In the play Hamlet by Shakespeare, the topics of revenge and death are often looked at. A topic that is questioned and discussed is whether Hamlet is a closeted homosexual. Hamlet could also be giving misinterpreted signals because of the trauma and his unstable emotions. Shakespeare has placed many clues into the play about whether or not Hamlet is straight or gay. This idea is never made clear, so one could assume that Shakespeare meant for Hamlet to be bisexual. Hamlet could be bisexual because he has strong feelings for his best friend Horatio, he loves Ophelia, He pushes Ophelia away.
Firstly, We can look at Hamlet and Horatio’s relationship and how Horatio is the only person Hamlet is not lying to. We can see as the play progresses, we can tell Hamlet and Horatio have been friends for a long time, they understand each other almost completely. Hamlet has strong
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Hamlet proves his love for Ophelia by giving her various trinkets and letters. The way their relationship is portrayed, it seems that they have not been together very long but they are just in that young adult stage where no matter what one loves their partner. Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship goes through a rough patch when Ophelia’s brother Laertes and her father Polonius disapprove of the relationship. One may find it a little weird that the only reason giving, as to why Laertes and Polonius disapprove is that they think Hamlet's feelings are not real. Hamlet claims “I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers,could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum,” (255). In the beginning of the play we see that Polonius does not believe Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is real, but as Ophelia argues “ He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me” (45). As readers we can interpret this as a sign that Hamlet loves
Throughout the story, Horatio is continuously shown as the voice of reason and clarity. He is the authority figure and it is through him that we see the truth behind the actions of Hamlet and the others. Horatio is the outside observer to the play and it is a result of his words and actions that we can ground the play in reality. Ever since the beginning of the play, Horatio is shown to be a voice of cautious reason and measured skepticism along with a voice of truth, for it was not until he saw the ghost that the ghost became a reality. This idea is clearly portrayed atop the battlements when Horatio says “Before my God, I might not this believe/ without the sensible and true avouch/ of mine own eyes.”(I.i.56-58). Here Horatio confirms that he is the “narrator” of the play and the most sensible observer. However no matter what, Horatio is still Hamlet’s friend and despite his calm mindedness, at the end...
Shakespeare must have known his Hamlet would be nearly impossible to decipher, otherwise he would surely have omitted Hamlet’s unlikely confidant, Horatio. Horatio becomes not only integral to the plot, but also allows the audience further insight as to what is stirring within the title character. Hamlet comes to deeply trust Horatio because he perceives that he “hast been as one in suffering all that suffers nothing” (III.ii.69-70). Horatio, a man “[w]hose blood and judgment are so well commeddled,” takes “with equal thanks. fortune’s buffets and rewards” (III.ii.71-74).
William Shakespeare wrote about a distraught prince trying to avenge the wrongful death of his father while all his faith in honesty and the good of man was nearly destroyed. In his play Hamlet, Hamlet is the prince and he is the one who would have lost all his faith in the good of man had it not been for his loyal friend Horatio. Many critics say that Horatio did not play such an important role in the tragedy, that he merely was the informant for the audience and that his character was not developed beyond that fact that he was just the honest confidant of Hamlet. That may be true, however, Horatio does serve two central purposes to the drama, and it is through these purposes that show the qualities that make Horatio memorable and admirable. Horatio is the harbinger of truth. It is through Horatio that the actions taken by Hamlet gain credibility. He is the outside observer to the madness. Hamlet could soliloquize on and on, but it is his conversations with Horatio that gives sanity to Hamlet’s thoughts. His second role is to be the loyal, truthful confidant of Hamlet.
As the play opened, Hamlet and Ophelia appeared as lovers experiencing a time of turbulence. Hamlet had just returned home from his schooling in Saxony to find that his mother had quickly remarried her dead husband's brother, and this gravely upset him. Hamlet was sincerely devoted to the idea of bloodline loyalty and sought revenge upon learning that Claudius had killed his father. Ophelia, though it seems her relationship with Hamlet is in either the developmental stage or the finalizing stage, became the prime choice as a lure for Hamlet. Laertes inadvertently opened Ophelia up to this role when he spoke with Ophelia about Hamlet before leaving for France. He allowed Polonius to find out about Hamlet's courtship of Ophelia, which led to Polonius' misguided attempts at taking care of Ophelia and obeying the king's command to find the root of Hamlet's problems. Ophelia, placed in the middle against her wishes, obeyed her father and brother's commands with little disagreement. The only time she argued was when Laertes advised her against making decisions incompatible with the expectations of Elizabethan women. Ophelia tells him, in her boldest lines of the play:
Hamlet's behavior throughout the play, especially towards Ophelia is inconsistent. He jumps into Ophelia's grave, and fights with Laertes in her grave. He professes I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not, with all their quantity of love,/ Make up my sum [Act V, scene I, lines 250-253], during the fight with Laertes in Ophelia's grave, but he tells her that he never loved her, when she returns his letters and gifts, while she was still alive. Hamlet subtly hints his awareness of his dissolving sanity as he tells Laertes that he killed Polonius in a fit of madness [Act V, scene II, lines 236-250]
