The young adult novel “The Pigman” was released in 1968 and enjoyed immediate success. The author, Paul Zindel, was born May 15 1936 in Staten Island, NY. He wrote 40 stories, and composed 8 screenplays.…
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a famous tragedy that follows the title character Hamlet’s wavering path of revenge. Early in the play, Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost, who tells Hamlet that his brother Claudius murdered him. Throughout the play, Hamlet is torn between his obligation to avenge his father and his uncertainty about this formidable task. Hamlet also experiences this indecisiveness when he contemplates suicide during several points in the play. Though he expresses disgust over Claudius’s inferiority to his father and his hasty marriage with Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, Hamlet more strongly detests his own procrastination in avenging his father. In order to conceal his insecurities, Hamlet decides to assume an “antic disposition”, which caused much confusion among other characters and led to a cascade of chaos. Hamlet’s indecisiveness, contrary to Laertes’ adamant desire for revenge, and his philosophy on suicide relate death and its uncertain nature to man’s irrationality.…
Hamlet reflects on the corruption of the court in his first soliloquy, as he describes the court as ‘an unweeded garden.’ This image communicates across a sense of Hamlet’s disgust and despair, as the garden imagery suggests the Garden of Eden after Man’s fall, corrupted by man’s sin and disobedience to God, which is enforced through Hamlet’s images of decay (‘rank and ‘gross). This biblical undertone is emphasised by the Ghost’s description of Claudius as a ‘serpent,’ and Claudius’ ironic reference to the ‘first corpse,’ as according to the story of Genesis the first murder in the history of mankind was the slaying of Abel by his brother Cain. To a Shakespearean audience watching the play this overwhelming biblical backdrop to the play would arguably have built up the expectation that justice would be delivered, against Claudius, in the form of divine intervention. However, it is not God who takes on the role of punishing Claudius in the play, but Hamlet. This has led critics to question to what extent the figure of the Ghost can be seen as a divine messenger of justice advocating revenge, and question whether Hamlet’s mission was doomed from the start. This conflict of the moral issue in taking revenge and risking damnation is exemplified in Hamlet’s…
Although Hamlet is characterized as relatively rational in his acts, he nonetheless still possess a strong desire to enact just vengeance on those who have wronged him. While Hamlet arrives at a propitious opportunity to kill Claudius in Act III, while the unknowing murderer sits in prayer while Hamlet, dagger in hand, watches, he ultimately chooses not to, postponing the act until his uncle “is drunk asleep, or in his rage / Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed / At game a-swearing, or about some act / That has no relish of salvation in ’t” (III.iii.90-94). Hamlet wishes not only for his uncle to pay the ultimate price for his sins – his life – he wants Claudius to suffer in eternal damnation, reflecting the intensity of Hamlet’s feeling (Bloom 20). Only now do audiences realize the full extent to which Hamlet wishes for vengeance. Even among Hamlet’s wit and the guise of his “antic disposition”, passion and hatred…
Shakespeare’s Hamlet has many themes such as Impossibility of Certainty, The mystery of Death. But the basic theme would be Revenge. Revenge, in Hamlet, serves as the driving force of the play. The main character of the play, Hamlet, is always obsessed with the revenge for his father’s death. This obsession leads to the actions he performs and eventually to his death. Hamlet just wants the revenge to be perfect. He even spares the life of King Claudius even when he had the opportunity to kill him just because he thinks that if he killed him then, his revenge wouldn’t be perfect. “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged" (3.3.73-75). Whatever Hamlet does in the play, he does it in order to avenge his father’s death.…
In the William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet the Prince of Denmark is plotting to kill his uncle, who is the king because he poisoned his father, the previous king. The theme of the play is revenge and the protagonist, Hamlet is characterized as being fully devoted to avenging his father, no matter the cost. After two months of mourning for his dead father, Hamlet encounters his father’s ghost, who tells him that it was his brother, King Claudius who killed him. Hamlet then promises his father that he will get revenge on Claudius however, his inability to act prolongs Claudius’s death. Hamlet must first find out if it was actually his father’s ghost and not Satan trying to trick him so he modifies a play that shows a similarity to the murder of Hamlet’s father at the hand of Claudius. Claudius leaves before the play before it ends and berates himself for the murder, “Oh, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven. It has the eldest primal curse on it, a brother’s murder.” Therefore, Claudius will pay the price for killing Hamlet’s father by losing his throne, his wife, and even his own life. Hamlet will also pay greatly for avenging his father. He will lose Ophelia, the woman he loves who drownes herself after her father, Polonius is killed by Hamlet who thought it was Claudius. He will lose his mother, Gertrude who drinks wine that was poisoned by Claudius and intended for Hamlet. Hamlet will also lose his own life after being stabbed with a poisoned sword by Larates in a fencing duel, who was seeking…
Tragically, the state of Denmark is lead falsely to believe that a poisonous snake was the cause of his death. In reality, the king’s death was a murder committed by his brother-and-current-king, Claudius. During the course of the play, Claudius claims in his soliloquy, “I am still possessed / Of those effects for which I did the murder: / My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardoned and retain th’ offense?” (III, iii, 57-60). He recognizes his fault through repentance, but his ambition undermines his ability to abandon the throne. Being the king’s brother, Claudius’s coronation is a natural duty. It opposes the grief and relieves the mourning of the people of Denmark. In actuality, his ambition for power causes him to betray his loyalty towards his brother. Even though he deceives his subjects by compelling them to place their trust in his kingship, his duplicity does not go unseen for long. The first person to see through his deceit is prince Hamlet, when an apparition of the king Hamlet, prince Hamlet’s father, tells him, “Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, / A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark / Is by a forged process of my death / Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, / The serpent that did sting thy father’s life / Now wears his crown” (I, v, 42-47). The appearance of the ghost itself shows the unnatural nature of Claudius’s murder and symbolizes…
