The Tragedy of Hamlet - A Complete Analysis (Shakespeare's Works Explained)

the tragedy of Hamlet perhaps better known as it's shorter and simpler title Hamlet is a tragedy written by Shakespeare sometime in the late 16th or 17th century and appears to be his longest play there are those that consider Hamlet to be one of Shakespeare's most powerful and influential works in that the story is perhaps one of the most performed plays and is easily recreated in various adaptations it's understood that Shakespeare's Hamlet was inspired by The Legend of Ameth a figure in medieval Scandinavian legend which was preserved by the 13th century chronicler sexo grammatical which similarly

to Hamlet sees the hero's seek vengeance for the death of his father by the hand of his uncle there are also ideas that Shakespeare drew upon inspiration from an Elizabethan play known as a hamlet though the others that believed that this was an early draft by Shakespeare and what would eventually become the hamlet we all know today the story takes place in the late Middle Ages of Denmark and sees a ghost walk in the ramparts of Elsinore castle a ghost that is spotted by a pair of Watchmen amongst them is Horatio a learned man who

recognizes the ghost as none other than the King Hamlet a recently deceased king whose brother Claudius has inherited his throne and married his brother's wife Gertrude freaked out by the uncanny resemblance of the ghost King Hamlet Horatio summons Prince Hamlet the son of the deceased King to seed for himself stunned by what he too is seen Hamlet decides that this is indeed his father who as a ghost tells him that he was unjustly murdered by his brother Claudius who has stolen the throne his queen and his entire life he orders Hamlet to seek revenge for

such an injustice and to kill Claudius for his treachery Hamlet understands what he must do but his nature as an introspective and thoughtful young man causes him to delay his approach as he questions his own moral compass and the concepts of death fate and judgment his inability to organize his thoughts and to process the reality his dead father has told him causes him to enter an apparent madness the now king claudius and his wife Gertrude Hamlet's mother begin to worry about Hamlet's erratic behavior and seek to understand why his behavior is suddenly so peculiar they

employ Rosencrantz and Guildenstern two of Hamlet's close friends to spy on him and to learn why it is he demonstrates such an eccentricity a pompous law Chamberlain by the name Polonius claims to know the route of Hamlet's strange behavior and that it is simply his undying love for his daughter of failure that has drawn him to madness but after observing Haman in conversation with Ophelia Claudius decides that this is not the case and that while Hamlet is certainly behaving like a man who is mad he's not mad in love more at least with failure at

some point a group of traveling actors arrived in Elsinore to perform plays and Hamlet seizes the opportunity to test whether Claudius is actually a murderer or not he asks the performers to act out a scene that would have likely resembled the sequence by which Claudius kills King Hamlet Hamlet's reasoning is that if Claudius reacts and this would certainly be a demonstration of his guilt the actors perform for the Royals and when the moment of truth presents itself Claudius appears to be disgruntled and storms off thus confirming Hamlet's suspicions this spurs on an iconic scene where

Hamlet goes to kill Claudius only to fight him praying what Hamlet could have struck he hesitates believing that by killing Claudius while he is praying would surely send his soul to heaven a fate sooo kind for one who had murdered his father therefore he decides to wait and flees the scene to go and comfort his mother during this moment we understand that Claudius intends to send Hamlet away to England but he believes his nephew is truly insane and begins to fear for his own safety as Hamlet makes his way to his mother's chambers he's unaware

that Polonius is present discussing that Hamlet's prank the play has deeply upset the King and that Hamlet should be reprimanded when Polonius hears Hamlet coming he hides behind a tapestry as Hamlet enters he speaks with his mother Gertrude but upon hearing movement and behind the tapestry he suspects it to be Claudius and does not hesitate to draw his sword and stab you through the fabric unbeknownst to him this is of course Polonius and the murder of this nobleman sees Hamlet immediately dispatched to England along with his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who were still serving as

spies for the Queen what Claudius has planned for Hamlet isn't just a banishment as he has Rosencrantz and Guildenstern carry sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet is put to death whether or not Hamlet's friends are aware that they carry orders of Hamlet's death is not known but we are told that Hamlet becomes aware of these orders and actually alters the documents implicating both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as the ones who should be executed during this time Hamlet surrenders himself over to a pirate ship as a royal prisoner in an attempt to ransom

himself back to Denmark with Polonius dead his daughter of failure goes mad with grief and appears to kill herself by drowning in the river hello niece's son Laertes who was seen in the beginning of the play leaving for France returns to Denmark in a rage and begins to foster his own vengeance and desire for revenge against none other than Prince Hamlet Claudius receives a letter from Hamlet alerting him that he is returning to Denmark as pirates attack the ship on route to England and that there were no means to continue the journey seeing an opportunity

