Hamlet 's Internal Conflict And Search For Justice

    Hamlet is a character that we love to read about and analyze. His character is so realistic, and he is so romantic and idealistic that it is hard not to like him. He is the typical young scholar facing the harsh reality of the real world. In this play, Hamlet has come to a time in his life where he has to see things as they really are. Hamlet is an initiation story. Mordecai Marcus states "some initiations take their protagonists across a threshold of maturity and understanding but leave them enmeshed in a struggle for certainty"(234).  And this is what happens to Hamlet.

Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about uncertainty and about Hamlet's failure to act appropriately. It is very interesting to consider that the play shows many uncertainties that lives are built upon, or how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act or when they evaluate one another's actions. Hamlet is an especially intriguing production, both on the set and on the screen because of its uniqueness to be different from what most people expect to be in a revenge themed play. Hamlet's cynicism and insane like behavior cause him to seem indecisive, but in reality he is always judging and contemplating his actions in the back of his mind in order to seek revenge for the murder of

     When we first meet Hamlet, he is a sad, dark, loathsome figure; the loss of his father and the whoring of his mother have upset him indefinitely. Like a ticking time bomb, Hamlet’s noticeable temper reflects the storm of emotions and thoughts brewing in his head, and then like a catalyst, his meeting with the Ghost of King Hamlet brings his anger to a boil. With revenge in mind, Hamlet plans to fake his madness so that he may be free to pursue his father’s killer. Everyone, except his close friend Horatio, seems convinced that he is mad. Claudius however, fearful that someone will discover his evil deed, has also had his perceptions heightened by his guilt and he experiences chronic paranoia throughout the

In Shakespeare's play Hamlet the main character Hamlet experiences many different and puzzling emotions. He toys with the idea of killing himself and then plays with the idea of murdering others. Many people ask themselves who or what is this man and what is going on inside his head. The most common question asked about him is whether or not he is sane or insane. Although the door seems to swing both ways many see him as a sane person with one thought on his mind, and that is revenge. The first point of his sanity is while speaking with Horatio in the beginning of the play, secondly is the fact of his wittiness with the other characters and finally, his soliloquy.

In this case, Hamlet is obsessed with yet unable to act out his revenge since he is a man of thought and reflection, not of action and impulsiveness. "Revenge, said Francis Bacon in his essay on the subject, is a kind of wild justice, and something in Hamlet is too civilized for stealthy murder," says Northrop Frye (Frye). While he knows it is his duty to avenge his father's murder, Hamlet's desire to fulfill this obligation constantly wavers. In self-pity he cries, "O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!" (1.5. 188-189), and yet in rage he utters, "Now could I drink hot blood / and do such bitter business as the day / Would quake to loot on," (3.2. 397-399). Hamlet hesitates numerous times to fulfill his duty to avenge his father, and in the end he must actually convince himself to kill Claudius. "... I do not know / Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do', / Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means / To do't... / ... / O, from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" (4.4. 43-46, 65-66). This unusual flaw leads to Hamlet's inevitable demise, and is the most convincing evidence that Hamlet is, indeed, a tragedy. The protagonist, however, is not the only character in the play that experiences a want for revenge. Shakespeare uses all three of the sons seeking vengeance to reveal the complexity of the human yearning for

Individual reactions to situations of external or internal conflict are reflected in much of literature. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the character of Hamlet must deal with both external and internal conflict. He faces the death of his father, the knowledge that his uncle Claudius is his father's murderer and the knowledge that he must take revenge. Hamlet's responses to these external conflicts and his own internal views proclaim his nature and character.

Many fictional characters are presented with unique circumstances that dictate their life long search for justice, often coming up empty-handed. One character that exemplifies this model of a person in searching for justice appears in Shakespeare’s novel, Hamlet. The title character, Hamlet, understands justice in terms of a noble revenge, but fails to take action, due to his weak disposition to act on his thoughts. Hamlet’s search for justice was not successful because his sense of “justice” was flawed, ultimately leading not only to his own death, but to Laertes who had a very similar mission to that of Hamlet. Hamlet’s fatal flaw leads to the question concerning what differentiates real justice from faux justice.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the titular character struggles to engage in his desired plan of revenge. Hamlet shows throughout the play that he is inconsistent, indecisive, and unsure of himself, as well as his actions. The play focuses on Hamlet’s revenge; however, he continuously fails to happen at opportunistic moments. Throughout the play, Hamlet insists that he intends to avenge his father’s death through the murder of Claudius, but Hamlet fails to act on occasion because of his indecisive personality.

Throughout Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet allows his conscience to interfere with his pursuit of revenge for his father, creating an unrealistic reaction to the situation he faces. Though Hamlet seeks revenge on King Claudius, he realizes that he procrastinates his revenge with bizarre tasks, for he is a “dull muddy-mettled rascal, peak/ Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause/ And can say nothin; no not for a king”(2.2.493-495). Hamlet continuously proves to be dramatic as he creates schemes that delay the process of his revenge against King Claudius; moreover, his state of mind challenges the the task he desires to accomplish, for his “conscience does make cowards of us all/ And thus is the native hue of resolution/ Is sicklied

This all sets the stage for Hamlet’s mental state prior to learning that he was killed by somebody in his family. These themes of death and betrayal lead into the end of the first act when Hamlet is tasked by the ghost of his father to seek revenge against Claudius for what he did. Hamlet believes that he was “born to set it right” (1.5.190). The extremes of this line reveal that Hamlet believes that the whole reason for his existence is to avenge his father. This need for revenge drives Hamlet for the rest of the play. He wants justice for his father, but he also wants to punish Claudius for his murder and marrying his mother. He gives in to human nature when he starts striving to avenge his father’s death.

The internal conflicts prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet are the reason why the play is viewed as a classic. Conflicts are imperative in tragic plays as conflicts are the stimulus for catastrophe in the end. The characters in Hamlet face inward conflicts that are equally important as their outward conflicts. Three characters who especially exhibit this are Hamlet, Claudius, and Ophelia. The conflicts that these characters face play a major role in their downfalls and, ultimately, their deaths. Through Claudius’ struggle to conceal the murder of King Hamlet, Ophelia’s guilt for Hamlet’s madness, and Hamlet’s inaction due to fear, Shakespeare conveys that each character faces a dilemma, in which there are no simple solutions.

“To take him in the purging of his soul when he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No. Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.” (cite). This shows that Hamlet not only wishes to achieve revenge, but a “perfect revenge.” When one would assume Hamlet would be contempt with the idea of just killing Claudius, he insists on making sure he suffers, even in the afterlife. Hamlet already flirts the line between pretending to be insane and being insane and this situation further proves it. Liken it to a serial killer sadistically torturing their victims, Hamlet has an exact way he wants to get back at Claudius, so combining this what appears to be a blurred line between Hamlet’s façade of insanity and his actual insanity, a fatal flaw emerges. Hamlet’s inaction due to his inability to distinguish between what the “insane” Hamlet wants, and what the actual Hamlet wants ends up negatively affecting him here. Due to the fact this inaction occurs at a pivotal moment in the play, one can assume this inaction continues to reoccur in other moments throughout the

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare conflict plays a very significant role. The play’s main protagonist, Hamlet, possesses both internal and external conflict due to the fact that he is fighting his inner conscience and suppressing his inner emotions, and he is seeking revenge on and conflicting with many other characters in the play. These internal and external conflicts this character is experiencing affect those around him. They also shape the events that occur in the drama and contribute to the overall outcome.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society,