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Hamlet: A Novel
DENIAL

John Marsden develops the theme of denial through the portrayal of the character’s experiences. Specifically Hamlet’s refusal to acknowledge his nocturnal rampage as well as his true feeling towards his father, Claudius not fully accepting that he murdered his brother and Gertrude denying her emotions and not accepting responsibilities in order to maintain her image. These events help to enhance the tragic nature of ‘Hamlet.’

Hamlet presents the most interesting case in terms of denial. Hamlet first shows signs of denial when we are told about his “4th path,” a trail of perversion and destruction that he often makes at night – “a fourth line that Hamlet lied to himself about.” He lies to himself by completely denying its existence. The only other person aware of it is the gardener Garath who covers Hamlet’s tracks not wanting to get involved in the affairs of the royal court. Throughout most of the book Hamlet is carrying out his father’s final wish by avenging him. This seems strange because Hamlet didn’t like his father very much because of the pressure King Hamlet placed on his son. Its takes Hamlet a trip across Europe for him to realize that he had denied his true feelings and no longer needs to please his father this is shown when he says to Horatio “I think I’ve been approaching this the wrong way… I’ve been trying to design the world all over again, to rearranged it according to… well, according to the way my gather would have wanted it” Throughout the book, Hamlet struggles with indecision. He often makes his mind up to kill Claudius but when given the opportunity he makes excuses and shies away from the task. A perfect example of this is when Claudius is praying in the library “Such a man, were he to die at that moment, must fly to heave, surely?” He tries not to acknowledge this character flaw and as a result, does not kill Claudius until it is too late. Through these points we can see that denial dictates Hamlet’s life negatively.

The reader meets Claudius after he has murdered his brother for the throne and his wife. He is quite composed until Hamlet organizes the play so that it will test Claudius’ conscience. Prior to this he attempted to justify it and convinced himself that killing his brother was not so bad. When he was suddenly faced with the scenario on stage he completely breaks down and, during his soliloquy, confesses to himself that he had committed an evil crime. However, this realization does not make him a better man, he instead focuses all of his energy towards getting rid of his only problem – Hamlet.

Gertrude is another example of a main character whose mind is clouded with denial. An important moment that help us better understand her as a character is when Hamlet confronts her about her failure as a mother to him – “You are Gertrude, the queen. And–I wish it were not so!”. Hamlet has to blatantly state his problems with her before Gertrude replies properly with “Hamlet, I cannot bear it. I cannot look into my soul the way you ask.” This shows us that she is aware that she hiding things from herself and continues to do it for her own comfort. At the time this looks like a turning point for her, however she just reverts back to her irresponsible state of mind afterwards and is in favour of sending Hamlet away.

Through these points we can see how the theme of denial dictates Hamlet, Claudius, and Gertrude’s lives. This theme also enhances the tragic nature of ‘Hamlet,’ by providing a character flaw for Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude as well as adding an interesting battle that each character fights within themselves.