Turning Point Of Hamlet

In Shakespeare’s play of Hamlet the protagonist Hamlet goes through many drastic events that make him feel as though the ground beneath his feet is crumbling. Hamlet’s complex conception of the world and the people around him has been distorted by his family and certain events concerning his family. Hamlet at first is a heartbroken young adult grieving his father’s death and he’s feeling hopeless that his mother has just moved on. After a visit from his father’s ghost he learns the truth and his character becomes a completely different person. The play is set in Denmark where King Hamlet has died and his brother Claudius has married Queen Gertrude. Claudius belittles Hamlet in front of a full court and calls his nephew’s extensive grieving
The ghost says that Claudius has murdered him and he needs his son to avenge him. This is the turning point for Hamlet as a character, it’s as if a fire has been set under him. We see this after the meeting when Hamlet says “from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied there; and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain.” Hamlet is getting himself ready for the task the ghost has left him. This is different from the scene before where he was hopeless because in that all he wanted to do was cease to exist. In this scene all Hamlet wants to do is follow the ghosts instructions. Hamlet wants to live but he now views the world as cruel because people in it are two-faced and capable of actions like his uncle’s. Hamlet calls his uncle and villian and says “my tables,-- meet it is I set it down, that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.” Shakespeare’s use of antithesis here of smile and villain assures us that Hamlet is calling his uncle two-faced. Hamlet is saying even though his uncle is smiling and putting on this caring king act he’s still a