Hamlet: Tragedy of Failure
William Shakespeare's, Hamlet is a tragedy of failure, the failure
of a man placed in circumstances and faced to deal with them successfully.
Shakespeare uses different techniques to develop the characters in Hamlet.
Throughout the play dramatic irony is used by allowing the audience to view
the true actions of the characters before the characters disclose them.
Shakespeare toys with the idea of appearances versus reality in the play,
among these are Claudius, the play within the play, and Rosencrantz and
Guildernstern.
Hamlet's father, the king of Denmark, has suddenly died. Claudius,
Hamlet's uncle, hastily marries Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and more
importantly they become the new king and queen. King Claudius is viewed as
legitimately gaining control of the throne by everyone except Hamlet.
Hamlet knows that there is "something rotten in the state of Denmark." His
belief is verified when the guards inform him of a ghostly figure with
close resemblance to the late king. The ghost reveals to Hamlet that while
in the garden, Claudius poured poison in his ear. Claudius prays to be
forgiven but his prayers are not sincere. Claudius, overcome with guilt,
would prefer to keep his status then reveal what he did to King Hamlet.
The play within the play is useful because it allows Hamlet to
verify the validity of the ghost. Usually plays are intended for
entertainment purposes. The play is not real and the actors are playing a
role. In reality Hamlet makes it so that it is similar to what really
happened to his father. Hamlet even goes as far as to instruct the actors
appropriately. He will prove that the ghost is truthful by the reaction on
Claudius' face. The play appears to be harmless but it has a close parallel
to what really happened to the late King Hamlet.
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern, who are the king's spies, pretend to
be friends to Hamlet. The king has sent for them to investigate Hamlet's
madness and what he suspects about his father's death. This is a
contradiction because later Claudius says that Hamlet's troubles are
unknown. Hamlet not being the fool also pretends to be friends to
Rosencrantz and Guildernstern. He reveals to them that he is aware of their
intentions when he says "were you not sent for." Claudius, fearing Hamlet
knows too much sends him with Rosencrantz and Guildernstern to England to
...hrough immense poverty, segregation, and was undervalued by his peers. Jesse Owens was ridiculed by many in the Nazi party during the 1936 Olympics but he ignored their hateful looks and instead saw himself as an athlete and not an icon of the inferiority of his race and he was able to prove them wrong with outstanding track and field accomplishments. He is an inspirational symbol for the injustice of racial profiling and is a role model to athletes everywhere.
Jesse Owens was an African-American born on September 12, 1914 in Oakville, Alabama. Jesse was the grandson of slaves and the son of sharecroppers. As a boy, Jesse loved to run; even when he didn’t’ have any chores to do at home, he just would run for the fun of it until his lungs could no longer carry him. Jesse and his family were farmers in Alabama and were very poor. They attended a Baptist church regularly on Sundays. Eventually, Jesse’s family moved to Cleveland.
In the American society back in the early 1900’s race, stereotypes were a big deal. In the story of Jessie Owens it’s the weak verses the strong. If your not part of the strong your not deemed worthy to be apart of their society. Hopkins through the use of denotation and connotation help us understand his point of view. Denotation is, “ the literal, common sense meaning of a sign, ostensibly value-free and objective. Strong simply means having the ability to perform task that others cant, and weak simply means lacking the ability to perform certain task. Throughout the development of the story Hopkins points out who is the weak, and who is the strong. It was pretty evident that Owens was part of the weak. While those that were not African American was considered to be part of the strong. After being invited to the Olympic Games Owens had the ability to break the stereotype. The NCAPP wanted Owens to boycott the Olympic games, because he could make an impact on the weak community, and he could start by teaching the strong community a
Through the use of imagery, diction, and several literary tools Zora Hurston shows love for her culture and color; therefore Hurston contributes to the essay’s theme, of celebrating her African American culture, by conveying her emotions. Hurston’s use of imagery allows readers to easily imagine the things which she so vividly describes, her diction conveys the emotions she felt throughout her experiences, and her use of literary tools captivate readers. The theme of “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is not sad or dreary, rather it is upbeat and optimistic because Hurston loved who she was.
“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” (Dubois 694).
