Critical Analysis Of Hamlet

Alyssa Moran
Mr. Huck
AP Literature - Period 7
16 November 2015
Hamlet Revealed The play Hamlet, is about dealing with life and death as well as understanding the purpose of one's existence. This is seen through the infamous character Hamlet. Hamlet's mind is tumultuous, with its ups and downs and abrupt turn a rounds. There are many sides to him; only through his soliloquies does Hamlet reveal his true thoughts and feelings. In his soliloquies, Hamlet insists that he is an individual with many psychological and philosophical sides. He also shows he has difficulty understanding and accepting these layers. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is full of self doubt. He gradually experiences emotional despair and bouts of anger and eventually
Hamlet returns home after he receives the devastating news about the death of his father. When he arrives in Denmark, he is welcomed by the incestuous marriage between his mother and uncle, Claudius. Hamlet cannot wrap his head around the fact that his mother was able to get over the death of his father after one month. Due to his inability to understand his mother, Hamlet starts to ponder the idiocy of the world, "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world" (1.2.137-138). This is the start of the sense of morality and ethics around Hamlet begins to decay. He is angry at his mother and begins to isolate himself from everyone else. King Hamlet's ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him. The rest of the play consists of Hamlet trying to prove that Claudius murdered his father. However, Hamlet always seems to be reflecting in deep thought , sometimes even ruminating. He overuses his intellect while disregarding what he believes "feels
He ignores his 'gut feeling' and trusts in his intelligence. For example, when Hamlet first sees his father's ghost he is overwhelmed with emotion and does not believe it is his father. Hamlet says "Let me not burst in ignorance, but tell / Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, / Have burst their cerements;" (1.4.51-53). Hamlet is taken back from seeing his deceased father. His sense of reasoning tells him what he is seeing is impossible, but he holds back his emotion and contains his doubts about the ghost. Hamlet's sense of logic begins to diminish as the play moves forward, which slowly reveals how he truly feels. When Hamlet states, "To be or not to be, that is the question: / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles" (3.1.64-67). Hamlet realizes that the power of reason is futile when handling the depths of human life, because of his ambiguity and angst. When he tries to make sense of how he feels, he tries to combine logic and emotion. Hamlet's decision against suicide shows he has a thoughtful and moral