mastermind behind everything. Hamlet forces Claudius to also drink the wine and the irony is that everyone dies in the end. One of the most controversial topics in history is the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet’s letters express his sincere feelings, and reveal that he was very much in love with Ophe...
Before Laertes left for France, he gave Ophelia advice on her relationship with hamlet. Laertes tried to warn Ophelia on Hamlet’s real feelings and his true intentions towards her, and tells her to be a little wary of Hamlet and his affections. Hamlet’s feelings towards Ophelia seem to die after she rejects him. Not only his feelings, but his own appearance seems to decay after the rejection. He is described as being “Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other” (line 82). To make matters worse, Ophelia dies. Both Hamlet and Laertes are so shocked and distressed over her death, that they both decide to jump into her grave and begin to fight each other. Even though both Hamlet and Laertes hated each other, they both loved Ophelia deeply. Hamlet was obviously very infatuated with Ophelia, as too it hard at her death. Laertes on the other hand seemed to have more of a brotherly connection and bond with her, as was evident when he tried to advise her against
As the play opened, Hamlet and Ophelia appeared as lovers experiencing a time of turbulence. Hamlet had just returned home from his schooling in Saxony to find that his mother had quickly remarried her dead husband's brother, and this gravely upset him. Hamlet was sincerely devoted to the idea of bloodline loyalty and sought revenge upon learning that Claudius had killed his father. Ophelia, though it seems her relationship with Hamlet is in either the developmental stage or the finalizing stage, became the prime choice as a lure for Hamlet. Laertes inadvertently opened Ophelia up to this role when he spoke with Ophelia about Hamlet before leaving for France. He allowed Polonius to find out about Hamlet's courtship of Ophelia, which led to Polonius' misguided attempts at taking care of Ophelia and obeying the king's command to find the root of Hamlet's problems. Ophelia, placed in the middle against her wishes, obeyed her father and brother's commands with little disagreement. The only time she argued was when Laertes advised her against making decisions incompatible with the expectations of Elizabethan women. Ophelia tells him, in her boldest lines of the play:
In (Doc D) Hamlet begins to go after Ophelia to make his old friends that are spying on him believe that he is love sick and that they shouldn’t worry about him trying to kill Claudis. Doc D Hamlet is yelling and screaming at her and this is how Hamlet’s actions aren’t justified. Ophelia is also mad at Hamlet for killing her father and because of that she ends up killing herself by drowning. So Hamlet instead of just killing his father, he kills Ophelia and Polonius.
This, of course, causes a landslide of tragedy in the play. Claudius exiles Hamlet to England and sends sealed letters to the King of England telling him to kill Hamlet upon his arrival. Ophelia goes insane. Laertes, Hamlet's brother, returns from France with an army, demanding to know why Polonius was killed. Claudius enlists Laertes to kill Hamlet. Ophelia commits suicide. Hamlet and Laertes duel at her funeral; both of them are mortally wounded, Gertrude kills herself and Hamlet kills Claudius.
In II.i.109, Ophelia states Hamlet “took me by the wrist and held me hard” (109). Hamlet has a twisted, sinister version of love towards Ophelia and he shows it by the way he walks into her closet and what he is wearing. This scene with Ophelia is considered physical harassment because he touches her, and clearly she does not want to be touched. Also, Hamlet killing Polonius is a partial reason as to why Hamlet is also the reason for Ophelia’s death. Ever since Hamlet’s father died, he has shown a different side of him such as a plan to kill Claudius. He puts on a “mad” face and has unusual plans such as killing Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Polonius tries to find out the reason, consequently, he is killed. Hamlet does not care that Polonius is now dead, but of course Laertes and Ophelia do. Hamlet shows he is not affected by the death by the way he talks to Gertrude. He says “A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry with his brother” (III.iv.2). He says its almost as bad as his mother killing his husband and marrying his brother. Polonius was a father of the two. He also was a mentor for Ophelia because she is still young and still needs to be guided in the right direction. Without her father, Ophelia is lost. This death drives Ophelia to a side that readers have not seen yet. Hamlet killing Polonius is a partial reason as to why Hamlet is also the reason for Ophelia’s
He plans very carefully, making sure that he doesn't kill Claudius when he has already been forgiven for his sins. Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, the King's advisor, thinking that it was Claudius hiding behind a curtain spying on Hamlet and his mother. This drives Ophelia, Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's love interest, insane. She then drowns in a suspected suicide when she falls from a tree into a river. Laertes, Ophelia's brother, teams up with Claudius and plots revenge on the strained prince.
Polonius is also scornful of Hamlet's motives and concerned that he will be discredited by Ophelia's conduct. His command to her not to see Hamlet again is brutal, as is his decision to use her as a decoy to sound out the reason for Hamlet's eccentric behaviour. The fact that she obeys would be quite understandable to Shakespeare's audience, if not to a present day one, since filial obedience was a fundamental part of the life of the time. Note also how differently Laertes is treated by his father, compared to the lack of regard shown to Ophelia by Polonius. Women had little status, and Ophelia's wishes are not considered at any time. Torn apart as she is by divided loyalty it is no wonder that the strain on her eventually leads to her madness and subsequent death.