The short term effects of Owen’s remarkable Olympic showcase immediately prevailed in favor of what America knew to be true. Following his victories, it was clear, “Owens was the hero of the Olympic fortnight, but he was rarely treated as one.” The way his country exploited him as an object continued as he was forced to put on free exhibitions allowing the country to take in greater and greater sums of money. However, Owens never caught a glimpse of this money and when he quit with the necessity to provide for his family, his use by White America was terminated and his delegation to the bottom of America followed without
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is laden with tragedy from the start, and this adversity is reflected in the title character. Being informed of his father’s murder and the appalling circumstances surrounding the crime, Hamlet is given the emotionally taxing task of avenging his death. It is clear that having to complete this grim undertaking takes its toll on Hamlet emotionally. Beginning as a seemingly contemplative and sensitive character, we observe Hamlet grow increasingly depressed and deranged as the play wears on. Hamlet is so determined to make his father proud that he allows the job on hand to completely consume him. We realize that Hamlet has a tendency to mull and ponder excessively, which causes the notorious delays of action throughout the play. It is often during these periods of deep thought and reflection that we hear one of Hamlet’s famous soliloquies, which are obviously relative to Hamlet’s apprehensions and worries surrounding his current situation. The seven soliloquies throughout the play offer insight pertaining to the deteriorating mental state of Hamlet, and the circumstances which induce his decent into madness.
In the players’ scene, Hamlet revises the play of The Murder of Gonzago, adding in a scene that hints at the murder of King Hamlet. When Claudius reacts to Hamlet’s trap and makes a sudden exit, Hamlet now knows that the ghost’s story is true and will “take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound.” He now has no reason not to act. Prior to witnessing Claudius’ reaction, Hamlet has been debating with himself over the legitimacy of the ghost and its story. He has been questioning himself and whether he is a coward, because all he has done is talk, not having taken any action. Now that Hamlet knows the murderous sin Claudius has committed, Hamlet feels no guilt in avenging his father’s death. The plot takes a turn, as Hamlet becomes more of a man of action than a philosopher.
Hurston, however, feels that her identity is not shaped through her guilt over slavery or segregation. Many black and white readers have read this as shame or denial of her race, but in actuality Hurston is simply denouncing that her race is a essential to how she views herself In her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” she states “I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep,” to reiterate that she does see herself as “tragically colored”. Her role in shaping her own identity does in some aspects, however, relate to her becoming aware of her ‘blackness’. This idea similarly relates to the speaker in Giovanni’s poem who asserts that she never saw herself this way until she was represented through dreadful renditions by
In Zora Hurston’s essay “How It Feels To Be Colored Me” she separates her life into four sections, using vivid imagery in each, to show her audience different examples of how she overcame prejudice, not by conforming, but by remaining herself. In her first section she sketched out her childhood to show how she was “everybody’s Zora” (Hurston 4). The second section goes on to show how her skins color “fails to register depression” (Hurston 7) with her, she is proud of her history and embraces it actually. In the third section, she sets the scene in a jazz club, and describes the difference in how she feels the music and how a white man just hears it. And in the fourth section, she explains how she is not defined by her race then goes on to compare it to a brown bag. In this essay I will detail each section of Hurston’s essay and explain how each section has its own lesson to teach us and how it all ties in together.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
rotten in the state of Denmark." The characters of the play know that there are
For Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to betray Hamlet the way they did is utterly despicable. Especially considering that their taking the orders from Claudius. Claudius turns out to be quite a good lire, and shows his skill of being able to manipulate people, into doing what he wants. "Welcome, dear Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Moreover that we much did long to see you, the need we have to use you did provoke our hasty sending". ( II;ii; 1-4). Since Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spied on Hamlet, and brought back the fact that he is mad to Claudius. Claudius could then figure out Hamlet’s next move, and counter act it with his own. " Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul." ( III; i; 161). If Claudius hadn’t had Guildenstern or Rosencrantz to aid him in his efforts, I think Hamlet could have had a chance at survival.
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.
“To be or not to be” (3.1.56) the famous lines known far and wide from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The play, Hamlet, is about how King Hamlet of Denmark has died and his son Prince Hamlet returns for his funeral only to hear that the guards have seen the ghost of his father. This mysterious appearance intrigues the young Hamlet and so he goes to see the ghost and when he does, the ghost tells him that he is the spirit of his late father and that he did not die naturally. Continuing on the ghost tells Hamlet that he was actually murdered by his brother and Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius. Vowing to avenge his father’s death Hamlet sets out upon elaborate schemes to confirm that Claudius did indeed kill his father. As the play progresses Hamlet slowly seems to become insane, during one of his rampages while he was with his mother, he stabbed Polonius through a curtain killing him. Polonius’ death set Laertes, Polonius’ son, on revenge on the murderer and in doing so Claudius and Laertes joined in arms to make Hamlet disappear from the world. To ensure Hamlet would die Laertes poisoned his fencing sword and Claudius poisoned a chalice. In the end they all died from poisoning from the sword or from the chalice. Shakespeare provided dimension upon dimension for Hamlet, he created a character as real as could be. His character was an educated witty, indecisive, suicidal, and insane gentleman.