Hamlet Research Papers

What does the Ghost’s reply to Hamlet’s comment, “Speak. I am bound to hear” (I.v.11) imply about the Ghost’s attitude to revenge and his conception of Hamlet’s duty? What other lines in this exchange support this reading?

Topic 2. As the son of a murdered noble, Hamlet is obligated to avenge the death of his father. It was the many losses faced by Hamlet in his life filled with extreme tragedies that forced him to avenge his father’s death from Claudius”.“In ‘Hamlet’, a play by William Shakespeare; the protagonist, Hamlet throughout the play is perceived to be mad however Hamlet’s insanity was more than an act. Hamlet's father's ghost sent him on a mission to kill Claudius to avenge his death, he tried to go but he kept hesitating back and forth. It was not that he was unfaithful, and he did not want to do it, but he was not done thinking it out. Every time he was about to do the deed

Moreover, in Hamlet, Hamlet's decision on suicide is impacted by the view of society during his time. The social life in Hamlet is based on a Christian lifestyle and around the church. Due to everyday life being based on the church, suicide is greatly looked down upon in the society. On page 253, Act Five, Scene One, lines 244 and 245 when the Doctor says, “No more be done. We should profane the service of the dead...” The Doctor is saying that he can do nothing more for Ophelia’s death and that it needs to be profaned, which means to treat her death secular rather than religious because she has committed suicide and that is against the bible and their society. Societies view of suicide can be found on page 241, Act Five, Scene One, lines twenty-seven to thirty when the Gravedigger says, “Why thou sayst. And the more pity that great folk should have count’nance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christian.” The Gravedigger is saying that it is not fair to the rest of the Christians that Ophelia gets a proper Christian burial as a response to Other because he is talking about that since Ophelia is rich she gets a proper Christian burial and if she is poor she would not have gotten that because she committed suicide. This shows that the rich in their society receive benefits that the poor do not get, even when it comes to tragic things such as suicide, yet, as mentioned previously the Doctor could not do much for her because suicide is so badly looked upon. Ultimately the view societal view of suicide effects Hamlets choice to not commit suicide because society is extremely religious. On page twenty-nine, Act One, Scene Two, line 136-138, “His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter O God, O God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world.” Hamlet is saying that God has made it a sin against suicide, but life is pointless and unprofitable to him. To Hamlet, suicide seems like a desirable alternative to life in a painful world, but Hamlet feels that the option of suicide is closed to him because it is forbidden by religion and society, so he does not commit it.

In Williams Shakespeare's Hamlet, there were many deaths. Everyone died from poisoning except Polonius and Ophelia. What drove Ophelia into madness was the death of her father who was killed by Hamlet.Losing her father and the thought of losing her brother and lover drove Ophelia to be suicidal. Therefore, Ophelia's death was a suicide.

The reaction Hamlet and Laertes had from the killing/murder of their fathers differed from one another, but were both executed in a reprehensible matter. Hamlet is a young man who decides to take his time getting answers about his fathers death before acting upon it, but his time spent searching may have lead to his downfall, and more importantly, his death. Laertes is an impulsive, spontaneous young man whose decision to quickly act upon the realization of his fathers murder in addition to other poor choices, may have contributed to his major downfall as well, therefore making it a wrong choice.

Are Hamlet’s actions justified? Hamlet was involved both directly, and indirectly with the deaths of Ophelia, Claudius Queen Gertrude, Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern.(McKeown, Retold by Adam., and Illustrated by Sally Wern Comport. The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Hamlet. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2003.) As soon as Queen Gertrude remarried, Hamlet started scheming against Claudius and wasn’t thinking father’s murderer, Claudius, but he unjustly killed royalty and should be prosecuted as such no matter his social status/rank. (McKeown, Retold by Adam., and Illustrated by Sally Wern Comport. The Young Reader's Shakespeare: Hamlet. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc, 2003.)The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, (despite that fact that he has murderous tendencies) son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, and nephew of King Claudius, his father’s brother and

If the opportunity came up for him to submissively kill himself he would take it which could similarly explain the causes for Ophelia’s death. Ophelia’s death initially seems to be suicide however Gertrude says that she ‘fell in the weeding brook’ and just neglected to save herself from sinking. Ophelia’s emotions of grief and despair were so strong that when she had her chance to ‘melt’ then she took it and what she had not the courage to do, had just been done for her. Just as sleep is a release of stress in ‘Macbeth’, death is a release of heartache in ‘Hamlet’.

