Fatima Gama
Ms. Vega
Expository English
03 December 2017
Act V: Hamlet
1 & 2. Hamlet’s infamous graveyard scene that takes place upon Act 5, expresses Hamlet's constant reflection upon death. In the midst of this scene, Hamlet holds up a skull of a decomposed human who he once knew: Yorick. Yorick was once a court gesture whom he loved very dearly when he was a child. The skulls symbolism is, inevitable death and decay. Since the begging of play, we could see how Hamlet has always been obsessed with the idea of death and how he is always contemplating his life, questioning if it was even worth living. This scene shares a certain characteristic that sets it apart from any other scene where Hamlet is reflecting upon death, he actually comes
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The play “Hamlet” is solely based on the themes of betrayal and revenge. Throughout the play, we have witnessed that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have betrayed Hamlet. These two characters decided to go against Hamlet, their friend, to gain recognition from the King and Queen when they accepted to become spies of Hamlet. Their fate was set when they chose to do an evil deed against a person who they considered a friend. It was just as an act of Karma, the evil deed came back to them and slapped them in the face resulting in their deaths. Hamlet contributed towards their fate to be fulfilled by letting their own actions decide their outcome, as he emphasizes the fact that he does not feel guilty nor remorse, abandoning them on the ship. He claims that’s what they deserved, They are not near my conscience; their defeat / Does by their own insinuation grow up (Act V, scene ii, like 61, …show more content…
It can be said that the fates of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, Hamlet, Horatio, and Fortinbras, were set due to their own character “personality”. Take into consideration that the deaths of both Gertrude and Claudius were fixated since the beginning. Gertrude was so oblivious to her surroundings and was so shallow, as if she only worried about her wholesome and no one else. Moreover, Claudius, was the downfall of the kingdom; the unwanted weed in a garden. His fate was sealed when he performed the evil deed against his own brother just to justify his wants and needs: karma. Adding on, Laertes character was blinded by his own anger which led him to decisions without taking time to reflect upon them. His inability to perceive right from wrong led him to his downfall. Hamlet’s fate was fixated when he decided for revenge. Even though it took him a prolonged period of time to actually be able to take his thoughts into actions, his fate was the same, he died but was able to honor his father’s death. Whereas, Horatio was loyal to Hamlet, even upon his death he offered to take his life to die with Hamlet, but he instead told him that he should live to tell the story of what happened. The horrors sense of loyalty fixated his fate; to live. Lastly, Fortinbras. Fortinbras has all the characteristics that any honorable young man should have. Even though he underwent a similar tragedy as that of Hamlet, he was able to have a favorable outcome, he released Denmark of its prolonged
Hamlet would not show mercy even when confronted by his best friends from his childhood. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were sent by the King and Queen to spy on Hamlet to discover the reason for his disturbing behavior. Hamlet isn’t fooled by their sudden arrival and gives them a chance to show their loyalty to him by admitting they were sent by the king. "That you must teach me. But let me conjure you by the.... be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no." (II-ii.274-278) Hamlet is aware of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s alliance with the king. He sends them to England, replacing the letter that they carried with a forgery of the king’s seal stating that the bearers of the letter should be killed. He felt no guilt or remorse for the sudden loss of his two best friends. "They are not near my conscience; their defeat does by their own insinuation grow." (V-ii.58-59)
In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "To be or not to be: that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles / and, by opposing end them. To die, to sleep / no more" (3.1.64-68), details which bring up new thoughts about what happens in the after life. Thus, Hamlet contemplates suicide, but his lacking knowledge about what awaits him in the afterworld causes him to question what death will bring. For example he states, "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / no traveler returns, puzzles the will / and makes us rather bear those ills we have / than fly to others that we know not of" (3.1.87-90), again revealing his growing concern with "Truth" and his need for certainty. Once again, death appears in act 4 with the suicide of Ophelia, the demand for Hamlet's execution and the gravedigger scene. All of these situations tie back with how death is all around Hamlet and feeds his obsession with it. Finally in act 5, Hamlet meets his own death, as his obsession to know leads to the death of himself.
Claudius is the king of Denmark, who is a very powerful and assertive man. He is the type of person that will do anything to get what he wants and everything in his power to stay king. He will do what it takes to get his way, even if that means betraying the person he is supposed to be committed to and love, his wife Gertrude. Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet, who she deeply cares for and loves. She is convinced that Claudius does as well. In order for Claudius to stay as king he must keep Gertrude happy and pleased. He accomplishes this by pretending to love Hamlet in front of Gertrude when in reality he wants to kill Hamlet. Claudius faces the truth that his secret got out and Hamlet knows he killed King Hamlet. Not wanting to ruin his reputation and of course stay king he plans to have Hamlet killed. He lets Gertrude believe...
In Hamlet’s first soliloquy (ll. 1.2.129-159), Shakespeare uses a biblical lexicon, apostrophes, and depictions of corporeal decay to show Hamlet’s preoccupation with the fate of a person after death.
Death threads its way through the entirety of Hamlet, from the opening scene’s confrontation with a dead man’s ghost to the blood bath of the final scene, which occurs as a result of the disruption of the natural order of Denmark. Hamlet is a man with suicidal tendencies which goes against his Christian beliefs as he is focused on the past rather than the future, which causes him to fall into the trap of inaction on his path of revenge. Hamlet’s moral dilemma stems from the ghost’s appearance as “a spirit of health or a goblin damned”, making Hamlet decide whether it brings with...
