This week, Mrs. Swisher demands a short analysis of one of Hamlet's characters. One of the characters that stood out to me was the protagonist himself, Hamlet. Hamlet's character is very complex throughout the first act of the play. He goes through many hardships at one time, his father passing, his mother quickly wedding his uncle, and even learning that his uncle killed his father. His perspective of the first act of the play can be easily compared to a murder mystery episode of Jerry Springer! All of these hardships are most likely to be the cause of Hamlet's constant grieving or mourning attitude throughout the first act. However, Hamlet wavered from his stage of grieving one time in Act 1. He did this when he was talking to his father's
Hamlet is very private with his grief. His mourning for his father is long and drawn out. He mulls over how he is going to act and defers action until a perfect moment.
While it is true that Prince Hamlet is grieving the loss of his father, his actions and thoughts indicate that his sadness is not the primary motivator behind his behavior. His strong rage and uncertainty, particularly toward his mother and uncle, indicate that there may be deeper psychological disorders at play in addition to grief. Furthermore, his drive for seeking revenge for his father's death extends beyond the ordinary grieving process, implying that his actions may be motivated by anything other than grief. While mourning may be part of his mental condition, it is apparent that other circumstances are also impacting his actions. While Prince Hamlet is grieving the loss of his father, his actions and thoughts show that his sadness is not the fundamental motive for his behavior.
Shakespeare begins Hamlet's struggle with recognition of Hamlet's sincere grief and anger following his father's untimely death. A taste of the conflict is expressed in the dialogue
Prince Hamlet, the main character within the play, has struggled from the very beginning. With the passing of his father, King Hamlet, and his mother quickly remarrying his uncle who took the
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s grief influences his actions and relationships with other characters, therefore driving the plot of the play. This can be examined through the popular lens of grieving through stages: denial, isolation, anger, depression, and acceptance. This process is not linear, and as Hamlet experiences his grief through different facets, his actions reflect a lack of said linearity. Anger is the most abundant emotion Hamlet exhibits throughout the play, frequently unleashed towards members of his ‘new family’(Claudius, Gertrude, and Ophelia), both on their faces and when Hamlet is alone with his thoughts. This energy he carries of hate and distrust furthers his logical stability as well as the emotional connection a basic
Hamlet begins play by breaking bonds with his family. The death of his father, the former king of Denmark, leaves Hamlet in a state of depression. During Gertrude’s, Hamlet’s mother, and Claudius's, the new king and Hamlet’s paternal uncle, wedding ceremony, Hamlet is the only one wearing “nighted colour” (1.2.68), which are clothes for mourning. He isolates himself from the joys of everyone and instead chooses to wallow in his own dark world, with his initial grief for his father being the catalyst for his descent into isolation. Hamlet begin to have hopes to commit “self-slaughter” (1.2.132) as he is frustrated with his life in its current state. Hamlet is rejecting his family as it is, instead lamenting on his father, to the point where he contemplates suicide. By isolating himself from the land of the living, Hamlet believes he does not have a purpose anymore. When his mother comments on Hamlet seeming sad during the ceremony, Hamlet replies that he “know not ‘seems’” (1.2.76), commenting on his mother’s use of the seem and saying that his depression is not an act, but genuine. His mother notices that “His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage” (2.2.57) could be the cause of his emerging familial isolation and regrets to not have been able to do anything to help her son. Having seemingly lost his purpose in life, Hamlet begins his isolation by removing himself from his family.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia.
His mother and his uncle have married after only 2 months of Hamlet’s father’s death. This has caused Hamlet to be in a heavy state of anger, mixed with his already deep state of mourning. According to Theodore Lidz, these two states can lead to one thinking back on all the negative wishes one may have had in the past. Considering Hamlet’s relatively young age, death wishes upon a parent are not serious but they are common among children. “…and as most, if not all, children have sometimes had death wishes toward a parent, guilt over such wishes can become intense when the parent dies.” (Lidz 48) All of these emotions mixed together so early in the play could lead to a sense of depression.
Hamlet’s inaction due to fear ultimately leads to the death of six characters, including himself. Hamlet’s outward conflict is the death of his father and consequently, his uncle becoming the King of Denmark. Hamlet expresses his distaste of his uncle becoming King when he says, “A little more than kin, and less than kind” (1.2.65). Hamlet implies that his uncle is too closely related to him after becoming his step-father. Moreover, during his soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, Hamlet blames his mother for being weak and criticizes her decision to marry someone one month after her husband’s death when he says, “A beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourn’d longer” (1.2.146-7). Hamlet denotes that his mother is less reasonable than an animal as she marries one month after King Hamlet’s death, which is an insult to her intelligence. Furthermore, Hamlet compares the world to “an unweeded garden” (1.2.135) and this displays how he does not want to live in this corrupt world anymore. Hamlet’s inward conflict is his inaction after swearing to the ghost that he would exact revenge for his father’s murder.
When we first meet Hamlet, he is dressed all in black and conveys all the “moods, forms and shapes of grief”. This depression is caused by his father’s recent death. Gertrude, his mother and
As the play begins, Hamlet is in a grieving period over the death of his father. What makes it worse is that only a few
The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is about a guy named Hamlet going through a hard time in life, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother to his uncle. Throughout the play were are able to get a greater understanding of who Hamlet really is. The actions of Hamlet in Shakespeare's master piece “Hamlet” proves him to a revenge seeker, emotional, and crazy.
Hamlet’s character drastically develops over the first four acts of Hamlet, and his character development is most evident through the soliloquys he delivers throughout the play. The most character development can be seen from the first soliloquy, to the second, the third, the sixth, and the seventh and final soliloquy. Hamlet’s inner conflict with his thoughts and his actions are well analyzed in his soliloquys, as well as his struggles with life and death, and his very own existence. He begins the play wondering what purpose he has in life now that his father is dead and his mother has remarried to his uncle. After finding out foul play was involved in his father’s death, he is motivated by revenge. Finally, he wonders how he can enact his revenge while continuously overthinking and overanalyzing his actions.
Hamlet faces challenges throughout the play that try his inner strengths and test his ability to handle the situation. He is torn between wanting to seek justice, and avenge his father’s death. Hamlet is also caught up in an intricate web of lies and deceit, he is considered mad by most characters when in all actuality it is just playing off of the actions of others to benefit himself. He puts on different acts trying to hide the truth, which makes him seem sincerely mad to the people around him. The truth of the matter is that Hamlet can’t decide whether or not his convictions are accurate. This dilemma ultimately leads to not only the deaths of the main characters, but the downfall of the kingdom.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is laden with tragedy from the start, and this adversity is reflected in the title character. Being informed of his father’s murder and the appalling circumstances surrounding the crime, Hamlet is given the emotionally taxing task of avenging his death. It is clear that having to complete this grim undertaking takes its toll on Hamlet emotionally. Beginning as a seemingly contemplative and sensitive character, we observe Hamlet grow increasingly depressed and deranged as the play wears on. Hamlet is so determined to make his father proud that he allows the job on hand to completely consume him. We realize that Hamlet has a tendency to mull and ponder excessively, which causes the notorious delays of action