How Does Hamlet Control Emotions?

The play “Hamlet” depicts the life of a prince who wants to avenge his father’s death. In his journey, he takes the lives of many, but manages to kill Claudius, the one who killed his father. The soliloquy being analyzed is located at the end of Act 2 Scene 2. This extract takes place after Hamlet is left alone in a room in the castle. A character in this soliloquy is Hamlet. In the extract, he is releasing his fury as a player could get more emotional about his father’s death than Hamlet. He is reflecting at what he has done and what will he do to avenge his father.

Laertes acts much like his father in taking a position of authority over Ophelia. He feels free to tell Ophelia what she has to do with her love life and expects she will oblige his demand. Like his father, he too tells her to break off her relationship with Hamlet. However, his reasoning is not selfish; he is worrying about her virginity, her reputation, and the

Polonius and Laertes looking out for Ophelia was a prime example of family always having each other’s back, no matter what the situation. In this scene Laertes and Polonius are giving advice to Ophelia and are trying to protect her simply because she is family and that’s their job. They were worried about Ophelia and her potentially harmful relationship with Hamlet. Just as Laertes gave advice to Ophelia, she also returned the advice. Ophelia pleads to Laertes, “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep / As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, / Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven / Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads / And recks not his own rede.” (Ⅰ. ⅲ. 45-52). In this portion of the scene Ophelia is wanting Laertes to follow his own advice and not be hypocritical. She is looking out for Laertes’ best interest, just as he was looking out for

When Laertes first bursts into the castle, emotions everywhere are high, however Claudius greets Laertes calmly, allowing him to speak his rage. Insecurity and anger often go hand-in-hand, and in his emotionally unstable state Claudius easily changes Laertes’ heart by crediting himself to be “most sensibly in grief for [Laertes’ father’s death]” (Shakespeare 4.5.149). By creating this morally right version of himself in Laertes’ mind,

As an astute and religious scholar it is difficult for Hamlet to enact his promise to avenge his father. Hamlet’s religious beliefs make him question the legitimacy of the spirit’s righteousness. Hamlet does not trust the spirit because he is aware that it could be a demon playing tricks on him. Furthermore Hamlet is not a man that will act without reason but constantly contemplates his situations rationally. Hamlet’s religious views hinders him from slaying Claudius in perfect opportunities. “Now he is praying; and now I’ll do’t. And so he goes to heaven” (3. 4. 73-75). Hamlet wants nothing more then to know that his father received justice, but with Claudius praying for redemption that justice will be taken from him. At that moment when Hamlet is going to execute Claudius for his crimes he stops to realize that Claudius will be forgiven for his sins. For a murderer and irresponsible leader to be forgiven in one moment, Hamlet cannot tolerate it and halts. If Laertes were to be in that situation he would have avenged his father without a second thought; unlike Hamlet who had the patience to reflect on his religious beliefs and stop him momentarily. Revenge would have selfishly brought Hamlet pleasure, but he seeks closure for his father’s wrongful death.

Polonius is killed by Hamlet which leads to a new factor in the already messy equation called Elsinore; this factor being Laertes. Laertes is driven by revenge of his father’s death; a mighty cause with no understanding of the effects of his actions. During the rising action he is an insignificant character due to the fact that for a majority of the play he is at school in France; although, when news of his father’s murder reaches him he charges forth with sword held high and no knowledge of the events leading up to the crime.

In the Shakespearian tale of Hamlet, Hamlet gives a famous speech. This is also known as a soliloquy. The soliloquy is called the “to be or not to be” speech, where Hamlet is talking to the skull of his old jester. He gets excited that he got to see the bones of his old friend and just starts going on a rant for the skull. If looked at from a pea brained audience’s perspective, he is seen as a loon. “We need to mediate between our wide experience as readers of Shakespeare and our limited training as spectators.” (Charney 2) It’s just like he is for the entirety of the play. But if looked at from a closer perspective, it has a couple of messages that are a common thing in Shakespeare’s plays. These messages can overlook the play, and many of

He tells Hamlet of his murder by his brother who is now married to his

In 1.2, Shakespeare introduces three significant characters: Prince Hamlet, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. The scene opens with King Claudius’ speech explaining his recent marriage to Gertrude, his brother’s widow and the mother of Hamlet. This speech attempts to balance the sorrow of his brother’s death with the happiness of having married “his sometime sister” (1.2.8) . “The clouds still hang” (1.2.66) upon Hamlet as he refuses to cast off his “nightly colour” (1.2. 68) and continues to mourn his father’s death. Claudius urges Hamlet to think of him “as of a father” (1.2.108), however Hamlet’s suspicions, resentment and disgust of his mother’s quick and incestuous re-marriage forbids this.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, as Hamlet questions whether to take the initiative and act, or take a more passive approach, in regards to the situation of his father’s murder, his uncle’s reign over Denmark, and his mother’s remarriage, his thought process changes as he seeks moral truth and nobility. After the ghost of his father has revealed to Hamlet that it was his uncle Claudius who murdered him and commands Hamlet to avenge his death by killing Claudius, Hamlet is left with an internal struggle as he considers both his morality and his duty as the rightful heir to the throne to not only honor is father by avenging his death, but also his duty to the people of Denmark. Hamlet, therefore, whose “noble mind” desires to do right, faces the dilemma of achieving retributive justice without sacrificing the morality of his soul. As his thought processes develops throughout the course of the play, Hamlet’s contemplative and reflective nature is revealed by his tendency to evade action by concerning himself with factual, spiritual, and moral knowledge. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s first soliloquy, fourth soliloquy, and speech with Horatio offer insight into his logical thought process as he debates his current circumstances and contemplates what course of action would not only solve his problem concerning Claudius, but would also be the most noble and moral.

There are enough conceptions, and thus misconceptions, about the melancholy Dane to fill volumes. However, while none of them has proved entirely acceptable, some of them, such as the diagnoses that Hamlet simply “procrastinates” or “cannot make up his mind” prove utterly unsatisfactory under careful scrutiny of the play and, perhaps more importantly, Hamlet himself. Indeed, it appears as if there are certain points in the play in which Hamlet comes to reversals as he eventually counters each one of his own arguments and concludes each of his struggles, until, in his return from England, he is someone quite different from the self-loathing, melancholy, emotionally torn man in the “inky cloak” (I.ii.77) to

William Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet was written around the year 1600 in the final years of the

William Shakespeare's Hamlet Prince Hamlet bitterly opposed the marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to Claudius, her own brother-in-law, so soon after her husband's death. Hamlet had a strange suspicion that the new king - his stepfather and former uncle - had somehow plotted his father's mysterious demise, and he refused to stop mourning his natural father, now two months dead. Hamlet was approached by his close friend Horatio, who revealed that for three nights now castle guards had seen the former king as a ghost. He persuaded the prince that his father must have some message of importance and so Hamlet should wait with him that night for the ghost to appear again.

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragedy known for its drama and portrayal of its characters. For many decades, the play has undergone different interpretations as well as criticisms. An important factor of the play that has gone through this criticism is the character of the ghost who appears to be Hamlet’s dead father. After the first encounter between Hamlet and his “father”, it seems apparent that the ghost is in fact Old Hamlet, returning to Earth to have his son avenge his treacherous murder. In spite of this encounter when looking more closely at the text, various signs appear to lead readers to see that the ghost is

of appetite’ as if the more she was with him the more she wanted him.