Hamlet- Shakespeare dramatises the tension between Passion and Reason

The male characters in Hamlet continually abuse both Ophelia and Gertrude, physically and psychologically, as a pathetic attempt to gain power and control over the situation. One of the greatest examples of psychological abuse comes from the harrowing scene where Hamlet and Ophelia have their final conversation before Hamlet leaves for England. During this rage-induced altercation, Hamlet refuses to accept Ophelia’s returning of the gifts previously given to her from him, saying “I never gave you aught” (3.1.97). Ophelia is appalled as Hamlet continues to insult her and laugh in her face. In the climax of the argument, Hamlet tells Ophelia that she “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). The immense amount of psychological damage received by Ophelia between the addition and removal of love by Hamlet and her father’s death is enough to drive anyone to madness. David M. Smith recounts this as Hamlet’s necessity “to genuine outsideness because of the danger of being co-opted by love” (Smith, 1). However, Hamlet no longer needed to protect himself in his situation. His actions from this scene were not only uncalled for, but added to the slow mental demise of his sweet Ophelia. Hamlet’s next scene of abuse come shortly after this when he goes to speak to Gertrude about her participation in the murder of Old Hamlet. His rage, yet again, takes over, but this time he adopts physical abuse

“To be, or not to be, that is the question,” (3.1.64). This famous line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet perfectly encapsulates Hamlet’s internal struggle throughout the play. Hamlet tells the story of the young prince of Denmark and his desire for revenge on the uncle, Claudius, who murdered his father. As is the case in many works of literature, Hamlet changes greatly throughout the play. However, because of his attempts to act insane, it can be difficult to precisely map the changes in Hamlet’s character. By carefully investigating his seven soliloquies, where he is alone and has no need to “put on an antic disposition,” one can understand and interpret how Hamlet’s character develops throughout the play.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses various characters to demonstrate the concept of passion versus reason. He uses his story to show the readers that passion and reason can both exist, but it is necessary to find a balance between the two. As evident in Prince Hamlet’s life, an overabundance of passion can be harmful to oneself and to others. Throughout the play, he faces an internal battle: he must choose between rationality and sentiment. This task becomes especially hard, however, when the ghost of Hamlet’s father comes back from the grave to share the horrible story of his murder. The late King has been poisoned and replaced by his own brother, Claudius, and, driven by sorrow and agony, Prince Hamlet decides to get revenge. Hamlet’s plan is to kill Claudius. This idea seems extreme. However, it is reasonable that the Prince would act irrationally as a coping strategy. In times of loss, especially after the loss of a parent, it is normal to experience overwhelming thoughts and sometimes “emotional issues” arise (“Adult Death of a Parent).

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet must deal with both external and internal conflict. Hamlet encounters many struggles and has trouble finding a way to deal with them. With so many corrupt people in his life, Hamlet feels as if there is no one that he can trust and begins to isolate himself from others. A result from this isolation leads Hamlet to become melancholy. Hamlet struggles with suicidal thoughts, wants to kill King Claudius, and is distraught over his mother’s hasty marriage with his uncle Claudius.

Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, explores the nature of morality and the human conscience, portrayed through a Christian lens. Set in Denmark during the Elizabethan era, the play revolves around Prince Hamlet, following an encounter with the murdered King Hamlet’s ghost, and his subsequent course of action. Shakespeare utilises the juxtaposition of opposing forces in a variety of ways; the external conflict unfolding between Hamlet and his father’s murderer, King Claudius, denotes that of good versus evil, driving the bloody events of the play. Perhaps more importantly, however, is the internal conflict which Shakespeare demonstrates within Hamlet, as he navigates the intricacies of moral decision making in the face of grief, and the uncertainty surrounding what lays beyond us and our earthly choices in the afterlife. Shakespeare utilises foils to reflect on the various ways in which we can therefore respond to these existential questions, demonstrated through the juxtaposition of Hamlet’s

