Hamlet Essay

Insolation is essential in a person’s life as it helps the person figure out their own interests without distraction or peer pressure from other people. It is also beneficial to the self as it gives the person freedom to work through their current conflicts. An individual must isolate themselves from others in order to fulfill their sense of responsibility. By limiting an individual’s contact with other people, this individual’s decision to fulfill his responsibilities will be less affected by the outsiders. In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, prince Hamlet feels responsible to be loyal to his father by avenging his death and to preventing Denmark from decaying. However, in order to achieve these duties, he must isolate himself from his family and friends to limit their influence on his thoughts and his actions.

In order to keep an individual’s true emotions towards another person intact, this individual must avoid anyone who might influence or change his feelings towards that person. Hamlet has a very strong devotion to his father and he adores him. While Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and the people of Denmark have stopped mourning over King Hamlet's death, Hamlet's loyalty to his father causes him to continue his grief towards him. Claudius and Gertrude are worried about this everlasting grief and desire to help Hamlet progress with his life. When Hamlet first enters the play, Gertrude says:

“Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

Do not forever with thy vailèd lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust”

(1, 2, 68-71)

Gertrude is worried about Hamlet’s unwillingness to accept his father’s death and his abiding sorrow. Therefore, she is trying to influence him in ...

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...s who participate with the king to ensure that he does not inherit these characteristics. By avoiding these habits, Hamlet can prevent himself from becoming a king with attributes similar to Claudius and fulfill his responsibilities towards Denmark.

In conclusion, isolation can be a very useful tool to prevent others from influencing an individual’s thoughts and actions. Hamlet used this tool throughout the play and alienated himself from his family and friends in order to evade their influence. This helped Hamlet conserve his responsibility of revenging his father’s death and his responsibility of preventing Denmark’s decay by giving him a greater control over his decisions to fulfill these duties. To summarize, isolation is not necessarily evil since it can be beneficial to the self as it is a great tool to clarify an individual’s sense of his responsibilities.