Comparing The Novel Third Business By Robertson Davies And The Play Hamlet By William Shakespeare

Hamlet is overflowing with the power he placed on his ambition to succeed in seeking his revenge that he pushed two characters that would have done anything for him far away. As well for the character Boy in Fifth Business, he too pushes away someone who really cares about him. Coincidentally, as Hamlet pushes away females, Boy distant himself from his first wife, Leola. He would beat her and yell at her all the time because he was so cooped up in his own mind. A severe incident which takes place between Boy and Leola is when Boy gives Dunny a number of reels of film, and asks him to develop them for him. At first, this seems a harmful favour, but when Dunny realizes that those reels contain naked pictures of Leola, it embarrasses as well as angers him to a great extent. Boy's excitement over the pictures at the dinner table would provide a discomfort to one, as Leola says:

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

When individuals struggle to balance a desire for independence with the need to maintain meaningful relationships with others, it often results in complicated decisions, which alter relationships. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the author justifies that when an individual is caught up in a dilemma, between one’s self-motivation or sincere relationships, meaningful relationships alter as a result of sophisticated decisions made. Hamlet is a character that is caught up in the crossfire between pursuing his self-motivations and his need to stay loyal to his relationships, with Ophelia, King Claudius, and his mother Gertrude.

(1) Hamlet’s feelings can no longer be helped back. He wants to be with his mother. Two of the Queen’s character traits that cause Hamlet to have these feelings would be her sensual nature and her fondness so her son. Hamlet misinterpreted Gertrude’s love for him as a sexual desire, instead of the maternal love that she has for him. Even though Hamlet felt what his mother was doing with Claudius as wrong, he still had considerable respect for her.

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, various characters manipulate others in order to gain power and fulfill their personal desires. The character who portrays the most immense manipulation is King Claudius, the brother of the late King Hamlet. Thus far, Claudius advertises himself as a sensible, honorable man who lives to serve the greater good, yet his manipulation exposes his dubious intentions, leaving him with an unfortunate fate.

Many external conflicts occur in this play. However, the main conflict is between Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlets anger towards Claudius is being driven by his intense emotions and anxiety in the event of losing his father. Hamlet believes Claudius has taken everything from him, and he is on a mission to get revenge. Claudius is being driven by two things, his naturally cynical and greedy nature, and his thirst for power. These are what drive him to great lengths to ensure Hamlet never gets his way. Hamlet on the other hand, is the exact opposite of Claudius in every other aspect except one. Hamlet, like Claudius possesses the ability to be cold and calculative. Both characters can

“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness ‘’, a quote by Martin Luther King. This quote relates to one of the principal themes in Hamlet. As a synonym for selfishness, greed also ties in to the theme of the play. The egocentricity of the character Claudius and his brother King Hamlet had a very large impact on several lives. He is the perfect example of ‘’one must do whatever it takes ‘’.

   The legendary drama, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare is a play illustrating the theme of virtue vs. villainy. The 17th century tragedy is plagued with treachery and deceit as it opens with the news of a foul murder in the kingdom of Denmark. Prince Hamlet, by word of his late father's ghost, is informed that his uncle Claudius is to blame for his father's sudden demise. Prince Hamlet's mission is to uncover the secrets surrounding the murder and to avenge his father's death. Thus, the insidious web of disease and corruption is formed. The relationship between disease leading to the greater corruption of Denmark plays a significant role in the lives of the principle players.

Shakespeare really shows how power makes people selfish and how they will just do things to have power. Claudius wants power all for himself and does not want anything coming between him and his power even if it is his own nephew.

It seems that it is human nature to want to please others, but compromising ones values in order to do so can result in people getting hurt emotionally or physically. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the desire to please those in authority overweighs the judgment of many characters. These characters are more interested in pleasing those in power than doing what is in their best interest. This is seen in Polonious' eager attempt to use Ophelia, in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's being coerced into spying on a good friend, and finally in Laertes' all too easy manipulation by Claudius to take revenge on his fathers' death. In all these instances, the characters put their

Firstly, Hamlet and Claudius use intelligence to gain power. Claudius murders his own brother to accumulate power and seize the throne of Denmark. He pretends to mourn the loss of his brother when he says, “though the passing of our dear brother’s death, the memory be green, and that it us befitted, to

It is easy to view the characters in Hamlet as being completely helpless to the external forces that control their lives. This idea is pointed out by Michael Shelden in his article, “The Imagery of Constraint in Hamlet,” which uses Maurice Charney’s book to further assert that all characters do not have control over their destiny, supported with the use of traps in the play. However, both Charney and Shelden fail to represent that power structure plays a large role in destiny and they push all characters into the same powerless category. Shelden neglects to recognize Claudius has more freedom compared to any of the other characters because of his power. Within the play, Claudius is able to reach his ultimate goals before the play even begins by marrying the queen and obtaining the position as king. He continues to prove his freedom as the controller of the traps in the play and has the power to control the characters’ freedom with the use of these traps. Even as Hamlet attempts to trap him, Claudius is able to escape both times, showing the control he has over his freedom. When focusing on the power structure of the characters, Shelden’s assertion fails to recognize that although the characters in Hamlet are controlled, Claudius is the only character that has power over his freedom and that of other characters.

Claudius and Hamlet are both very selfish men. Claudius wants to be the king of

The internal conflicts prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet are the reason why the play is viewed as a classic. Conflicts are imperative in tragic plays as conflicts are the stimulus for catastrophe in the end. The characters in Hamlet face inward conflicts that are equally important as their outward conflicts. Three characters who especially exhibit this are Hamlet, Claudius, and Ophelia. The conflicts that these characters face play a major role in their downfalls and, ultimately, their deaths. Through Claudius’ struggle to conceal the murder of King Hamlet, Ophelia’s guilt for Hamlet’s madness, and Hamlet’s inaction due to fear, Shakespeare conveys that each character faces a dilemma, in which there are no simple solutions.

This can be seen in the way that Claudius was not the despicable, vulnerable king that Crawford demonstrates in his writings. He was not the tyrannical monarch many perceive him to be throughout the play. “…Claudius is not wholly evil—far from it,” G. Wilson Knight claims. “We see the government of Denmark working smoothly. Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king” (Knight 266). Claudius was entirely capable of settling his conflict with Norway, in contrast to Crawford’s insight, as he simply elected to be peaceful rather than brash as the elder Hamlet had been. This doesn’t make