William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces difficulty and is intended to murder his uncle, who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although some of his actions and emotions can be interpreted of insane persons. It was a tragic time in the life of the prince, Hamlet’s life became difficult due to his father had just passed away, his uncle then took the king’s throne and married Hamlet’s mother, then the ghost of his dead father appeared to him with orders for vengeance and, finally, the love of his life was no longer permitted to see the him by instructions of the lady’s father. This would appear too many to be reason enough for an individual to lose touch with reality and fall into insanity, but this was not the circumstance with the bright determined Hamlet. Though the prince showed frequent signs of madness during the play, Hamlet not once lost touch with reality as he continued acting sane both in his thoughts as well as while speaking with certain individuals.
Seeing the ghost of King Hamlet availed fueled the argument within Prince Hamlet. Prince Hamlet is not clear on his emotions. The ghost of King Hamlet tells Prince Hamlet that he was murdered and who murdered him. I find thee apt; And duller shouldst thou be than the fat
In this source, the author goes about showing how mad hamlet was by picking at his strategy of trying to expose Claudius of murdering his father through the “Mouse Trap” play. This source argues that Hamlet’s grief can be blamed on many occurrences that happened within the play, the biggest influence being the death of his father. Other influences that this source states are the fact that his newly widowed mother marries his uncle only a month or so after his father’s death and the fact that Ophelia let her brother and father influence her love for hamlet Another interesting theory was that nobody gave hamlet any sympathy in his time of grief when he really needed it resulting to his madness. As Arthur KirschWrites , “If vengeance composes the plot of the revenge play, grief composes its essential content, its substance”(17). As Kirsch notes, right from his first appe... ... middle of paper ... ...e driven solely by passion and a drive for revenge, while Hamlet is only looking for a “friendly fencing match”.
Gertrude still cares for Hamlet and wants to protect him from anything. Gertrude is clueless mainly throughout the play. She does not realize she is the reason Hamlet is on a rage. The cause of hamlet 's rage is her hasty marriage with his uncle. It’s interesting that Gertrude doesn’t actually see the Ghost when he appears in the same scene, it is only Hamlet who can see him.
Gerturde has somehow ended up in the plot of King Hamlet's death and in the eyes of her son, seems to be a monster and an aide to an adulterating deed. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius who is the King's trusted councilor and is later killed in the play and he forbids his daughter to see Hamlet because of the possibility that he beseech her name and her virginity. She truly loves Hamlet and is devastated when he shuns her and pretends to be mad. Hamlet's treatment towards these two women shapes and brings life to their characters and eventually bring s an end to their characters as well. Gertrude is a kind and loving mother.
One must look at all the other characters and how they are affected by his actions, one character that also suffers tragically is Hamlet's ex-love interest, Ophelia. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the ex-girlfriend of Hamlet, although her story is not focused on during the play. She is a great example of a common tragedy. Firstly, Ophelia is living in a society which does not promote women independence, so unlike Hamlet she does not have the freedom to change her fate with her own decisions. She has to be obedient and listen to all the men in her life such as her father, Polonius and her brother Laertes and this limits her to doing things that she thinks are right.
When Gertrude tries to protect Hamlet from Claudius in act IV, scene 1, when describing to Claudius about Hamlet 's killing of Polonius, Gertrude covers up Hamlets indifferent attitude by saying that he cried afterwards: “ Shows itself pure. He weeps for what is done” (IV.I.28). She knows that Hamlet did not show sorrow but as a mother, she wants to describe him in way that will make things easier for him. However, this does not change the conflict towards Gertrude and Hamlet. Hamlet is still enraged with vengeance and Gertrude’s nurturing act does not help the situation:“The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he tells a story of Hamlet who has not only lost his father but has found that his uncle is the killer. To make matters worse, his uncle has married Hamlet’s mother making his father’s killer the new king. Throughout the play Hamlet appears to have gone insane. The characters in the play are left to wonder what has caused Hamlet’s sudden depart from reality. The main speculation is that his madness is due to the loss of his father and from a broken heart from the rejection of Ophelia, who is Hamlet’s love interest.
Audience members also lack the knowledge to fully discern Hamlet’s psychological help, as is implied within the first few acts of the play. Lastly, though Hamlet could be seen as a heroic member of society, it is clear that his character lacks a drive that is needed to be fully persuaded that Hamlet is in fact the heroic character of the play. These reasons are what push audience/readers from identifying clearly with Hamlet’s character. Shakespeare’s use of foils is the first of many reasons that identification with Hamlet is hard to swallow. A foil character is defined as a character “that shows the qualities that are in contrast to the qualities of another character with the objective to highlight the traits of the other character” (Dictionary.com).
Hamlet: Hamlet Defeated By His Own Flaws In William Shakespeare's well known tragic play, Hamlet, the main character Hamlet is defeated by his own flaws. These flaws are the killing of Polonius, the killing of Claudius, and most of all by Hamlet being misled by the Ghost. The killing of Polonius is a major flaw of Hamlets because it got him killed by Laertes. Also the killing of his uncle Claudius was tragic, since he was his uncle and he made Hamlet very angry towards his mother. The last and most noted flaw of Hamlet's was him being misled by the Ghost and engaging in his plan of madness.