Supernatural Elements in Shakespeare’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’

3102 Words13 Pages
Tense and uncertain, Hamlet is a character who simply cannot make up his mind. He suffers as a result of this slow and indecisive nature he has. There are several other characters which help produce this overall effect of internal stress and strife within Hamlet. The most prominent are Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway, and Laertes, son of Polonius. They are all Hamlets in a sense because of the murders of their fathers but other men. They feel they must revenge these murders of King Fortinbras by King Hamlet and Polonius by Hamlet himself. The three men are also all of the same age and in the same position, striving for honour and for respect. However, despite the situational similarities, there are vast contrasts between these three men, when compared to Hamlet.Hamlet’s character is flawed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge sees Hamlet as “brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve” thus Hamlet simply is slow and decides to struggle inside more than taking actual revenge for his father’s murder. Lawrence Olivier’s film adaption of Hamlet begins with this similar thought on Hamlet as “the tragedy of a man who could not make up his mind.” He is unlike other Shakespearian characters like Macbeth who are breathlessly rapid in their deeds compared to a slow Hamlet. Therefore, compared to Fortinbras, Hamlet might have the same motives but is less inspired. Hamlet’s final soliloquy reflects on Fortinbras and how his character shows the struggle Hamlet faces inside. The captain Hamlet meets describes Fortinbras’ expedition to Poland, “We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name.” The very nature of Fortinbras’ movements shows that he is a man who battles for glory and for the honour of his country or his father’s name. Hamlet is obsessed with
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