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The Relationships Between Characters That Affect Hamlet
The analysis and summary for hamlet act 2 scene 3
Conflict in hamlet
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Dictionary.com defines a climax, when relating to a dramatic or literary work, as a “decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot.” More specifically, it is the pivotal moment when the rising action turns into the falling action, the moment the essential conflict turns and slows down. Hamlet has many climactic moments, moments when a conflict reaches its peak, creating intense action and tension, the important questions are what is the most dramatic moment, what is the most essential conflict, and which point has the most intensity in regards to plot development.
There are two moments in Act 3 that are possible climaxes and one is when Hamlet kills Polonius and his interaction with Gertrude in scene
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Both Hamlet and Horatio have a feeling that there will be foul play involved and Horatio advises him to refuse, but Hamlet, in return, accepts the duel, saying to Horatio, “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come.” This reveals that Hamlet accepts death as inevitable and, in a way, accepts his own death because even though he is accepting the duel, he still feels like something will go wrong as seen by when he says, “But thou wouldst not think how ill all’s here about my heart. But it is no matter.” Instead of refusing the duel because he feels something will go wrong, he still accepts it, essentially accepting his
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most revered literature. The main character, Hamlet, is arguably one of the most intriguing characters the playwright ever developed. Hamlet is daring, philosophical, mentally unstable at times, and clever. Throughout the play though, these characteristics change and/or diminish as Hamlet is put through a plethora of unfortunate events. His father is murdered by Claudius, his mother soon after marries Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray him, and his girlfriend most likely commits suicide. While Hamlet is incredibly philosophical, indecisive, and full of resentment in the beginning of the play, he becomes violent, instinctive, caring and sympathetic towards the end of the play.
However much Horatio’s philosophic skepticism may limit his own ability to perceive those “things in heaven and earth” that Hamlet would have him observe, Horatio remains the companion from whom Hamlet has most to learn. Hamlet can trust his friend not to angle for advancement, or to reveal the terrible secret of royal murder. Best of all, Horatio is “As one in suff’ring all that suffers nothing, A man that Fortune’s buffets and rewards Hast ta’en with equal thanks.”[. . .] Like Hamlet, Horatio believes that death is a felicity, and even tries to take his own life. Yet he accepts his duty “in this harsh worldly success as well ...
on young Hamlet, something that he proves unable to accomplish until the very end of the
...r. Hamlet speaks to Horatio quietly, almost serenely, with the unexultant calm which characterizes the end of the long, inner struggle of grief. He has looked at the face of death in his father’s ghost, he has now endured death and loss in all the human beings he has loved, and he now accepts those losses as an inevitable part of his own condition. “He states, “The readiness is all” suggesting what is perhaps the last and most difficult task of mourning, his own readiness to die” (Bloom 135). Hamlet recognizes and accepts his own death.
Act 3 Scene 4, so called the closet scene, is the first time we see Hamlet and Gertrude together alone. In this scene Hamlet releases his anger and frustration at his mother for the sinful deed she has committed i.e. her marriage to her brother-in-law and the murderer. We can see that Gertrude is unaware of her husband's murder when she says `As kill a King?' and it is the first time she confronts her own behavior. There is a conflict between the two; Hamlet gives powerful replies
... accepts his feelings towards Ophelia when she passes away. Lastly, Hamlet accepts that he will not be able to carry out the roots of being a king as he is dying. He says to Horatio, “I do prophesy th’ election lights/on Fortinbras; he has my dying voice” (5.2.380-381). Just as a person has a will testimony before they pass away, so to does Hamlet, as he desires Fortinbras to become King. One can see that Hamlet fulfills the last stage of the grief cycle, acceptance.
Even though Hamlet is a prince, he has little control over the course of his life. In that time many things were decided for the princes and princesses such as their education and even who they married. This was more or less the normal way of life for a child of the monarch. But in the case of Hamlet, any of the control he thought he had, fell away with the murder of his father. Having his father, the king, be killed by his own brother, sent Hamlet into a state of feeling helpless and out of control. Cooped up in a palace with no real outlet, he tries to control at least one aspect of his life. Hamlet deliberately toys with Ophelia's emotions in order to feel in control of something since he cannot control the situation with Claudius.
Throughout the play Horatio constantly tries to bring Hamlet back to reality by advising him to follow his mind instead of his heart. When Hamlet decides to follow the ghost, Horatio strongly opposes by saying, “What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, or to the dreadful summit of the cliff that beetles o’er his base into the sea, and there assume some other horrible form, which might deprive your sovereignty of reason and draw you into madness?” (Shakespeare 1, 4, 69-74). Horatio’s warning to Hamlet suggests the idea that he views the unknown more cautiously than the reckless prince. Additionally Horatio’s inference about how the ghost might “drive [Hamlet] into madness”(1, 4, 74) displays a foreshadowing of Hamlet’s fate, emphasizing the idea that the warnings from the spokesman of common sense goes unheeded by the tragic hero. In addition to giving advice against the ghost, Horatio advises Hamlet in the matter of the match with Laertes saying, “If your mind dislike anything, obey it” (5, 2, 18). By this advice Horatio implies that he as well holds a suspicion against the King and Laertes and has doubts towards the match as Hamlet does, however, Hamlet ignores this sensible advice and leaves his life into the hands of
Indecisiveness is an inner conflict that inhibits a person from choosing a decision and acting on it. This inner conflict is easily relatable; however, explaining the fuel that ignites the conflict is much more difficult. Every human being must make decisions every day. Moreover, some of these decisions are tougher to choose than others. Psychologically, a decision is not tough because the situation is difficult, but the way the mind perceives the situation is what makes the choice baffling. In other words, humans make decisions more arduous than they seem. Also, the mind of every individual is unique and processes information
There are many ways to interpret Hamlet 's relationship with Horatio. Most obviously, Horatio is the only person in the play that Hamlet trusts. He is the only one who knows for certain that Hamlet 's madness is an act, the one person Hamlet confides in personally, and the one whom bids Hamlet goodnight upon his death. Considering his conflicts with his family, Horatio is the only "family" Hamlet has. He understands that Horatio is very rational and thoughtful, yet not overly pensieve like himself. As the play continues, Horatio questions Hamlet 's judgment twice. Once is when Hamlet tells him of a letter from King Claudius that he has found in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 's pack, telling the King of England that he must have Hamlet killed. The second instance is when Hamlet tells Horatio that he will fight Laertes, son of Polonius, who Hamlet killed earlier in the play. Horatio loves Hamlet with all his heart, but he is directed by a more sensible disposition, which makes him to speak the truth to Hamlet, despite the fact that Hamlet never once takes Horatio 's warnings. In fact, there is only a single point in the play at which Horatio loses his sensible outlook, and it is but a momentary loss. At the end of the play, when Hamlet is killed in his fight with Laertes, Horatio, in his grief, offers to kill himself with his own sword. It is Hamlet 's dying request that Horatio tell
As a logical thinker, Horatio is expecting the worst, perhaps that the past King Hamlet will want the young Hamlet to be reunited with him, the only possible way of this being death. Just as Horatio fears, Hamlet ignores his petitioning to ignore the current notion, and as a final plea to convince his love not to go, he physically holds Hamlet back while commanding him not to go (Shakespeare I.III.87). Despite Horatio’s begging and pleading, Hamlet brushes off his pleas and visits the ghost of his father. Doing this truly upsets Horatio because the last situation he wants to imagine is Hamlet leaving him for the dead.
Another characteristic that acts against Hamlet is his excessive melancholiness. Hamlet experiences rejection from his true love, anger from the murder of his father, betrayal from his friends and family, and fear from what lies ahead. These feelings of pain and sorrow are embedded deep inside Hamlet, and eat at him like a terrible disease. Unfortunately, by the end of the play Hamlet has stopped fighting this disease and left his future up to fate. As he begins his duel with Laertes he says: "the readiness is all", meaning that fate will decide the future and if it means death he will accept it.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question."(Hamlet) This is the question that plagues Hamlet through the entire play. Should I live or should I die, should I take revenge for my father's death? These are all issues that Hamlet battles within himself. Hamlet's indecision is followed by inaction. The reason for this struggle with indecision can be based on many factors or on a combination of a few.
Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action, and is only hurried into extremities on the spur of the occasion, when he has no time to reflect, as in the scene where he kills Polonius, and again, where he alters the letters which Rosencraus and Guildenstern are taking with them to England, purporting his death. At other times, when he is most bound to act, he remains puzzled, undecided, and skeptical, until the occasion is lost, and he finds some pretence to relapse into indolence and thoughtfulness again. For this reason he refuses to kill the King when he is at his prayers, and by a refinement in malice, which is in truth only an excuse for his own want of resolution, defers his revenge to a more fatal opportunity, when he will be engaged in some act "that has no relish of salvation in it."
The first part, the plot, is the most important of all the pieces, according to Aristotle. Aristotle said that the plot wasn’t nessesarily the story itself, but the way the story was presented, the “arrangement of incidents”. (http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/poetics.html) The typical explanation of plot is in the form of “Freytag’s Pyramid”. Basically, the pyramid has a beginning, or the incentive; then it goes into the rising action; then on to the climax; then the denouement or falling action; and finally the resolution. The plot in Hamlet is arranged so that the ending is tragic, each person in the play playing a pivotal role in one another’s demise. Hamlet begins with the death of Hamlet’s father and the marriage of Gertrude, his mother to Cladius, his uncle. The plot rises as Hamlet decides that his uncle had killed his father to become king. Hamlet begins to act insane, causing his love, Ophelia to comit suicide. The play finally reaches the climax when Hamlet finally succeeds in killing Claudius, and ends with the death of Hamlet and the restoration of order.