Hamlet Flaws

Throughout Shakespeare’s career as a playwright, he has written about many complex and well thought characters who actually have something they want to say and how the characters’ view life. None however, as interesting as Hamlet from the play Hamlet. The character of Hamlet is interesting because although he was born from status, he does not have all the power. Hamlet is also well aware of his flaws and his flaws are not that obvious to the audience. The most engaging scenes are the ones where Hamlet is alone speaking truths about his thoughts on suicide and humanity itself. Although Hamlet and his thoughts might seem like the thoughts of sad teenager contemplating suicide, from his logical standpoint on to suicide to his ideas of human beings in death, Hamlet gives an interesting perspective on the physical idea of death and the logical part of suicide.
In the very first important soliloquy of the play, Hamlet has just finished a rather unpleasant conversation with Claudius and Gertrude, and right from the beginning contemplates the idea of suicide.
This is not him thinking about committing suicide because in his mind that option is not allowed due to religion, it is just him complaining about the current state of his life and the marriage of his Uncle to his Mother. Hamlets line in the play “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!”(1.2.131-132) shows his dislike towards that God made it a sin to commit suicide. Hamlet is already at a spiraling low due to his father dying and his mother getting remarried. The fact that his parents are also going to make him move back tears Hamlet up because he does not want to spend that much time with them. His first soliloquy is not as much about humanity and thoughts of suicide as his other speeches, but rather it sets up the turmoil that Hamlet feels
currently. One of the major themes of the play and idea Hamlet seemed to be focused on, was the idea of physical death and the realization that it’s the fate that all humans end up in no matter how much people will try to struggle. The seeds for idea to grow in his conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when he builds this idea that human beings are incredible only for him to end his dialogue by saying “The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me. No, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.”(2.2.289-292)” to convey the fact that he thinks of humans as nothing more than dust. He even points out that not only men but women as well also do not interest him. His obsession with the idea of physical death culminates when he sees the skull of Yorick, his older jester he realizes that no matter what someone does that person is always going to return to dust. He compares him to Alexander the Great by saying “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam—and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer barrel?” (5.1.189-192) Even though Alexander lived a much more important life in the end you could use the ashes of his body or the ashes of the jester Yorick to plug up a hole in a beer barrel. Hamlet’s obsession with physical death all leads up to this and makes Hamlet realize that everyone is the same in death. Hamlet delivers one of the most famous English speeches in history that dig into a harsh subject both back then and today. Hamlet begins to talk about the benefits and the disadvantages of committing suicide. He questions whether it is a nobler task to trying to deal with all the misfortune that comes one’s way during life or to finally take a stance against it all. This part of his speech is also ironic because in some interpretations of the play, people think that Hamlet’s mother Gertrude may have killed herself on purpose as an act of defiance against Claudius for sending Hamlet off to his death. He compares death to sleeping, because sleeping allows one to escape their problems and get consumed by the world of dreams. The drawback of death being that one does not know what the dream could consist or if there is even a dream at all in the first place. Hamlet comes to the conclusion that
“That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, (3.1.75-79)
The only reason people put with the harshness of life is because what comes after death is much too scary for most people to handle. What is noteworthy is that Hamlet is admitting the real reason that he would not commit suicide instead of just defending his fear with religion as a defense. Hamlet like many people in real life is just scared of what happens after death. In conclusion, Hamlet’s thoughts and speeches might seem like just some college boy complaining about his life but in reality Hamlet just realizes ideas that some people do not or cannot face. This idea that no matter what one does in life or how important he/she feels, that person will ultimately return to dust. Also the idea that the central reason people do not commit suicide is because they are afraid of the afterlife These concepts were groundbreaking during the time and made people realize that Shakespeare was a great writer and that Hamlet is in fact a deep character.