Hamlet by Shakespeare is a very wonderfully written book that contains so many literary elements and motifs throughout it that it is still one of the most debated and talked about pieces of literature ever written. It begins with a very mysterious opening that sets the pace for the rest of the book. The old king of Denmark has died and he has returned as a ghost to inform his son, who is also named Hamlet, of the terrible misfortune that has befallen him and left Denmark in a political and emotional turmoil. He has come to inform the young Hamlet that his uncle Claudius murdered the old king in order to gain access to the throne by remarrying the widowed queen a mere two months after he has passed. The timing is very important because it had to be soon enough that young Hamlet would challenge him for access to the throne but the rushed wedding has caused the citizens of Denmark to question and be very critical of their new King Claudius. Now the sudden death of his father and the hurried wedding between his uncle and his mother has left him in a state of emotional turmoil that is noticeable to all that see him. The rest of the play is a seemingly endless maze of confusion, drama, and occasionally lunacy as Hamlet sets out to discover the truth about his uncle and eventually exact revenge for his father’s murder. (Lucking 3) This maze combined with Shakespeare’s tendency to be very broad and not always give the audience the whole picture seems to be why Hamlet continues to be one of the most widely debated pieces of literature in the twenty first century. One of the not so recognized motifs throughout the book or even in general is the friendship and support that Hamlet received throughout his continued state of turmoil. This frien...
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...ke Hamlet is going crazy or that everything is not going to work out for the best. Horatio is the only person that is always there for Hamlet and always plays the part of his truest and closest friend and that is something that is not always noticed by just the average member of the audience but it actually plays a big part in the play and could not be simply left out.
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To understand a play, you must first understand the fundamentals for the play: protagonist, antagonist, exposition, rising action, crisis, climax and resolution. I will examine Hamlet by William Shakespeare. This is a great example for the purpose of this paper it provides a clear and great examples.
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...
Boklund, Gunnar. "Hamlet." Essays on Shakespeare. Ed. Gerald Chapman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996.
Mack, Maynard. "The World of Hamlet." Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: Oxford University P., 1967.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square-Pocket, 1992. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed. Vol. C. Ed. Sarah Lawall. New York: Norton, 2005. Print.
Shakespeare, William, Marilyn Eisenstat, and Ken Roy. Hamlet. 2nd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 2003. Print.
Corum, Richard. Understanding Hamlet: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998. Print.
Hamlet is a tale of tragedy by Shakespeare which tells the story of the prince of Denmark who is on a quest to avenge the death of his father at the hands of his uncle whom subsequently becomes king of Denmark. This is what fuels the fire in the play as Hamlet feels the responsibility to avenge his father’s death by his uncle Claudius; however, Claudius assumed the throne following the death of hamlets father. It is in this context that we see the evolution of hamlets character from a student and young prince of Denmark to the protagonist and tragic hero in the play.