Preview

Hamlet Contradictions

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
671 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hamlet Contradictions
The character of Hamlet is very complex and full of contradictions. He seems gentle, yet he acts cruelly towards the people who care about him the most. He is also careful to develop a strategy which will allow him a sense of retribution against Claudius for the murder of his father without being suspected, but then he kills Polonius in a wild fit of irrationality. Still, Hamlet possesses a very philosophical mind. He is always processing his own experiences and struggling with the feelings that these experiences provoke. The fact that he is intelligent and able to take action cannot be denied. He proves not only his intelligence by contemplating big issues within his soliloquies, but also his ability to operate by the quick, but rare, decisions he makes all throughout the novel. On the surface, it is awfully difficult to understand why Hamlet is the way he is. It could be that Hamlet is simply a victim in all the corruption which surrounds him or maybe he is just extremely sinister in his opinions of the inner workings of Elsinore. However, when pressing concentration of the issue is achieved, the answer is obvious. Hamlet's drive to murder Claudius, his disgust with females, and his inability to fulfill …show more content…
Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost shortly afterwards and discovers that his father was murdered by none other than Claudius himself. He is then instructed by the ghost to slay Claudius. Hamlet's entire being quickly becomes consumed with avenging his father's death seeing that as the only way to end Gertrude's incestuous marriage. Before long, he even feigns madness so no one will be able to guess his actual intentions. He cannot stomach what his mother has done and he obsesses over it, describing it as "rank," "incestuous," and "nasty." Hamlet believes it to be a sin that is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Throughout the play, “The Crucible,” John Proctor faces many difficult obstacles that occurred in his life. He had false accusations made against him, which resulted in a defamation of his character and being discouraged with Puritan Society.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlets father was killed by his Uncle Claudius due to jealousy of the kingdom. Claudius poisoned his brother while he was sleeping in the garden. Hamlet finds out his father was murdered by meeting is ghost in the yard of the kingdom. Hamlet decides to plan out his revenge by first acting like he has gone mad because of his father’s death. He breaks his loves heart in the process but doesn’t stop his revenge. He orders for a play to be presented to the royal court, including his uncle and his mother. This play is supposed to simulate his fathers death and he wants to see how the king reacts to the play. This is where he realizes that the ghost was telling the truth. Claudius then figures out that Hamlet has been suspicious and decides to send him to England to be killed. While speaking to his mother, Hamlet hears someone spying on them and kills his loves father, Polonius. This was the beginning of the tragedy. Hamlet has a moment to kill Claudius before he leaves for England but questions himself and his actions. He then leaves only to return after finding a letter of his execution and being “attacked” by pirates. Claudius and Polonius’s son, Laertes, have come up with a plan to kill Hamlet when he arrives. They are going to challenge him in a fencing battle with poison at the end of the sword. If this plan fails, they will have poisoned wine for Hamlet to drink.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The appearance of his father's ghost didn't seem very reliable to him as he began to question his own sanity over what he thinks he should do about the situation. Hamlet deeply contemplates about his soul being damned on actions he was willing to pursue in avenging his father's death. He cautiously plots his act of revenge and waits for the ideal moment to avenge his father's murder. He decides to show King Claudius a play, a similar performance of Claudius' own murderous deed, hopefully seeing some kind of reaction from the king. He says "I'll have these…

    • 1027 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Ghost of Hamlet's father is a foil for Hamlet. The ghost is featured in the play for two large reasons: establishing the conflict, showing a supernatural improbability to Hamlet's character, and giving Hamlet someone to speak with. The ghost gives the information of how he died and who committed the murder. While Hamlet is talking with the ghost, he becomes very angry with his mother and uncle. He decides he wants revenge from Claudius for the murder of his father. Both Hamlet and the ghost believe Claudius should pay for what he has done, although neither do anything about it. Among others, one similarity between the ghost and Hamlet is that they remain in the same social class.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet does, in fact, believe that foul play was to blame for his father's death, and that it was orchestrated by his uncle Claudius, Hamlet Sir’s successor. Even though Hamlet has a strong gut feeling that his uncle is at fault he has no evidence or proof to go on. This all changes when his father's ghost appears to him and confirms his sons hunch, and orders his son to avenge him. Due to his father's apparition Hamlet’s course of action changes from just suspecting of his uncle, to investigating if the ghost is telling the truth, to ultimately killing his uncle. Hamlet Sir's ghost also affects the action of the play later on during Hamlet's quarrel with his mother…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet’s suspicions are confirmed when his father’s ghost visits him to tell him he was murdered. King Hamlet encourages young Hamlet to seek vengeance against his uncle. As Hamlet resolves to do just that, he begins to wonder about the veracity of the ghost and its visits. Hamlet’s fears overcome him and he becomes paralyzed emotionally, unable to fulfill the requests of his father’s ghost. He cares for both his parents and works himself into a stupor trying to decide how to execute his plan of action. In the meantime Hamlet sets in motion a series of catastrophic events that cause the deaths of six people besides Claudius who he originally planned to kill.…

    • 577 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hamlet loved his father, King Hamlet, and it was his death that broke young Hamlet's heart. It is the love he had for his father that brought him to his doom. After King Hamlet's death he appeared as a ghost moving through the castle at one o'clock every morning. When the guards and Horatio, Hamlet's best friend, noticed this ghostly figure, Horatio quite intelligently believed that he could get the ghost to speak with Hamlet. The next day the two guards, Horatio, and young Hamlet were present to speak to the ghost of King Hamlet. The ghost told Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius, his brother, who had been sworn in as the new king and married his wife, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. After hearing this, young Hamlet was asked to avenge his father’s death, but in doing so his mother was to remain unharmed. Hamlet, being the loving and devoted son he was, and unable to accept Claudius as the leader to replace his father, accepted King Hamlet’s request. After this encounter, young Hamlet refused to tell the guardsman and Horatio what happened but made it known that he would act like a…

    • 1099 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Hamlet Truly Mad?

