Cause and Effect Hamlet Essay

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is a timeless play which continues to remain relevant across all generations due to its presentation of ideas that are fundamental to humanity. The play highlights aspects that relate to the society of not only Elizabethan England but also that of our modern society. Hamlet, as a character, considers ideas from outside his time and is somewhat relatable to modern day man. By drawing from ideas of archetypes and the human psyche, it reveals that Hamlet relates deeply to the elements of humanity.

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the character of Fortinbras, has been used as a foil for the main character, Hamlet. Hamlet and Fortinbras have lost their fathers to untimely deaths. Claudius killed Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, and King Hamlet killed Fortinbras' father. Both Hamlet and Fortinbras have vowed to seek revenge for the deaths of their fathers. Since the revenge tactics of Hamlet and Fortinbras are completely different, Hamlet perceives the actions of Fortinbras as better than his own and the actions of Fortinbras, then, encourage Hamlet to act without hesitating.

Throughout history, literature has been able to captivate and enchant audiences of all backgrounds. Words have an undeniable ability to sway a crowd’s emotions and truly affect them. William Shakespeare, one of the most revered writers of all time, had such skills. His plays are timeless pieces of art considered the foundations of the English literature. Shakespeare’s most dramatic and infamous tragedy, Hamlet, has earned its place as a cornerstone. In the play, Shakespeare poetically writes speeches that show the true colours of the characters, whether good or devious. The main antagonist, Claudius, shows his treachery to the Elizabethan audience, through his speech to his wife Gertrude. Claudius’ conversation with Gertrude in Act 4,

Furthermore, Fortinbras is dead set on attacking Denmark and it seems no one can stop him. The death of his father lights a fire in him to kill at any cost and instead of taking care of his ill uncle who is on his death bed, Fortinbras leaves him alone and takes his time planning and training for his attack to kill the new king of Denmark. Shakespeare reveals that Fortinbras abandons his "impotent and bedrid" (I. ii. 29) uncle and trains his troops while "The lists, and full proportions are all made out of his subject" (I. ii. 32) to defeat Denmark showing his determination. Fortinbras wants to be the one who rights the wrong that the old king of Denmark has done to his father. He would go at any length to get the job done, thus making the reader see that he does not think things through before he does anything. Hamlet on the other hand is very indecisive about killing Claudius even though he knows Claudius is guilty of his father’s death. Although, Hamlet is not sure about what he is going to do to attack. Even though he wants to avenge his father’s death and obey the ghost, he is not as active or into the attacking

Oftentimes, the minor characters in a play can be vital and, among other things, function to further the action of the play or to reveal and illuminate the personalities of other characters. In Hamlet, Fortinbras, the Norwegian Prince, serves as the most important foil of Hamlet and provides us with the actions and emotions in which we can compare to those of Hamlet and better reveal Hamlet’s own character. Because Hamlet and Fortinbras both lost their fathers and have sworn to avenge their deaths, Fortinbras is a perfect parallel of Hamlet. He was also very crucial to the play’s ending and to bring a remedy to the corruption that has plagued Denmark.

For any play to be a successful the audience must be able to feel a connection with it, they must feel like they are not just an audience, but perhaps characters in the play itself. One way of making connections between the audience and the play is through speeches that target the audience. In the Play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, there are many examples of this technique of targeting the audience. One example that is very effect in doing this if found in a speech given by Hamlet in act IV, Scene 4. This speech makes many connections with the audience of the Elizabethan era, relating to their social, cultural, and economic values and perspectives. By touching on these topics the speech given by

1. In scene four, Hamlet has arrived at the dock where he will be shipped away to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. While waiting to board the ship they overhear young Fortinbras asking for a right of passage from the King of Denmark, so he can go to Poland, where the Norwegians and the Poles are fighting over a small sliver of land that is barely worth anything. Hamlet asked about this counter and the Captain told him that he would not even pay five ducats for that piece of land to farm and Hamlet was fascinated by the Poles and Norwegians will to go to war over a piece of land that was not worth much. Fortinbras is a foil to Hamlet at this point because he puts his thoughts into action and Hamlet does not, but this inspires him to begin acting on his thoughts.

In the light of my critical study, the statement that "Shakespeare's Hamlet continues to engage audiences through its dramatic treatment of struggle and disillusionment" resonates strongly with my own interpretation of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. It clearly continues to engage audiences as it presents ideas of duty and corruption. Shakespeare presents these ideas largely through the protagonist, Hamlet's, struggle with his duty to his father and his disillusionment with himself and the

Hamlet’s motivation throughout the play is to kill Claudius and avenge his father’s death, so every action he makes works to accomplish that goal. On the other hand, Fortinbras’ motivation toward action does not lie exclusively for the sake of revenge. Fortinbras, like Hamlet or any other proud prince, feels a certain obligation to exact revenge on his father’s killer. However, whatever he decides to do it would not entirely be accepted as revenge because King Hamlet is already dead when the play starts. Although it is unclear if Fortinbras desires to kill Hamlet in the name of his father, killing Hamlet would not be the same as killing his father, the true murderer. Rather than act as if responding to a vendetta, Fortinbras is motivated to restore honor to his father by reclaiming the parcel land in Norway that is seized after King Hamlet kills King Fortinbras.

This later was found to be true, and this lead to different people dying all just for one person's action. A cause in a story can have multiple effects, for example, after hamlet met his father's ghost and found out how he died he began to act crazy

Shakespeare’s plays are known for being theatrical masterpieces. As impressive as they are, you don’t have to look far to find that his works often don’t mirror reality. His characters are surrounded by corruption, murder and treason, not topics the average reader experiences. But, we sacrifice personal connection with the text for much larger overarching themes of the human experience. A pleasant respite from this pattern, is Hamlet.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a tenet of English literature, has been interpreted in many different ways since its inception over 500 years ago. Shakespeare's complex subject matter transcends culture and class, lending itself to nuanced personalization. In both theatre and cinema, each director extracts from the text in a unique way, thereby bending Shakespeare to almost fit their agenda and message. These artists are largely successful at their craft as they are sourcing from Shakespeare, one of the most of intriguing authors in history. What makes his works so diverse and adaptable is his almost Talmudic writing style, nearly begging its reader for deeper analysis.

William Shakespeare is an intriguing and well-known playwright and is considered to be the face of literature. Through the brainstorming of his greatest plays Romeo and Juliette, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, just to name a few, Shakespeare’s most famous play seemingly enough is Hamlet. This play is mostly evoked for its intrinsic worth however, it has its imperfections. Shakespeare will forever live on as the literary genius of the century because of the internal tragedies he endured that gave him the opportunity to express his conflicted emotions through plays that would leave a lasting impression on people across the globe.

In William Shakespeare's tragedy “Hamlet”, Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet find themselves in very similar situations. They all had love and respect for their father’s and felt the need to avenge their unjustified deaths. However, there are differences between them. The character of Fortinbras was the only one to accomplish his goal and become king of Denmark in the end. Shakespeare’s comment through Fortinbras as a man of action, allowed the audience to see that he acts rather than thinks.

“Always mystify torture, mislead, and surprise the audience as much as possible”. This is exactly what happened in William Shakespeare’s, dramatic production Hamlet. The play, which is set in the Kingdom of Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering his father old King Hamlet, succeeding to the throne and his own mother. These contentious themes attracted viewers everywhere, tantalizing them to observe the play. One scene in particular from the original text of the play where this proves factual is during act IV, scene IV, lines 31-65, in which Hamlet decides that the time for retribution is at hand