The Similarities and Differences of “America’s Hamlet” There is no denying the protagonistic similarities between the classic Shakespearean play, “Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark” and J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher in the Rye.” Holden Caulfield is often referred to as “America’s Hamlet” during these comparisons. Although they are considered to be identical in many ways, Hamlet and Holden are distinctly different by their actions and thoughts..
Though Hamlet and Holden are suffering the pain of loss, they seek different forms of personal ailment and remembrance. Hamlet was visited by the ghost of his dead father only with to be informed that King Hamlet was murdered by his brother in efforts to steal the throne. Prince Hamlet then agrees to
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Hamlet believes it is righteous and his obligation to avenge his father in this fit of rage in order to honor the original king and ail his own pain. Holden, however, honors his dead kin rather differently. This could be due to the way each character had viewed their deceased family at the time of their death. Hamlet saw the King Hamlet as an honorable heroic leader, so he avenges him by killing his murderer. Holden’s younger brother died from leukemia at the age of eleven. Holden only knew his brother, Allie, as a child and therefore, makes his goal to protect children. He explains to his sister that he feels obligated to “... come out of somewhere and catch them.” (Salinger 173) Holden is the protector of children who frolic and play in this metaphorically rye field. The tall rye represent the blindness of childhood, while the cliff represents this loss of childish innocence. He evidently feels this obligation to compensate for his death by saving other children by the repetition of “have to” through out this explanation. His ultimate goal is to protect the innocence of all children. Holden also feels more
To some, this argument may seem the most blatant form of mistruth, horrendous, even, in its lack of taste, a kind of literary sacrilege, in fact. Surely we have reached the end, one might say, when one can considerer comparing the immortal Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with the adolescent protagonist of Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger’s hero has been compared to many literary figures, from Huckleberry Finn to David Copperfield. So many different attitudes have been taken toward him. Let’s stop talking about him and write something else. Isn’t the subject getting boring? Perhaps so, but Holden will not go away. He continues to pester the mind, and while reading A.C. Bradley’s analysis of Hamlet’s character, it was hard to resist the idea that much of what Bradley was saying about Hamlet applied to Holden as well. Perhaps the comparison is not as absurd as it first appears. Of course, there is no similarity between the events of the play and those of the novel. The fascinating thing while reading Bradley was how perfectly his analysis of Hamlet’s character applied to Holden’s, how deeply, in fact, he was going into Holden’s character as well, revealing, among other things, its potentially tragic nature.
In J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in The Rye Salinger writes about the main character Holden Caulfield and his life. Holden is a teenager who comes from a wealthy family, he loves his family and lives very happy until the death of his brother Allie. After his brother died Holden becomes troubled, being kicked out of school again and again developing a negative view of the world. Holden throughout the book shows anger,denial, and acceptance over the loss of his brother.
In the novel The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger develops Holden Caulfield as a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the book, Salinger speaks as Holden and introduces him as a callous and subjective individual. However, the author permits the reader to be within Holden’s mind, giving the audience an alternative perspective of Holden’s true character. Without the obscurity of Holden’s personality, the work would lack a crucial element. As the protagonist, Holden serves as an equivocal adolescent that is relatable for the reader.
Hamlet is extremely proud of Old King and respects him.“He was a great human being. He was perfect in everything. I’ll never see the likes of him again” (I.ii.185-188). Hamlet loves his father and gives the greatest praise at the funeral. Grief driven by love tempts Hamlet to think his father’s goodness, and more, the loss of such a favorable figure. Hamlet believes that the ghost that is said to look like the dead king is indeed his father.”He waxes desperate with imagination”(I.ii.92). The Prince, who is deep in sadness and does not think sufficiently, is convinced that the spirit is the Old Hamlet, he is the only person that can physically communicate with the ghost. Hamlet for the second time talks to the apparition in his mother’s chamber, where Gertrude does not see any. What Horatio and other witnesses encounter at the gate at night proves the possibility of the existence of the ghost, Hamlet later in the play is considered to be truly mad on the account of his unusual ability to see and talk to the spirit, which is obviously conjured up by his mind. Rising actions in both the book and the play are implied at the beginning of the stories: Amir’s memory of 1975 and Old Hamlet’s death. The journey of redemption or revenge takes actions of concealing their true emotions and implementing devised
Hamlet sees a ghost of his father and learns that he was killed by his own brother, Claudius. This is when Hamlet falls into an ocean of thought. The philosopher devises ways to unmask his step father to his mother and Denmark and obtain justice and revenge for his father’s smeared death.
