|
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 Shakespeare’s 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 Hamlet’s 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 Shakespeare's 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 ghost's 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 Hamlet's 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 father's 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 Hamlet’s father with poison. In the final act the queen is the first to
be poisoned by drinking from Hamlet's 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 Hamlet's father, which is the first tragic
action of the play.
There are only three people in this play who don't 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.” Hamlet's fight with Laertes in Ophelia's 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
Ophelia's drowning and Hamlet's crossing the sea to England - although the
latter conflict plays more of a background role.
|
