The Love Of Love In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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.

How would it be possible for Hamlet to express or even recognize love, without having a clear definition of what love is? One may define love as a lover’s passion, devotion or tenderness for someone or something. Hamlet perceives love as an emotion that causes loss, devastation and pain. In the play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the main character uses love as a reason for his actions, but never truly loves any of the characters except his father. Hamlet seems to be more of a love story but, truthfully, it is more of revenge then love.

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

Love is something everyone feels, and is different for everyone. It can make people do things that they could never see themselves doing. It impacts everyone in their day to day lives. In Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, love is shown in a variety of ways and can make people do crazy things. Love can be friendly, forced, or romantic.

Goethe says, “He feels that now he is not more, that he is less, than a private nobleman; he offers himself as the servant of every one: he is not courteous and condescending, he is needy and degraded” (42). Hamlet, still mourning the death of his father, does not take this shift in stride, but rather lurches forward at a snail’s pace . Hamlet explains to his mother, “’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, nor customary suits of solemn black nor windy suspiration of forced breath, no, nor the fruitful river in the eye, nor the dejected havior of the visage, together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, that can denote me truly” (I. 2. 80-86). As Hamlet’s family falls apart, the growing shade of his paranoia comes fuller into form.

In the first place, the opening lines of Hamlet’s soliloquy uncovers his innermost feelings about all the events that are occurring around him. His father’s death and his mother remarrying his uncle, have all impacted him so much that he is thinking about ways to escape this world. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt (…), / Or that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!”

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.

What is love? Is it an object? Is it a feeling? Is it even attainable? Love is everything, it is an object, it is an emotion, and it cannot be bought, stolen, given. Love can only be found. Love is discovered in the most unthinkable places during the most unimaginable times. It can never be predicted who you fall in love with or when you do but all you do know is that you are in love and you would give anything for that person, and for your love to always stay resilient through all other obstacles and distractions. In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Montague’s and Capulet’s are know and expected to hate each other until the miracle of love presented its self. Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet. They both fell in love when

Every person falls in love which is why it is such a prevalent theme in literature and art. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, love is the driving force for the tragic ending. The play begins with Claudius murdering his brother, which in part is done out of love for Gertrude. Throughout, the audience watches Hamlet struggle with his morals, unsure whether to do what is right, or to enact revenge out of love for his father. At the end, Laertes sets all the plans in motion because of his own family love, which is what creates the tragedy. Not only is Hamlet a tragedy due to a desire of revenge, but also it is the misplaced love the characters hold that truly binds the tragedy.

The most significant motif in this play is the “Elusiveness of Love” . Since the beginning of the play , Hamlet eagerly seeks to kill Claudius for the murder of his beloved father. However, he did not realize that showing someone that you love them does not have to be with revenge. In addition, this Elusiveness of love that Hamlet had, evidently resoluted tragically; in unexpected deaths of important characters such as; Glaudius , Ophelia, Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Therefore, the Elusiveness of Love is the friend of tragedy .

In the Hamlet, love in one of the major themes being talked about. Due to great a affection that Hamlet had for his father, he is willing to cross the bar and carry on revenge (Shakespear 105). Currently he does not detect any malice in his father’s death, but he is raged that his mother got married to his uncle just two months after his father died. Hamlet is willing to set a trap for the just to ascertain that his father was indeed murdered. A person can only go to that extent when he had true love (Shakespear 105).

It is apparent at the start of the play that Hamlet is a strict renaissance man who is out of place in the dystopian Denmark that is underpinned by the older feudal world of chivalry and honour. This appreciation for intellect and the contrasting barbaric world causes Hamlet great strife and sets him apart from the medieval characters. The metaphor in Hamlets “inky cloak” shows this emotional alienation between him and the medieval characters from Denmark. Additionally, as Hamlet learns of his father’s “foul and most unnatural murder” Hamlet feels a filial obligation to avenge his father, as during the Elizabethan time, family relationships were particularly important. Although as Hamlet “sworn’t” revenge he becomes overwhelmed and feels tortured

My father keeps questioning me about Hamlet and I but not only him so is my brother Laertes about how I have never have had experience in anything not even love. That I am such a fool to believe he loves me that it will only be a short thing between us and he is only going to use me for pleasure I know Hamlet he wouldnt do such thing to me. I no longer know what to think they believe I am inmature and not capable of making my own decisions but I know I am. I have had enough of them thinking I cant look out for my own self. I will show them both that Hamlet has true love towards me I will prove them I promise. Hamlet loves me I know he does it I have never felt such thing before and I can say we have a deep connection between us.

Love comes in many forms like falling in love. Sometimes people are driven to extremes because of love, also known as their passion. This passion is the cause of wars, suicides, killings and love. Thinking that their thoughts and feelings are the absolute truth drives the passion that causes these deaths, love and change. Hamlet and Claudius can be categorized by their immense passion for what they believe to be true. These passions cause them to become increasingly rash and ultimately are the cause of their demise.

Love is different for each and every individual. It is so powerful that people cry, suffer pain, or even risk their lives to save it. But there are other kinds of love: elusive love, tortured love, or even the love that you feel for someone but cannot embrace it for fear of other, larger events. It is that kind of love that seems to be the most prevalent in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, especially when it comes to Hamlet’s relationship with Ophelia, the daughter of King Claudius’s advisor, the ever forgetful and meddling Polonius. The love that Hamlet claimed he had for Ophelia was not only fabricated, but unhealthy, which untimely led to her death.