It is here that one begins to see the theme of revenge and the idea that power can cause corruption. A family is supposed to be loyal and trusting of each other without any doubts; or so it was thought. Shakespeare uses Claudius’ betrayal of late King Hamlet to disprove the notion that family is always loyal. Claudius’ jealousy of his own brother and his desire to be the most powerful in Denmark corrupted him. It led him to betray his own family, a bond that is supposed to be unbreakable, and all the while feeling no guilt while acting as if he had not committed the crime. In addition to this, Claudius also takes late King Hamlet’s wife. Hamlet is enraged by the crime and adultery committed by his supposed family and feels he must seek justice for his father by taking out revenge on Claudius and therefore betraying him. Subsequently, the play becomes a slippery slope of events stemming from betrayal and revenge. The betrayal of one character became the revenge and betrayal of many others as seen when Horatio says, “… violent and unnatural acts, terrible accidents, casual murders, deaths caused by trickery and by threat, and finally murderous plans that backfired on their perpetrators,” showing that each act committed by the characters were returned back to them. This can be supported through the deaths of Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet as these were just a
From the appearance of the Ghost at the start of the play to its bloody conclusion, Hamlet is pervaded with the notion of death. What better site for a comic interlude than a graveyard? However, this scene is not merely a bit of comic relief. Hamlet's encounter with the gravedigger serves as a forum for Shakespeare to elaborate on the nature of death and as a turning point in Hamlet's character. The structure and changing mood of the encounter serve to move Hamlet and the audience closer to the realization that death is inevitable and universal.
It also brought Hamlet to reality with Ophelia’s death, as he resumes discussions with Yoricks skull, he jokingly says “Now get you to my lady’s chamber and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor she must come. Make her laugh at that.” (170) revealing how one wastes so much time putting make up on their face, to mask over the inevitable aging process; and how ones fate lies within the very ground we stand on at this moment, no matter how great one is. To further his terms with the death of Ophelia, he is shown the spot Ophelia will be buried in, a few plots away. Showing that her death, is and will be treated just as everyone else will. While the gravedigger tells hamlet much earlier in the play “"not for ever with they vailed lids/ Seek for thy noble father in the dust" (1.2.70-71) and reminded that "your father lost a father” in other words there is no time to mourn the dead, as death is much like a chain, and putting quite bluntly he expresses its best to really just move on. Shakespeare reveals this as a turning point for Hamlet, as he realizes the commonness of death, and the value of life itself, and begins to ponder about his own mortality and destined fate. While quite a morbid outlook on the matter, it does reveal truth to Hamlet, and forces Hamlet to take a more humorous toll on the matter
In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the protagonist, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and during the course of the play he contemplates death from numerous perspectives. He ponders the physical aspects of death, as seen with Yoricks's skull, his father's ghost, as well as the dead bodies in the cemetery. Hamlet also contemplates the spiritual aspects of the afterlife with his various soliloquies. Emotionally Hamlet is attached to death with the passing of his father and his lover Ophelia. Death surrounds Hamlet, and forces him to consider death from various points of view.
Here, Hamlet really gets a feel for death. You can tell his emotions are sad and sorrowful by his reaction to finding the skull. He says “he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it”. That line shows his emotions of finding the skull as “abhorred”, which is a synonym of hate.
Throughout the play Hamlet, there are many symbols, characters, themes and motifs which have very significant roles. Within the context of characters, those with the greatest impact are more often the major characters than the less significant. However, in the case of one pair of characters, it is rather the opposite. The use of the characters Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet is for more than just comic relief. They are a representation of the betrayal and dishonesty that runs deep within the play.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was forced upon him.Death is something he struggles with as an abstract idea and as relative to himself. He is able to reconcile with the idea of death and reality eventually.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, revenge intertwines to bring about the deaths of most of the main characters. Hamlet’s course of revenge initiates the first fatality when Polonius gets caught spying on him and Gertrude (III. iv. 24-25). By pursuing revenge, Hamlet killing Polonius paves the way for more lives to be lost. Claudius sees the murder as an opportunity to eliminate Hamlet, because Laertes’s obsession with revenge leaves him vulnerable. Laertes’s and Hamlet’s revenge lead to the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and finally Hamlet (V. ii. 287-357). The revenge of each character ironically ended their own life. By acting upon revenge and having inimical intentions, the individuals brought fatalities that were unnecessary.
Shakespeare shows the ideology of death internalizing within Hamlet first with Hamlet’s emotions following the death of Old Hamlet. In the scene in which Hamlet is introduced, Hamlet is portrayed as an embodiment of death, dressed in “suits of a solemn black”(1.2.81) and has “dejected havior of the visage”(1.2.84). Hamlet’s physical representation as death signifies his lack of desire to continue living himself, being detached and discontent with the world around him. Hamlet, in his first soliloquy, opens by stating, “Sullied flesh would melt/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon ‘gainst Self Slaughter!”(1.2.133-135). This is significant, as it shows Hamlet’s full willingness to commit suicide and end Hamlet’s internal pain, if not for suicide being a sin under religion. The reason for Hamlet’s desire for death and his dis...
Tragic death plays a really big role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Hamlet often considers death in many different perspectives, and definitely obsesses with the idea more so after his fathers’ death. Hamlet’s soliloquy is one of the most famous in literature, “To be or not to be, that is the question…” Hamlet’s dilemma is the pain of life that he must endure or the uncertainty of death. From the beginning of the play to the very last scene, the fascination between life and death plays a role throughout. Hamlet is troubled through the play after realizing that his uncle was the one who murdered his father and is now married to his mother. He wants to avenge Hamlet Sr. death and kill Claudius but feels that killing himself would be an easier resolution. After the death of his murdered father and appearance at his funeral, Hamlet will not leave anywhere without making the statement of his all black attire on the inside and out. The turn of events throughout the play only help the reader understand the debt of each character and their specific role to Hamlet and to the story in regards to life and death.