He states ‘tis an unweeded garden’ alluding to the fact that a false king leads to corruption which finally leads to the collapse of the hierarchy. Initially Hamlet has no internal conflict when it comes to avenging his father’s murder, but he is very quickly drawn into contemplation about the world and mortality. Hamlet as a character is enigmatic and it is these aspects of his personality that allow for his pondering of the world. In his Act 3 Scene 3 soliloquy, Hamlet finally reveals to the audience that he is going to honour his fallen father and avenge his death. However, his reasoning behind hesitation is that Claudius will go to heaven with a forgiven soul ‘and so he goes to heaven’.
He’s useless tricks display vanity and indicate his wastefulness to the audience. The Tempest is a problem play; Prospero is presented with the opportunity for spiteful revenge but realises the importance of forgiveness. Doctor Faustus is a morality play; he never realises the importance of repentance and banishes any opportunity to save himself, which results in his eternal damnation in hell. In the first act of the play, the audience is confronted with a magic fuelled spectacle. We see Prospero with the help or Ariel conjures the tempest.
But later on, we discover Hamlet is not mad, and that it was all just an act. He puts back on his shoes, and the killing begins. Hamlet is only crazy in the purpose of fooling his step-uncle, to confess to killing the king. Hamlet craves the vengeance, and is successful in a way Claudius ends up paying for his deed. But at the end, everyone loses and dies except Horatio.
Three critical character in the play that completely display a character flaw are Hamlet with his over- thinking nature, Ophelia with her emotional weakness and Polonius with his absolute loyalty to the king. One of Hamlet’s most popular character flaws is that he over thinks matters of controversial value, and situations in which actions need to be taken. The most important part of the play, where Hamlet displays his flaw of over thinking matters, is when he is about to kill King Claudius. He ultimately does not go through with the plan, and says that he could not kill Claudius when he was in confessional because then Claudius would go to heaven, and that would not conclude in revenge. Hamlet also demonstrates his flaw when he says “That would be scanned,”(Shakespeare III.iii.76) which basically means that he wants think more about the situation at hand, before following it through.
But he does. While Hamlet slowly is driven mad by visits from the ghost of his father and the scheming plots of his uncle Claudius, the one thing that actually keeps Hamlet focused and centered are his feelings for Ophelia. Hamlet’s seemingly unreasonable actions and questionable motives toward her are all part of a ruse to fool everybody at court and actually protect her from being used as leverage by the murderous King Claudius. There are several moments where Hamlet professes his love for Ophelia in moments where he didn’t have to, which in my opinion point to where his heart really lies. Let’s explore the moments within the text where Hamlet actually used his smarts to trick the other conniving characters into thinking that he didn’t love Ophelia and was going insane instead.
The first impression most have of the Fool is that his presence serves as form of comic relief, in order to set a lighter tone to the play; however, because of this, his death is crucial to the bleak ending of the play. The Fool uses wit, rhyme and music and criticises Lear in an entertaining way, alleviating some of the tension particularly when Lear has been cast out in the cold night by his daughters. The fool remarks ‘naughty night to swim in’, in which the alliteration bring rhythm to his words, and the verb ‘swim’ highlights the rainy weather and the danger it poses for Lear’s health. ‘Naughty’ also suggests disobedience, which has been demonstrated by Lear’s daughters, however by using it instead to refer to the ‘night’, the Fool deflects the blame and attempts to draw Lear into the present in order to reach clarity. His comedy is so great that he is able to transcend normal societal rules; Elizabethan England was an incredibly hierarchal society in which absolute respect ought to be shown to those in power, and yet although he is a servant, the Fool’s humorous nature seems to exempt him from the expectation of respectfulness.
Emily Van Bibber Mr. McGinn Shakespeare’s Plays 7 February 2012 The Persona of Hamlet In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet to be incredibly smart and cunningly witty; however, these characteristics do not define Hamlet. Hamlet’s persona is defined by his conflicted position and inability to make a decision. These defining traits precipitate his procrastination and further his melancholic disposition. Hamlet’s most obvious character flaw is his indecisiveness. Most often, Hamlet makes comments that suggest he is going to seek immediate revenge from his father’s murderer, but he remains stagnant.
He compares himself to the actor, that just recited the speech on Pyrrhus filled with so much passion and grief by just acting this revenge story, and how he (Hamlet) cannot show his grief at all even though he is experiencing in real life the role the actor is portraying. Hamlet even begins to wonder if he is going to do anything about his father’s wishes. “Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak like a john-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause” (542-544). Here Hamlet tells himself that all he has done is mope around feeling sorry for himself and he hasn’t even bothered to come up with plans for revenge. He begins to show thoughts of how the task he was given is seen as overwhelming to him.
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.
This is one area in which perhaps Macbeth as a tragic hero is distinct, as in other cases, such as Julius Caesar, he ignores his wife's advice. If Macbeth's tragic flaw is his ambition, in other tragic heroes the hamartia is different. In King Lear, for example, Lear is undone by his own strong pride that causes him to mistake his two unfaithful daughters to be faithful and to identify the one daughter that loves him truly as being ungrateful. Cordelia's response in honestly only giving her father the love that it is her duty to give backfires disastrously, even though she retains her integrity, as Lear ends up disowning her: Here I disclaim all my parental care, Propinquity, and property of blood, And as a stranger to my heart and me Hold thee from this forever. Lear's tragedy is made in the foolish decision that his pride drives him to in Act I scene 1, and he is distinct from the tragic hero of Macbeth in the nature of his tragic flaw and in the fact that throughout the play he is only surrounded by characters who love him, support him and want what is best for him.