Sacrifice of Values to Please Authority in Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Sacrifice of Values to Please Authority in Shakespeare's Hamlet

It seems that it is human nature to want to please others, but compromising ones values in order to do so can result in people getting hurt emotionally or physically. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the desire to please those in authority overweighs the judgment of many characters. These characters are more interested in pleasing those in power than doing what is in their best interest. This is seen in Polonious' eager attempt to use Ophelia, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's being coerced into spying on a good friend, and finally in Laertes' all too easy manipulation by Claudius to take revenge on his fathers' death. In all these instances, the characters put their better judgment aside in order to do something to please a monarch.

The bond between father and daughter is something that some consider sacred. Polonious uses this bond with Ophelia to please Claudius and Gertrude in finding our what is wrong with Hamlet. The King and Queen were very upset at Hamlet's seeming insanity. They tell Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that finding out what is wrong with Hamlet would be "the supply and profit of [their] hope (P.34)." They are obviously disenchanted at his behavior, and Polonious knows this, and tries to use his daughter to prove his theory. When Ophelia came and described to him her meeting with Hamlet in Act I, Polonious immediately took her to the King. Polonious, acting on his duty to "both [his] God and to [his] gracious king (P. 34)" took Ophelia to Claudius to see if he could be any help in trying to find out what is wrong with Hamlet. He quickly tells the king that he will ".loose [his] daughter to [Hamlet] (p. 38)" and concocts an elaborate plan t...

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...how others perceived them, especially those in power, than doing what was really in the best interest for everyone. These characters were manipulated by brutal puppet-masters that toyed with their strings to get the response that they wanted, knowing full well that all would agree to anything in order to please them. This urge to do what was wanted by those in ascendancy was so great a weight, that values were pushed aside for a chance to glimmer in the light of attention from important figures in society.

Works Cited and Consulted

Long, Michael. A Study of Values in Shakespearean Tragedy. London: Methuen and Company, 1976.

Mirrior, Ivor. "Hamlet." The Role of Authority in the Tragedies. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1972. 369-430.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Susanne L. Wofford. Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism. Boston: St. Martin's, 1994.

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