Hamlet, By William Shakespeare

In the beginning of the play the main character, Hamlet, gets a visit from the ghost of his father that has recently deceased unexpectedly. His father’s ghost appears throughout the play but only Hamlet has the ability to see this spirit which leads to the conception that he has gone insane. He grieves his father’s death in very unhealthy

A character so complex, enticing and fascinating, his name is Hamlet. We are all Hamlet, and that, is the argument. Hamlet is an enigmatic character with many flaws. These flaws are the ones that prove similarities between us and him. A play so popular and significant is due to its huge relevance to us as a society. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s character and metaphor to demonstrate that when one is left alone to their thoughts, these thoughts overtake reason. Consequently, people must find peace and quiet in their ability to avert such dark thoughts.

In Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” we are introduced to the sorrow and tragic character of Ophelia. In spite of a comparatively marginal role throughout the play, Ophelia actually has quite a substantial impact on our understanding of the main character, Hamlet. With Ophelia’s highly controversial and often debated death, we are left to ponder about what truly constitutes action, attempting to make meaning of actions with relation to context. Specifically, through examining Gertrude’s description of Ophelia’s death, while also taking into consideration the character’s history and experiences, we can forge a connection between our understanding of Ophelia’s actions, and Hamlet’s dilemma with his own actions.

“Frailty, thy name is woman!” (1.2. 150). This controversial line, followed by several more from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, displays a widespread view towards women that portrays them as being weak and contingent towards men. Throughout the play, two women, Ophelia and Gertrude, are shown to be dependent on the men in their lives. They both take on a foolish obedient state of mind. Even though they share this common characteristic, Ophelia and Gertrude are very different characters. Ophelia is a beautiful, young woman who is the love interest of the protagonist, Hamlet. Ophelia obeys her father, Polonius, without hesitation and has little experience with making her own decisions. Gertrude was the wife of Old Hamlet, and is

Multiple characters in Hamlet that are at least somewhat relevant end up tragically dying in the play. Each of the character’s death is caused by the same evil that had spread to each character at some point in the play. Claudius starts this spread of evil by murdering Hamlet the First with poison that Claudius put in Hamlet the First’s ear. This evil spreads first to Hamlet the prince, who plots his revenge on Claudius. The same evil further spreads to every other relevant character at some point in the play, but since the play is set in the late middle ages, this evil takes a long time to affect and eventually kill some of the characters. The world has advanced remarkably since the time of Hamlet, and there is still the same evil around

In Williams Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, tells a story of Hamlet who seeks revenge against his father’s murderer, who ends up being his uncle, King Claudius. In order to avenge his father’s death Hamlet believes he would need to distract the kingdom from them knowing what he is up to. Hamlet says to Horatio: “To put an antic disposition on” (Act.1, SC.5, Ln.171). By this statement Hamlet is letting Horatio know that he will pretend to go mad. Nevertheless, his false madness leads to him killing Polonius, who is the father of his lover Ophelia. Ophelia ends up going crazy after knowing her father was killed by Hamlet. Hamlet’s and Ophelia’s madness are both caused by their father’s death. However, Hamlet only pretends to be mad, while Ophelia goes insane.

Throughout the play Hamlet, Hamlet is involved with two females; Ophelia his girlfriend and his mother Gertrude. Ironically enough these are the only two females featured in the play. The relationship Hamlet has with both of these females has its ups and downs and they have their share of distrust. The actions as the reactions from these characters are typical and expected. Hamlet 's unstable relationships with women are also a reflection of his characteristics and his situation

Many people base their lives on the uncertainty they place around themselves. Thus causing many problems with being able to guarantee anything in day to day life. Is it certain that one will arrive to a destination unharmed? Can anyone’s safety be guaranteed? This same problem can be seen in the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Hamlet’s whole life is based on uncertain ideas and in the end it collapses on him, as if he built a house on shifting sands. If there was no uncertainty in Hamlet, There would be no story line. As soon as Hamlet was told to kill Claudius, he would have killed him and avenged the murder, but because of the uncertainty he has to find out for certain what has arisen. In order to reduce uncertainty, one must ultimately research and deduce life’s choices. One is able to see where Hamlet struggles with uncertainty when he questions the reliability of the ghost, death, and the afterlife.