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals to him that he has been murdered by his brother Claudius, the man who also married Hamlet’s mother after he died. After finding out that Claudius killed his father, Hamlet makes it his mission to avenge his father by killing Claudius. Many believe that Hamlet went mad after seeing the ghost and planning his revenge, but really it was just part of the process that came with his revenge on Claudius.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hamlet Critical Lens

    • 391 Words
    • 1 Page

    In the William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet the Prince of Denmark is plotting to kill his uncle, who is the king because he poisoned his father, the previous king. The theme of the play is revenge and the protagonist, Hamlet is characterized as being fully devoted to avenging his father, no matter the cost. After two months of mourning for his dead father, Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost, who tells him that it was his brother, King Claudius who killed him. Hamlet then promises his father that he will get revenge on Claudius however, his inability to act prolongs Claudius’s death. Hamlet must first find out if it was actually his father’s ghost and not Satan trying to trick him so he modifies a play that shows a similarity to the murder of Hamlet’s father at the hand of Claudius. Claudius leaves before the play before it ends and berates himself for the murder, “Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven. It has the eldest primal curse on it, a brother’s murder.” Therefore, Claudius will pay the price for killing Hamlet’s father by losing his throne, his wife, and even his own life. Hamlet will also pay greatly for avenging his father. He will lose Ophelia, the woman he loves who drownes herself after her father, Polonius is killed by Hamlet who thought it was Claudius. He will lose his mother, Gertrude who drinks wine that was poisoned by Claudius and intended for Hamlet. Hamlet will also lose his own life after being stabbed with a poisoned sword by Larates in a fencing duel, who was seeking…

    • 391 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Analysis

    • 3020 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Hamlet decides to get more information / prove what the ghost was saying before doing…

    • 3020 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Questions

    • 5164 Words
    • 21 Pages

    1. What happens when Francisco and Bernardo meet at the beginning of 1.1? Where are we, and when? Why is there confusion over which one is supposed to challenge the other by asking "Who's there"? Why is Horatio with Bernardo and Marcellus? Who is he?…

    • 5164 Words
    • 21 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Contradictions

    • 70 Words
    • 1 Page

    Hamlet focuses on how such a motive can become practical and ethical when faced with a particularly sensitive mind. Francis Bacon's famous comment that revenge is "a kind of wild justice" reaches the heart of the battle of vengeance, the terse phrase "wild justice" offers the paradox of revenge that feels the restoration of balance and legitimate dealings through unregulated and unregulated men. Enact these contradictions and communicate with them.…

    • 70 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dumas Vs Shakespeare

    • 3332 Words
    • 14 Pages

    The main character, Hamlet, shows his loyalty to his father, growing angry at the fact that he was murdered by his uncle. When his father asks Hamlet to take revenge on Claudius, Hamlet becomes enraged and his willingness to take revenge becomes revealed. “Ghost: Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Hamlet: Murder? Ghost: Murder most foul, as in the best it is But this most foul strange and unnatural. Hamlet: Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift, As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.” (Shakespeare pg.29 Act I, Scene 5). Hamlet stays loyal to his father’s memory through the whole novel, seeking revenge on Claudius until he is able to kill him, accomplishing this task as he dies alongside…

    • 3332 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Is Hamlet Crazy

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, the ghost of Hamlet’s father visits him and explains that his Uncle Claudius was the one who murdered him. Claudius married Gertrude, who is Hamlets mother, and Hamlet is depressed from all the horrible things that happened and plans revenge. To try to show Claudius’ guilt he hires actors to do a play about a man who kills his brother to become the King. He tells his mother about what has been happening and why he’s been acting crazy and kills Ophelia’s father thinking it is Claudius. Ophelia is Hamlets girlfriend…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Response Paper

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The main grievance Hamlet has with his uncle is the murder of his father, the king. Already grieving over death of his father, Hamlet discovers, by confession of his father, that Claudius murder him in order to become king. Called to action by his friend Horatio and the guards who have witness appearances of a ghost during their night watch, Hamlet goes to confront the ghost that looks like the late King Hamlet. A ghost doomed to walk the earth for an unspecified number of years to atone for the sins that he was not able to confess, King Hamlet Sr., tells the prince that he was murdered by Claudius through foul means. He states, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural” (249), demanding that Hamlet, his son, avenge his ill-conceived death. Overcome with grief and anger at the injustice done to him (as Claudius has managed to steal the crown from him) and his father, Hamlet begins to plot his vengeance. However, being the only one who has talked to ghost, Hamlet, wanting to ensure that…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays