Outline For Hamlet Research Paper

All of Shakespeare's great works have a thesis, a main argument. It is commonly accepted that Hamlet is about the downfalls of man, and most people think that the play revolves around greed and power, however Shakespeare was really trying to show the destruction that comes with all love. Any character in the play that loved, died for it. Whether the love is for a person or some way of life, it ends up destroying all characters.

The most dramatic character earns himself one of the most dramatic deaths. Hamlet is stabbed with the poisoned blade trying to avenge his father. In taking up arms against Laertes, Hamlet is actually indirectly dueling Claudius. He continuously shies away from actually killing Claudius, so the duel lets him display his hatred and feel fulfilled in his mission to kill without actually acting. Hamlet can feel secure in knowing that this fight was not actually initiated by himself, therefore removing him from moral turmoil. The duel lets him show aggression and hatred towards Claudius’ “side” without having to directly confront him. The reason that Hamlet needs this vengeance is fuelled by his love for his father. Hamlet loved the old king, and at his death was more depressed than anyone. He even described his father as “So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother”

This split in her life is opened wider when Hamlet slaughters her father, she must decide between two forces so different that the rift tears her in half and drives her to suicide. When the king sees this madness in her eyes after she discovers her father’s death he notes that “this is the poison of deep grief. It springs/ All from her father’s death” (IV.V.80-81). Ophelia loves both Hamlet and her father too much and that causes her own self defeat. She was too sensitive and loved too openly, in the end it took her breath