Hamlet’s apparent antics with Ophelia prove that their relationship begins to fall apart and become unhealthy. Hamlet mistreats Ophelia when she attempts to return the gifts he has given her, and he responds in a harsh manner, asking about her chastity and beauty, saying “that if [she] be honest and fair, [her] honesty/should admit no discourse to [her] beauty” (3.1.117-118). Hamlet continues to belittle her, calling her two-faced and admitting that he “did love [her] once” (3.1.125), his feelings for her now absent. Hamlet’s facade becomes personal through this. The entire exchange shows how Hamlet prioritizes his revenge, over his love because he eventually figures out that Polonius and Claudius spy on him. Hamlet soon speculates Ophelia’s association in their plan and decides to put on a facade for her too. Claudius’s facade also affects his relationship with Gertrude and Hamlet. After his speech to the court, Claudius approaches Hamlet in a way that appears as if he cares about him, even addressing him as “my cousin Hamlet and my son” (1.2.66), despite being aware of Hamlet’s sensitive and depressive state because of his father’s death. Moreover, Claudius expresses his deceitful love when he admits to Laertes that he won’t put Hamlet on trial because he mentions how much he loves Gertrude, and that she “is so conjunctive to my life and soul/that, as the
First there is the killing of Polonius. When he kills Polonius, the father of his girlfriend, he shows no sign of regret. No guilt. He is so caught up in his own little world of revenge, he doesn't even think of the fact that he just killed an innocent old man and the father of Ophelia. In fact, there is no point in the entire text in which he even mentions Ophelia. This just goes to show that he doesn’t truly care about Ophelia, which as state is the necessary component of love. The second deciding scene is that of Ophelia’s funeral. Hamlet has gone the whole text since the play in act three scene two without a word about Ophelia. Then *bang* Ophelia is dead and he's seeing her funeral. He observes as a distraught Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, throws himself into her grave in grief. Hamlet’s response to this is not a of shared sorrow but of competition. He starts by saying to Laertes “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum” (5.1.284-287). Rather than just grieve for her, he fights with her grieving brother about who loved her more. While this may seem like a loving gesture, there has been no other proof of his love for her throughout the play which make this seem a bit strange. It is as if he wants to have loved her so that he can have emotions that are more important than everyone else’s. Hamlet even accuses Laertes of just trying “to outface” him “with leaping in her grave” (5.1.295). Hamlet would actually be grieve the lose of Ophelia and not fighting over whose emotions matter more if he had truly loved
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
Throughout literature, there a character who provides a moral compass for other characters. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Horatio’s character seems fairly simple: somewhat of a “yes-man” to Hamlet, often agreeing with anything Hamlet says. However, at the end of the play we understand his significance, as he is one of the last survivors. This transition is unexpected because for most of the play, Horatio is a reserved character and doesn’t speak very often. Despite this, it is clear that Horatio and Hamlet’s friendship is extremely deep, and Hamlet trusts Horatio more than anybody. At first, the relationship is one of a prince and an advisor, but as the play goes on we realize they are in fact close friends. Horatio is much more than a “yes-man” to Hamlet, even though this may not be visible for most of the play. This friendship is due to three of Horatio’s characteristics: trustworthiness, loyalty, and admiration, which make him an ideal friend to Hamlet. These traits also inspire confidence in Horatio from other characters in the play. Even Shakespeare shows that he values Horatio by allowing him to survive at the end of the play.
In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Horatio is the confidant as Hamlet plots revenge against King Claudius, the murderer of King Hamlet. He listens to his friend’s plans without revealing them to the other characters. He is essentially the keeper of all truth. Unlike the other characters, Horatio seems to be the only person that Hamlet could trust without fearing that he would betray him. Known for his logic and sanity, Horatio is the complete opposite of Hamlet’s impulsive behavior. Although subtle, Horatio’s personality traits allow the audience to understand Hamlet’s mind in-depth. Due to this, Hamlet is comfortable giving Horatio awareness of his plans to avenge his father. Despite his minor role and based on a recent professor to student discussion,
Hamlet can be seen as a play about obligations, in particularly Hamlet’s struggle with his duty to his father: Hamlet must “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The appearance of Old Hamlet’s ghost not only sets the plot, but also helps in destroying Hamlet’s illusion about his parents’ relationship as his mother committed adultery with Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. This marks one of many points where Hamlet losses parts of his life structure. Furthermore a theme of appearance versus reality surrounds Hamlet due to the fact that the characters portray a different outward appearance compared to what they are on the inside. In the play, Claudius displays an appearance of kindness and sensitivity, but in truth, he uses this false, caring persona as a mask to cover up his selfishness and evil personali...
Hamlet’s pain is spread to a lot of people unnecessarily, but never is it indicated that he hates women or that men in his society are primarily misogynists. Gertrude and Ophelia were the only two women present in the story and though they proved little information, they do show a level of concern for Hamlet as he started to act out with his pain. This proves that Hamlet didn’t hate them from the beginning and the feelings he has are misplaced grief and vengeance. Polonius tells
True Friendship: An Analysis of Hamlet and Horatio’s Relationship in Hamlet Throughout the highs and lows in the rollercoaster called life, it is essential to have a true friend to lean on and trust. In the play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the author created an important relationship between a minor and major character, Horatio and Hamlet. Although Horatio was portrayed as a minor character, he played a significant role in the play and in Hamlet’s crazy life. Hamlet considered Horatio as family and a true and trusted friend.
Horatio’s minor role is vital to the story of Hamlet. He does not add anything to the plot of the play and instead acts as the voice of common sense. Horatio is an outside observer to the madness that ensues after the murder of King Hamlet. All of Hamlet’s soliloquies revolve around irrational speculations about death and decay. However, Hamlet’s conversation with Horatio ground the play in reality. In those conversations, Hamlet reveals his feelings to his closest friend. Horatio is the only one Hamlet can come talk to about what is going on in his life.
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...