William Shakespeare, regarded as one of the greatest English playwrights of all time, crafted Hamlet, a masterpiece that unravels a corrupt royal family. As the play opens with the death of the Denmark king, the audience is thrown into a world of power and betrayal. Prince Hamlet’s discovery of his father’s murder sets the stage for a creative and engaging story delving into the intricacies of revenge. In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses the motif of revenge to convey the complexities of human nature rooted in internal conflicts, demonstrating the dangers of revenge. Hamlet’s journey for revenge leads him down an emotionally and internally difficult path swamped in moral dilemmas as he faces the consequences of revenge and the inevitability…
Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, can be seen as one about duty, in particular Hamlet's struggle with his duty to his father and the possible consequences involved. Hamlet's duty is revealed when he speaks with the ghost of his father who commands Hamlet to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." The appearance of the supernatural and the suggestion of a "most unnatural murder" also presents the idea of corruption as it portrays the idea of death against the natural order. Hamlet clearly struggles with this command from his father's ghost, as avenging his father's death would mean that Hamlet himself would have to murder not just another person, but his uncle CLaudius, the new king of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet struggles to take immediate action but instead he tells the ghost, "with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge." This simile suggests that Hamlet is eager to seek revenge quickly, however his response is paradoxical as "meditation" and "thoughts of love" suggest that he may have to think about the task ahead of him first. This highlights Hamlet's struggle with his duty as while he wants to avenge his father's death, he is also unsure and so cannot…
Throughout the play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, many secular ideas such as murder and revenge make up the main plot of the play. However, through the biblical allusions and references to religion, it is evident that the characters in the play are religious beings. To inquire further what the religious elements in the play add to its meaning, I decided to trace the words that relate to the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. The basic three is to love, to forgive and to honor god, so I chose the words god, love and forgiveness. I expected the uses of these words to be few because the play in general does not advocate Christian characteristics. As I tracked these words throughout the play, I noticed that the same words were used in different contexts many times. (This only applied to the words “god” and “love” since forgiveness only had one meaning in the play). Thus, I had to make a…
In Hamlet religion was served throughout the book because Hamlet wanted to kill Claudius but he didn't kill him because he thought it wouldn't had been christian like. Hamlet didn't think killing Claudius wouldn't had been a Christian idea, so he just let him suffer for what he had did to his dad.…
With Claudius’s reaction to his play The Mousetrap, Hamlet believes the ghost was telling the truth, and Claudius is the murderer. Later Hamlet notices Claudius kneeling to pray, draws his sword, approaches the king, and does…nothing. Once again, Hamlet has an opportunity to kill Claudius, but chooses to delay his revenge after thinking about what he is about to do. As Hamlet is thinking, he realizes that Claudius would go to heaven if he was killed while praying, whereas Claudius “took [his] father grossly, full of bread, / With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May” (III.iii.81-82). Hamlet’s contemplative nature leads him to realize that he wants to send Claudius to hell as well, allowing for the ultimate revenge. Always the philosopher, Hamlet stops to think about what would happen if he killed Claudius at that moment in time, resulting in another delay and no action. Hamlet is given the perfect opportunity for revenge, but chooses to wait for the right moment, proving his indecision and contemplative…
William Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, documents one character's continual development. From a hesitant youth to a ruthless revenge-seeker, there are three major turning points that propose the start of Hamlet's wicked evolution. In dealing with his father's passing, Hamlet's grief burdens him to be overwrought with emotion and causes him to contemplate the irrational, even murder. The Players' scene, Prayer scene and Closet scene all present possible key turning points for this change. Although Hamlet's sanity remains questionable throughout the play, these three scenes suggest possible points in which Hamlet becomes particularly vicious. Beginning with the vision of his father's ghost relaying the notion of his own murder by Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, Hamlet's mind becomes increasingly flooded with impulsions.…
The main grievance Hamlet has with his uncle is the murder of his father, the king. Already grieving over death of his father, Hamlet discovers, by confession of his father, that Claudius murder him in order to become king. Called to action by his friend Horatio and the guards who have witness appearances of a ghost during their night watch, Hamlet goes to confront the ghost that looks like the late King Hamlet. A ghost doomed to walk the earth for an unspecified number of years to atone for the sins that he was not able to confess, King Hamlet Sr., tells the prince that he was murdered by Claudius through foul means. He states, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this most foul, strange and unnatural” (249), demanding that Hamlet, his son, avenge his ill-conceived death. Overcome with grief and anger at the injustice done to him (as Claudius has managed to steal the crown from him) and his father, Hamlet begins to plot his vengeance. However, being the only one who has talked to ghost, Hamlet, wanting to ensure that…
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, written between 1599 and 1602, is a tragedy that has become an iconic example of madness, paranoia, romance, blood thirst, and the supernatural. Hamlet sees his father’s ghost and discovers that his father, the former King of Denmark, was poisoned by his brother Claudius. As the plot unfolds, Hamlet appears to be crazed as his paranoia and suspicions overcome him. Claudius sends Hamlet away to England to be murdered when he suspects that Hamlet is on to him. Hamlet then escapes and returns back to Denmark where he fights with his now killed lover’s brother Laertes. As Hamlet is dying due to a wound from Laertes’s sword, he forces Claudius to drink poisoned wine. As in all Shakespeare’s tragedies, every main character is deceased by the end of the play.…