Socratic Seminar Preparation Sheet
4.) Why does Hamlet delay in his action to kill Claudius (Avoid the easiest answer that might read something like: “He wants to make sure that the Ghost is reputable in leading him to do so.”) In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the main protagonist, Hamlet delays in killing his uncle/stepfather King Claudius and exacting revenge against him for the death of his father due to his deep depression. His melancholy leads to his failure to act. He exhibits his depression when he cries out “O, that this too sullied flesh would melt/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew, /Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God, /How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable/Seem to me all the uses of this world!” (I, ii,133-138). Wishing for death, or for God to permit the act of committing suicide was the first example of Hamlet’s exhibiting depression.
This further shows his depression and his distaste for his mother’s hasty marriage only two months after the death of his father. Depression commonly leads to inaction, as seen in the case of Hamlet.
6. Why does it seem that Hamlet has more rage against women (more specifically against his mother and Ophelia) than he does for Claudius?
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It is seen when he insists his mother’s grief for his father is not true, but instead a false façade ““‘I have that within me which passes show/ these but the trappings and the suits of woe” (I, ii, 88-89). Hamlet points out the blatant disrespect for the deceased King’s memory, stating, “O most wicked speed, to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! / It is not, nor it cannot come to good/ But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” (I, ii, 161-164). This shows Hamlet’s distaste for his mother’s action, which than carries over to Ophelia
Living in an environment of deception and hostility, the reader can easily identify with Hamlet's anger. Most all compassionate audiences will be sympathetic to his plight. However, the origins of Hamlet's vehement actions toward his once beloved Ophelia can be debated from several different points of view. Whatever his reasoning may be, it is probably correct to assume that he regrets deeply every harsh world spoken toward Ophelia. He only realizes again what a beautiful and kind person she was- after her death.
The life of Hamlet is without a doubt very interesting, he suffers from unfortunate events in his time that are often major blows to his ego. His father dies while he’s away at college, Hamlet is next in line to be king until his “uncle-father” steals it from him; but it is to be known his “uncle-father” would not have stolen it if his “aunt-mother” hadn’t allowed it. It’s very apparent from the beginning of the play that he is very well obsessed with his mother and her doings. He harasses, humiliates, and abuses her because she has done such an unforgivable act by marrying Claudius. His thoughts and feelings towards his mother are very strong and well known, he even describes the odd pair as “little more than kin and less than kind.” That’s not all with Hamlet; his mother remarrying is just the tip of the iceberg so deeply rooted in the ocean of his emotions. His relationship with Ophelia is twisted, Hamlet goes through episodes of
By not speaking anything, Hamlet at once strengthens his image as a madman, as well as shrouding his real intentions towards those around him. Just following this passage comes a place in the text where we can see how the character of Ophelia has been manipulated by Polonius. After his "hint" that he might be doing this out of frustrated love, Ophelia says that that is what she truly does fear. (87) Her feelings of pity and concern are shaped by her father in order to fit his case of madness against Hamlet.
At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is discouraged with his life because his mother remarried his uncle soon after his father’s death. According to Simon Critchley in the New York Times, Hamlet in the beginning of the play “is a creature of endless vacillation, a cipher for the alienated, inward modern self in a world that is insubstantial and rotten.” In the eyes of his friends and family he is melancholic and people can not quite understand why he is depressed. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy about death Act I, Scene II l.130-159 he expresses his first thoughts on suicide. He is “an outraged man who, disgusted by his ‘sullied flesh’, can see no outcome to his disgust other than death” (Delville, Michel). Hamlet appears to be more melancholic, and desperate than at any other point in the play. Desiring his flesh to “melt,” and wishing that God had not made “self-slaughter” a sin, saying that the world is “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable.” Hamlet thinks suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but he feels that taking his own life is not an option because religion forbids suicide. According to Michel Delville, “ God, the Everlasting, he tells us, does not allow one to act in this way. God still rules the universe and Hamlet must obey his strictures. Hamlet then goes on to describe the causes of his pain, primarily his disgust towards his mother’s marriage to his uncle Claudius. His speech is imbued ...
While Hamlet may still be feeling depressed Hamlet moves into the stage of denial and isolation. Hamlet feels the effects of denial and isolation mostly due to his love, Ophelia. Both Hamlet’s grief and his task constrain him from realizing this love, but Ophelia’s own behavior clearly intensifies his frustration and anguish. By keeping the worldly and disbelieving advice of her brother and father as “watchmen” to her “heart” (I.iii.46), she denies the heart’s affection not only in Hamlet, but in herself; and both denials add immeasurably to Hamlet’s sense of loneliness and loss—and anger. Her rejection of him echoes his mother’s inconstancy and denies him the possibility even of imagining the experience of loving an...
