Hamlet is cursed by the ghost of his father coming back and haunt him by dictating Hamlet to avenge his horrible murder. Since he is naturally both a thinker and a reasoner, Hamlet questions whether the ghost is really his father. The self-examination causes a delay in Hamlet’s avenge-seeking plans. Moreover, Hamlet displays signs of depression since his mother did not mourn her husband’s death for very long before remarrying, ironically to her husband’s murderer. The ethical concerns of Hamlet are obvious when the queen tells Hamlet: "If it be, why seems it so particular with thee?" (Hamlet 1.2. 76) Hamlet disputes Gertrude’s charge that he is being hypocritical, "Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not ‘seems’…"…
Detail 1: To begin with, Prince Hamlet in “Hamlet” is considered to be a scholar, a thinker, and the kind of person who would not act without thoroughly analysing the circumstances. Hamlet’s flaws as a central character become evident when the intrigue begins to take shape. The intrigue in “Hamlet” shows Hamlet’s father coming to him, as a ghost, and pleads revenge for his death. Hamlet becomes aware that his uncle, Claudius,…
One of the most prominent similarities between the two is the alienation they felt from their mothers. Despite the love they both share for their respective mothers, they also felt the most pain from them. Hamlet, prior to his father’s murder, had a great deal of compassion and respect for his mother Gertrude (citation). However things changed after his mother’s re-marriage to the king’s brother. Devastated by his father’s loss Hamlet falls into to a deep depression. While grieving for his father Hamlet is continuously confronted by Claudius, his step father, and his mother Gertrude asking what possibly could be the source for his pain. After revealing he is troubled by his father’s death, Gertrude tells Hamlet that he must stop grieving; everybody dies so he mustn’t be sad (1.2.68-73). Hamlet is offended by his mother’s ease to just forget, and with a sarcastic retort he tells his mother that the sorrow depicted from his appearance is only a fraction of the sadness he is truly experiencing. This indicates Hamlet’s first true instance of alienation. Hamlet is forced to combat his sorrow on his own, as the only person who could possibly relate to him has entirely moved on. Upon the discovery of the true details pertaining to his father’s death Hamlet plots revenge against Claudius. Hamlet stages a play that demonstrates the true means of his father’s…
Olivier presents Hamlet’s relationship with Gertrude as more physical in order to indicate Hamlet’s confusion, while Branagh presents the relationship between Hamlet and his mother as less physical to reinforce his feelings of frustration. During the scene where Claudius and Gertrude are encouraging Hamlet to stay in Denmark, Gertrude freely touches Hamlet and kisses him on the mouth to console her grieving son (Olivier, 1948). During this scene, Hamlet is sitting at the edge of the table wearing all black and is turned away from everyone. He is upset that his mother has remarried such a short time after his father’s death. His tone of voice suggests that he is full of grief, devastated about the death of his father, and feeling betrayed by his mother. Even though he feels betrayed, Hamlet passively allows his mother to embrace and kiss him. Hamlet is confused, and has no sense of how to deal with his conflicting feelings. Branagh, however, presents the relationship between Hamlet and his mother without any physical contact between the two. During the same scene in Branagh’s version, the queen smiles and encourages Hamlet to stay instead of returning to Wittenberg (Branagh, 1996). In comparison to Olivier’s Hamlet, Branagh’s Hamlet has a different tone of voice. His tone of voice is on the edge of tears. When Gertrude consoles Hamlet and urges him to stay in Denmark, he agrees to stay, but does not engage in any physical contact with…
Sometimes the way the world perceives somebody’s character is not always accurate. In Shakespeare’s infamous play Hamlet, Hamlet is thought to be a mentally unstable character. When he isn’t feigning madness, Hamlet is a well educated individual, who is capable of manipulation as well as a capacity for sarcastic wit. Shakespeare effectively portrays Hamlet’s true character through his interactions with other characters as well as his instinctive emotional responses.…
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…
Hamlets mother Gertrude betrays her first husband, the first king of Denmark. This betrayal comes in the form of a hasty marriage to the king’s brother Claudius, who we find out later murdered his brother in an attempt to acquire the crown. This is an act of betrayal on Gertrude’s part, because she should be in mourning of the her first husband’s death, but she immediately enters another marriage, with the kings brother. This is a betrayal to Hamlet because his father was killed, and his mother soon marries the man who we find out is responsible for it. We find out that Claudius killed his brother and Hamlets father with poison, we find this out when Hamlet is visited by a ghost in which Horatio cannot identify but shows itself to Hamlet as his father, it is at this time that the ghost tells Hamlet how he really died and who was responsible . When Hamlet learns of this news, he is enraged with the news and he begins looking to get revenge on the murderer Claudius. Hamlet throughout the play begins to doubt his sanity and if he should kill his uncle Claudius or himself “To be or not to be…….” (Hamlet), this is an act of betrayal on Hamlets part.…
There are five famous steps or stages to grief. Originally written by a Swiss psychologist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in 1969 in her book On Death and Dying, these five stages have since been modified to feel less rigid and more adaptable to all of us. Elisabeth Kubler Ross and David Kessler collaborated and wrote a new book On Grief and Grieving which takes on this task. The five stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. However, these are still just a model for what people will go through during death and the process of grief. Everyone experiences these five stages in their own way and in their own order, sometimes even coming back to some stages before moving on to the next. Even though these stages were not identified until the 20th century one of the earliest examples we can look at is in Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” where the main protagonist, Hamlet, goes through these five stages. However, with Hamlet, like many of us, he experiences these in his own order.…
