Hamlet

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Recommended: Hamlet's character development

"Frailty thy name is women (I.ii.146)" says Hamlet in his first soliloquy that expresses his despair towards his sinful mother. In this classic play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet, the price of Demark, adopts an outrageous character after the death of his father, King Hamlet. Incidents that occur after his father's death deeply change his feelings about love. Hamlet grew up in a prestigious and affectionate family. His parents' love for each other seemed to be unbreakable as his love for Ophelia. His mother's sudden remarriage is negative in the eyes of Hamlet; it is not only the remarriage but also the fact that it is with his uncle Claudius, the new King of Denmark. This leads to Hamlet's pessimistic view of love thus greatly affecting his relationship with his lover, Ophelia. The following is an outline of how the change of Hamlet's view of love leads to his disrespectful treatment of Ophelia.

For thirty years, Hamlet thought the marriage between Gertrude and old Hamlet was flawless: "Full thirty times hath Phoebus' cart gone round / Neptune's salt wash and Tellus orbed ground" (III.ii.130-131). King Hamlet was not only an excellent leader of the country but also an honourable leader of the family. He was a protective husband: "that he might not beteem the winds of heaven / Visit her face too roughly" (I.ii.141-142) who always kept the Hamlet family on good terms with each other. Hamlet was proud to have such a father and always thought highly of him. His uncle, on the other hand, was never approved of by Hamlet to begin with: ("So excellent a king, that was to this Hyperion to a satyr" I.ii.139-140). Even though at the death of King Hamlet, Gertrude showed signs of pain and agony: "all tears" (I.ii.149), "Within a month" (I.ii.153) did Gertrude decide to forget about her husband and find new love in his uncle; a man completely different from old Hamlet: "My father's brother, but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules" (I.ii.152-153) not to mention that he discovers that his beloved father was murdered by the hands of his uncle: "Thus was I sleeping by a brother's hand" (I.v.5.80). The marriage ceremony takes place with "most wicked speed" (I.ii.156) while Hamlet is still mourning for his father's death as "Clouds still hang on [him]" (I.

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