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Dramatic Irony In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Dramatic Irony In Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet is a play written about a prince that is troubled about the death of his father, the king, and the fact that the brother of his father married his mother. He is conflicted by his own thoughts and the need to take revenge for his father’s death, but due to his philosophical nature, he begins to overthink things and makes things go awry. Due to Hamlet being a play, the audience or reader possesses information that the majority of characters are not aware of, which is known as dramatic irony. Therefore, the audience can notice the minor, or even major, discrepancies or missed opportunities by the characters portrayed in the “madness” of Hamlet, the missed opportunity of killing King Claudius, and the untimely death of Ophelia. As the play …show more content…
However, he doesn't feel that his offense is so horrible because he knows that what has happened has happened and God cannot forgive him, therefore there's no reason for repenting when his path has already been laid for him. So King Claudius kneels as to pretend to repent right as Hamlet comes up behind him. Hamlet believes that he is repenting and therefore decides that he should not kill King Claudius at that moment because Hamlet feels that King Claudius deserves to be sent to Hell and any chance that he has of being sent to Heaven should not be due to Hamlet, therefore, Hamlet does not kill King Claudius at that moment, but the dramatic irony in this shows that King Claudius was not repenting, but merely kneeling and if Hamlet had indeed killed him, none of the things that happened after would have happened and the King would not have had more time to plan how to kill Hamlet. Hamlet believed that he was making the correct decision by not killing Claudius at that moment, had he been praying and Hamlet killed him, then, Claudius would’ve been sent to Heaven and Hamlet believed that Claudius does not deserve that. Sadly, Hamlet overthought it all and didn’t want to take the chance given at that moment due to his massive hatred for him. So Claudius rises and says, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below” (3.
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