The Free Will of Hamlet
Choices made by Hamlet, which ultimately lead to his death, are all guided by his own free will. In mourning his father's death, Hamlet chooses to do so for what others consider to be an excessive amount of time. “But to persever/ In obstinate condolement is a course/ Of impious stubbornness”(I.ii.99-100), according to Claudius. During this period of mourning, Hamlet meets his father’s spirit and promises to avenge his father’s death. However, upon reflection, he questions the validity of the ghost’s message. At this point he carefully goes about choosing a plan of action that will inevitably show that “the king is to blame” (V.ii.340) In following his plan, Hamlet freely chooses to kill Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius and himself.
Following the performance of “The Mousetrap”, Hamlet is summoned to his mother's chamber. Upon arguing with Gertrude over the intentions of his play, and his reasons for wanting to distress the king so openly, Hamlet kills Polonius. “How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead (III.iv.27-28)! Perhaps Hamlet did not know whom he was killing. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! / I took thee for thy better”(III.iv.38-39)! Perhaps Hamlet thought he was killing the king.
In any case, the point is that Hamlet kills by his own hand, thought, and action. It is his choice. "To be" the tool of vengeance "or not to be" is the dilemma that faces Hamlet throughout the play.
Hamlet does not have much time to mull over his choices, for time is not on Hamlet's side. The king has his own plans to be rid of Hamlet. He sends Hamlet with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to England for “My head (to) be struck off”(V.ii.27). Hamlet revises the sentencing papers, fully aware that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern would be executed instead.
Arriving at Ophelia’s funeral, Hamlet is faced by Laertes' rage. Laertes justly blames Hamlet for the death of Polonius and the subsequent suicide of Ophelia. Again both deaths were due to choices made by Hamlet, Polonius' murder and driving Ophelia insane.
Finally we arrive at the sword match between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet is unaware of Claudius’ poisoned goblet and the poisoned tip of Laertes’ sword. When Laertes cuts Hamlet, he makes the choice to stab Laertes, who would see him dead as well.
When the queen dies after drinking the poison and Laertes confesses the whole deed, implicating Claudius, Hamlet finally kills the man who killed his father.
It is too late though, the poisonous sword had cut Hamlet. In anger, Hamlet steals the poisoned sword and runs it into Laertes. He then charges Claudius and runs into him. He also takes the wine and forces Claudius to drink from it. Both Claudius and Laertes died before Hamlet.
This tale coincides with the times in Greece. This was a time that art and Philosophy were extremely important and respected by the people. Odysseus was a new type of hero that didn’t win by overpowering his opponents, but by using his mind to outwit them. Manners also seemed to play an important role to Odysseus, as he was learned to be polite and generous to strangers and in the end punished those who weren’t.
Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, and the gunfight at the O.K. Corral were they really fighting for justice or revenge. In the attempt to serve “justice” they blurred the lines of the system to their gain. This essay is prove a point that the marvelous western hero lived a much darker live fueled by revenge, bribes, and gambling.
At the beginning of the play, Hamlet has learned that his brother, the newly king, Claudius, murdered his father. In Christian Wertenbaker: What is the riddle in HAMLET? (Sirs.com, 2011) it is stated, “From then on, Hamlet has to find his own way. He has become a seeker of truth. Unless he verifies the facts for himself, he cannot do the act” (1). This shows that Hamlet can’t back away from what he is meant to do. In his eyes he sees himself as being chosen to avenge his father. In fact, Hamlet proclaims, “The time is out of joint. O, cursed sprit, That ever I was born to set it right” (I. V. 207-208)! Already Hamlet is stressed out by his misfortune. He sees no other option, but to kill his uncle.
First of all, even though it is referred to as a ‘show’ today, at was at its heydays as noted considered to be an authentic representation of the American West and frontier experiences and because of this the “management of Cody’s enterprise declared it improper to speak of it as a ‘Wild West show’” (Slotkin, Gunfighter 67). As Slotkin notes, the name, ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’, “identified it as a ‘place’ rather than a mere display or entertainment” (Gunfighter
This, of course, causes a landslide of tragedy in the play. Claudius exiles Hamlet to England and sends sealed letters to the King of England telling him to kill Hamlet upon his arrival. Ophelia goes insane. Laertes, Hamlet's brother, returns from France with an army, demanding to know why Polonius was killed. Claudius enlists Laertes to kill Hamlet. Ophelia commits suicide. Hamlet and Laertes duel at her funeral; both of them are mortally wounded, Gertrude kills herself and Hamlet kills Claudius.
Displaying an 'antic disposition', Hamlet first attempts to side step his trepidation by feigning madness. After meeting with his fathers proposed ghost, Hamlet attempts to distance himself from the thought or evidence of death. Hamlet notifies his friends, Marcellus and Horatio, of his plan to distract the kingdom from his real intentions. Although Hamlet proposes this as a way to fool those in Denmark, in the last lines of his meeting with Horatio and Marcellus, he curses that this revenge be placed upon him. This is the first indication of Hamlets reluctance to perform murder. Hamlet then returns to Claudius and Gertrude, at the castle, and acts out his madness for them and for the visitor, Polonius. Upon speaking to Polonius, Polonius picks up upon Hamlets 'madness', yet decides that this unnatural nature is because if Ophelia's behavior toward Hamlet. Indication of Hamlets fear is presented when Polonius asks leave of the prince. Hamlet then states that Polonius can take anything from him, anything but his life. Hamlet repeats thrice this idea of taking anything 'except [his] life.' Not only does this indicate how compulsive Hamlets fake insanity is becoming, but how afraid he is of dying. During the 'To be or not to be' soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates his view of death. As he go...
