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Psychoanalytic reading of hamlet
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Psychoanalytic reading of hamlet
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This essay will discuss several literary criticisms of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After skimming through several articles, I ended up with four peer-reviewed journal articles, each a different critical perspectives of the play: feminist, psychoanalytical/freudian, moral, and new historicism. My previous studies of Hamlet, as well as my rereading of the play this semester, has collectively given me a general knowledge of the text. My familiarity of the play made it easier for me to decipher the academic journals and see the connections each critic made with the play. I found it interesting, that after reading Hamlet so many times, that there were connections I never made on my own. For instance, the character Francisco only speaks nineteen lines in the beginning of the play, but Steven Doloff shows just how meaningful they are. Firstly, he “detects in Francisco's unexplained remark, 'For this relief much thanks, 'Tis bitter cold, / And I am sick at heart' (I.i.8-9),(1) a foreshadowing of Prince Hamlet's melancholy” (Doloff). Shakespeare created this character to indicate Hamlet’s prevalent sadness throughout the play. However, Shakespeare may have intended to give Francisco much more meaning. “The sentry's foreshadowing of the prince may, indeed, be seen to extend even further, by way of Francisco's embodiment of a figurative injunction against suicide, variously found in well-known works of Shakespeare's day” (Doloff). By looking back historically, Doloff finds a comparison of the guardians of ancient forts as dutiful protectors of man’s spirituality against suicide in a school book used during Elizabethan times. Unaware of this connection when I read the play, I wondered if people of Shakespeare’s time would be abl... ... middle of paper ... ...tions within the play. Others, point out the flaws within the play, offering solutions and revisions. Together, they create an interesting portrayal of Hamlet, combining to change a classic tale into one more modern. Works Cited Cox, John D. "Hamlet in Purgatory." Christianity and Literature 51.2 (2002): 279+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Doloff, Steven. "Francisco, Hamlet, and God's faithful sentries." Notes and Queries 44.4 (1997): 498. Literature Resource Center. Web. 12 Dec. 2013. Safaei, Mohammad, and Ruzy Suliza Hashim. "Gertrude's Transformations: Against Patriarchal Authority." English Language & Literature Studies 2.4 (2012): 83-90. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. Zimmerman, Susan. "Psychoanalysis and the corpse." Shakespeare Studies 33 (2005): 101+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Let’s begin by talking about how Shakespeare uses other characters in the play as foils to Hamlet’s character. There are three distinct characters that are used as...
By recognizing the fear of the unknown and the power of doubt to derail his enterprises Hamlet resolves his indecisiveness and is able to move forward in the play. When viewed through the deconstructionist lens, Hamlet’s own personal demons and his oppositions to the king, queen, and his own inner self, are put into sharper focus and give the reader an understanding of the inner workings of the meandering path Hamlet takes to find his eventual solution.
The play Hamlet has captivated audiences and readers for decades. Much like many of Shakespeare’s other plays; the first thing recognized is the inexplicable storyline. Shakespeare always generates relatable characters that are complex at heart and have a sense of mystery about them. In most cases even the most clever audience members or readers still come away not completely understanding everything about a character. This would be due to the deceptive underlying nature to the play.
As the play unfolds, Shakespeare uses the encounters that Hamlet must face to demonstrate the effect that one's perspective can have on the way the mind works. In his book Some Shakespeare Themes & An Approach to Hamlet, L.C. Knight takes notice of Shakespeare's use of these encounters to journey into the workings of the human mind when he writes:
Our own intuition of the creative or re-creative act that issued in the play also assumes a struggle with the literary past, but one of a more complex nature. It would seem to be Hamlet who is unable to impose successfully the model of an old play upon the intractable material of his present life, and Shakespeare who dramatizes with unfailing control the tragic conflict between his heroic effort to do so and his ironic consciousness that it cannot be done, with the inevitable by-products of hesitation and delay. (107-108)
At the crux of Shakespeare’s Hamlet lies the timeless, dynamic exploration of human nature and experience, supplemented by masterful manipulations of dramatic and literary elements that embed within the play ambiguity in both meaning and purpose. As a responder, the final scenes of Hamlet has significantly affected my judgement of the play, as Shakespeare’s masterly ability to control the use and flow of language serves to rectify through these scenes the universal confrontation of thematic concerns such as morality, mortality, and uncertainty. The combination of characterisation, symbolism and Hamlet’s struggles as an existentialist hero acts as a vessel for Shakespeare’s insightful perception on the intricacies of the human condition, sparking
6-7). The syllables are. Laertes feels the virtue of Hamlet will run through higher standards. A will describes a position or items left to a person from someone of death. Hamlet’s father died as the King of Denmark, leaving his estate to Hamlet.
...ble that someday the legendary cultural baggage that accompanies Hamlet will be lost, and future generations may wish to judge the play on its dramatic merits and not on its required-reading position. If that is the case, they may very well "make" the play "bad" through their different perspective, one which we cannot yet appreciate, and Hamlet, already four centuries old, may disappear from our cultural consciousness. As the prince himself might say, perish the thought.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
In every play or book that a person reads the characters are never perfect. They always have a flaw that causes a problem or conflict within the storyline. This is true for Hamlet's character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. In several of Hamlet's speeches he discloses many flaws in his character to the readers throughout the play. These are aspects that have thus far only been able to be seen as fragments in other speeches.
Analysis of Hamlet by William Shakespeare “Who’s there?” Immediately the play has an impact on the audience.
William Shakespeare 's Hamlet is considered one of the defining works of Shakespearean literature. It encompasses major existential themes such as love, vengeance, mortality, and the transition for an adolescent into adulthood. Like all great Shakespearean works, these themes are presented with eloquent prose, comedic tones, dramatic turning points, and a theatrical flair unmatched by any other writer in history. However, Hamlet sets itself apart from Shakespeare 's other plays with the enigmatic mystery that is the character Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark. Hamlet’s character is topic that has been pondered by generations of literary analysts, students, and every person who has ever
The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.
Much of the negative criticism Hamlet has received is in regard to vague characterization. This only helps the play. It allows the reader to make his or her own inferences about the character. Prince Hamlet is the best example of this. There is no quintessential Hamlet to be discovered by poring over the text, and there is no need for such a discovery; yet one can hardly shrug their shoulders in resignation, for the pleasure of this play comes largely from the quest to solve its mysteries, to interrogate its ghost; and if one fails to seek what it never surrenders, they fail to enjoy what it renders (Bloom 31). Many shortcomings of other works come in overdeveloping characters.
Hamlet is the best known tragedy in literature today. Here, Shakespeare exposes Hamlet’s flaws as a heroic character. The tragedy in this play is the result of the main character’s unrealistic ideals and his inability to overcome his weakness of indecisiveness. This fatal attribute led to the death of several people which included his mother and the King of Denmark. Although he is described as being a brave and intelligent person, his tendency to procrastinate prevented him from acting on his father’s murder, his mother’s marriage, and his uncle’s ascension to the throne.