Hamlet Comparison Essay

“To be or not to be, that is the question.” It is a well-known quote from Hamlet who was created by Shakespeare. William Shakespeare is known as a great poet, playwright, and actor. He had written about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and many other writings (Bevington, 1). He was not only a playwright, but also he was the father of 1,380 characters (Bevington, 2), including Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, Claudio, Prospero and Henry V. Shakespeare successfully created different characters and each of them had their unique personalities. Most of the well-known characters were not only alive in the plays, but also their characteristics could be found in the reality.
In Shakespeare’s plays, those characters experienced great struggles of choosing to be moral or evil. He gave them chances to choose whether they wanted to become good and moral even though, according to the settings, it was reasonably for them to become evil and give their enemies a taste of their own medicine. In this paper, three characters from different plays will be compared, such as Claudio from Much Ado about Nothing, Prospero from Tempest, and Hamlet from Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark.
First of all, in Much Ado about Nothing, Claudio was a young soldier who fell in love with Hero at his first sight. At the beginning of the play, they looked like the perfect match in audience’s eyes because Claudio was a good soldier and had returned as a hero from battles; On the other hand, Hero was a young, beautiful, and virtual maid. However, after the first time meeting with Hero, Claudio’s first question about her is on the inheritance of her father’s wealth. After knowing Hero was the only heir of Leonato, Hero’s father, Claudio asked Don Pedro, the good Prince...

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...s: Claudio, Prospero, and Hamlet experienced moral judgments and dilemmas and then they made choices which were considered as virtuous. However, the morality of those three characters are all different in a way. For example, Claudio’s penance for his mistakes, Prospero’s forgiveness to his enemies, and Hamlet’s evasion from his revenge. It was very fascinated to see all different kinds of morality, whether brave or week, on the Shakespeare’s stage.
To conclude, reading the plays of Shakespeare is not only about an entertainment, there is more about learning manhood and the importance of the role that morality plays in everyday life. That is the reason of Shakespeare’s plays are so popular because through his work, he illustrates that: life is a play, which is performed on the earth stage, and his world stage will continue influences the past, modern and further.