Hamlet Essay

In representing intense human relationships in Hamlet, Shakespeare reflects human ‎characteristics and so makes his play more accessible to audiences across the ages. In ‎particular, Shakespeare explores familial relationships such as Hamlet’s strong love ‎and loyalty to his late father, which manifests itself first as grief, then as a desire for ‎revenge. Hamlet’s method of revenge is contrasted with Laertes’ in order to ‎communicate the value of contemplation of rash action and to demonstrate the often ‎blinding nature of revenge that leads to devastating events. These profound and ‎complex relationships between Hamlet and his father and Hamlet and Laertes, ‎captivates audiences through the drama they provoke, and thus gives Hamlet an ‎enduring quality.‎

The intensity of Hamlet’s relationship with his father is most prominently seen when ‎he encounters the ghost. His grief for his dead father, communicated through such ‎descriptive language as “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable / Seem to me all the ‎uses of this world,” now fuels his anger at Claudius and his eagerness for revenge. He ‎says to the ghost “Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift / As meditation or ‎the thoughts of love / May sweep to my revenge.” Shakespeare uses words such as ‎‎‘haste’ and ‘swift’ to communicate Hamlet’s keenness, in conjunction with the ‎metaphor of the wings which are a faster means of transport than feet. It is Hamlet’s ‎intense love for his father that generates his vengeance in which Shakespeare reflects ‎the human essence, making his play more accessible and captivating to audiences so ‎that it may endure through the years. Love of family members, an idea still relevant ‎today, is further expressed in Laertes’ rage at the death of his father: “To hell ‎allegiance, vows to the blackest devil, / Conscience and grace to the profoundest pit! / ‎I dare damnation.” The strong and widespread belief in heaven and hell during ‎Shakespeare’s time, gives this