Essay About Play Hamlet And Character Hamlet

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One of the most unique things about the play Hamlet (with Hamlet playing the main character) is the way relationships between the main and lesser characters have not changed from Shakespeares time period in which he wrote this play to the modern dilemmas of today. The character Hamlet relates through individualism of self to others in the play and Shakespeare uses this confusion of self and nature thus assuring many types of readers who can relate to his Hamlet characterization. Hamlet portrays himself with all his human flaws, but it is this humanity that makes him distinctive from everyone else in the story. In addition, all of Hamlets waking hours are preoccupied with his own thoughts thus adding more intensity to his feelings and perceptions about where he sees imperfections, worry and tension as well as confusion, but without a doubt it is these human qualities which makes his situation so impossible for him to resolve easily. Another tragic role of the play is its irony. The irony allows the storyline to show humor as well as the cause and effects of each action taken. There is usually little reason for a tragedy to be funny so Shakespeare has used this type of humor to add more irony to the already tragic events of the play. Pause for thought is in the types of conflict that play a major part in the play and the relationships between Hamlet and the two people who have been closest to him; being Ophelia and the ghost. Hamlet cannot share his strong feelings and emotions with his mother or his girlfriend and while his mother is literally sleeping with the enemy, Ophelia has chosen the side of Claudius because of her father Polonius. It is especially difficult for Hamlet to talk to Ophelia. The only other woman in his life, Gertrude, has betrayed his father by marrying Claudius. Hamlet may be obsessed with the idea that all women are evil, yet he really does love Ophelia because when he finds out Ophelia has died he cries out, I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.(Act V, Scene 1) The ghost provides Hamlet with a dilemma. In Shakespeares plays supernatural characters are not always to be trusted (think of the three witches in Mac Beth who are instrumental in his downfall). Hamlet does not know whether the ghost is telling the truth or not. If Hamlet had killed Claudius solely on the ghosts advice then he would certainly been tried and put to death himself and there would probably have been a war to choose a new king. Being the humanitarian that he is, and taking into account his responsibilities as a prince and future king, Hamlet most likely would want to avoid a civil war because even though Claudius is a murderer and probably not as noble a king as Hamlets father was yet he is still the king, bringing order to Denmark. Hamlet does not wish to plunge his country into chaos because of his own personal turmoil and realizes this will happen when he kills Claudius. To add to his quandary Hamlet is unable to combine the spiritual world (in the form of his fathers ghost) with the tangible everyday world that surrounds him. There is much irony throughout this play. One occurrence of irony I found particularly striking was the fact that Hamlet effectively maneuvers himself into the same position as Claudius. Claudius had attacked and killed a man who did not have the opportunity to defend himself, but when Hamlet kills Polonius is he not guilty of the same? It is intriguing that both Claudius and Hamlet have killed fathers. It is interesting to see how these two completely different characters deal with the same problem in different ways. Other interesting parallels I found are the numerous deaths by poison. Claudius murdered Hamlets father with poison. In the final act the queen is the first to be poisoned by drinking from Hamlets cup and then the poisoned tip of Laertes sword wounds Hamlet. When they change swords Hamlet gets the upper hand and Laertes is poisoned. After the queen dies Laertes explains everything to Hamlet before he dies and Hamlet then kills Claudius before dying himself. It is ironic that as Claudius is poisoned because of his own plotting, he had already signed his own death warrant when he killed Hamlets father, which is the first tragic action of the play. There are only three people in this play who dont die by poisoning; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who meet their deaths in England after being outsmarted by Hamlet and the third is Ophelia who drowned. There are three types of conflict I can identify in the play: “man versus man”, “man versus nature” and “man versus himself.” Hamlets fight with Laertes in Ophelias grave and the subsequent duel would both easily classify as “man versus man” conflict. Man also struggles with nature in this play, most notably in the form of Ophelias drowning and Hamlets crossing the sea to England – although the latter conflict plays more of a background role. The “man versus himself” conflict is most directly exposed in Hamlets famous soliloquy where he is wrestling with his conscience. The realization he comes to in this soliloquy is that we are afraid to kill ourselves because we do not know what is to be found after death. Another “man versus himself” conflict is Claudius inability to pray. He cannot really justify his past deeds and for him this is actually another step into darkness. Hamlet may be a thinking man, however, this does not mean he actually likes to think. Although he might have liked to think in the time preceding the play, when the time comes for him to take action he cannot because of this urge to believe. His capacity for thinking becomes a handicap rather than an advantage and this is not even the most painful or tragic part of the Hamlet character because the biggest problem is that he is aware of this. Not only is he incapable of acting without thinking he knows that this is the case, making the burden even heavier. Hamlet does not want to face reality and it is a traumatic experience for him when he has to believe the words of the ghost, but when the ghost starts demanding him to act on this information