David And Hamlet

Hamlet and David In Hamlet and The Mountain and the Valley, both literary pieces present us with two melancholic characters who live in conflict due to the dichotomy of their natures . Both Hamlet and David are similar because they are conflicted by foils and similar in the nature of this tragedy. Each has deep inner problems of conflict.
Hamlet is first tormented by the death of his father, the king of Denmark. Then he is cast into utter agony when Gertrude, the mother he loves dearly is hastily married to his uncle, Claudius. Through a ghostly revelation, Hamlet learns that his suspicions that Claudius murdered his father are true. He becomes incensed and wants to enact revenge upon the guilty party. From this point on, Hamlet struggles with his plan for revenge that conflicts with his opposite contemplative nature.
Hamlet does not take the opportunity to slay Claudius as he prays because he believes it will save his soul. His contemplative nature takes over regarding the ghost’s revelation and he decides to devise a play to pique Claudius’ conscience and make sure he is really guilty.
Whenever Hamlet denies his true nature, his actions are very harsh. During a heated discussion with his mother Gertrude, he accidentally slays Laertes’ father, Polonius, thinking it to be Claudius. Hamlet quickly brushes it aside. He also sends his friends , Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to their deaths when he learns of Claudius’ plot to have him put to death when he arrived in England as a so called diplomat.
Hamlet cannot decide between a life of action and revenge, or contemplation and fate and he is genuinely concerned with the deeper truths upon which his life is ordered- fate and freewill.

Ernest Buckler portrays the life of his main character, David Canaan, in conflict, through a slow moving metaphor from the valley to the mountain. David is a deeply intellectual character and like Hamlet has a conflicted dichotomous nature.
One of his difficulties arise from the death of his girlfriend Effie. He feels guilty and responsible for. Also, when his friend Toby comes to the valley for the first time, David is torn between making Toby feel comfortable, while at the same time trying to avoid hurting his family’s feelings.
David also feels separate from Joseph, his father, and Chris, his brother, who are much different from him. David is inflicted with an emotional and physical scar which is never healed because of an incident with Chris .