William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet has often been described as a play about a man who cannot make up his mind. Yet it could just as easily be described as play about a man putting on a play. Hamlet is obsessed with the discrepancy between what is real and what is performed. Hamlet's despair at the difficulty of understanding what is 'the truth' motivates him to put on a play to 'test' his uncle Claudius, to see if Claudius is really the murderer of his father. It also motivates him to question his own role as an avenger. Given the fact that no one in the play, even Hamlet, is who he seems to be, Hamlet's delay in killing Claudius seems less like indecisiveness than an acknowledgement of the inability to know what is 'truth' at all. It is because of the paradoxes inherent in the play that Hamlet remains so essential to study today and should remain a topic for a research paper in English 1302 class,

Because Hamlet has too great an understanding of conflicting ideologies, he is unable to make a prompt decision and delays in murdering Claudius. Due to this intellectual struggle, he cannot take action unless compelled to in a fit of passion, when his intellect and reason are pushed aside for his more animalistic instincts. The knowledge that causes Hamlet’s prolonged dilemma and consequent agony is the result of living in a confusing era of change - the 16th century. In a time where old order and tradition are disintegrating, Hamlet finds himself vacillating between conventional beliefs and the new beliefs Wittenberg and the changing world in general has given him.

Literature is at its best when the heart conflicts with the brain. Hamlet takes readers on an emotional journey after the death of his father. Hamlet’s delay in avenging his father has caused a debatable source of discussion among many scholars throughout history. Hamlet has an emotional need for revenge which his mind does not allow him to fulfill. While Hamlet felt anger at Claudius for murdering his father, he had doubts over his source of information, as he identified in his third soliloquy, “the spirit that I have seen may be a devil...and perhaps in my weakness and my melancholy... abuses me to damn me.

Who exactly is Hamlet and what are his true characteristics? It may seem like an easy question, however, quite difficult to answer. Throughout Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet,” Hamlet seems to be on the verge of insanity. However, it cannot be known for certain if Hamlet has lost his mind, "To put an antic disposition on, That you, at such times seeing me, never shall," (Shakespeare 1.V.173) It may not be known if Shakespeare intended to have Hamlet evolve into a madman, however, what is known is the fact that Hamlet’s irrationality is one of, if not, the biggest flaw that Hamlet possesses. Many reasons contribute to Hamlet feeling the way he does, such as Hamlet losing faith in love, religion, society, and even philosophy. From Hamlet

Had he slaughtered Claudius at a before stage, he might have saved his own life alongside the numerous others that were lost in actuality of his faltering soul. These ongoing ideas of destiny and mortality are in this manner key to strife inside of the play. This is likewise appeared in this characterizing discourse where Hamlet is torn between confronting his cruel substances and just giving in; in this way indicating life itself as an inward fight, subject to be either won or lost.

A more definitive reading of Hamlet disputes the claim that he was mad, and instead suggests that Hamlet feigns madness in order to become closer to the truth. This reading is an example of Shakespeare demonstrating the changing context in Denmark through the projection of the protagonist as an extended metaphor for the emerging Renaissance Humanism period. This period was defined by choice and analysis of events, and is emulated through Hamlet’s alliterated statement in his soliloquy in Scene 3, Act 1, ‘conscience makes cowards of us all.’ Hamlet believes he is in a psychological state of cowardice, and that his conscience is holding him back through his assessment of the consequences of acting on the orders of the ghost. L.C. Knight believes Hamlet is the “exploration and implicit criticism of a particular state of mind or consciousness”. This questioning on the theme of humanity and the final stage in Hamlet’s complex thought process is finally resolved in the soliloquy in Scene 4, Act 3. Hamlet’s characterisation, once that of a pure man whose mind was riddled with angst at the idea of murder shifts to a mind of “bloody” thoughts as a result of his bound duty. This personified imagery is a reflection of Hamlet’s now tainted mind since the murder of Polonius, and the constant obsession with Claudius’ murder. Hamlet accuses himself of ‘thinking too precisely’, and

