Mitchell Pucci ENG3U1 Mrs. Pudas May 18th, 2011 TITLE One of the major issues in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is the events leading up to the breakdown of a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield. Holden’s breakdown is a result of his relationship with others, the death of his brother, his personality, and his destructive choices. One of the main contributing factors towards Holden’s breakdown is the death of his brother, Allie. The loss of a sibling is obviously a traumatic event for anyone, especially a teenager.
While he accumulates more and more evidence of Claudius’ obvious guilt, he constantly returns to the theme of his mother’s remarriage, a source of pain equally as unbearable as the circumstances of his father’s death. There is also the question: is Hamlet’s madness real or feigned? Everyone in the court seems to think that Hamlet has gone crazy. The only character who is an exception is Horatio, as he is Hamlet’s true
When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
However, a tragic hero is a character who experiences conflict and suffers greatly as result of his/her choices. Despaired through the death of his father and his mother’s marriage to his uncle Hamlet then begins to possess feelings of grief, anger and frustration. With these flaws weighing on his conscience it contributes to the making of a tragic hero. This is due to the forced objective of avenging his father’s murder and his mother’s incestuous marriage, Hamlet’s lack of being able to dictate his own choices and his cowardly sense of committing suicide to avoid the suffering. Hamlets anger, which stems from his mother marrying Claudius, bears him serious thoughts of suicide.
The characteristics made the conflict of the novel a lot more intense though out the novel. Charles Kingshaw was the main victim of the whole novel. In the novel, he mentioned that he lost his father when he was young. ‘My father ‘s dead’ He was angry, not hurt. (pg.18) His father who died in war was his hero to him and when Hooper asked him about his father, he felt like Hooper was insulting his father so he was unhappy about it.
In “Hamlet” byWilliam Shakespeare, Hamlet experienced acts of betrayal by individuals in his inner circle and reciprocated with acts of revenge which ultimately resulted in his his death. In the novel, Hamlet, the main character was portrayed as an intelligent university student who returned home to attend his father’s funeral. The first incident of betrayal Hamlet experienced occurred when Claudius, Hamlet's uncle/stepfather /King, killed his father and took control effectively robbing Hamlet of the crown and the chance to be King. Hamlet adored his father and was devastated when his mother, Gertrude, had an incestuous relationship with his uncle who she married so quickly after his father’s death that ..the funeral baked meats…did furnish forth the marriage tables. 1.2.184-185.
Session 1: My first session with Hamlet was a troubling one; he came to me with many concerns. Just two months ago, his father died. Now, his mother, Gertrude, is remarrying to his uncle, Claudius. When asked how he feels about the marriage of his mother and uncle, and how he is dealing with the grief from the loss of his father, Hamlet responded with, “Not so… I am i’ the sun.” (1.2.71) His sarcastic remark denotes feelings of betrayal by his mother and uncle who are so readily able to replace his father. This remark also implies that that he is still mourning the loss of his father and is not yet ready to move on.
Stages of Grief in Hamlet In the opening pages of the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, it is quickly realized that Hamlet is upset about his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage to his uncle. An event may lead to a downfall known as the “stages”. According to Jami L. Jones, “depression may be a reaction to a disturbing event,” and in this case Hamlet is reacting to his father’s death. It is normal for people who have just lost a loved one to experience the stages of grief. The first stage is denial, the second is anger, third is guilt, fourth is depression, fifth is upward turn, sixth is reconstruction and the seventh stage is acceptance (Jones).
This feud brought problems along with it, such as the killing of Tybalt by Romeo. Juliet had said: “What’s in a name?” which explains her ill fate of being a Capulet and Romeo being a Montague. When Romeo tells his servant, “Ay, mine own fortune in my misery.” This sentence tells us he does not care for what Juliet’s name, nor his is. Bad luck plays a major role in the story of two-star-crossed lovers. There is an example of this when Romeo attends the Capulet’s party, and this is where he is first exposed to Juliet and where the misfortune begins.
However the main factor driving and building the plot is the element of madness. The term madness is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as either a disorder of the mind or a behaviour whereby a person flouts societal norms and may become a danger to him and others. One day, Hamlet returns to his home, Denmark’s palace to find his father, King Hamlet, dead. Still mourning and recovering from the death of his father, his mother, Gertrude marries Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. Soon after, the young prince is visited by a ghost that resembled the appearance of his dead past father.