to put an end to handle it once and for all Claudius had to suffer plan by instrumentalizing Laertes thirst for revenge he talks to Laertes about having a fencing match with Hamlet in what would appear to be an innocent game however Claudius intends to poison Laertes blade so that if he draws blood Hamlet will die they even established a back-up plan that sees Claudius poison a goblet of water which he plans to give to Hamlet to drink if Flaherty's is unable to draw blood Hamlet returns to Denmark and is stunned to find a fellas funeral

is taking place stricken with grief Hamlet makes a scene and declares that he had always loved a failure the confrontation between himself and Laertes also takes place later on in the evening Hamlet is with Horatio where a courtier named ostrich informs Hamlet of the fencing match that will take place between him and Laertes when the match does take place Hamlet scores the first hit and proceeds to decline drinking the poison Goblet of water instead it is his mother Gertrude who sips from it and is quick to die as a result of this before she collapses

however Nattie succeeds in scoring a hits on Hamlet contaminating him with the poison however in a cruel twist of fate they end up in a scuffle and their blades are misplaced Hamlet picks up Laertes poisoned sword without realizing and scores a hit on him when Gertrude collapses and dies Nettie's soon follows but reveals to Hamlet in his dying words that the blade was poisoned and that this was all a plan by himself and Claudius he also notifies him that he too has been struck by the poison and that there is no cure realizing his death

is seconds away Hamlet impales Claudius with the poisoned blade and forces him to drink what's left of the poison Claudius dies moments after but Hamlet lingers for a few more moments where he tells Horatio to tell his story at this moment the Norwegian Prince named Fortinbras arrives on the scene only to be astonished at the gruesome sight before him the entire royal family sprawled out on the floor having murdered one another he moves to take power over the kingdom but not before Horatio fulfills Hamlet's last a quest and recalls the story of the late prince

Walton brass sees heroism at Hamlet's sad tale and requests for the prince to be carried away in a manner reserved for a fallen soldier Hamlet as a character has boggled the minds of readers for the longest of times with such questions as is this character mad as the most enigmatic character in the play and arguably one of Shakespeare's most enigmatic characters across all of his works Hamlet's personality is rife with complexities some of which the characters of the play struggle to understand in fact you might say that Hamlet's mind is so rogue and complicated that

the character himself may not truly understand his own thoughts nor how he has come to produce them Hamlet is noted as been a university student implying that he is a well-read man with a certain intellect which may have been a contemporary stigma that only the smartest of the smart attended such educational establishments nowadays if you could write your name in crayon you'll basically entitled to a university degree so I don't believe the idea that Hamlet is smart because of his education but more so that the basis of his intellect is something more innate he demonstrates

the high emotional intelligence being able to question his own morality and the morality of his peers he is aware of the implications of his own behavior to an extent and appears to be conscious of how he has been perceived as well as how to use it to his advantage an example of this is where we see Hamlet outwit Polonius simply by playing up to the rumor that he is suffering from insanity perhaps one of Hamlet's most notable traits is his ability to realize that despite his philosophical contemplations let's see him stand taller than his fellow

characters he doesn't succumb to arrogance and admits that he doesn't have all the answers something which appears to him as the play goes on and the stakes become higher one of the things that Hamlet doesn't have the answer to is does Claudius deserve to die while Hamlet is fired up by the ghost in the beginning he does suffer from doubt throughout the story and strives for confirmation that he's doing the right thing others in his shoes may have recognized their own intelligence decided that they were right and gone straight for the kill but again we

see Hamlet's emotional intelligence shine through in that he's not so bold as to kill a man dead without certain proof and act he ironically commits against Polonius his obsession to prove his uncle's guilt costs Hamlet everything a certain level of Honor is attributed here to Hamlet because the standard of innocent until proven guilty rings true for him despite being told by the ghost that Claudius is guilty Hamlet recognizes that cold-blooded murder may not be the best way to go about this endeavor until he's absolutely sure he does not go against this self established more it's

orchestrating of the plate to entrap Claudius shows the levels he's willing to go to preserve his honor and his convictions and he only decides to strike after he's witnessed Claudius is obvious guilt in his reaction to the play you might say the Hamlet's observation here though may not have been sound because his feelings were so entangled with fury and rage that he may have misinterpreted what he saw however Hamlet even has Horatio a trusted friend confirm what he has seen before acting once again showing how cautious Hamlet is in that he wouldn't strike until he