I feel very sympathetic towards Hamlet because the Ghost is explaining to him that King Claudius was the one who killed him – the rightful King. This passage is an example of Dramatic Irony because no one besides Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus, knows that King Claudius killed Hamlet’s father; King Hamlet. I feel sympathetic towards Ophelia because after she went to her father (Polonius) about Hamlet acting strange, he stated that Hamlet is madly in love with her, yet has already forbidden her to see him any longer. This passage is an example of Dramatic Irony because the readers, Horatio, and Marcellus are the only ones aware that Hamlet is only acting mad, where as everyone else thinks that he is truly going mad.…
Hamlet is in a situation where his sanity is turning into insanity. He is like one of those people who tell so many lies that they start believing their own lies. Hamlet's acting is so vivid to him that, unconsciously, his state of mind has become irrational. He is turning against everyone in order to follow the orders of revenge from his father's ghost. In order to do so, he is finding any possible way to bring out the guilt in everyone due to his father's murder. In Act III, scene ii, Hamlet has written parts for players to put on a show for Claudius in order for him to bring out the guilt within Claudius. The play doesn't affect Claudius until it is revealed that Lucianus, the kings nephew, is the one that kills the king. Claudius then cries out due to the fear of Hamlet killing him. Also, in this scene, Hamlet admired Horatio's level-headedness and calmness because those are some qualities that Hamlet lacks. Hamlet tries to break his mother down in Act III, scene iv, Hamlet comes to speak to his mother because she believes that he has offended Claudius. In return, Hamlet tries to break her down by putting her sins in front of her because she married the king's brother so soon after his death. When she cries for help, innocent Polonius enters and Hamlet says "How now! A rat?" and kills Polonius because he thought that it was Claudius. Hamlet's insanity is like a blind rage. He is so focused on revenge that he doesn't realize what he is doing. Hamlet is taking sick…
Since Hamlet is understandably disturbed by the sudden death of his father and his mother's hasty marriage to his uncle, King Claudius, the abnormality of his behavior to some extent also understandable. Hamlet is naturally withdrawn, dark, and morose in the wake of these traumatic events. And, by the same token, when he gives vent to his abject mood with lines like "How…
Hamlet experiences many states of mind throughout the play such as depression, sadness, and anger. In Act 1 of the play we learn that Hamlet's father is dead; shortly after his mother marries his uncle Claudius who becomes the king. Hamlet is said to be very gloomy and not himself, but this doesn't come as a…
Grief is a universal emotion felt by everyone at some point or another during the course of their lives. Its effects can be very diverse and adverse, causing different people to act in very different ways. It is very unpredictable because it is unique for each person, thus it is difficult to ease or even ascertain. It is accompanied by many other painful and confusing emotions and if not dealt with properly, it may prove to be cataclysmic. The theme of grief is quite prevalent throughout William Shakespeare 's "Hamlet", as virtually every character in the play experiences it. In fact, all of the main characters experience this emotion before the play is through. Grief has many causes and as a result, many outcomes, but the one thing that remains…
Hamlet is one of the most complex characters and stories in western literature. Shakespeare has loaded this play to the brim with philosophy and ideas far beyond his years. Hamlet himself can be dissected and interpreted in thousands of different ways; but most notably he is dramatic. Dramatic in every sense of the word, he enjoys acting and plays and he is extremely animated in all of his interactions. The same drama that impassions him, tortures him; so much so that he often contemplates suicide. Possibly the most significant drama in the play and in Hamlet surrounds the sanctity of the, and specifically, Hamlet’s mind. Hamlet doesn’t allow anyone to intrude his mind for many reason none more important then the other. The reasons that seem the most profound all surround the validity of his own sexuality and the judgments of the gender relationships he is apart of. Hamlet seemingly blames his mother for parts of his fathers death. He knows she didn’t actually kill him but he blames her for her lack of grief and also her marriage to the swine that is Claudius. He even goes as far as to say to her “aye madam, it is common” right after Gertrude told him about how all life ends he basically calls her a hooker. (I, ii, 13) It is peculiar that he has such a reaction to a mother trying to comfort her grieving son. Throughout the play Hamlet comes up against many trials but none greater then the challenge of accepting who he is versus what he is trying to be. All of Hamlet’s greatness and all of his flaws come from the same source his extreme aversion to the gender relationships posed in his world. In order for us to truly understand hamlet we have to penetrate what he so actively tries to protect; which in Hamlet’s case is his mind and his understanding of love, and his own sexuality.…
He is responsible for the play, for he chooses to tell Hamlet about the apparition of his dead father, and is responsible to retell the story of Hamlet at the end of the play; without Horatio there would be no play. Horatio portrays a character that Hamlet lacks, and thus sticks next to him throughout the whole play in order to keep him in check. Horatio's character portrays patience and endurance throughout the whole play for his friend Hamlet, while Hamlet is impatient and acts on his impulses instead of analyzing the situation and consequences that his actions may have. He is a truly loyal and honorable friend, and demonstrates the necessary qualities required in a true friendship. Horatio serves to illustrate the characteristics that Hamlet was lacking in order to have avoided his own tragedy. If Hamlet were more like Horatio, he could have avoided his tragedy, yet the constant influence that Horatio has on Hamlet, keeps a hold on him to the reality of the situation that no good will spring forth from his actions. His purpose is to show that Hamlet is not insane, but that instead Hamlet portrays characteristics that lead him to act spontaneously and without impulse. Horatio is the only person Hamlet can fully trust, and is necessary for him to have someone who constantly has his back and is willing to support,…