Essay on William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet’s inability to act upon his emotions begins in the wake of his father’s death and his mother’s instantaneous/hasty marriage to Claudius. Criticized for his prolonged mourning of his late father and insistence from his mother to move on, Hamlet must momentarily seize publicly grieving for his father and in a lengthy expression of torment, contemplates suicide as he agonizes over the dreads of life and the reality that “[he] must hold [his] tongue,” in regards to his mourning (1.2.164). For the sake of his mother’s request, Hamlet anguishes over having to refrain from speaking of his grief, only to deliver a prolonged speech of his woes of mourning. While everyone in the kingdom of Denmark embraces the new king,

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to

“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.

Hamlet has thrust upon him the dual responsibility of avenging his father and becoming a man. These new responsibilities push Hamlet’s already fragile sanity over the edge into madness. “Hamlet experiences anxiety both because of the dysfunction of previous masculine roles and because of his shames at their loss, a loss he holds himself accountable for” (Rosen, 63). Hamlet is instantly roused from a bout of depression at Horatio’s news of the ghost. Hamlet undoubtedly feels that this ghost might be able to put his mind at rest.

In this paper I will be analyzing and discussing how these four soliloquies reflect changes in Hamlet’s mental state; his

Far too often we see men and women with noble causes lose their motive because of their emotional behavior. Their emotions cause them to lose track. We see no finer example of a man with a noble cause whose emotions cause him to lose sight of his noble cause: the character of Laertes in the play Hamlet. Laertes has a vendetta against Hamlet for killing his father. Although Laertes meant well in avenging his father’s death, his emotional behavior overtook him in the process. If we look at other characters in the play, we find a similar struggle between a noble goal and one’s emotions. Hamlet fights the same battle as Laertes does; however, Hamlet is better able to control his emotions. To maintain a noble goal without faltering,

The play “Hamlet” consists of a myriad of complex themes, ideas, symbols, motifs, and figurative language. The complexity of this play has evoked readers to search the text in order to find deeper meanings, thus “Hamlet” continues to be read and read by each new generation. The fascination of discovering some ‘new’ meaning of “Hamlet” creates a sense of excitement that continues some 400 years after William Shakespeare wrote it. One aspect of “Hamlet” that has been researched extensively is the idea of melancholy displayed by the character Hamlet. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines melancholy as a sad mood or feeling (Merriam-Webster).

The soliloquy opens with Hamlet cursing himself as a `rogue and peasant slave'. Hamlet expresses an outburst of hatred, linking it to the actor when he describes the actor's passion.

When you think of William Shakespeare, Hamlet is the first thing most people think of, as his work. Hamlet is also a classic example of a tragedy. In all tragedies the hero suffers, and usually dies at the end. All good pieces of literature written way back when, are usually tragedies.

After the first significant soliloquy in Act 1, another one appears in Act 3, Scene 1. Hamlet describes how he is feeling thus far. He explains

Hamlet's self-description in his apology to Laertes, delivered in the appropriately distanced and divided third-person, explicitly fingers the greatest antagonist of the play‹consciousness. The obligatory cultural baggage that comes along with Hamlet heeds little attention to the incestuous Claudius while focusing entirely on the gloomy Dane's legendary melancholia and his resulting revenge delays. As Laurence

William Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet might well claim to be Shakespeare's most famous play because of its language and the charm of its central

will.” ( III I, 179-181) The fear of what will happen after death deters him.

Hamlet is a character of melancholy because he is a very sad individual finding out that his very own uncle has killed his father. He is wanting to commit suicide but he’s contemplating it because it is a sin. He is not to fond of Claudius considering he was the one that had killed his father in the first place. “O most wicked speed, to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!/ It is not nor it cannot come to good/ But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” This quote is showing how he is bitter towards the thoughts of his mother marrying his uncle. He finds that incest but if you look deeper this was not her brother it was his father’s brother. Hamlet is cynical from the way he says, “From the table of my memory/ I’ll wipe

Hamlet’s madness first appears after his first encounter with the ghost, his father, which is when he begins to reveal his subtle insanity caused by this life changing experience. Hamlet begins making insulting comments such as, “Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’. ‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forc’d breath, No nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passes show, These but the trapping and the suits of woe.” (13) Through this sarcastic comment, Hamlet is