The Wild West is romanticized by many, despite the horrors people encountered and the lack of law it was home to people who wanted to settle away from city life. The West was home to many gang and bandits such as Butch Cassidy, Jesse James, and specifically, Billy the Kid. Billy the Kid is famous for being one of the most notorious outlaws of New Mexico and fought in the infamous gang war The Lincoln County War. In Robert M. Utley’s book, Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life, Utley describes the young gunslinger’s life upbringings, how his actions affected people and his untimely death, and an overall response to Utley’s work.
Themes, the subject of a piece of writing, the topic, they are everywhere. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is the story of the Greasers and the Socs, and their fued. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost is a poem about innocence, and how it changes. Both of the pieces have many different common themes.
John Faustus - the main character - is educated in many fields: medicine, law, divinity, and philosophy, yet his appetite for knowledge is still insatiable. Despite his vast knowledge he is unfulfilled because he still lacks power. As the play unfolds, Faustus is overcome by a craving for power. He eliminates God from his life: "And Faustus vows never to look to heaven,/ Never to name God, or pray to him,/ To burn his Scriptures, slay his ministers,/ And make my spirits pull his churches down" (5.270-3). In western society today, people still lust for power - it is human nature to want. In Faustus' claim that he has nothing more to learn from this world his ambition turns to arrogance, and his intelligence turns into ignorance. Faustus believes that he can attain power beyond mortal ability. Why would God help Faustus, when he refuses to listen to God, and ignores the signs God gave him? Faustus makes several choices in ignorance of the final consequence. When he is having an argument (with the Good Angel and Evil Angel), and chooses to ignore the Good Angel (1.70-73).
The king forbade Fortinbras to wage an attack against Denmark, and instead suggested he attack the Poles to vent his anger. Fortinbras agreed to the plan, but had no intentions of following it. Polonius was King Hamlet’s advisor and the father of Ophelia and Laertes, both of whom respected and loved him, despite his arrogant demeanour. Young Hamlet murdered Polonius accidentally, thinking him to be the king eves dropping on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother. "How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!" Laertes returned home immediately after hearing of his father's death and confronted the King, accusing him of the murder of his father. Once Claudius told Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father's death, he and Claudius concoct a scheme to kill Hamlet using a poison tipped sword. "…Hamlet, thou art slain…The treacherous instrument is in thy, unbated and envenom'd…" Hamlet does indeed die as a result of wounds inflicted by Laertes, but it is the poisoned tipped sword that causes the demise of Laertes as well.
The Glass Menagerie is a play written by Tennessee Williams in 1945. The play takes place in the Wingfield’s apartment in St. Louis. Tom is the protagonist in the play and he stays at home with his mother Amanda and his sister Laura. Tom’s Father left the family when he was younger leaving him as the man of the house. His mother Amanda expects him to do everything a man would do. This included working, paying bills, and taking care of herself and Laura. Laura is disabled and she doesn’t work therefore Tom is left providing for his whole family. Being abandoned by Mr. Wingfield left the family distraught. No one seemed to be able to cope with the fact that he was gone even though he left many years ago. Amanda is constantly treating Tom like a child. She tells him how to eat, when to eat, and what he should and should not wear. Tom eventually gets fed up with everything. He can’t stand his factory job, the responsibility of being the man or being treated like a child by his mother. Tom decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and leave the family. It seems as if Tom thinks that running away from his problems will make them go away but things didn’t turn out that way. Although the play was written many years ago, young adults in this day and age can relate to Tom and his actions. The main theme in the play is escape. All of the character use escape in some way. Laura runs to her glass menagerie or phonographs when she can’t handle a situation, Amanda seems to live in the past, and Tom constantly runs away when things aren’t going his way. Escape is a short term fix for a bigger problem. Running away may seem like the easiest thing to do, but in the end the problem is still there and it may be unforgettable. As time goes on esc...
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, revenge intertwines to bring about the deaths of most of the main characters. Hamlet’s course of revenge initiates the first fatality when Polonius gets caught spying on him and Gertrude (III. iv. 24-25). By pursuing revenge, Hamlet killing Polonius paves the way for more lives to be lost. Claudius sees the murder as an opportunity to eliminate Hamlet, because Laertes’s obsession with revenge leaves him vulnerable. Laertes’s and Hamlet’s revenge lead to the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and finally Hamlet (V. ii. 287-357). The revenge of each character ironically ended their own life. By acting upon revenge and having inimical intentions, the individuals brought fatalities that were unnecessary.
Subsequently, the bigger issue at hand; the wager between the Lord and the Devil (Mephisto). The bet between the spiritual beings were whether Faustus: the lone-representative of all humanity, will be able to shoulder the weight of good and evil. Nevertheless, how huge the temptation of personal gain. In this sense, I acquired that the Lord’s view of humanity: is imperfection isn’t absolute and man’s potential for the greater good can be refined.
The play progresses to Faustus gaining power but doing nothing productive with it because he has no wisdom to guide himself on. Faustus wishes for power and has plans looking forward to his future life but as he gains it, he starts to lose his wisdom as power clearly took a toll on his mind. He becomes a performer for an emperor and finally ends up believing there is no redemption for his life as he knows he has sinned against God before and after his deal with the devil which what he believes - his last straw with God. Faustus crumbles after he has too much of the weight of power in his hands to the point it ruins him, as he has no wisdom to properly organize his goals or