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Examples Of Loyalty In Hamlet

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In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, loyalty conflicts between family, friends, and even the country. Hamlet showed that the only person who we owe loyalty to is ourselves. Putting other’s loyalties above your own will only benefit the other person. We only owe loyalty to ourselves. Our family, lover, and our state will not always be there for us, but we will never be without our body. Throughout the play, the characters give their loyalty to other people and they have to deal with consequences because of it. Loyalty is not owed to your family. Hamlet’s mom married the person who killed Hamlet’s father. If he were to give his loyalty to his mother, he would be disloyal to his father. This would lead to a conflict of loyalty for Hamlet. Hamlet made the right decision here putting his own self-interest over his loyalty to his family. This strain his relationship with Gertrude. He began to insult and mock her “HAMLET: Madam, how like you this play? QUEEN GERTRUDE: The lady protests too much, methinks. HAMLET: O, but she'll keep her word. (3.2.253-255)(Shakespeare)” Laertes picked a different approach, however, he showed loyalty to his family when he came back to Denmark to defend their family’s name. This decision leads to his death. When he was plotting with Claudius to kill Hamlet to avenge his father, he chose to be loyal to his family first. Hamlet …show more content…

This is what happened to Queen Gertrude. She was loyal to her husband Claudius, but this turned out to be a fatal mistake. It is important to choose who you give your loyalty to very carefully because it can cost you your life. King Hamlet made this same mistake when he was loyal to Queen Gertrude. He believed that she was loyal too, but she was cheating on him with his brother. This leads to the Claudius assassination of King Hamlet. The danger of giving other people your loyalty is that you don’t know what their real intentions

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