Hamlet’s apparent antics with Ophelia prove that their relationship begins to fall apart and become unhealthy. Hamlet mistreats Ophelia when she attempts to return the gifts he has given her, and he responds in a harsh manner, asking about her chastity and beauty, saying “that if [she] be honest and fair, [her] honesty/should admit no discourse to [her] beauty” (3.1.117-118). Hamlet continues to belittle her, calling her two-faced and admitting that he “did love [her] once” (3.1.125), his feelings for her now absent. Hamlet’s facade becomes personal through this. The entire exchange shows how Hamlet prioritizes his revenge, over his love because he eventually figures out that Polonius and Claudius spy on him. Hamlet soon speculates Ophelia’s association in their plan and decides to put on a facade for her too. Claudius’s facade also affects his relationship with Gertrude and Hamlet. After his speech to the court, Claudius approaches Hamlet in a way that appears as if he cares about him, even addressing him as “my cousin Hamlet and my son” (1.2.66), despite being aware of Hamlet’s sensitive and depressive state because of his father’s death. Moreover, Claudius expresses his deceitful love when he admits to Laertes that he won’t put Hamlet on trial because he mentions how much he loves Gertrude, and that she “is so conjunctive to my life and soul/that, as the
Why does hamlet delay so much in avenging his father’s murderer? Is there a part of him that really doesn’t want to take revenge? These are questions readers may come up with after reading and analyzing the play. Hamlet is a play built on a long tragedy between many characters. This tragedy starts with the main character Princess Hamlet and his Uncle Claudius.
Hamlet in the play named after him was presented with the opportunity to kill Claudius in Act 3 Scene three in the play of his own name. If Hamlet had committed the act, not only would his father had been avenged, but the deaths of Ophelia, Gertrude, Laertes, and Hamlet himself would not have taken place. But why didn’t he? Based on two essays written by Scott Locklear, the reasons for Hamlet’s delay was because the play would have been much shorter, ending in what is now the beginning, along with Hamlet’s own personal reasoning for not killing Claudius. This is true, for the play at the time would have been considered very dull and boring, with little action taking place.
Hamlet shows much anger and disrespect to the women in his life. Ophelia’s believing her father’s words breaks Hamlets heart, being the reason for his treatment towards not just her but his mother. Ophelia
He shows his brotherly love for Ophelia when he says “For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favor,/Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,/A violet in the youth of primy nature,/Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,/The perfume and suppliance of a minute,/No more” (Shakespeare 1.3.6-11). Meanwhile, Hamlet embarks on a mission of revenge in which he does not seek revenge on behalf of himself but rather, for someone else. Hamlet’s revenge mission begins when he is visited by his father’s ghost who commands “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 1.5.31) after his father recounts the cause of his murder. From this point on, Hamlet begins to act mad in order to put his revenge mission into action.
“Pretty Ophelia,” as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia “sucked the honey of his music vows” and returned Hamlet’s affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet’s true intentions, Ophelia could only say: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” Ophelia was used to relying on her father’s directions and she was also brought up to be obedient. This allowed her to only accept her father’s views that Hamlet’s attention towards her was only to take advantage of her and to obey her father’s orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again.
The Achilles heel of Wilson’s argument is his repetitive use of the word causality and the hypocritical manner in which he approaches Hamlet and Claudius respectively. He implores his audience to disavow or “refuse to be diverted from a clear vision by questions of praise and blame, responsibility and causality” (Wilson Knight, G. 1957: 186) in terms of how the audience views Hamlet but re-introduces causality in terms of Claudius who “as he appears in the play is not a criminal. He is-strange as it may seem- a good and gentle king, enmeshed by the chain of causality linking him with his crime.(Wilson Knight, G. 1957: 188)” He seems to be trying to wash Claudius clean of his sins and the effects these have had on Hamlet’s state of mind, which might have been different if Claudius’ actions had been, by removing causality from our view of his actions and their consequences but tries to purge the audience of, or redirect sympathy to Claudius by referring to him as a “good and gentle king”(Wilson Knight, G. 1957: 188) who has gotten entangled in the web of cause and effect of one evil deed. This approach is unbalanced and this essay will aim to establish a full analysis of both Hamlet and Claudius’ behaviour and mental states by examining the play and the essay in terms of causality as a prime factor.
Hamlet's relationship and actions towards Ophelia are not exempt from his dual personalities. In private, he is deeply devoted to her; but in public, he humiliates and belittles her...
Furthermore, it is possible to propose that Shakespeare merely uses this scene to provoke irritation and consequently suspense from the audience. If Hamlet wasn’t given this opportunity to kill Claudius we would have not this insight into Hamlet’s indecisiveness, possible cowardice and inability to kill Claudius in cold blood. It is probable to suggest that through this soliloquy we are shown that Hamlet’s initial passion for revenge after the Ghost’s visitation has faded as the play progresses to merely thinking about killing Claudius.
Hamlet’s attachment to his mother was quickly made evident within the first act of the famous tragedy. Hamlet, who sulks around wearing black clothing to mourn the death of his father, first speaks in the play to insult his stepfather. He voices his distaste at his new relationship with his uncle by criticizing that they are, “A little more than kin and less than kind” (I.ii.65). He believes that it is unnatural for his uncle to also be his father, and eagerly jumps at an opportunity to offend Claudius. However, Hamlet acts entirely different towards his mother, despite his poor attitude....