The literary works discussed in the following pages all share a thoughtful probing of a important question that all humankind contemplates. The characters are all searching for something and that something is often their own identity and purpose. Most fail to reach beyond their circumstances and in the process reveal their fatal vulnerability. As a result they become tragic figures. We learn from their struggle and hope to move beyond our own everyday challenges and constraints toward enlightenment. Hamlet turns inward as he succumbs to vengeance in an uncertain world. Grendel attempts to reach out to the dragon but can’t escape his yearning to destroy everything. Creeley’s Man appears lost in the darkness around him and seems destined to
When individuals face obstacles in life, there is often two ways to respond to those hardships: some people choose to escape from the reality and live in an illusive world. Others choose to fight against the adversities and find a solution to solve the problems. These two ways may lead the individuals to a whole new perception. Those people who decide to escape may find themselves trapped into a worse or even disastrous situation and eventually lose all of their perceptions and hops to the world, and those who choose to fight against the obstacles may find themselves a good solution to the tragic world and turn their hopelessness into hopes. Margaret Laurence in her short story Horses of the Night discusses the idea of how individual’s responses
Pennington, Michael. "Ophelia: Madness Her Only Safe Haven." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of "Hamlet": A User's Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.
In many short stories, characters face binding situations in their lives that make them realize more about themselves when they finally overcome such factors. These lively binding factors can result based on the instructions imposed by culture, custom, or society. They are able to over come these situations be realizing a greater potential for themselves outside of the normality of their lives. Characters find such realizations through certain hardships such as tragedy and insanity.
Manning, John. "Symbola and Emblemata in Hamlet." New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York: AMS Press, 1994. 11-18.
Hamlet. The son of a king. A man who could have had it all, but instead he chose the much more painful route of revenge and a life of bloodshed. The downfall of Hamlet is comparable to trying to hide a lie one has told. The deeper we try to cover the lie, the worse it gets and harder it becomes to do the right thing. The deeper the reader explores into Hamlets life, the messier and messier it becomes. With a mind full of suicidal thoughts and insanity with no effort to contain it can only lead one thing, and Hamlets downfall is the ultimate example. Pain, suffering, and extreme
Shakespeare, William, Marilyn Eisenstat, and Ken Roy. Hamlet. 2nd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2003. Print.
Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.
The theme of this book is that the human capacity to adapt to and find happiness in the most difficult circumstances. Each character in the novel shows this in their way. For instance, their family is randomly taken from their home and forced to work but they still remain a close nit family. In addition, they even manage to stick together after being separated for one of their own. These show how even in the darkest time they still manage to find a glimmer of hope and they pursued on.
Ahlman, Marti. "Hamlet Study Guide." AP English. Calvary Christian School. Georgia, Columbus. 08 Mar 2014. Reading.
Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.
In Hamlet Shakespeare is able to use revenge in an extremely skillful way that gives us such deep insight into the characters. It is an excellent play that truly shows the complexity of humans. You can see in Hamlet how the characters are willing to sacrifice t...
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.
Kennedy, X. J., and Dana Gioia. "Hamlet." Literature: an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 11th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007. 1354+. Print.
Lidz, Theodore. Hamlet's Enemy, Madness and Myth in Hamlet. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1975.
Watching a frail man having his whole world turn upside down, falling deeper into the worm with no one to stop his fall until he opens his eyes and sees inside himself. Gazing at himself this man can create a persona to claim what he longs for- control over his thoughts and actions- a seldom trait for a man whose heir to the throne. Hamlet is a man where his entire life has confined under his parent`s law. After all those years of acting like a zoo animal, Hamlet breaks free in the oddest way to pronounce his status of becoming an independent man. For Hamlet to conquer this feat, Hamlet created his own madness due to his ambitions of having absolute control over his thoughts and actions.