The Tragic Demise of Hamlet A tragedy is an austere drama with an unpleasant outcome. Every Shakespearean tragedy results in the demise of the protagonist. In the tragedy Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet’s personality traits and decisions ultimately cause his own, tragic decease. Shakespeare illustrates that Hamlet’s actions of procrastination are the main cause of his death. The personality traits of insanity and intellectuality also contribute greatly to the death of Hamlet.
iii 106 - 140] then meddling and subversive, as he sets spies on his own son, and finally irredeemably and ultimately fatally corrupt and subversive, as he schemes and plots around Hamlet. His death - physical corruption - is a precursor, signifying to the audience the ultimate fate of all those characters exhibiting signs of corruption. Polonius seems to be the most obviously corrupt character, but the centre of evil of the play's plot and of the kingdom is Claudius, as he kills King Hamlet. When Marcellus states, 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.' [Act I, Sc.
In this tragedy by William Shakespeare, multiple deaths occur due to the decisions made by Romeo, Friar Lawrence, and Lord Capulet. Romeo, a protagonist of the play and a member of the Montague family, directly and indirectly caused several deaths throughout the play. For example, Romeo was banished by Prince Escalus for killing Tybalt (3:1:190). He directly killed Tybalt and is partially at fault for
Secondly, this scene presents the plays main conflict. The conflict will be a person vs. person conflict that includes Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet is seeking revenge for his father’s murder, while Claudius does his best to hide what he has done and to get rid of
Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare combines love, romance and conflict mixed with murder in Romeo and Juliet in Act 3 Scene 1 which makes this play so dramatic. Shakespeare uses techniques such as dramatic irony, pathetic fallacy and imagery which leave the audience excited and tense throughout the play. I will explain how Act 3 Scene 1 is made so dramatic. Shakespeare uses vivid and powerful imagery to portray a picture in the audience’s mind about where consequences of a grudge could lead. ‘A plague a’ both your houses!’ Shakespeare has used the word plague because plague is a disease that kills people one by one and he used the word to define grudge as something that kills everyone one by one.
Shakespeare also keeps the audience eerily close to the characters giving us a full view of their mental breakdown. “In no other Shakespearean play is the audience asked to identify to such extent with the evildoer himself” (Bevington 1255). “[Macbeth] offers its audience a crucial dual status: we are both participators and Witnesses - we are taken into the subjective experience so that we kill and we die, say, with Macbeth” (Bristow). By looking closely at how these characters are developed throughout the play it will show us the mental battle that plagues each character. Both
Examine Shakespeare’s presentation of the themes of corruption and disorder in Hamlet. Show how far your appreciation and understanding of this aspect of Hamlet have been informed by your study of The Revenger’s Tragedy. Corruption is a key theme throughout Hamlet and is portrayed in many scenes through different aspects of the play. Greed and the thirst for power become the invitation for this corruption. Corruption in Hamlet is represented as a chain of events starting with greed; spreading by manipulation through unquestioning loyalty thus corruption manifests itself as tragic revenge.
Suicide In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play. Hamlet is the main character who contemplates the thought of suicide many different times throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weighs the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknown life with the dead “ He wishes the his living flesh would melt into nothingness”(Act 1,Scene 2). Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it, mainly because it is a mortal sin against God. Hamlet continues to say that most of humanity would commit suicide and escape the hardships of life, but do not because they are unsure of what awaits them in the after life.
The revelation is in itself a dramatic effect as the audience becomes more intrigued and excited on how Hamlet has managed to get them killed. The language used by Hamlet when explaining how he had managed to get them killed depict his anger towards treachery ‘Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes/between the pass and fell incensed points/of mighty opposites’ (5.2.61-63). This could also depict the notion of Hamlet’s attitude towards the lower rank; it is most likely that Hamlet and Claudius that belong to the upper rank regard Guildenstern and Rosencrantz as inferior breeding. On the other hand ‘mighty opposites’ could also suggest Hamlet referring to the two forces of evil and good. Moreover the dramatic effect that Shakespeare outlines when Hamlet narrates to Horatio his plan to save himself that he has realised that ‘There's a divinity that shapes our ends, /Rough-hew them how we
Vincentio and Angelo arise a threat of death upon Claudio on several occasions throughout the play, “So, fare you well; to the hopeful execution do I leave you of your commissions.”. Angelo, also agreeing that if he was to commit the same crime as Claudio, he would expect himself to be put to death, “Let mine own judgement pattern out my death”. It could be argued to be a tragic play as people are grieving about the threat of Claudio’s death, “It greives me for the death of Claudio; But there’s no remedy.”. The threat of death in the play also provides the play with another feature of the tragedy genre, stichomythia, for example, when Vincentio says to Claudio – “Be absolute for death”. Another feature of tragedy play is the presence of a tragic hero.