The Tragedy of King
Hamlet
by William Shakespeare
Originally
titled The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke, this tragedy has
been reproduced more times than any other play written by William Shakespeare.
Prince Hamlet also has the lengthiest appearance of any character in all of
Shakespeare's plays. In the play, Prince Hamlet is caught between balancing his need to
avenge his father's death, dealing with the disgust he felt for Gertrude and
Claudius' love affair, and maintaining the relationship he has with Ophelia
without exposing his plans to kill his uncle Claudius for the murder of King
Hamlet.
During
the first act, Prince Hamlet meets the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. His
father's ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius poured poison in his ear while he
slept. The spirit also explains that he wishes for Hamlet to avenge his death,
but not to punish Queen Gertrude for marrying Claudius. He tells Hamlet that
she will have to answer to her conscience, and eventually God for her
incestuous actions. It was believed during these times that when a person died,
especially in such a tragic fashion, that their spirit lingered about while
suffering in Purgatory. This could cause a normally virtuous person's spirit to
become filled with malevolence and begin to meddle in living men's affairs.
This belief caused Prince Hamlet to want to investigate his father's spirit's
claims to ensure that they were indeed true. In order to do this, Prince Hamlet
feigns madness in order to remain hidden from members of the court's suspicions
while he plots his revenge on King Claudius. He also takes advantage of a group
of actors who come to Elsinore Castle to perform by rewriting a play to recreate
the scene of his father's murder. He does this with the hope of flushing a
confession out of Claudius' guilty conscience. When Claudius sees the play, he
stands up and leaves the room After many more events, Claudius' guilt becomes
more obvious. Claudius then begins to change his focus towards killing Hamlet,
as he is beginning to become aware of the Prince's plans to kill him. Claudius
then arranges a fencing match between Hamlet and Polonius' son Laertes and has
Laertes poison the blade of one of his swords to be used in the match (Hamlet).
Hamlet scores the first hit during the match, and Claudius offers Hamlet a
congratulatory drink from a goblet of wine that Claudius had previously
poisoned without anyone's knowledge. Hamlet declines to drink, but his mother
Gertrude accepted the poisoned wine for him. Hamlet is then wounded by Laertes'
poison sword and continues the match unaware of his impending death. During the
match, Gertrude dies after telling Hamlet that she had been poisoned by
Claudius' wine. Hamlet then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and
forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and
Hamlet dies shortly after finally avenging King Hamlet.
During
Hamlet's first soliloquy we learn that he does not approve of King Claudius
taking Queen Gertrude as his wife so quickly after King Hamlet's death. Not
only did Hamlet disapprove of Claudius' and Gertrude's marriage, but at that
time, the Church of England also considered a widow's marriage to her deceased
husband's brother to be an incestuous affair. Queen Gertrude is somewhat saved
from Hamlet's lust for vengeance, as his father's ghost told Hamlet to spare
her from persecution for her actions. However, this does not stop Hamlet from
verbally berating her from time to time throughout the play. Hamlet does not
understand his mother's need for protection and comfort, and this hurts him. He
feels that her marriage to Claudius so quickly after King Hamlet's death
dishonors his father's memory (Hamlet).
Many
things helped prevent Ophelia and Hamlet from being able to express their love
for each other openly. In Act I, Ophelia's brother Laertes warns Ophelia not to
fall in love with Hamlet, as he states she would only be hurt by the
relationship Shortly after this, Ophelia's father Polonius tells her not to
show Hamlet any affection, as he is only using her for his own benefit During
the second act, Polonius is told by Ophelia that Hamlet came to her with his
clothes ragged, and then he anxiously studied her face and quickly left.
Polonius then assumes Hamlet is behaving this way because he is mad with love
for Ophelia, and he cannot bear that she is no longer acknowledging Hamlet's
love. In Act III, King Claudius and Polonius listen in on a private conversation
between Prince Hamlet and Ophelia while hiding out of sight. During the
conversation, Hamlet grows suspicious of Ophelia's intentions. He seems to have
no love for Ophelia whatsoever when he orders her away to a nunnery and
denounces marriage in general. Prince Hamlet later tries to tell Ophelia that
he is only pretending to be mad during the performance being put on by the
visiting actors. He hopes that she will be able to wait for him until after he
avenges his father's murder. This however, never happens as Ophelia becomes
insane after her father is killed at the hands of Hamlet, and somehow drowns
herself shortly thereafter (Hamlet).
Throughout
this play, Hamlet fully devotes himself to avenging his father's death while
trying to hold together the pieces of his life that matter to him. He focuses
on holding onto his love for Ophelia while keeping her far enough away from him
to protect her from any misguided retribution that might have occurred while he
plotted to assassinate King Claudius. At the same time, Hamlet was fighting an
inner struggle between his own view of his mother as a frail, needy woman who
cares nothing of her own image as long as she has a man to share her bed with,
and the order his father gave to him to not seek vengeance upon her for what
she had done. In the end, it might have been better for Hamlet had he not tried
to seek revenge at all. When he did finally accomplish his goal, he had traded
everything he loved for it, including his own life.
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