Relationships hold everyone together. They create a bond between two people. Though, this is not the case in the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare. The relationships end in destruction. Hamlet is a character who is portrayed to be indecisive and active consciously. He deals with things emotionally, not pragmatically. This has a large impact on his relationships with others. Hamlet, when speaking to Polonius, hides puns and insults into his speech, causing his relationship to be built upon misconceptions. The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia displays great love though is controlling and often leads to assumptions. A prey vs. predator like relationship is shown through Hamlet and Claudius as they both compete with one another. Hamlet, being very indecisive, develops a negative relationship with others that is similar yet contrasting, moving towards an aggressive end.
Truly, satirical describes the relationship between Hamlet and Polonius. Polonius believes himself to be wise but comes across rather silly. Hamlet often uses these characteristics of Polonius to indirectly make fun of him. Polonius being too self-absorbed, cannot see the true meaning behind Hamlets words and states, " I did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed; i'th Capitol. Brutus killed me," (Shakespeare iii, ii, 99-100). Polonius is very hypocritical as he openly boasts about being in a play playing the main character. Hamlet in turn, indirectly calls Polonius a fool, by calling him a calf, seen in the quote, " It was brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there," (Shakespeare iii, ii, 101). Though, Hamlet is very smart, as Polonius is not able to realize the insult. The theme of appearance vs. reality is seen here. Polonius, at this point, belie...
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..., keeping the theme of prey vs. predator prevalent throughout the play.
Hamlet develops negative relationships that end aggressively through his characteristic of being too indecisive. Claudius and Hamlet have a relationship similar to that of animals. They maintain a prey vs. predator like relationship by keeping the other on his toes and being a threat. The relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet has a large influence through the way men around Ophelia treat her. Hamlet and Polonius have a relationship based off of puns and insults often leading to false ideas. Polonius being too self-absorbed does not realize the things that Hamlet says in between the lines. All the relationships that Hamlet is involved in, end in destruction. The bonds that were once there are broken. In conclusion, in the play, it is evident that relationships do not hold everyone together.
In the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet, David Bevington presents Polonius as similar to Hamlet in various ways: Polonius, his [Hamlet’s] seeming opposite in so many ways, is, like Hamlet, an inveterate punster. To whom else but Polonius should Hamlet direct the taunt of “Words, words, words”? The aged counselor recalls that in his youth he “suffered much extremity for love, very near this,” and he has been an actor at the university. Polonius too has advice for the players: “Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” When Hamlet jibes at “so capital a calf” enacting Julius Caesar, killed in the Capitol, he reinforces the parallel to his own playacting and anticipates the slaying of Polonius behind the arras.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare is one of the world’s most revered literature. The main character, Hamlet, is arguably one of the most intriguing characters the playwright ever developed. Hamlet is daring, philosophical, mentally unstable at times, and clever. Throughout the play though, these characteristics change and/or diminish as Hamlet is put through a plethora of unfortunate events. His father is murdered by Claudius, his mother soon after marries Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray him, and his girlfriend most likely commits suicide. While Hamlet is incredibly philosophical, indecisive, and full of resentment in the beginning of the play, he becomes violent, instinctive, caring and sympathetic towards the end of the play.
In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, possesses qualities and characteristics that shape him into the man he is. Grief stricken and revenge seeking, Hamlet’s true self is displayed through his actions. Hamlet’s love, Ophelia, serves as a foil to his character highlighting his strong mind, coping methods with emotions, and corruption within families.
Ophelia states Hamlet has been “affectionate”. Polonius warns her to be careful before she becomes looking like a fool that had been played around with. He tells her to talk to him less.
The scene between Hamlet and Polonius took place in Act II Scene 2. In Hamlet's first encounter with Polonius, he immediately insulted the old man by calling him a "fishmonger". He then quickly changed his opinion and complemented Polonius by calling him an honest man. Hamlet said, "to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand". As we know Polonius definitely was not such a man. Hamlet was portrayed as a clever lad, who was playing a psychological game with an old fool. He asked Polonius whether or not he had a daughter, pretending he did not know that Ophelia was Polonius's daughter. When Hamlet was asked about what he was reading, he replied by saying, "words, words, words". Throughout this scene, Hamlet revealed himself to Polonius as a mentally unstable man. He was playing a fool himself, while ingeniously using this to make Polonius look like an even bigger fool. He cleverly insulted Polonius' appearances indirectly, by referring to the book he was reading. According to that book old men had grey beards, their faces were wrinkled, they had a plentiful lack of wit, and so on. He was describing Polonius exactly. Perhaps the most humorous part took place when Hamlet, while saying, "for yourself, sir, shall grow old as I am, if like a crab you could go backward", he advanced towards Polonius, causing him to walk backwards. Those words and the actions on the stage revealed Hamlet to be a daring young man. When Polonius finally left, Hamlet dropped his pretense and yelled, "These tedious old fools!". In Act III Scene 2, Hamlet used a recorder, the musical instrument, as a telescope when Polonius entered the scene. He asked Polonius, "Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?". Hamlet always pretended to be the madman in front of Polonius, while he actually made him look like an old fool.
