William Shakespeare’s Hamlet lead the protagonist down a never ending spiral for revenge on his father’s murderer, which ultimately lead to his own death and six others. I will uncover how Hamlet’s quest for revenge and his own personal arrogance and pride made him mentally unstable which lead to his own demise.
Act I, Scene II Hamlets father has been dead for two month and Hamlet is revealed wearing all black and mourning the death of his father. He is confronted by the reality at court in the kingdom that people have moved on from the mourning of his father and are celebrating the marriage of King Claudius and his mother Gertrude the Queen. These gestures make Hamlet depressed, uneasy and suspicious of everyone’s happiness. The Queen tells
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With this he involves Horatio and as he predicted this made the King furious. This just added to Hamlets madness and anger for revenge and to his arrogance. With these actions the king is now alerted that Hamlet knows of his guilt in killing his father which puts the king on guard. Hamlet enters where he thinks the King is praying and has a chance to take his revenge and kill the King, but doesn’t. Hamlet looking upon the king, “Now might I do it pat, now’a is a-praying, and now will I do’t-and so ‘a goes to heaven, and so am I revenged. That would be scanned” (Mays). With this statement Hamlet feels the king is praying for forgiveness which will allow the king to go to heaven. Since Hamlet is so consumed in vengeance for his father it is really unclear why he didn’t kill the King at this moment or at least wait until he was done praying. “Some critics believe that Hamlet vacillates yet again in yet another self-deception of word play. In fact, this moment represents the pivotal point in the play--the moment of truth. Hamlet seems confused, terrified, conflicted; he imprisons himself more deeply in words and avoids having to kill Claudius.” (Uddin). This is the peak of Hamlets madness and show how unstable his thoughts really
The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare is of a son whose murder madness and indecision takes a toll on avenging his father’s murder. The main character’s madness can be seen in multiple scenes of the play affecting numerous characters and the meaning of the play as a whole. This can be seen through analyzing his madness throughout the play, the recurrence of this madness as a motif, and the overall outcome. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet is met by his father’s ghost and is explained on how King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, murdered his father to gain access to the throne.
Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he admits that he is dishonest and weak. “Tears in his eyes, distraction in his aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting. With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!”(2.2.565-567). Hamlet is starting to break
Furthermore, Hamlet wants Claudius to suffer the consequences of his actions. As he witnesses the king pray out of guilt, he professes, A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain
As the play continues Hamlet is confronted by the ghost of his father and is told that he was murdered by Claudius while sleeping in the garden. This is a major turning point for Hamlet early on in the play because now he has a purpose, to seek revenge against Claudius for murdering his father. “So uncle, there you are. Now, as to my promise… I’ve sworn to do it
In Act 3 Scene 3 (lines 73-75), we are shown this through Hamlet’s words, “Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying, And now I’ll do’t. And do ‘s goes to heave, And so am I revenged. That would be scanned.” It is also displayed in Act 3 Scene 3 (lines 82-87), “ But in our circumstance and course of thought, ‘Tis heavy with him; and am I then revenged, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No.”
In the play, Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, and his family are all driven by evil ambitions. Hamlet was driven mad by a desperate need to avenge his father’s murder. His step-father, Claudius, killed his own brother over jealousy and lust for the throne. Hamlet’s mother assisted her brother-in-law in killing her husband and persisted in up the crime so that she could remain queen as she lived in a virtually incestuous relationship with him. The cruel, bizarre, and unethical behaviors exhibited by Hamlet and his family stem from the severe depravity of mind from which they all suffer.
Lastly, Claudius, the man responsible for the death of Hamlet’s father, is eventually killed because Hamlet was flushed with rage by the murder and by the lack of remorse from Claudius. After being betrayed, Hamlet seeks a type of revenge towards these individuals, whether it results is their death, or verbally abusing
The question of whether or not Hamlet was insane is of a never-ending debate. Was he always crazy? Was he always faking it? Or was he somewhere in between? In this paper I will share three different views and provide my own interpretation of Hamlet’s sanity.
When Hamlet finally approaches the King he believes that the he is praying and decides not to kill him. Shakespeare writes “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven.
Good people, regardless of their social status, can be driven to act and speak in an insane manner when circumstances spiral out of control. As Hamlet loses control over a situation, he loses control of himself. Before the play begins, Hamlet’s father dies in a suspicious and vague event. His reaction to
Clearly, it is in this instance of such bitter distaste towards Claudius that Hamlet is not as galvanized by the death of his father, as most people would be. But rather towards the fact that Hamlet’s passage to
In William Shakespeare’s well known play Hamlet, there are several acts of violence that often keep the readers on their toes constantly wondering what will happen next. It all begins with the death of King Hamlet and comes to an end with no royal family in control of the castle, Elsinore, in Denmark. Each character has their own unique motive for self gain throughout the play, but Hamlet has a strong drive for the dangerous game of revenge. Hamlet wants to earn justice for his father who had his kingdom, wife, and crown all stolen out from underneath him when his life is innocently taken by his greedy uncle. “To be or not to be?” is the question Hamlet often asks himself along his journey of revenge, where many emotional encounters and obstacles continue to test him.
“he has my dying voice” (VI. 2. 335) Despite the fact that Hamlet accomplishes his revenge in the final act, his initial procrastination, melancholy, gravity / down to earthness followed by hoaxed madness as well as his impulsiveness lead to a perplexed state of mind, which renders him incapable of a well-structured
The conflict that sparks this change is the internal struggle that Hamlet goes through due to the loss of his father and the search for justice in order to redeem his father’s death, which results in Hamlet abandoning his morals. Prior to the climax, Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius while he is praying, but he decides not to because he wants him to go to hell so he will kill him when he is sinning. Evidently, Hamlet is attempting to play god and decide who goes to hell or not, which was not his mission from the start. This signifies that Hamlet’s search for justice has become a search for
William Shakespeare has been recognized as one of the greatest English writer. More so, “Hamlet” has been referred to as one of the most complex and confusing plays that was written by William Shakespeare, however, it is also, one of the most frequently preformed, read, as well as, written about. The audience would, also, refer to Shakespeare “Hamlet” as a revenge tragedy, in which the hero, Hamlet, has discovered that his father has been murdered. Hamlet has no need to search for his father’s killer, for he already knows. Over course of the play, Hamlet character will go into seven different acts of speaking his thoughts out loud.