...Hamlet’s plan, struggle, and inevitable death Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a very controversial story of how the entire royal family of Denmark was wiped out. Hamlet is doomed to die, but in his death Denmark would be purged of its evil. Through murderous plots and schemes, it is revealed that King Hamlet’s brother Claudius murdered him. Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet, he was supposed to be the next king, but Claudius quickly married Hamlet’s Mother to take the crown. During the play, it is shown why Hamlet is a considered a revenge tragedy. Throughout the play Hamlet’s view of death prevents him from taking action, but through accepting his fate he is able to finally kill his uncle, without thinking about his death. After Hamlet meets...
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...To Be, or Not To Be Shakespeare’s tragedy, The Tragedy of Hamlet: Prince of Denmark, paints the life of a hesitant, rightfully crazy prince. In sorrow, Hamlet gives a soliloquy regarding life and its finish. Through the philosophical debate of Hamlet’s soliloquy, Shakespeare characterizes Hamlet’s internal struggle as an indecisive journey, filled with weariness of living. In the first half of the passage, Hamlet finds himself indecisive, unable to decide what he wants more: life or death. The soliloquy opens with Hamlet asking a simple question, “to be, or not to be” (Shakespeare 3.2.64). Society generally prefers life over death, and thus becomes the idea becomes rhetorical when in question. The question appears rhetorical to all but Hamlet,...
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...A paramount theme that is displayed throughout the entire story of Hamlet is an individual's quest for vengeance. One example is Laertes seeking revenge on Hamlet for the death of his father. King Claudius was a major influence in the way Laertes seeked out retribution by leveraging him to take action for his own benefit. The king believed that Hamlet was a threat to not only his marriage but also his throne. Therefore he manipulated Laertes into using his hatred and drive to eliminate any risk of his downfall. Of course, Hamlet was another character that showed the theme of revenge but in a more hesitant way. After learning of the true cause of his father's death, Hamlet waits a total of 2 months before finally acting upon his wishes to avenge...
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...range of emotions in his struggle to mature and discover what life is really about. Hamlet is a young man who experiences a crisis just like many other teenagers. He frequently talks to himself, has problems in his relationship, feels pressure to be like his father, and does not like his stepfather. Hamlet, son of Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, is a teenage boy who is loyal to his father and wants to protect his mother and his family's legacy. After the death of his father, Hamlet's mother Gertrude married Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and the new King of Denmark. One night, a ghost (said to be the ghost of King Hamlet) appears to Hamlet's best friend Horatio. When Horatio tells Hamlet about seeing the ghost, Hamlet requests to see the ghost himself. When the ghost appears to Hamlet, it tells him that his father (King Hamlet) was murdered by his brother Claudius. Hamlet agrees with the ghost to avenge his father's death by killing Claudius, but not to punish his mother for her behavior, which causes a personal conflict for Hamlet. Hamlet is not sure if he should believe the ghost and struggles to determine what to do about his father's death. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, the daughter of Claudius' most trusted counselor, Polonius. As time goes on, Hamlet's behavior becomes more and more disturbing. Everyone believes Hamlet is experiencing extreme grief from the death of his father. Some thought his behavior was the result of being in love. Hamlet's uncle Claudius sends two...
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...George Awtrey English April 16, 2011 Hamlet’s Psychological Analysis William Shakespeare was and still is one of the most renowned play writers of all time. Shakespeare had a talent like no other that allowed him to create plays that entertained viewers of his era and beyond. One of his most popular plays is Hamlet. Because this play was one of his more complex works it is also became of the most analyzed plays as well. The main character, Hamlet, has fascinated readers and audiences for centuries, and one of the first thing to point out about him is that he is indecisive (22 Newell). But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet also behaves rashly and instinctively. When he does act, it is quickly with little or no premeditation, like when he stabbed Polonius through the curtain without even checking to see who he was. He seems to step very easily into the role acting crazy, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters with his careless speech (22 Newell). It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely laid back and unconcerned with it comes to the state of affairs in Denmark and in his own family. He is extremely disappointed with his mother for marrying his uncle so quickly. He rejects, Ophelia, a woman he claimed to have loved once. At a number of points in the play, he contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide. But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet expresses dissatisfaction, it is remarkable that...
