Comparing Hamlet And Handmaid's Tale By Margret Atwood

In the play by William Shakespeare, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches his mourning and depressed son, Hamlet, who is still affected by his death. The ghost explains to Hamlet how he died and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Note how the ghost approaches Hamlet when he’s the weakest and still mourning to persuade and manipulate him into taking revenge for him. In Act one Scene 5 the ghost states, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love-/ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The way King Hamlet words his request is more as a challenge; in which Hamlet’s love for his dead father can only be proven by carrying out whatever his father wishes. The ghost influences most Hamlet’s behavior, which not only affects the plot, but also the relationships with other characters. The ghost influences the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. He becomes angry at Gertrude because of her fast marriage with his uncle Claudius. Through the use of innuendos, antic disposition, and metamorphic plays, Hamlet makes it his duty to get King Claudius back for killing his father. Hamlet agreed to avenge his father without second thought. As the play advances, Hamlet begins to doubt the apparition. In act 3 Hamlet begins to have second thoughts and states, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil…” This shows Hamlet’s inner conflict between listening to his father and avenging his death or following his ethics. To be sure that Claudius

William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet relays Hamlet’s quest to avenge the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. The late King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who took the throne and Hamlet’s mother Gertrude for himself. Hamlet is beseeched by the ghost of his father to take vengeance upon Claudius; while he swears to do so, the prince inexplicably delays killing Claudius for months on end. Hamlet’s feeble attempt to first confirm his uncle’s guilt with a play that recounts the murder and his botched excuses for not killing Claudius when the opportunity arises serve as testimony to Hamlet’s true self. Hamlet is riddled with doubt towards the validity of the ghost and his own ability to carry out the act necessary to

Many view Hamlet, the main character, in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet as a hero. He portrays characteristics that prove to the reader that he does possess heroic qualities. Although, it is a struggle for him throughout the play, but as he goes through life and learns new ways of coping things, he develops new characteristics that he didn’t have in the beginning. Hamlet learns to overcome his anxiety, depression, and anger. In the end, he learns how to be calm and collected. The way Hamlet learns how to handle internal conflicts throughout the play, shows the readers a realistic view of the difficult encounters one may have when learning to cope with different issues.

Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is being compared and contrasted to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. The female characters are oppressed and kept under the control of the men in their lives. In both stories, one being a play and the other a novel, the characters are quite similar in both stories. Both literary works also have similar themes such as improsinment in their place of dwelling corruption of their surroundings and the theme of power. The three main factors that can be compared are the role of women, the characters, and the themes of both literary works.

The play ‘Hamlet’ written by William Shakespeare had many aspects of betrayal, a lack of loyalty, and tragic deaths. The storyline begins as a ghost appears and he resembles the late king of Denmark ‘Hamlet’. King Hamlet was Hamlets father, after his ghost appears Hamlet conversates with the figure and asks him why he is here, and the ghost states that his brother Claudius poisoned him by pouring poison in his ear while he was asleep, married his wife and finally took the power of the throne. Already in a confused state of mind Hamlet questions the ghost and decides to act delusional and put on a play to decide whether he will get revenge on Claudius. Consequently, one can tell how selfish both brothers Claudius and Hamlet are, how much do you have to hate your own family to commit such hatred. Ultimately blood is not thicker than water.

Hamlet’s father died less than two months ago, so he is feeling the loss. He is very angry at his mother Gertrude because she is already remarried to Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius. “I will speak daggers to her” (3.2.364). This phrase also uses imagery to show Hamlets anger. In this phrase, Hamlet is speaking of his mother. By saying he will speak daggers to her makes the reader understand his anger and how full he is with hatred for her. In Act I Scene V, the ghost awakens Hamlet and claims himself to be the spirit of his father. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was in fact murdered. Hamlet becomes saturated with wrath, directed toward bringing revenge upon his father’s murderer, Claudius, the corrupt king who took the place of hamlet’s father.

A dystopia is a common genre among many novels and all novels are able to capture the problems within the current society. These problems can vary and each different setting has different problems than the other. Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in an effort to capture problems going on in real life: abortion and women’s rights. Another author that captures a similar essence to Atwood’s is Suzanne Young in her novel series The Program. Although both authors emphasize different problems that are going on in society, they both have a correlative narrative style. While Young discusses the stigma around people who have a mental illness and how they should be separated from society, both authors use a similar voice in their writing.