William Shakespeare’s timeless play, Hamlet, follows the grieving prince of Denmark as he tries to avenge his father’s murder while struggling to accept that his mother Gertrude married her husband’s murderer and brother, Claudius. At the same time, Hamlet is having difficulty coming to terms with his feelings for Ophelia. His relationship with her becomes much more complicated when he kills her father Polonius, thinking he was King Claudius. Realizing that something must be done with Hamlet, Claudius sends him away to England with his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern along with a letter to England saying to kill Hamlet upon arrival. However, Hamlet discovers the letter and switches out the King’s letter with a death sentence for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern without a second thought. While Hamlet is at sea, Polonius’s son Laertes comes to the castle demanding revenge for his father’s death. Claudius sees this a chance to finally get rid of Hamlet and stages a plan to murder Hamlet. The plan back fires when Gertrude drinks the poisoned drink instead of Hamlet and in the duel Laertes and Hamlet are both stabbed by the poisoned blade. When Hamlet knows he is dying, he stabs Claudius with the blade and they all end up perishing. Throughout this dramatic tragedy there are many messages, but I believe one of the most important overarching themes, shown using the emotion of guilt, is that humans are complex beings who are not entirely good or entirely evil.

Hamlet is a play full of scandals and unexpected events. When you think one thing is going to happen, something totally different happens. The characters are very unpredictable, because you do not know how they are going to handle or react to certain situations. This is also the downfall of a family and others who get trapped up in between their issues. Throughout Hamlet the characters’ unfaithfulness, greed, and distrust ultimately influence how poorly their lives turn out.

From the first act of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, women are cast in a less than pleasant light. Hamlet’s famous utterance of “Frailty, thy name is woman -,” (1.2.146) predisposes the reader to view the female characters of this tragedy as fragile and not to be trusted. During Shakespeare’s time, women in general were felt to be fickle, emotional creatures; the weaker sex physically as well as mentally and therefore subject to the men in their lives. However, are Gertrude and Ophelia truly “frail” or are they simply limited by the mindsets of their day? The difference between the actions of Hamlet and the actions of the women is that Hamlet has full disclosure of all that has transpired within the realm of this tragedy while the women do not. The women act in accordance with their station and limited knowledge but it does not mean they are weaker. On the contrary, the actions of Gertrude and Ophelia reflect characteristics we view as quite desirable today.

As with the majority of Shakespeare’s works, the 1601 tragedy of Hamlet still remains as an acclaimed source of inspiration for complex interpretations and in-depth criticism. Its values lies not within its plot, but rather within the constituents that gives rise to the textual integrity of the play. Hence, such thematic concerns of Struggle and Disillusionment are dramatically explored through elements of the dramatic form to impart an effect on the audience that allows the play to transcend contextual barriers. Such elements include the characterisation of the eponymous protagonist, various soliloquies, character foils, and the structure of the play. Edgar Johnson, expresses in his text “The Dilemma of Hamlet” (1956) that Hamlet’s

What knowledge is there that I can be guiltless of? Innocent, the eyes of an individual who witnesses the dead body of a King, effortlessly hacked at like a piece of meat (gesture towards floor). With knowledge that it was those eyes, my eyes (point to self) that observed this treacherous act. How can these hands ever be rid of guilt, whilst they are covered in the blood they smeared, still warm, upon the resting innocents? ( pause and look at hands) I held the very dagger that ripped life to shreds, daggers of which now harvest their vengeance in the stabbing of my beloved king’s soul. (point to self)How am I to prevent this shame, the fowl contrary of purity, from steadily possessing our sanity and having control over our actions? I should have suspected that a man so full of milk of human kindness would sense guilt at the deed of stripping nature’s King from his throne and taking the deceased man’s bloodied robes before he was cold in his grave (walk to chair and sit down. I would have done the deed myself had he not looked so strangely similar to my father. (pause)

Life as a whole leaves those to question the very essence of their existence and why, out of everyone, were they chosen. Was it the act of God? Are they destined to do great thing? Or maybe were they meant to obliterate the very achievements that others have set for themselves? Hamlet, throughout many points of the play, questions the idea of the afterlife and how it corresponds with the reality of death. He deeply explores this obsession with his own issues of identity to what it truly means to be human. His realization on life dictates his personal, political, social, moral, and religious identities which reminds him what his legacy means to him. He goes to great lengths to achieve his revenge upon Claudius, the man who murdered his father. His keen observations and undying patience allows him to be precise in acquiring his desired revenge. Hamlet isn’t afraid of death. In fact he embraces the fact that he will die. Eventually everyone will fall to dust from whence they came whether they are a lord or a peasant.

William Shakespeare, author of Hamlet, was a well-known author in the 1500s and is still popular today. He was born on April 24, 1564 in London, England. Although there were no birth records at that time, it shows he was baptized one year prior to that, which leads us to believe his birthday was in 1564 because children were normally baptized a year after their birth. Shakespeare’s writing style was very different than others at that time. He used many metaphors and rhetorical phrases, and most of his plays were known to be quite funny. He also used poetry and wrote about love in his plays. One of his most famous plays is Hamlet. There is a constant struggle and competition for power, because everyone wants to be in control. This story is centered around family and abiding by the traditions of that century. Hamlet appears to be crazy, although there are several ideas that support that he is not as an insane as everyone seems to think.