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...In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the image patterns such as an unweeded garden, rot, and deception conveyed by Hamlet demonstrate how his impelling sense of justice and inability to act on his decisions doom him to his fate. The image pattern of an unweeded garden exemplifies Hamlet’s melancholy view of Denmark's monarchy and his hesitation to uproot the metaphorical weeds. Hamlet’s use of rot imagery manifests his dissatisfaction with life and inability to vie for his throne. The pattern of deception imagery delineates how Hamlet’s impotence to avenge his father’s death furthers the deterioration of his life. Image patterns used by Hamlet demonstrate his nobility and that his desires are incongruous with his reality. As Hamlet depicts the flaw in Denmark’s monarchy through the use of unweeded garden imagery, his ethics and consequent disillusionment emerge. Prior to Claudius’ usurping of power through murder and incest, Hamlet’s nobility resides in him being the immediate heir to the throne. "’tis an unweeded garden, / That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely" (Shakespeare, I.ii.6). Hamlet accurately portrays the flaw in Denmark’s monarchy: incest. As a weed destroys a garden by spreading rapidly and impeding the penetration of sunlight onto the beautiful plants, Claudius, the biggest “weed” of all, impedes the instillment of morality in his inferiors and encourages evil. Disgusted by Claudius’ duplicitous antics and Denmark’s subsequent political...
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...Write a mini-essay where you consider the Leon’s observation that Hamlet’s feelings of entrapment render him incapable to act with wisdom and foresight. Leon’s observation regarding Hamlet’s in ability to act with wisdom and foresight is valid. On one hand, Hamlet is a contemplative character who acts based on a strict moral code which is often excessive and uncalled for. On the other hand, Hamlet is an indecisive person by nature and tends to contemplate his every action to the point where it seems unreasonable to the readers of Hamlet. As a result, when tasked to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet struggles to cope. Hamlet is therefore caught between his own conscience and the honour of his father’s avengement. Hamlet’s inability to act with wisdom and foresight stems from his failure to choose which path to follow: the path his conscience takes him on or the path of honourable avengement. Being a Protestant, educated at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is guided by the laws of God and hence, refuses to act unless he can be sure that his actions align themselves with the moral values which exist in his conscience. This is epitomised by Hamlet’s refusal to kill King Claudius while in prayer citing his desire to end Claudius’ life at a time when his “…soul may be damned and black… As hell whereto it goes” (3.3.94-95) as his reason. Killing Claudius while in prayer does not assimilate within Hamlet’s Protestant values because the King Hamlet was not given the option...
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...Hamlet’s ‘To Be or Not to Be’ soliloquy is a very prominent piece in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. It is the very basis for the play and a string of words familiar to many different people all over the globe. In the infamous ‘To Be or Not to Be’ soliloquy, Hamlet makes a universal conviction about life and death, though in the end makes a conclusion that individuals who think too much can destroy themselves”by including, the diction, the syntax, and the imagery. The diction in this piece truly shapes and adds character to the meaning of the soliloquy. Words such as “undiscovered country” (Shakespeare 63), “fardels” (Shakespeare 63), “ills” (Shakespeare 63), “suffer” (Shakespeare 63), and “calamity” (Shakespeare 63) make the reader...
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...Common Themes in Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet Shakespeare utilizes the supernatural and fate to pave the destiny of some of his characters in his tragedies. Macbeth, Julius Caesar, and Hamlet appear to have a common novel theme of fate, betrayal to supremacy, and the struggle to restore providential power. Shakespeare uses rhetoric to effectively convey the idea of fate and the struggle against it. In all three of these Shakespearian tragedies characters encounter the emotion of disbelief and the struggle to seek refuge from fate and to ultimately live life as if it were their free will. In Macbeth and Hamlet, Shakespeare appears to use apparitions early in the play to effectively establish mysteriousness of the paths of these characters. By using apparitions Shakespeare clearly makes a distinction of the supernatural and reality. In these moments of these confrontations Shakespeare successfully establishes Hamlet and Macbeth’s mortality and their inevitability to succumbing to their fate. But were Hamlet and Macbeth actually doomed right away or were they in a situation where poor choices caused their downfall? H.B. Charlton thinks that Hamlet being that type of man he is, fails to kill Claudius right after King Hamlet has been murdered causing him to succumb to his fate (83). Also Julius Caesar and Duncan’s ghost appear in their plays. In each of these tragedies the main character has one emotion when he encounters fate, disbelief. Disbelief in the potential...
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...and meaning. The play concludes with Hamlet supposedly reconciling all of these subjects and dying in serenity. But from a biblical perspective, Hamlet only comes as far as the human mind without God can come. And that is immensely limiting. Hamlet comes in close contact with death from beginning to end. Mortality is appropriately the most common subject dealt with in Hamlet. The play begins with Hamlet struggling with the loss of his father. He is given the task of killing his guilty uncle. He kills Polonius. His mad love, Ophelia commits suicide. He organizes the deaths of Rozencrantz and...
