Scribd
Upload
243 views5 pages

L 11 Analysis of Hamlet

The document provides an in-depth analysis of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It discusses key themes such as Hamlet's internal struggle with indecision and doubt that prevents him from enacting revenge on his uncle for murdering his father. This internal conflict drives the plot and causes unintended consequences as Hamlet tries to gather more evidence. The analysis also explores how Hamlet questions concepts like certainty, the afterlife, and whether purposeful action is truly possible. Overall, the play is about Hamlet's inability to resolve his doubts and decide on a course of action.

Uploaded by

Ahmed Aloqaili
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
243 views5 pages

L 11 Analysis of Hamlet

The document provides an in-depth analysis of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. It discusses key themes such as Hamlet's internal struggle with indecision and doubt that prevents him from enacting revenge on his uncle for murdering his father. This internal conflict drives the plot and causes unintended consequences as Hamlet tries to gather more evidence. The analysis also explores how Hamlet questions concepts like certainty, the afterlife, and whether purposeful action is truly possible. Overall, the play is about Hamlet's inability to resolve his doubts and decide on a course of action.

Uploaded by

Ahmed Aloqaili
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

Analysis of Hamlet

 Hamlet (1601) occupies a middle place in the long career of William


Shakespeare as a playwright. It marks the period when Shakespeare turned
from histories and comedies to tragedies. It is one of the ‘great tragedies’:
Macbeth, Othello, King Lear but it is also considered as the greatest of all
Sh’s 37 plays which also include comedies and ‘romances’ or tragi-
comedies.

 It is the longest of Sh’s plays. It has 5 acts and some of them are in 5 scenes,
but some are in only 2 scenes such as the last Act.

 Hamlet gathers many themes and preoccupations of the previous plays.


 There is a focus on the relationship father-son. Shakespeare’s own father
died in September 1601, shortly before he wrote it.

 Such relationship is first represented by the main plot of Hamlet’s revenge


of his father, but also Polonius and Laertes and Fortinbras and his father.
All three sons have the duty of revenge, but the response of each is wholly
individual.

 Hamlet belongs to the revenge play tradition but it transcends it.

 The story of Hamlet existed before Sh. wrote his play and there was even
plays written using this story prior to Hamlet.
Analysis:
 The beginning of Hamlet is marked by the figure of the Ghost that appears
to the Guards at night. The ghost is related to the situation of revenge as,
using popular beliefs of the time, it represents Hamlet’s dead father’s spirit
walking out of the grave to ask for justice to be done and he meets Hamlet to
charge him with this mission of revenge.
 Through the reaction of the character of Horatio, the Ghost’s appearance is
not taken for granted as in popular beliefs and in other revenge plays, but
becomes a question debated about belief and disbelief, and it becomes a
symbol of the human mind’s inability to grasp the complexity of existence.
 This is highlighted by Hamlet’s characteristic nature as a man of thought and
not a man of action. Instead of going straight to the accomplishment of his
mission of revenge, Hamlet is burdened with a load of concerns which make
him delay revenge.
 From the grief for the loss of his father, his world is darkened by the sight of
his mother’s hasty marriage and the discovery of the corruption of the world
around him for which his villainous uncle Claudius is the starkest example.

 What separates Hamlet from other revenge plays (and maybe from every
play written before it) is that the action we expect to see, particularly from
Hamlet himself, is continually postponed while Hamlet tries to obtain more
certain knowledge about what he is doing. Hamlet has been described as a
procrastinator. This procrastination is in fact related to his nature as a man of
thought and conscience rather than a man of action.

 This play poses many questions that other plays would simply take for
granted. Can we have certain knowledge about ghosts? Is the ghost what it
appears to be, or is it really a misleading fiend? Does the ghost have reliable
knowledge about its own death, or is the ghost itself deluded?

 Moving to more earthly matters: How can we know for certain the facts
about a crime that has no witnesses? Can Hamlet know the state of
Claudius’s soul by watching his behavior? If so, can he know the facts of
what Claudius did by observing the state of his soul? Can Claudius (or the
audience) know the state of Hamlet’s mind by observing his behavior and
listening to his speech? Can we know whether our actions will have the
consequences we want them to have? Can we know anything about the
afterlife?

 Many people have seen Hamlet as a play about indecisiveness, and thus
about Hamlet’s failure to act appropriately. It might be more interesting to
consider that the play shows us how many uncertainties our lives are built
upon, how many unknown quantities are taken for granted when people act
or when they evaluate one another’s actions.

 Directly related to the theme of certainty is the theme of action. How is it


possible to take reasonable, effective, purposeful action? In Hamlet, the
question of how to act is affected not only by rational considerations, such as
the need for certainty, but also by emotional, ethical, and psychological
factors. Hamlet himself appears to distrust the idea that it’s even possible to
act in a controlled, purposeful way. When he does act, he prefers to do it
blindly, recklessly, and violently. The other characters obviously think much
less about “action” in the abstract than Hamlet does, and are therefore less
troubled about the possibility of acting effectively. They simply act as they
feel is appropriate. But in some sense they prove that Hamlet is right,
because all of their actions miscarry.

 Claudius possesses himself of queen and crown through bold action, but his
conscience torments him, and he is beset by threats to his authority (and, of
course, he dies). Laertes resolves that nothing will distract him from acting
out his revenge, but he is easily influenced and manipulated into serving
Claudius’s ends, and his poisoned rapier is turned back upon himself.

 In Hamlet, the main character’s doubt creates a world where very little is
known for sure. Hamlet thinks, but isn’t entirely sure his uncle killed his
father. He believes he sees his father’s Ghost, but isn’t certain he should
believe in the Ghost or listen to what the Ghost tells him: “I’ll have
grounds / More relative than this.” In his “to be or not to be” soliloquy
Hamlet suspects he should probably just kill himself, but doubt about what
lies beyond the grave prevents him from acting. Hamlet is so wracked with
doubt he even works to infect other characters with his lack of certainty, as
when he tells Ophelia “you should not have believed me” when he told her
he loved her. As a result, the audience doubts Hamlet’s reliability as a
protagonist.

 In telling the story of a fatally indecisive character’s inability to choose the


proper course to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet explores questions of fate
versus free will, whether it is better to act decisively or let nature take its
course, and ultimately if anything we do in our time on earth makes any
difference. Once he learns his uncle has killed his father, Hamlet feels duty-
bound to take decisive action, but he has so many doubts about his situation
and even about his own feelings that he cannot decide what action to take.

 The conflict that drives the plot of Hamlet is almost entirely internal: Hamlet

wrestles with his own doubt and uncertainty in search of something he


believes strongly enough to act on. The play’s events are side-effects of this
internal struggle. Hamlet’s attempts to gather more evidence of Claudius’s
guilt alert Claudius to Hamlet’s suspicions, and as Hamlet’s internal struggle
deepens, he begins to act impulsively out of frustration, eventually
murdering Polonius by mistake. The conflict of Hamlet is never resolved:
Hamlet cannot finally decide what to believe or what action to take. This
lack of resolution makes the ending of Hamlet especially horrifying: nearly
all the characters are dead, but nothing has been solved.

You might also like

pFad - Phonifier reborn

Pfad - The Proxy pFad of © 2024 Garber Painting. All rights reserved.

Note: This service is not intended for secure transactions such as banking, social media, email, or purchasing. Use at your own risk. We assume no liability whatsoever for broken pages.


Alternative Proxies:

Alternative Proxy

pFad Proxy

pFad v3 Proxy

pFad v4 Proxy