William Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

He alters from innocent sorrow and depression following his father’s death to unhinged insanity and anger once he hears of his father’s true reason for death. Hamlet is constantly under scrutiny and this led to the way in which he chooses to handle his response to learning information about his father’s involuntary passing. The significant change in Hamlet’s emotions also pushes the implied meaning of how thought processes work differently for everyone. It is extremely noticeable of Hamlet specifically, that clear thought processes can be clouded by a desire to carry out crazy and revengeful

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet, a studious young man and Prince of Denmark, struggles to face the death of his father and the task to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius. He was once known as a charming, smart young man before his father’s death. However, Hamlet experiences depression and anger at the world, causing him to look outwardly on society but failing to look inwardly on himself. The death of his father and the task for vengeance leads him to question whether or not he should follow through in killing Claudius. He becomes a man of thought rather than a man of action. In addition, the delay of King Claudius’ murder leads the readers to believe that he wishes not to kill him; he

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 the play, Hamlet is dealing with conflict within himself. When Hamlet finds that he must take revenge on Claudius, he is unsure whether there is any point in having to kill, to take another human life, and whether he would be able to handle this. Hamlet fights inside himself. Is this right? Is this his duty? He considers suicide again, "To be or not to be, that is the question." Hamlet shows his philosophical nature, and talks himself out of the idea of suicide, fearing the unknown beyond. He is thoughtful and intelligent and not first a man of action.

Hamlet, the protagonist, must go through many different developments during the play. Because Hamlet is constantly being handed opportunities and choices, he must make decisions (sometime split second) on how he wishes to act. This leads him to fake madness, to have indecisiveness, and to contemplate his life.

Hamlet’s main difficulty throughout the play lies in his inability to complete his mission of killing Claudius. He frequently circumvents his problems and refuses to find the resolution of the problems. He stubbornly sticks to his paradigm, but this simply leave him in disarray. By not rising out of mediocrity, Hamlet leads to his imminent death. Although his father’s ghost brings solemn and portentous warnings, the prince’s forbearance to kill the king constitutes his failure to act. For example, when he finds Claudius praying, he does not kill him, however, while Claudius may act devout, he cannot pray due to his sins. Had Hamlet cogently dispatched of him, he would not have completed his pious action anyway. Hamlet may seem pithy in his

Most productions present Gertrude and Ophelia as sympathetic victims of Hamlet’s cruelty. As your starting point, refer to either the closet scene or the nunnery scene and, paying close attention to the language, show how it reveals the interaction between Hamlet and the women characters here and throughout the play.

“To be or not to be” (3.1.64)—not whether to live or to die, but the use of “to be” is an important question. Shakespeare uses the simple infinitive of “to be”, in the opening of the most famous soliloquy in Hamlet, or perhaps all of Shakespeare, as opposed to the more complex phrase, “to live or to die”. Before Hamlet, the speaker of this soliloquy, analyzes all of mankind’s reasoning behind the subject of life, something both painful and long, and death, something both inevitable and muddied in mystery, he uses the simplest and shortest of infinitives. Seemingly, a simple phrase cannot give justice to some of the more complex and mysterious questions human nature asks; finding answers to why humans suffer through life when they

In William Shakespeare’s, The Tragedy of Hamlet, each character stands out in unique ways. Madness is one of the crucial themes as Shakespeare depicts the chaotic turbulence in the Hamlet family and the court of Denmark. Though she is generally read as a minor character, Ophelia’s madness reveals the struggle of the female character that attempts to have a voice of her own. Ophelia’s life certainly seems tragic based on Aristotle 's definition of tragedy, which says that “A tragedy is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; inappropriate and pleasurable language;...in a dramatic rather than narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish a catharsis of these emotions (1).” Throughout the play, Ophelia’s character demonstrates a three-phased change from a timid daughter who lacks the will of her own, to a temptress on a mission who suddenly reveals the bawdy part of her nature, and finally to the mad woman who liberally expresses her oppressed feelings and sorrow with lyrics and songs.

love, and mourning. Out of these, the most prominent theme in this play is death in the form of

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.

In his famous soliloquy, “to be or not be, that is the question” (Shakespeare 1599, 1.1.57). Could Hamlet really commit such a selfish act such as suicide? Hamlet has been raised to be a noble man, like his father, but now his father is gone, should he too die? Fear of the unknown, fear of what happens after death, creates a dilemma for Hamlet. The option of facing his fears or facing his uncle is a choice that Hamlet does not want to make. Even though Hamlet has plenty of reasons to commit suicide, and plenty of reasons to murder Claudius, he still can’t make a decision. Although, they are hard decisions to make, they are decisions that could be made, this is proven by Laertes. Shakespeare contrasts the indecisive behaviour of Hamlet with the decisive Laertes, to show just how much Hamlet could never make up his mind. Hamlet killed Laertes father and Laertes wanted revenge just as much as Hamlet did for his father. Laertes was the one who decided without a doubt that Hamlet would die at his hand. Shakespeare shows just how hard making choices can be through the acts of

Hamlet's tragic flaw is his inefficiency to take action when it was needed the most. He is under different circumstances than his father because Hamlet himself is under the control of his emotions rather than his own sense of bravery. When Hamlet is given the chance to kill Claudius, who is his father's murderer, he seems to be unsure of what he should do. Claudius was at prayer at this time, which made Hamlet reevaluate whether or not to kill him. In this instance Claudius could begin to beg for forgiveness for murdering the King, King Hamlet. At this point in time, Hamlet decides that he will wait for a better time to get the revenge he wants against Claudius. Hamlet displays that he is very indecisive. This flaw will lead to his death and to the death of others, which could have been avoided if he were to murder Claudius the first chance he had.

This essay will discuss several literary criticisms of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After skimming through several articles, I ended up with four peer-reviewed journal articles, each a different critical perspectives of the play: feminist, psychoanalytical/freudian, moral, and new historicism. My previous studies of Hamlet, as well as my rereading of the play this semester, has collectively given me a general knowledge of the text. My familiarity of the play made it easier for me to decipher the academic journals and see the connections each critic made with the play.

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, although Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, he has little control over the situation of his mother country. His father is dead and his mother marries his uncle, Claudius, who succeeds his father. When Hamlet is still in grief, the ghost of his father comes to tell him that he was killed by Claudius. Young Hamlet, being called to take vengeance, is confined to the land of Denmark and fails to act. Throughout the play, Hamlet feels increasingly trapped by the confinement set by King Claudius, by his father's command to take revenge, and by his own thoughts; only when Hamlet is able to free from his own mind, is he able to take action and escape from these confines.