Many writers aim to identify the similar and contrasting features of their characters in order to addresses varying issues within the texts. These issues within the text In the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan and the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the writers’ use of juxtaposition is used to accomplish a more profound understanding of the internal relationships of the characters and external relationships with the other characters in the texts. Essentially, through the use of juxtaposition, both writers are able to enhance the message of the theme and exemplify character development.

Claudius is ultimately revealed as the antagonist of Hamlet because he removed the good from his life, becoming the prime opposition of Hamlet. He is then faced with the king’s direction to avenge his father’s death by doing anything it takes to reveal the crimes of Claudius. Although not the chief antagonist, another opposition to Hamlet is his mother, whose crime is also revealed by the deceased king Hamlet. The king tells Hamlet how his wife betrayed him when he comments, “whose love was of that dignity that it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine” (I.vi.786-791). Queen Gertrude has also crushed Hamlet’s belief of his mother’s faithfulness by forgetting her vows and looking to Claudius’ gifts and love when she should be remembering king Hamlet. Both Claudius and Gertrude threw Hamlet’s integral foundations out the window, leaving Hamlet infuriated and ready to do what it takes to avenge his father’s death and accuse his opposing family of their crime against him.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the play’s namesake is introduced to readers as a spurned young man who has just lost is father, King Hamlet, to a suspicious death. Hamlet believes his uncle, now King, Claudius had something to do with King’s death; a reason Hamlet believes this is because Claudius and Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, married only two months after the tragedy. Soon after Hamlet is introduced, he discovers from Horatio that there has been a ghost appearing throughout the castle every midnight. This very ghost is believed to be that of Hamlet’s father. As Hamlet met the ghost he discovered that the ghost was King Hamlet! Not only was the ghost his father, the ghost told Hamlet that his murderer now wears the crown of Denmark. Hamlet devises up a plan to act like he has flown over the cuckoo’s nest in order to throw Claudius off and examine his guilt.

As the play goes on, Hamlet encounters his father's ghost. Upon discovering that his father's death wasn't natural, he says with much feeling that "Haste me to know't, that I with wings as swift/ As meditation, or the thoughts of love,/ May sweep to my revenge" (1.5.29-31). The ghost tells him that he was murdered by Claudius. His motives were his love for Gertrude, without her knowledge or consent. Hamlet is furious and seething with rage with the news of his father's murder. Knowing the truth makes Hamlet's subconscious realize that killing Claudius would be similar to killing himself. This is so because Hamlet recognizes that Claudius' actions of murdering his brother and marrying Hamlet's mother, mimicked Hamlet's inner unconscious desires. Hamlet's unconscious fantasies have always been closely related to Claudius' conduct. All of Hamlet's once hidden feelings seem to surface in spite of all of the "repressing forces," when he cries out, "Oh my prophetic soul!/ My uncle!" (1.5.40-41). From here, Hamlet's consciousness must deal with the frightful truth (Jones).

Throughout the play, Hamlet struggles with avenging his father’s death. Hamlet often struggles with killing Claudius, his uncle who murdered his father and married his mother, and his religious views. When Hamlet is introduced in the play, the audience see’s that religion impacts Hamlet’s decision-making process. Once Hamlet meets the ghost for the first time and he sees his father and without hesitation he tells the ghost “haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge” (Hamlet Act 1 Scene 5 29-31). Hamlet agrees to avenge his fathers death but after seeing Claudius pray Hamlet states “the spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me” (Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2 576-579). Hamlet immediately begins to question his passion for

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

On William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, after the assassination of his father, Hamlet thinks he is living in a world full of corruption and deceit, where everything is falling apart and everyone is against him. An imminent, exaggerated, and passionate love for his mother is his main feature. Although others argue that Hamlet’s obsession to murder Claudius is strictly to claim revenge for his father’s death, it is Hamlet’s obsessive desire to possess his mother in an unhealthy and, perhaps incestuous, relationship. Hamlet also appears jealous of Claudius, his father-uncle, jealous of him for having Gertrude and for owning the crown. He lives a love-hate relationship with his mother. He is full of anger towards her, but at the same time he

Upon learning of his father’s murder and the subsequent usurpation of the throne by his uncle Claudius, the eponymous hero of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, prince of Denmark, plots to personally avenge his death. At the beginning of the play, the prince is mourning his late father and fails to come to terms with the remarriage of his recently widowed mother to his recently crowned uncle. Hamlet is informed of the murder of his father at the end of the first act in which the ghost of his father appears before him, discloses the events of Claudius’ crime and calls for the revenge of his murder. The Ghost’s appeal plays a crucial part in the plot as it generates a complication for the main character that will guide his actions and his thoughts