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...Hamlet's designation of the importance of religion in relation to the importance of the state can be clarified by way of his soliloquies, throughout Hamlet. More specifically, Hamlet’s first, fourth, and sixth soliloquies, raise the question of how Hamlet views his relationship with God in accordance to his relationship with the state of Denmark. It is evident the Hamlet is particularly religious. Although Hamlet does not explicitly discuss his ideas regarding the significance of religion and state in relation to one another, they can be inferred through his decisions and actions throughout the play. Precisely, Hamlet’s actions regarding Old Hamlet’s Ghost and Gertrude’s marriage, in addition to his thoughts regarding Purgatory and suicide, provide evidence for how he understands this relationship to be balanced....
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...Module B: Critical Study of Texts In the context of your critical study of Hamlet, to what extent does your response to this section of the soliloquy inform your judgment of this play as a whole? In your response, make detailed reference to Hamlet. The third soliloquy primarily explores Hamlet’s struggle to take action and avenge his father’s death. This inner conflict creates a dramatic tension that is sustained throughout the play and contributes to the textual integrity. The themes of Hamlet’s self-loathing, his resistance to action, and revenge, dominate this soliloquy and recur consistently for the duration of the play. They reveal Hamlet’s weak and procrastinating character which only changes towards the very end when he overcomes his cowardice and takes revenge for his father’s death by finally killing Claudius. The audience’s attitude towards Hamlet develops through the third soliloquy as they are informed to a large extent about what the core of the drama is about. This in turn shapes their judgement of the play as a whole. Hamlet’s self-loathing arises from his frustration in not having avenged his father’s death. This is constant throughout the play because it is the character’s prime focus. His inner conflict of feeling he is incapable of killing Claudius, and then hating himself for it, begins in the first line of his soliloquy, when he uses direct speech to the audience, referring to himself as a ‘rogue and peasant slave’. This juxtaposes the image of his...
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...Hamlet William Shakespeare once said that “By sin fell the angels” (Henry VIII). In his work of Hamlet, Shakespeare plays off of this quote drastically. A formerly well-behaved Prince Hamlet soon gets himself into a web of sin. Between his lust for revenge caused by his father’s death, his struggle for power over the throne and his lying, scheming, and murdering, Hamlet losses his wings and becomes a fallen angel. Revenge: one crime that cannot be overlooked in the play write of Hamlet seeing as Shakespeare uses it as a central issue. The obsession with revenge is portrayed as completely opposed to genuine Christian virtue and becomes the reason for Hamlet's downfall. Arguably, one may say that Claudius asked for what Hamlet had in store for him but in the end, the play of Hamlet clearly states that revenge is unholy. This vengeance is brought about due to King Claudius killing his brother and Hamlet’s father. Since the prince was so close to his father, he felt betrayed that blood would go as far as to kill. At first, Hamlet is unaware towards who the murderer is but is informed by his father’s ghost that it was his own uncle, Claudius, who took the king’s life. GHOST: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. HAMLET: Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift/As meditation or the thought of love,/May sweep to my revenge (Hamlet I.v.L7). After talking to the ghost, Hamlet begins plotting acts of revenge towards his uncle. At one point he even plots...
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...Fear is Fate For many people, death is the source of an all-consuming - if abstract - terror. The manner in which an individual deals with this fear is often a reflection of their ability to accept their ultimate fate. Oftentimes, an individual's inability to cope with the idea of death leaves them filled with a profound sorrow, and leads to a great deal of suffering. The sociable nature of our society makes death particularly difficult to handle: society expects us to "deal with" death and to return to normal activities relatively quickly, and looks down upon those who cannot achieve this. People respond to death in a wide variety of ways, ranging from grief, to rage, to deep depression bordering on insanity. It is this last response that the public views least favorably. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the titular protagonist has difficulty accepting the death of his father, and many of the coping mechanisms that he employs are still seen by individuals forced to deal with death in modern society. Hamlet's struggle with his father's death is the primary mechanism behind his inability to fall in line with the dictates of society. Hamlet is raised by his mother and father, the King and Queen of Denmark. As a child, Hamlet is relatively sheltered from death, and it is this unfamiliarity that leaves him unable to cope with it as an adult, when his world is shattered by the murder of his father. Initially, Hamlet does not know the cause behind his father's passing, but his father's...
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...protagonist, prince Hamlet,loses his father to death at the hands of his uncle. When Hamlet becomes informed about the true nature behind his father’s death, he is faced with several consequential events. Despite his desire to avenge his father, Hamlet struggles internally with the potential consequences of killing his uncle. In Mccloskey’s criticism of Hamlet, “Hamlet Quest for Certainty” he says, “Now it is Hamlet who is in active danger and not the King…After slaying Polonius he hides the body”, but here lies a flaw in McCloskey’s argument. (McCloskey 449). Instead Hamlet’s fatal error is he is ahead of his time. While the Ghost tries to incite Hamlet to commit mindless murder in the name of vengeance,...
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