King Hamlet loved his son like any father does. Hamlet looked up to his father like all children do and his life was greatly changed when he learned of his fathers death. After hearing the news of his father’s death, Hamlet felt as if a part of his life was ripped away from him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it. During an encounter with his father’s ghost, King Hamlet, Hamlet learns that his father was murdered. It was not the news that his father was murdered that shocked Hamlet into reality, it was the fact that the one who murdered him, was in fact his own loving brother, Claudius. After killing his own brother, Claudius believes that he can go on with life like nothing has happened. Hamlet does not understand how someone can murder somebody, who is not only the King, but their own brother, and go on with life like he did nothing wrong.
Not can be the same about “Hamlet” the play. In the play Hamlet is visited by the ghost of his father telling him he needs to avenge his death, which was caused by the betrayal of his brother Clausius. After much inner turmoil, Hamlet finally decides to confront his uncle. Hamlet dies in the process of fighting his uncle. After Hamlet is cut by the poisoned sword and discovers that his evil uncle Claudius is responsible
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
In William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” there are many different events throughout the play that affect and shape the main character Hamlet. The biggest event being when Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, the king, who then proceeds to tell him that his uncle murdered him. This event will lead Hamlet to madness with sanity while plotting his revenge on his uncle which will ultimately end in his, his uncle and several other’s deaths at the end of the play.
Hamlet is first tormented by the death of his father, the king of Denmark. Then he is cast into utter agony when Gertrude, the mother he loves dearly is hastily married to his uncle, Claudius. Through a ghostly revelation, Hamlet learns that his suspicions that Claudius murdered his father are true. He becomes incensed and wants to enact revenge upon the guilty party. From this point on, Hamlet struggles with his plan for revenge that conflicts with his opposite contemplative nature.
Jerome David Salinger’s only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, is based on the life events shaping main character, Holden Caulfield, into the troubled teen that is telling the story in 1950. The theme of the story is one of emotional disconnection felt by the alienated teenagers of this time period. The quote, “ I didn’t know anyone there that was splendid and clear thinking and all” (Salinger 4) sets the tone that Holden cannot find a connection with anyone around him and that he is on a lonely endeavor in pursuit of identity, acceptance and legitimacy. The trials and failures that Holden faces on his journey to find himself in total shed light on Holden’s archenemy, himself.
Over the years, members of the literary community have critiqued just about every author they could get their pen on. One of the most popular novels to be critiqued has been J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. In favorable critiques, Holden Caulfield is a good guy stuck in a bad world. He is trying to make the best of his life, though ultimately losing that battle. Whereas he aims at stability and truth, the adult world cannot survive without suspense and lies. It is a testament to his innocence and decent spirit that Holden would place the safety of children as a goal in his lifetime. This serves to only re-iterate the fact that Holden is a sympathetic character, a person of high moral values who is too weak to pick himself up from a difficult situation.
Throughout the play Hamlet is in constant conflict with himself. An appearance of a ghost claiming to be his father, “I am thy father’s spirit”(I.v.14) aggravates his grief, nearly causing him to commit suicide and leaving him deeply disgusted and angered. Upon speaking with his ghost-father, Hamlet learns that his uncle-stepfather killed Hamlet the King. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown”(I.v.45-46) Hamlet is beside himself and becomes obsessed with plotting and planning revenge for the death of his father.
The trope “parent-child relationships,” encompassing both parental and mentor relationships, appears in many stories or texts. Not surprisingly, parent-child and mentor relationships run throughout all of the books examined this year in English class, most obviously in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The two protagonists in these novels, both of whom are boys struggling to find their place in the world, have significant adult figures who try to guide them in their journeys to maturity.
Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother. Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.