Hamlet’s relationship with his uncle is cold because of the fact that Claudius married his dead father wife. Ophelia and her father Polonius relationship is not what a father and daughter relationship supposed to be because her father is trying to control her life. Hamlet doesn’t talk to his uncle because Claudius married his mother right after his dad death. Even though Ophelia father is trying to control her she still have open conversation with Polonius everyday unlike Hamlet and his uncle. Ophelia is a young and innocent who obey her father. On the other hand Hamlet doesn’t obey his uncle because he feels as if he married Queen Gertrude to get the throne.
In the play Hamlet, Ophelia’s downfall is dependent on love. Being one of the two women in the play, Ophelia lives in a very male dominated society. When the ties are broken between her relationships with the significant men in her life, it breaks Ophelia to
The term love can be exemplified in many variations. As complex as it is, it may be described as an experience rather than a tangible entity. Love’s paradoxical capacity consists of devotion and passion, which can be both liberating and binding in a relationship. A recurrent theme in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the portrayal of one character’s love for another, and how this obliges them to act in various circumstances. This is prominent throughout the play, as seen in Hamlet's adoration for his father, Horatio's self-less love for Hamlet, and Gertrude's unparalleled love for her son. However, the love illustrated in these relationships cannot be used to define Hamlet and Ophelia’s association. In its place, Hamlet’s lust for Ophelia is simply a
Hamlet is petrified into inaction by the quickness of events that transpires at the beginning of the play. His uncle Claudius has killed his father, and his mother in less than a month has married the same man who committed this heinous murder thus beginning an incestuous relationship. Hamlet addressed his discord with this speed and nature of this relationship, “A little more than kin, and less than kind”...
Hamlet is seen as one of the most complex literary character of all time. The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude can be interpreted in many ways. Hamlet’s motivation for killing Claudius is not to avenge his father’s death, but because of his love for his mother Gertrude. This is where the Oedipus complex comes into play in Hamlet by William Shakespeare.
Hamlet’s emotional upheaval can be attributed to his relationship with his mother and his real father. Throughout the book, Hamlet interacts with various people who contribute to his outrageous emotions, specifically his mother, Gertrude, and his father, King Hamlet. His relationship with each of them directly affects his feelings and actions enough to cause him to drastically change his behaviour. His collaboration with other people also influences his behaviour and actions.
Polonius is over-eager and tries to give unwanted advice, during the play he is tactless and often rude. For instance, Polonius is a comic relief during his conversation with Gertrude and Claudius regarding Hamlet’s madness. Polonius rambling through his conversation contrasts with Gertrude’s seriousness of wanting to find out the reason to Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius begins to deliver to the king and queen the results of his investigation, he makes this statement, “My liege, and madam, to expostulate/ What majesty should be, what duty is,/ What day is day, night is night, and time is time,/ Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;/ Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,/ And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,/ I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .”(IIii,86-92) . Polonius’ speech is windy and nonsensical he wastes ti...
A close look at the relationships between Ophelia and Hamlet and Gertrude and Claudius, will illustrate that betrayal, selfishness and lack of love caused their destruction.
One of Hamlet’s major theme is love and that is the backbone of what causes our species to reproduce and that has stayed consistent from Shakespeare’s time to ours. The importance of love within Hamlet isn't simply the inclusion of love but rather how people react to it. Ophelia’s confusion, “crazy talk” and eventually suicide was all a result of the love she was experiencing from Hamlet and
“To be or not to be” (3.1.56) the famous lines known far and wide from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The play, Hamlet, is about how King Hamlet of Denmark has died and his son Prince Hamlet returns for his funeral only to hear that the guards have seen the ghost of his father. This mysterious appearance intrigues the young Hamlet and so he goes to see the ghost and when he does, the ghost tells him that he is the spirit of his late father and that he did not die naturally. Continuing on the ghost tells Hamlet that he was actually murdered by his brother and Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius. Vowing to avenge his father’s death Hamlet sets out upon elaborate schemes to confirm that Claudius did indeed kill his father. As the play progresses Hamlet slowly seems to become insane, during one of his rampages while he was with his mother, he stabbed Polonius through a curtain killing him. Polonius’ death set Laertes, Polonius’ son, on revenge on the murderer and in doing so Claudius and Laertes joined in arms to make Hamlet disappear from the world. To ensure Hamlet would die Laertes poisoned his fencing sword and Claudius poisoned a chalice. In the end they all died from poisoning from the sword or from the chalice. Shakespeare provided dimension upon dimension for Hamlet, he created a character as real as could be. His character was an educated witty, indecisive, suicidal, and insane gentleman.