Hamlet is convinced in his fulfilment to passionately honour his father’s legacy when he first encounters the ghost, metaphorically exclaiming that “with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love”, he will “sweep to [his] revenge.” However, this proves to be highly ironic, as while he is swearing by heaven, a slight suspicion arises that it may have been a devil from hell as he rhetorically exclaims to the “old mole! Canst work i’ th’earth so fast? O worthy pioneer!” As devils were often symbolically compared to “pioneers” or “moles” in that they worked underground, Hamlet’s uncertainty stems from a religious questioning of the true nature of the ghost. In this way, Shakespeare extends upon 16th century Christian ideals about mortality and the afterlife to demonstrate how potent external pressures are on our decision making. As a Christian gentleman, Hamlet is pulled by opposing codes of values to the point of stagnation and his guilt at such inaction generates a self-deprecating response as he concedes, in his second soliloquy, that he is “pigeon-livered and lack[s] gall / to make oppression bitter.” The bird imagery to symbolise morality, a common practice throughout the Renaissance, reveals his intense self-loathing as he is “prompted to [his] revenge by heaven and hell” yet paradoxically, for the very same reason, must metaphorically “unpack [his] heart with words,” neither able to commit suicide nor murder as it is religiously forbidden by the “canon” of “the Everlasting”. Shakespeare crystallises that Hamlet’s state of hysteric limbo is a result of his inability to find closure not only in the physical world, but also, the spiritual, and as a result questions, after months of inaction, “what is a man” if “conscience does make cowards of us all.” As such,

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a revenge tragedy, rich with plotting, murders, spying, deceit, betrayal, and madness. Characters with self-involved interests go through massive transformations throughout the drama, with the outcome resulting in disaster. The lead character, Hamlet, is marred by inconsistencies and flaws that challenge him in his path to achieve revenge, and which ultimately produce his downfall. Shakespeare’s play also confronts questions of fate and destiny, as is the case with Hamlet who believes there is some greater, divine force governing his life’s direction. Hamlet is a powerful narrative in which the hero must confront his passionate desire for revenge juxtaposed with his responsibilities and duties as a prince.

In one of William Shakespeare’s most notorious plays, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses multiple scenes filled with drama to add a certain extreme dimension to the play. In a story filled with drama, such as Hamlet, an author attempts to use intense dialogue and actions in order to invoke personal emotions and feelings in the hearts of the audience. Shakespeare attempted to have the audience feel the pain that Hamlet experienced, sense the feelings of revenge that were deep in the heart of the prince, and be able to place themselves inside the play, as if they were there while the whole thing was taking place. From he first time that we are introduced to the character of Hamlet, we automatically get a sense of his intensity as a human being, yet his professional elegance as a prince (Mabillard, Amanda). In this story, we witness the actions of one young Prince Hamlet as we see his reactions to the news that his uncle not only killed his brother, King Hamlet, but then married his wife to take the crown. Shakespeare’s work shows us how drama can be used to elevate the intensity and interest of an audience in a play.

The necessity of balance within the human mind is addressed by the theme of action and inaction within the play. Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, must seek revenge for his father’s murder. However he suspects that his informant, the ghost of his father, could be the devil in disguise, so Hamlet requires proof that Claudius is guilty. In act 2, scene 2, Hamlet soliloquises, ‘I’ll have grounds / More relative than this. The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King’. The use of iambic pentameter, and the rhyming couplet at the end of the scene conveys the importance of the plan. Hamlet has asked the players to perform a scene, mimicking his father’s murder. If Claudius is guilty, he will react poorly to the scene. This example of careful planning illustrates the balance between thought and action that humanity seeks to exemplify. In act 3, scene 1, Hamlet declares, ‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought’, soliloquising that natural instinct is inhibited by thought. The personification of fear and the connotations associated with the words, ‘sicklied’ and ‘pale’ depict action as strong and thought as weak. This power imbalance between action and thought foreshadows the climax of the play, where action without thought provokes chaotic consequences. In act 5, scene 2, Horatio says to Hamlet, ‘If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit’. Hamlet replies, ‘Not a whit… If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to