Conflict is the essence of drama. In the classic tragedy Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses a richly traditional story to explore the fabrication of human thought and action. Hamlet experiences a variety of internal and external forces which compel him to confront his moral and ethical beliefs, thus, causing him to mature over the course of the play. Hamlet is a story about a man who experiences the loss of his father through the ruthless behavior of his uncle Claudius. Not only does Claudius kill Hamlet's father, but also takes Hamlet's once dear mother from him and turns her into a corrupt and immoral person.
It serves as the overall catalyst for the exile of Hamlet, the fencing match between him and Laertes, and the sudden string of deaths. It foreshadows what is to come later on in the play. The themes and allusions expressed in the exchange completely reflect the anger and intensity of Hamlet towards his mother. The critiques by Gregory Harrison support my case. Much to the surprise of his mother, Hamlet began to berate her for her actions involving Claudius following King Hamlet’s death.
He almost immediately begins planning his course of action towards revenge. Hamlet’s disgust toward his mother is only heightened with this news of murder, “O most pernicious woman! / O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!” (Iv.105-106). Old Hamlet’s ghost has warned Hamlet not to punish Gertrude with hell, but he does not seem to care. Hamlet has now taken this personal with his own desires for revenge, as well as his obligation to his deceased father.
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.
“To be or not to be, that is the question; whether’ tis nobler in the mind to suffer...” (Shakespeare Act 3, Scene 1). This quotation proves Hamlet becomes inferior to others and the environment through his madness, causing him to express himself explicitly towards others. Hamlet’s madness not only causes his loved ones lives but it allows his “end” to come because he accepts every challenge from his opponent. Hamlet’s madness not only affects him but Ophelia, who is mentally torn apart by Hamlet. Ophelia was once flawless, but since her encounter with Hamlet she has fallen into the same madness and wants to kill herself.
“So excellent a king.” (Act 1, Scene 11, Line 149) this proves how much he wanted to be like him. Hamlet’s mother marriage with King Claudius, makes Hamlet upset because King Claudius was his father’s brother. “ Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole With juice of cursed hebona in a vial.” ( Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 61-62) Hamlet finds out that Claudius killed his father to take the throne when he talked with his father’s ghost. This gave reason to Hamlet to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet makes his first move against King Claudius by telling the actors to play a tragic play by which he can see King Claudius’s reaction.
How does Gertrude affect Hamlet’s tragic vision? Gertrude is a key shaper of Hamlet’s tragic vision; it is her “o’erhasty” and “incestuous” marriage to Claudius that vilifies the world to him and makes him distrust the woman he loves and question himself throughout; amplifying his solitude and leaving him without avenging the King’s death. An important component of a tragedy is the protagonist’s downward spiral into isolation, where their options of comfort and capacity to be saved seem to be removed as each of their paths for redemption are closed off before their eyes. We see Hamlet constantly fighting his own mind and the corruption of the world and people around him , he believes the ghost as, “honest” (I.V.138) at the start of the play but the perverse and contaminated world he sees as “rank and gross in nature”(I.V.6) contorts this view, making him question himself, later declaring, “ The spirit I have seen may be a devil.”(II.II.551/5) In Act III, Rosencrantz provides a remarkable and ironic vision into Hamlet’s tragic downfall: “The cease of majesty dies not alone, but like a gulf, doth draw what’s near with it..” This metaphor lends itself to articulating the particular kind of events that claim Hamlet, as though these ‘spokes’ are the individual triggers that cause the disastrous chain of events leading to the brutal end. There seem to be two factors to Hamlet’s tragedy that determine the sequence of events that conspire to destroy him: the primary factor is the murder of Hamlet’s father, which creates the ‘gulf’; the secondary factor, which compounds Hamlet’s tragedy into this literal ‘downward spiral’ is what Hamlet views as Gertrude’s, “dexterity to incestuous sheets.”(I.II.1) The momentum the whirlpool creates cannot be escaped, but the sense of a parallel world, already vanished, in which things could have been healed, adds to the sense of tragic
On the hand, there lies Claudius. The reader has just learned that he was willing to kill his own brother to become king. Murder is a horrible thing, but killing your own brother for your own selfish needs is far beyond horrible. When learning this, in combination with feel bad for Hamlet, the reader is left hating Claudius for what he has done. Additionally, this is a very important scene in the play.
[SS -1] [Is the last sentence in this paragraph the thesis?] Before the events of the play Ophelia[,] the daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes, tells us that Hamlet was a model courtier, soldier, and scholar, ["? ]The glass of fashion and the mould of form, Th’ observed of all observers. "( pg 676) [Citation] With the death of his farther [sic] and the hasty remarriage of his mother to mother [sic & sloppy] to his uncle, throws Hamlet into a frustrated state were [where-H50] he lashes out at evil he sees and then relapse into a suicidal misery. [SS] It is in the [this?]
God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! This is the first time that the reader sees Hamlet’s inner turmoil as he considers committing suicide over the death of his father but decides he cannot, for the consequence would be hell. It is important to note that purgatory and hell are referenced numerous times throughout the play as a consequence for giving into selfish thoughts or actions. In this particular instance however, this soliloquy also lends to the idea that Hamlet is insane due to the passing of his father.