Hamlet Being Passion's Slave

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Hamlet Final Task B: Develop the thesis that being “passion’s slave” affects Hamlet’s relationship with other major characters in the play. Throughout the course of the play, Hamlet experiences hardship between the other major characters in the play because he is “passion’s slave.” He strained and sabotaged many of his relationships throughout the whole play as a cause of him being a passion’s slave. He destroys his relationship with his mother, Ophelia, and with Claudius. I will prove the following by using the literary functions of Character conflict, imagery and aspects of character. The one relationship that was affected severely by the fact that he is passion’s slave is the relationship between him and his mother, Gertrude. What triggers the immediate conflict between the two of them is the fact that almost immediately after the death of Hamlet Sr., she chose to marry his brother Claudius “But two months dead”; whom also turns out to be the killer of Hamlet Sr. It is a clear indication to the audience that Hamlet is not in agreement of this marriage; this in turn leads to conflict between them continuously through the play. “Now could I drink hot blood…Soft! Now to my mother.” “I will speak daggers to her but use none.” Hamlet uses daggers as a reference to the fact that he will speak his anger rather than physically hurting her. He will channel all his angst into words and humiliate her this way and not with actions. The words he will say will in turn contradict the feelings of his soul. He will not say all the hate he means to, because he loves his mom greatly. Al though the words he channels her with creates a far greater conflict. Hamlet demonstrates that he is passion’s slave by the use and depth of his emotion he personifies. However, it also shows us that he is a slave to his passions but with a limit. It’s this limit, this ability to control
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