was absolutely sure of course in typical tragedy fashion all of Hamlet's caution and commitment to his own ideals of proving his enemy's guilt is virtually undone when he kills Polonius by accident you notice at this point Hamlet is fired up after having seen Claudius as guilt which he believed to have been true and so with that in mind he abandons his caution and commits to his quest absolutely he no longer considers the possibility of being wronged and so when he sees movement behind a tapestry he strikes without reserve this of course demonstrates his brashness showing

us how even a moment of abandoning our ideals can cost us in the end you might link it to a temptation even that we let our guard down and enjoy the immediate reward only to regret it immediately afterwards it's more closely linked for what it is though and that's to show us that while hesitation can stall a man's hand forever impulsiveness can have lifelong consequences whether or not Hamlet is mad or not is perhaps one of the main themes in the story the story shows that Hamlet is able to speak in riddles and yet seems

to be able to convey his meaning plainly - can we assume that Hamlet is just simply a bit of a pompous twit in that he speaks in complex rigmarole so as to certify himself as more intelligent than the other characters or is this a character that is literally stepping in and out of madness almost like a schizophrenic we see him brutally shut down a failure with proclamations that he never wants to get married least of all to her only to later mourn her at her funeral and declare that he loved her we see him willingly

engaged in an untimely fencing met with Laertes FLE as brother a man who'd accused him of the death of his sister and yet despite his intelligence he senses nothing amiss about this invitation to fence and complies wholeheartedly perhaps homeless madness is spurred on by a depression a state he is placed in when considering the death of his father the nature of his death and the realization of facing the world and his royal responsibilities without his father's guidance perhaps Hamlet is not necessarily mad but stricken with grief crippling him from processing his thoughts and causing him

to demonstrate erratic behaviour by today's standards we would probably identify depression and having it quite quickly given that he makes no effort to hide it he wears black constantly openly speaks about his low mood and pessimistically rants at the audience he also talks to the audience about suicide death and gives us the impression that he would rather join his father in the grave then be burdened with the task of living in essence Hamlet is the guy on Facebook who complains about how much his life sucks but makes no real changes to try and better himself

he runs to the audience and declares how woeful everything is and how unhappy his quest has made him and yet he continues to follow this path until the end on the other hand you might say that this makes Hamlet older more heroic and that he carries on with his life and his quest despite being undeniably unhappy while I agree with this I think it would certainly be more noble if he did it without moaning every chance he gets to be alone with the audience which is a lot by the way when I look at Prince

Hamlet on a grander scale my sympathy and admiration can only go so far indeed the death of his father at the hands of his own uncle is a terrible crime and certainly one that would distort the mind of anyone but Hamlet does not adapt to the situation at all in my opinion from his own introspections to his sloppy attempts I've avenged Hamlet at the root of all things is a student and his immaturity is certainly evident I suppose by this I should cut him some slack for he is not a man but more like a

boy his journey into manhood has only just begun and therefore we should forgive him for some of his misgivings but by the gods he is a whiner and I wonder if Horatio had just given him a slap and told him to man up it might have been more saving grace for our greenhorn hero he mopes about like his own life is over and while I don't mean to belittle his mental capacity to process his grief I certainly expect more from a person in his position let's not forget that this is the prince a member of

the royal society who will potentially be king one day and yet he gives no concern for Denmark's shaken political state in the wake of his father's death nor what the repercussions is doing to neighboring countries some of which could capitalize on the unrest in the society he only Ponder's on his own problems and only looks at the state of society from a philosophical standpoint not one of practicality by the end of the story Fortinbras even shows up with his army and so it needs me to question how Hamlet would have handled losing not only his

father but his riches too when Fortinbras or some other opportunist inevitably took control if he was that depressed when he had servants and a fancy home imagine how he would have felt living in the Warrens with nothing some might say that yes he did have all these riches but no amount of riches can buy one happiness and this is certainly true but all things considered I'd rather cry in a Bentley then on a bus a final note in this analysis is the craftiness of Hamlet and the side of him that actually gives him more of

a villainous persona of course I'm talking about his killing of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern while he does not strike them himself he more than certainly ensures their doom by replacing his name with theirs on the execution orders it is perhaps a point which I feel is too out of character and something of a blot on the play how many may have seen his former friends possession of the execution orders as the ultimate betrayal but deciding their fate for himself seems a touch out of character given he had since shied away from blood war and things of

