Human Weaknesses in Hamlet

Everyone has a weakness in their lives that can overtake them. Many weaknesses include greed, jealousy, anger, and depression. Weaknesses can crate issues, but also weaknesses can make people learn life lessons. With all the deaths of everyone close to Hamlet, he realizes that death just happens and he can't change it. Weaknesses are a part of every person on Earth's life. In the play Hamlet, the reality becomes clear that whether someone is the King of Denmark or a gravedigger, everyone has a weakness that effects others. From the beginning of the play, Hamlet shows many weaknesses that have an effect on the outcome of the play. His depression shows frequently throughout the play. It goes along with his grief of his father and with his mother's marriage to Claudius. He has a lot of anger that keeps boiling up inside of him towards Claudius for killing his father. He is very hesitant which makes him miss opportunities to do what he wants, like his opportunity to get revenge on Claudius. His weakness in character becomes very clear when he quotes the most famous line in the English language "to be or not to be” (3.1.53). Hamlet is contemplating suicide and is weighing the consequences of his actions. He thinks his actions through before he does them. Even though he is the son to the late King Hamlet and the nephew to the present King, he has weaknesses. Claudius is a man who knows what he wants, but lets his weaknesses get the better of him. His jealousy of his brother King Hamlet, for his power and his wife Gertrude, lead him to poison the King, but he really poisoned the whole kingdom. This one action lead to all of the downfalls of this play. Out of fear, he tries to keep the murder he committed a secret. When he finds out that Hamlet knows, he tries everything to kill him so the secret doesn't get out. Gertrude happens to get in the way when he tries to poison Hamlet, when his other plots to kill him did not come through, as he did the late King Hamlet. He said one thing to her hoping she would not drink the poison, “Gertrude do not drink” (5.1.118), but that did not stop her. She is unaware of what the drink really is so she just ignores him, “I will, my lord; I pray you, pardon me” (5.1.118). His greed led him to the first murder, but he ended up losing more than he intended. Even though he is the King of Denmark, he has weaknesses that take away everything important to him, even his own life. As Lord Chamberlain, Polonius is totally focused on himself and does not think of anyone before himself. He doesn't even put his daughter Ophelia before himself which becomes a problem. Polonius is constantly looking for ways to make himself look good in front of the king. He even sacrifices Ophelia, his own daughter's happiness so that he can prove to the king that he is right about Hamlet's madness. "Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,/ We shal bestow ourselves. [To Ophelia.] Read on this book,/ That show of such an exercise may colour/ Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this-/ 'Tis too much proved-that with devotion's visage/ And pious action we do sugar o'er/ The devil himself." (2.2.52). He is always number one in his mind. Polonius has a weakness that costs him his and his daughter's life. Weaknesses can truly effect everything and everyone around you even if you are Lord Chamberlain. Ophelia is the daughter of the Lord Chamberlain, Polonius, but she lets her weaknesses effect everyone around her. She seems obedient at beginning of the play, but as the play goes on, you see that she is not and she lies to her father. She has an inward desire to please others, even if that means displeasing herself. She is a weak character as she displays after Hamlet tells her to go to a nunnery where she can no longer harm anyone. Instead of defending herself and sticking up for what she thinks, she pities herself after he leaves: "O, woe is me,/ To have seen what I have seen, see what I see!" (3.1.56).She dependent on people. After her fathers death she does not know what to do with herself. She does ask her brother for help, but after talking with him she could not take it anymore and commits suicide. She just could not go on in her life being alone. Weaknesses, depending on what the weakness is, can take your life in an emotional or physical way. The one weakness that started all of the murders and unhappiness in the play Hamlet was the greed of King Claudius. Even though he got what he wanted for a short while, it all came back to burden him. The weaknesses in this play efffected everyone in a different way and create many issues that have a great effect on the outcome. A few of the people even died because of other's weaknesses, and some were emotionally distraught. The characters in Hamlet have to deal with Human weaknesses that they brought on themselves. Everyone has a human weakness.