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Hamlet Archetypes

Decent Essays

In the play, “Hamlet” written by William Shakespeare, introduces us to a tragic hero whose indecisiveness and morals identifies the theme for the whole play. The hero being Hamlet, a prince whose recently fallen father (also named Hamlet) calls upon him in ghost form to kill the now current king and new husband to Hamlet’s previous wife, Claudius. Hamlet’s character throughout the play is what drives the theme seen in the story which is revenge.
The character hamlet is identified as a tragic hero due to what motivates him to seek revenge for his father and how he does it. For example, after finding that his uncle (the current king) potentially killed his father Hamlet put on mad persona in order to get more information about the killing and escape the risk of having the king find out what he was doing. The reason he does this is to ensure that he wouldn’t be killing the king for no reason and that the king in fact is guilty. This being said Hamlet is a very morale based character which is the reason it takes him so long to act in any kind of revenge. This characteristic of scepticism shown in Hamlet represents the archetype of a hero for he is not willing to kill a person is potentially innocent without solid proof. Another example of Hamlet’s motivations represent the archetype of the hero is when he hires traveling actors …show more content…

As the play begins Hamlet plans on acting mad in attempt to defer attention away from himself so he didn’t come across as a threat to the king. This then escalates as Hamlet is ensured that Claudius killed his father, thus making him turn actually mad. This madness can be shown when Hamlet arrives to Ophelia’s funeral and sees her brother Laertes jump into the grave to say his final goodbyes. Hamlet then also jumps into the grave to say his final good-byes and then goes on to fight Laertes. These actions made by Hamlet shows the madness that was brought upon him from the theme of

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