After Old Hamlets death in the play, the two guards on duty and Young Hamlets friend spot a ghost-like figure that resembles Old Hamlet. These two guards, Marcellus and Bernardo, and Young Hamlet’s friend, Horatio, tell Young Hamlet about the ghost-like figure they spotted. They describe the way that he was dressed in armor as if he was ready for battle. When Young Hamlet sees and speaks to the ghost he finds out information on his father’s death. Young Hamlet’s issue is that he is not sure if this ghost is real or if it is a figment of his imagination. He also begins to question that the ghost can be the devil trying to tempt him. Hamlet says, “the spirit that I have seen may be the devil: and the devil hath the power to assume a pleasing shape” because the devil can take on many forms (2.2.530-531). Throughout the play, there are many reasons for us to believe that the ghost is real and is not a figment of Young Hamlet’s imagination. The ghost in

The Dubious Hamlet As one of the most critically acclaimed plays in history, Hamlet happens to be a main source of debate along with one of the best stories of revenge. William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet during the early 1600’s setting the play in Denmark during the late medieval time. While boasting an advanced plot and ambiguous themes, Shakespeare perfectly portrays well-developed characters in his play. These characters will continue to be studied for decades further; one of those characters would be Hamlet.

Hamlet had a wife named Gertrude and a brother named Claudius. King Hamlet was a well respected man who was also very honorable. In the homes of Denmark, they had pictures/ paintings of King Hamlet inside the homes of others. While King Hamlet was in charge of the kingdom, Denmark was a well respected country. On day, King Hamlet was murdered in his sleep and that is what started his only son Hamlet to become, a man for revenge. The death of King Hamlet was caused by his own brother Claudius poisoning him down his ear. Claudius and Gertrude had feelings for each other while they poisoned the King. King Hamlet lost everything to his brother Claudius, his wife and his throne,

Meenu Chacko English 1012 What Happens in Hamlet? Outline Primary Source: Hamlet by William Shakespeare Secondary Source: What Happens in Hamlet? By J. Dover Wilson I. Thesis Statement - J. Dover Wilson states that Ghosts are real but we might not see it like Shakespeare’s audience and expresses the view of the audience and explains the four characters in the ghost scene.

Throughout Hamlet, suicide is a topic that it mentioned on multiple occasions. Hamlet himself often contemplates suicide in soliloquies such as his “To be or not to be” speech. Suicide is something that we hear a lot about nowadays, and Hamlet succeeds in revealing universal truths about suicide that remain valid today through the “To be or not to be” soliloquy and Ophelia’s suicide. After reading about Hamlet’s suicidal tendencies, one might believe that Hamlet commits suicide at the end of the play as well, but that is not the case. Nonetheless, suicide is a major talking point in Hamlet, and the play has a point to make about death.

Hamlet’s so called friends and family all thought that Hamlet had gone mad and was in the wrong of many things. Hamlet may have done crazy things at times, but he was never truly mad. Hamlet wasn’t crazy because his Uncle, Claudius, killed King Hamlet, he had a lot going on between Ophelia and his friends, and he was deciding the choices he had to make.

During the Renaissance, the discovery of some of these ancient texts was a main spur for the ideas that followed the Renaissance. Most of the Renaissance intellectuals generally affirmed with the ideas of the church about suicide. In Shakespeare’s time suicide had become a paradoxical issue. On one side of the matter it carried the medieval Christian associations of shame and despair. On the other side it was seen as a noble and courageous act in the growing Renaissance tradition. In Hamlet the Christian view of suicide is best played out at Ophelia’s funeral. Her ceremony is very perfunctory and she can only be buried in consecrated grounds, grudgingly because of Ophelia’s high connections. Instead Shakespeare’s plays pity his characters problems which drive them to commit suicide and some approval for their courage. Hamlet has a reluctance to commit suicide because of his religion that he believes in. In his first soliloquy he states “O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,/ Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ or that the Everlasting had not fixed/ his canon ‘gainst self slaughter.” When he states that the “Everlasting had not fixed his canon against self slaughter” he wishes that God had not made it a law to not commit suicide. Hamlet is a Christian therefore if he were to take his own life it would be a sin against God. His soul would be condemned and he does not know what would come from the afterlife. We see this best in

How do you view people in this day and age? Do you view women as toys only used for sex? Do you view black people as monsters? Do you cause chaos and drama just for the sake of chaos and drama? According to Shakespeare, that's what society's views were in the 1600's. Historical records do not paint a clear picture of how European culture was in his time. His major works of literature, however, can aid us in envisioning what the community of his era was like. Even though Shakespeare was a very successful playwright in his time, he never would have imagined how influential he would be 400 years after his time.