The audience first meets Ophelia when Hamlet expresses his madness, and takes it out on her. He is at the start of his spiralling craze, and Ophelia approaches him to speak about their love. She tries to return a token of his love, when he lashes out and claims he does not love her. Ophelia is attacked and impaled by Hamlet’s cruel words, but is unable to argue, as Hamlet does not respect her. Hamlet then detaches from both her heart, and her presence. Shortly after the emotional interaction, Ophelia seeks consolidation in the arms of Laertes, her brother, and Polonius, her father. Later on, in the midst of an argument with Gertrude, Hamlet unintentionally stabs Polonius. Following the death of Polonius, Ophelia begins her descent into insanity. Shortly after she receives notice of her father, she learns that not
The most important death that happens in "The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark" is the Death of King Hamlet. His death sets in motion all corruption, tragedy, and deaths that follow. Once King Hamlet is dead his son, Hamlet, goes crazy plotting his revenge against his uncle, because of Claudius's deceptive ways Hamlet starts to feel betrayed by his closest friends. This includes Ophelia, Daughter of Polonius, who eventually is driven to insanity following the death of her father, and how Hamlet's leaves her accusing her of lying to him and betraying their love. "So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes." (The Queen 4.7.165) the death of Ophelia affects Laertes to the point that he changes Hamlet to a dual to the death. Laertes and Claudius plan to poison hamlet to kill him, but instead of poisoning Hamlet the queen is the one who ends up drinking from the cup with poison and dying. The death of Hamlet's mother distracts him long enough for Laertes to cut Hamlet behind his ear poisoning him with the tip of his blade. Hamlet quickly strikes back striking Laertes with his poisned blade bonding them both to their deaths.As Laertes struggles to stay alive he tells hamlet the truth about Claudius's corrupted plan to kill Hamlet. This drives him to finally seek revenge for his parents. He forces Claudius to drink the poison and watches him die as his mother, Laertes, and himself die with
Arriving at Ophelia’s funeral, Hamlet is faced by Laertes' rage. Laertes justly blames Hamlet for the death of Polonius and the subsequent suicide of Ophelia. Again both deaths were due to choices made by Hamlet, Polonius' murder and driving Ophelia insane.
Hamlet’s obsession with taking revenge destroys the relationships in his life. His furiousness with his mother’s marriage causes him to lose respect for her and wish for no more marriages in Denmark (III. i. 144-152). Hamlet’s loss of respect for women affects his relationship with his girlfriend, Ophelia. He slowly begins to drive her away. Hamlet becomes impetuous and consequently kills Ophelia’s father, which permanently destroys their relationship. Another instance of obsession to revenge is Laertes. He becomes so bent upon avenging his family, that he does not think clearly. Claudius deceives Laertes by persuading him into killing Hamlet so that he remains out of harm’s way. However, their obsession to revenge becomes the foundation of their
The king forbade Fortinbras to wage an attack against Denmark, and instead suggested he attack the Poles to vent his anger. Fortinbras agreed to the plan, but had no intentions of following it. Polonius was King Hamlet’s advisor and the father of Ophelia and Laertes, both of whom respected and loved him, despite his arrogant demeanour. Young Hamlet murdered Polonius accidentally, thinking him to be the king eves dropping on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother. "How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" Laertes returned home immediately after hearing of his father's death and confronted the King, accusing him of the murder of his father. Once Claudius told Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father's death, he and Claudius concoct a scheme to kill Hamlet using a poison tipped sword. "…Hamlet, thou art slain…The treacherous instrument is in thy, unbated and envenom'd…" Hamlet does indeed die as a result of wounds inflicted by Laertes, but it is the poisoned tipped sword that causes the demise of Laertes as well.
As the play progresses, Hamlet's moral perspective on life begins to alter. The first change in his morality occurred following Hamlet's first visit from the ghost. Hamlet is told by the ghost to avenge his father's murder. If Hamlet's morality was as strong as it was in the beginning of the play, he would have immediately opposed the ghost. However, he did not oppose the thought of murdering his father's murderer. Hamlet will have a continuous struggle whether to carry out the ghost's deed or to act morally throughout the play. If, throughout, Hamlet is prevented from enacting his revenge by the discomforting ratios that his literary imitations generate, he is equally prevented from repudiating his revenge by his inability to emancipate himself from his father, to be other than an imitation of what has generated him(Kastan 204).
The topic of Ophelia’s death, maybe as a result of Claudius and Polonius being consciously aware that they are being consciously aware of during Hamlet and Ophelia’s interchange, can be paralleled with Gertrude’s suicide with all of Hamlet’s male murderers, her relationship with Claudius, as with Hamlet himself and Ophelia, and the suspicious report of Ophelia’s drowning. Gertrude is innocent of claims that she is hastily marrying Claudius out of lust; “rather, the need to secure her roles as monarch, mother, and wife seems the primary catalyst in her decision”. (Loberg 63-64) Therefore, it can be inferred that Gertrude was the cause of Ophelia’s “drowning”, in order to keep the balance of power from becoming too unstable in Gertrude’s eyes, as Ophelia was somebody who presented instability in terms of her [Ophelia’s] relationships with Hamlet and the rest of the male