Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Analysis of hamlet's character
characterization within hamlet
Analysis of hamlet's character
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Analysis of hamlet's character
“There is no evil angel but Love.” While that specific quote is from one of William
Shakespeare’s plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream, love has been the evil mastermind behind
several, if not all, of Shakespeare’s infamous tragedies. Take Hamlet for example; the tragedy of
Hamlet would not be a tragedy if it were not for anguished love. Feeling, seeing, hearing, and
ultimately experiencing love can have multiple effects on a person, or many people for that
matter—even one’s not directly involved. Love is a seemingly altruistic emotion. Not everyone
has a friendly encounter with love because of its deceivingly ability to bring out the foulest of
evils in everyone. How, though, can something so delight be so ultimately evil? One could only
begin to comprehend this puzzling question by, first, understanding the true meaning of evil and
the multiple conceptions of it, then, making the connection between love and evil.
Phillip Cole, a well-known philosopher, has four major conceptions of evil. The first
being the “monstrous” conception of evil; “according to which the agent who freely chooses to
pursue human suffering for its own sake thereby becomes, or perhaps already is, a creature
distinct from normal human beings, a monster” (Garrard, McNaughton 4). The monstrous
conception of evil is displayed in act two, scene two of Hamlet. Hamlet begins to exert insults
upon Polonius. After consistently draining Polonius of all of his logic, Hamlet proceeds to guilt
trip Polonius in saying “You can’t take anything from me that I care less about—except my life,
except my life, except my life” (Crowther, 9). Even though the topic of love seems far from the
center of their conversation, if the love that both Poloniu...
... middle of paper ...
...e in Hamlet.
Evil, whatever the conception, must have some motivation of some sort. Evil always
requires some previous occurrence to emerge from the depths of the human soul. Love,
undoubtedly, does just that. In today’s society as well as in the literary works of the great
William Shakespeare, love is all-powerful in many ways. It can bring out the worst in a person
just as easily, if not easier, as it can bring out the absolute best in a person. Love is a “one
extreme or the other” type of emotion. In conclusion, love an evil appear to be complete
opposites but, when looked into deeply, people will be able to see one does not exist without the
other.
Works Cited
Garrard, Eve. Speak No Evil?.Midwest: Wiley Periodicals, Inc., 2012: 1-8, web 28 February 2014
Crowther, John, ed. “No Fear Hamlet.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2005. Web. 5 Mar.2014.
verses evil, the monster is meant to be evil but we as the reader feel
...never truly know another’s inner nature. If Hamlet’s scenario is not convincing enough, an examination of the situations of Polonius— whose attempts to see into Hamlet’s interior based on Hamlet’s actions get him killed— and Claudius— who also falls prey to the belief that his soul is impenetrable and dies as a result of it— may be helpful. As Hamlet demonstrates, there exist certain moral principles beyond human control, and sometimes, as in Hamlet’s case, they are better left unchallenged.
...f the situation before he enters it, while Polonius and Ophelia must try to understand events as, or after they happen.
It is perhaps the most difficult intellectual challenge to a Christian how God and evil can both exist. Many of the greatest minds of the Christian church and intellects such as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas spent their entire lives trying to solve this problem, and were unsuccessful (Erickson, 2009, p.439). However, this dilemma is not only an intellectual challenge, but it is emotional. Man feels it, lives it. Failing to identify the religious form of the problem of evil will appear insensitive; failure to address the theological form will seem intellectually insulting. This conundrum will never be completely met during our earthly life, but there are many biblical and philosophical resources that help mitigate it.
Beginning with the Greeks, tragedy has been an essential form of entertainment. Although it has changed slightly over time due to different religious and social values, it is still written and performed to this day. Perhaps the most well known tragedy of all time is Shakespeare's Hamlet. Hamlet is perhaps the epitome of all tragedy. Not only does the tragic hero Hamlet meet his demise, but all the main characters in the play at some point due to some flaw in their character, or some fatal decision, also meet the same fate. It is because of their character flaw and/or their fatal decision at some time during the play that their death can be justified.
Evil can be a scary thing many things can influence on why a person may be considered evil or do evil things.People do things because they were influenced by others or by their own selfish desires,
The abstract concept of evil has vastly transformed throughout human history, ranging for the supernatural and mystical to the very humans amongst whom we live. In modern times, evil has become an entirely ambiguous term. Who is evil? What is evil? Men like Adolph Hitler and Saddam Hussein have been garnered with the term ‘evil’ for their atrocities against fellow humans. Now it seems evil has a solely human significance; when a person violates the individual rights of others on a massive scale, he/she is evil. In Shakespeare’s time – the Elizabethan era – evil had a similar, but somewhat altered connotation in the human mind. Evil was an entity that violated the English Christian monarchial tradition. Therefore, a man such as Claudius, from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, a cold-blooded murderer and a ruthless manipulator, who uses “rank” deeds to usurp the thrown is in direct violation with the Elizabethan societal norms, and hence he is an evil character.
The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.
Throughout the events which unfold in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Shakespeare delivers several messages on love. Through this play, one of the significant ideas he suggests is that love is blind, often defying logic and overriding other emotions and priorities. Helena loves Demetrius unconditionally and pursues him despite knowing that he loathes her; conflict arises between Helena and Hermia, childhood best friends, over Demetrius and Lysander; and because she is in love, Queen Titania is able to see beauty and virtue in the ass-headed Nick Bottom.
of evil, and Hell’s Satan as a creature seemingly capable of good. At every moment, good
There are two kinds of evil, moral and natural. Moral evil is things like murder, rape, stealing, terrorism, etc. Natural evil is things like suffering and unpleasantness typically as a result of moral evil. Evil is that which has no power of its own. Evil is darkness, a negation of light. Its power is in us, in our fear of it, in that we consider it a "something" worth responding to.
In the passage from Act 1, Scene 2 through the use of language and dramatic effect Shakespeare explores and expands the character of Hamlet, also enforcing themes such as gender and desire.
Deceiving and irrational, love can be a challenging emotion to endure. It can be difficult to find happiness in love, and on the journey to find that happiness, love can influence one’s thought process. Shakespeare uses specific wording in his play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to poke fun while exploring the individual’s quest for love. The desire to find love and a happy ending with a lover is so strong in the foundation of mankind, that people will not accept a life without it. In fact, they would rather give up their attribute of rationality than their opportunity to find a significant other. The heart’s control of the mind can make a foolish man.
To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times symbolized as god or light, is usually associated with an action that many individual see as helping one or many people. This definitions is again very hard to define due to it bias and opinionated nature. But many and most people will agree that good, is what helps not only the common people become a stronger as a community but also become stronger as in...
Love is arguably the most powerful emotion possessed by mankind; it is the impalpable bond that allows individuals to connect and understand one another. Pure love is directly related to divinity. Without love, happiness and prosperity become unreachable goals. An individual that possesses all the desired superficial objects in the world stands alone without the presence of love. For centuries love has been marveled by all that dare encounter it. Countless books and poems have been transcribed to explain the phenomenon of love, but love surpasses all intellectual explanations and discussions. Love is not a definition, but rather a thought, an idea. This idea, the idea of love, burns inside us all. Instinctually, every soul on Earth is