Bishop 1
Kirslyn Bishop
Mrs. Donlon
English, block D
1, November 2015
Hamlet's Existentialism
What is the meaning of life? How can one person endure such great embarrassment and pain in one life? In the beginning of the play, Hamlet is seen as a man of intelligence and logic. He is one that does not act on his emotions but contemplates them and thinks of the consequences. On the other hand, Laertes is seen as a man that does not think about his actions before he goes through with them. Both characters display impulsive reactions when angered. Hamlet shows verbal reactions as Laertes shows physical reactions. In the beginning of the play, Laertes discovers that his father has been murdered he immediately assumes Claudius did it. With this assumption in mind, Laertes's speculation instinctively moves to avenge Polonius's death. "To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest
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We learn that Hamlet is strongly in love with Ophelia, but she rejects his natural liking of her. Hamlet never stopped loving Ophelia. His extensive love for her caused Hamlet much grief and pain once she was killed. ophelia died knowing that Hamlet loved her but his affection for her was still rejected. Hamlet's appearance in the play has decreased because of the rejection of his love for Ophelia "Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other" (Act 2, Scene 1, line 82). The loss of Ophelia and her love for Hamlet, causes Polonius to believe that he was pretending to be crazy the entire time in order to get revenge. He assumes that he is being spied on by Claudius when having a conversation with Gertrude "Nay, I know not: is it the King?" (Act 3, Scene 4 line 28). Hamlet couldn't take anymore disappointment in his life so he acts out of anger and instead of killing Claudius, he kills Polonius instead. He knows that he has to hide what he has done so he wont get into
Throughout the play, Hamlet and Ophelia have a very strong love connection. They loved each other and wanted to eventually get married. Hamlet and Ophelia hit some bumps in the road in their relationship but they always secretly wanted to be together. In Act 1, Scene 3, It was hard for Ophelia to comprehend when Polonius told her that he thought Hamlet's love for her wasn’t real, but she didn’t know what to believe. When Hamlet could no longer see Ophelia he began to get mad a frustrated, to add on also that he was going crazy over his own father's death.
First they think that Hamlet is lovesick over Polonius' daughter, Ophelia, but after the king spies on Hamlet and Ophelia in conversation, he comes to the conclusion that Hamlet is mad, a threat to his rule, and must be sent to England to be executed. This is a sign of the king's uneasiness over the mettle of Hamlet's anger which is directed towards him. The last thing that Claudius wants is for Hamlet to be unhappy with him, in fear that Hamlet will overthrow him, discover the murder, or possibly kill him. The king becomes increasingly nervous as time passes, making him a bit paranoid over Hamlet.
In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the characters of Laertes and Hamlet both display impulsive reactions when angered. Once Laertes discovers his father has been murdered, he immediately assumes the slayer is Claudius. As a result of Laertes' speculation, he instinctively moves to avenge Polonius' death. "To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: to this point I stand, that both worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes; only I'll be revenged most thoroughly for my father." Act 4 Scene 5 lines 128-134 provide insight into Laertes' mind, displaying his desire for revenge at any cost.
Laertes also brings revenge and betrayal out of Hamlet. Though an enemy, Laertes is a foil to Hamlet. Laertes helps in the development of Hamlet through the similarities they share. These include anger over the death of their fathers, and desire to exact revenge. Betrayal is also relevant because Laertes betrays Claudius in the end, revealing his plan to kill Hamlet. Hamlet betrays his father by verbally abusing his mother, against the wishes of his father. The differences between the two men are very strong. Hamlet would not kill Claudius in the church because he was praying. Laertes, however stated that he would kill Hamlet in a church, praying or not. Another difference is that Hamlet cannot be a man of action and a man of thought at the same time. He does not use his mind when he acts. He just acts. When he is pondering something, he is unable to act out his thoughts, and keeps quiet. Laertes, however, is able to act while thinking. He finds out that Hamlet killed his father and immediately devises a plan to kill him. This flaw makes Hamlet dangerous to himself, and is ultimately his downfall.
Ophelia, ever since her introduction, has been introduced to be a sweet and sympathetic person, providing the play with emotional moments, but her death was used as a bait and switch by Shakespeare towards audience members who had expected her to change the play’s somber mood to more hopeful one, which in turn makes the play even more tragic. After she had been visited by an apparently crazed Hamlet, she tells Polonius about the visit, prompting him to believe that the young prince is crazy in love, and goes out to tell the king. After it was explained to Claudius, and Hamlet’s former friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern failed to find the underlying cause of his madness, Polonius makes Ophelia approach Hamlet while he and the king hide and monitor his behavior.
Ophelia tries to obscure the truth because she is afraid of disobeying her father. It is obvious that Hamlet is already well aware that Polonius is watching after he states “Let the doors be shut upon him, the he may play the fool nowhere but in’s own house.”(3.1.132-133) Ophelia could have easily told Hamlet the truth, but due to her undying love for her father chooses to deceive Hamlet. Ophelia’s deceit leads Hamlet to start questioning her honest nature. Hamlet begins tearing apart by Ophelia because he is so irritated with her for being insincere to him. He states to Ophelia that “you should not have believed me: for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.” (3.1.117-119) Hamlet states that he does not love Ophelia because he believes that through this scheme, Ophelia will reveal the truth that Polonius is in fact behind their “unplanned” meeting. Ophelia had betrayed Hamlet by lying to him, thus Hamlet felt the need to betray her. If Ophelia had just been honest with Hamlet he would have not become so discourteous towards her, but she was not which resulted in him denying his love for her. Just as Hamlet was deceived, Ophelia was also because it was her lies that led to the ending of their love. Ophelia’s dishonesty resulted in her becoming a mockery of Hamlets antic disposition. Hamlet uses Ophelia to uncover
Do we matter? Will anything we do endure? These are questions from existentialism. The dictionary defines existentialism as "the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for his acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad" (Merriam Webster). In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet struggles with the concept that nothing from our lives last and time grinds everything away. Hamlet's major conflict was his existentialist view of the world.
