“Thou poor ghost.” (I, v, 97) Hamlet pities his father, as he was murdered and was not given the chance to pray. This conjures frightening thoughts in his mind, for if he were to be murdered as well, would he be sent to burn in purgatory? Towards the middle of the play, though Hamlet’s thoughts still point towards suicide, he begins to toy with the possibilities of what death could be like. “To die, to sleep; … perchance to dream.” (III, i, 60-65) He may find some comfort in death if death
The beginning of the key scene is important because, Hamlet has been summoned by his mother, who is furious with him for events surrounding the play-within-the-play, in which it has been suggested clearly that Hamlet’s father has been murdered by his brother. Hamlet, however, confronts his mother, still unhappy that she is married to his uncle, Claudius. Polonius has been sent to spy on Hamlet on behalf of Claudius. Hamlet kills Polonius, apparently believing it to be Claudius. Old Hamlet’s ghost appears for the second time to remind Hamlet of his mission of revenge for his father’s murder.
Old Hamlet informs his son that he was murdered by his brother. He then asks Hamlet to avenge him, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I.v.25). Old Hamlet refers to himself as “his”. This is the first time Hamlet hears that his father was murdered. He almost immediately begins planning his course of action towards revenge.
By letting revenge be their top priority, Hamlet and Laertes were blinded by their emotions. Fortinbras, who remains calm throughout the play, is the only one to truly succeed. At the beginning of Hamlet, Hamlet mourns the death of his father and tries to understand why his mother married so quickly, especially with his uncle. He is so disgusted with the immoral state of Denmark that he wishes to die. He even contemplates suicide but his rational mind stops him from doing so.
But he comes back as Sweeney Todd wanting to seek vengeance on the man who sent him away from his family. In Hamlet, Hamlet struggles with his fathers death. He is the only one able to talk to the ghost of his father. Everyone around notices his absent mind, and believes he is crazy, even his own mother, “Alas, he is mad.” (III.iv.106). But later on, we discover Hamlet is not mad, and that it was all just an act.
In a similar event, Hamlet, months after his father murder, acknowledges his lack of action, his overbearing guilt, and his masked fear of confrontation when he self criticizes, “Swounds, I should take it: for it cannot be/ but I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall/to make oppression bitter, or ere this/ I should ha’ fatted all the region kites/ with this slave’s offal.”(II, II, 563-566). Hamlet self-chastises here for not being
Poor Hamlet loses his father who he deeply loved. To make things worse, the matter in which he died was disturbing. Not only was he murdered, but he was murdered by his own brother. Secondly, his beloved mother remarries only months after her husband’s death. Even more scandalous is that she married her husband’s brother.
The play opens in Denmark recently after the death of its king. Hamlet, the young adult son of the fallen king, remained wretched with grief while his mother Gertrude, seemingly with ease, moved on and married the successive king, Claudius. Claudius, parenthetically, was Gertrude’s departed husband’s brother. Hamlet resentfully referred to them as, “my mother-aunt and my father-uncle”. He was totally disdained by their union and considered it an incestuous one.
He questioned the worth of his own life, and became suicidal. Hamlet proves this when he says, “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter!” (1.2.131). Soon after his grief ridden soliloquy, Horatio and the guards brought news of a ghost sighting. Supposedly, the ghost was Hamlet's father. Later in the last scene of Act 1, Hamlet accompanies the guards to the platform on which the ghost was spotted.
The personality traits of insanity and intellectuality also contribute greatly to the death of Hamlet. Hamlet’s tragic flaw is his procrastination. Without a doubt, Hamlet portrays procrastination and indecisiveness multiple times in the play. The ghost of Hamlet’s father visits him in the beginning of the play informing Hamlet that he was murdered by his own brother, Claudius: “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears the crown”(I.v.44,45). Furthermore, Shakespeare exhibits how Hamlet chose to devise a plan of acting mad, rather than avenging his father’s death immediately, progressing to his demise.