Hamlet was deeply in love with the recently departed fair Ophelia, daughter of Polonious, who also sadly is not with us. He loved her much more than he expressed, and it is unfortunate that his inability to express his love for her could have been part of her downfall. Although he treated her scornfully and rudely I know that he loved her more than anyone could imagine. Hamlet, I remember, at the dear Ophelia’s funeral, you told the whole world of your love. “I loved Ophelia. 40 thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum,” you said. I cannot help but think that if you had expressed your love for the fair maiden, both her and quite possibly you would still be with us today. He loved his mother, Queen Gertrude. Although he held her in disdain for her hasty marriage to Claudius, who he despised, he still loved her with all his heart
Laertes serves a foil to Hamlet, although they are not similar in birth, they are similar in that they both have a dear father murdered. Using this parallel, Shakespeare uses Laertes to show what Hamlet should be doing, contrasting Laertes’s words of action to Hamlet’s own words of action. We see this most clearly when Laertes is talking with Claudius and he says that he will “cut [Hamlet’s] throat i' th' church” to avenge his father, this contrasts directly with Hamlet who decides not to kill a praying Claudius when he has the chance (4.7.144). Laertes also serves as external conflict as he challenges Hamlet to a fight and is convinced by Claudius to kill Hamlet with a poisoned sword. Without this fight, who knows if Hamlet would have gotten around to kill Claudius? But when we really look at Laertes’ words and consequent action, we see another similarity with Hamlet, both are rash and passionate. This is significant because
Hamlet also uses Ophelia as a pawn, perhaps more than her family. Hamlet uses the court’s knowledge of his relationship with Ophelia in order to draw attention away from his real purpose of killing his uncle. In Act III, Scene I, Ophelia approaches Hamlet in order to return his letters and other pledges of affection for her, according to her father’s wishes. Hamlet appears to be very distraught, and accuses Ophelia of lying to him and being prostituted by her family. This outburst, however, is used solely to camouflage his real purpose-to have revenge of Claudius, his uncle, for killing his father. Hamlet is aware that Polonius and Claudius are watching this encounter between him and Ophelia, and uses the situation to his benefit- he can pretend to be heartbroken by Ophelia’s supposed
Throughout the entire play, Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is questioned. What Hamlet is really doing is trying to throw off the other characters and make it seem like he does not love Ophelia, even though he really does. Hamlet did not want Ophelia to become involved in case Claudius decided to get revenge on Hamlet. Hamlet shows his love for Ophelia when he confesses to her that he loves her, when he tells her to go to a nunnery to protect her, when he sends her the letter, and when he finds out that she has died. Although many could argue that Hamlet never loved Ophelia, he was just trying to throw everyone else off. There is a great deal of evidence proving that his love was
Polonius was not very well off. He told his daughter to stay away from Hamlet, which caused some problems. Then he decided to eavesdrop on Hamlet and Gertrude’s private conversation which gets him killed by Hamlet, who thought he was the king. His death pretty much is the last straw for Ophelia, who goes into utter madness.
Laertes does not think about his actions or reason through them as Hamlet does, but reacts indecisively and quickly to his father’s death with no concern for the results. For instance, when Laertes finds out about his father’s death, when he barges into the castle Elsinore, and demands to see the king, when Claudius convinces Laertes that he did not kill Polonius, answering Claudius’ question whether Laertes would kill even a friend to avenge his father, Laertes answers, “None but his enemies.” (IV, v, 165) The fact that Laertes would kill his own friend to avenge his father shows that he does not care for the consequences that would follow murdering your friend. He is hot headed and does not stop to think, so he does not realize he is being manipulated. Another instance, following the discussion between Claudius and Laertes aforementioned, Claudius starts to flatter Laertes into killing Hamlet for him, as Claudius questions Laertes commitment to avenging his father, Laertes declares, “ To cut his throat i’ th’ church.” (IV, vii, 144) Laertes confesses with this line that he does not believe in the consequences of the after life. He has no regards for the eternal condemnation that taking a life results in.
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
The monologue is not only relevant to the characters in Hamlet, but to all people. Many people feel at some point that their lives are not worth living . They may question if life has a purpose, and whether or not they are serving that purpose. It is quite easy to relate to Hamlet's feelings of woe and uncertainty. This is what makes Hamlet timeless. No matter what century, country, or person, everyone has experienced to some degree what Hamlet endured. Perhaps someone has just lost a father, or undergone a divorce. They could relate to Hamlet's misery. They may not contemplate suicide, as is what is sometimes believed about Hamlet, but they do have questions about life, and the afterlife. Shakespeare uses Hamlet's feelings to express his own, as well as those of all people. Because of this, Hamlet has become a classic.