that nature however you might also say that after killing Polonius even though by accident Hamlet acquires a taste for blood and now sees how easy it is to end a life you might also say that his killing of his former friends is a sign of his madness and that no one is safe his flexible morality it makes Claudius's demise seem almost inevitable because no longer is he dealing with the philosophical boy who lamented about his life but now a scheming killer in essence Hamlet takes a leaf out of Claudius's book here and shows us that

he too is just as malicious putting the two on an equal footing and setting them up for an explosive showdown so to sum up Hamlet has some profound ideals and thoughts and maintains a great deal of honor that does cut him from the same cloth as a typical hero however he also possesses too much of a bleak outlook to be the sort of hero we would look up to and appears to be selfish enough to only care about his own mission and his own wind occasion in the eyes of his father's ghost now that I'm

hearing speck am I actually moaning about Hamlet moaning does this make me as bad as him no no of course not Hamlet is wrong I'm right next Claudius probably my favorite character in the entire play after Horatio who seems to know how to keep out of the family drama are still living in a thick of it Claudius on the other hand is clearly the instigator of the events and certainly the main villain if not the only villain either shrewd conniving and highly intelligent King it appears to have a great understanding of people and how people

act with the exception of Hamlet of course no one understands that he knows how to work his way around Gertrude given he's able to kill her husband and marry her thereafter but he also appears to be skilled with negotiation as we see him successfully correspond with the kings of other nations to get what he wants usually without having to do anything arduous in return where Claudius differs from the other men in the story are his motives we understand that Hamlet is preoccupied with justice and revenge hello Gnaeus is concerned with the safety of his children

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are concerned with Hamlet's well-being and all maintaining the facade as his friends as they moonlight as spies for Gertrude Claudius though seems only concerned with power and how best to maintain it preferably without getting his own hands dirty through this he comes across as a tactician and maybe a coward depending on how you're looking at it especially when comparing him to the former king who was a stern warrior even buried in his armor Claudius is certainly more of a politician than a warrior and we see this by the way he tries to

appease Hamlet in the beginning as opposed to just outright removing him despite Hamlet posing a potential threat because of his claim to the throne Claudius's weapon is certainly his mouth which he uses not only just try and pacify Hamlet and get him on side but also perhaps more crudely to seduce Gertrude in the first place in fact some might say that despite his cowardice he's the most dangerous character in the story where his words are even compared to poison poison being the weapon that he used to kill the former king as well as what he

uses against Hamlet by using poison it furthermore exemplifies the idea that Claudius is a coward but also that he is sly and self-preserving ruthless enough to end his enemies but smart enough to do it without incriminating himself one point of contention regarding Claudius is his love for Gertrude is this genuine or is this just a strategic move to secure his own power but personally I think it's the latter we don't see Claudius give much in the way of affections for his wife he declares his love but this is usually done with an audience of other

characters as if to keep up appearances it might also be said that Claudius is simply falling into the category of men that Polonius describes to a failure when he warns her about Hamlet's letters that the affections of men mean nothing and that love is merely a passing whim he declares that rails are stupid and that men like Hamlet are lying through their teeth when they speak of love or at least not true in their convictions Claudius could very well be one of these men so colorfully painted by Polonius that he's lying to Gertrude so as

to sustain his prominence as King for the most part though I don't think Claudius Minds having Gertrude as a queen and what he doesn't shower her with affection he doesn't express dissatisfaction for her presence either in fact he seems momentarily concerned when she picks up the Goblet of poison intended for Hamlet and even tells her not to drink it however this may also be him trying to salvage his plan as he really intends for Hamlet to drink it and to prevent himself and being incriminating as the assassin you notice he doesn't physically try to stop

Gertrude from drinking which would have raised suspicion and when she does drink he doesn't express much regret in knowing that she is about to die he also seems far more preoccupied with his own safety when Hamlet kills Polonius declaring that he could have died that night had he been in the room he shows no concern for Gertrude who was in the room that night and was the closest person to the murder given that it happened right before her eyes throughout the play Claudius grows more wary of Hamlet's sanity going to such lengths as to send

him away to England when this ultimately fails though Claudius begins to over planned for Hamlet's demise which effectively ensured his own downfall Claudius allows his disdain for Hamlet to become so potent that when plotting with Laertes to kill Hamlet with the poisoned blades he insists on adding poison water to his arsenal so as to ensure Hamlet's end the irony of course in this is that Claudius's meticulous planning works too well and sees girls who drink from the Goblin Claudius is then felled by his own devious mecha nation but Hamlet stabs him at the end of

the play Claudius isn't a typical antagonist given he seemingly operates within the laws of the kingdom and gets by relatively well with the other characters gaining favor with more of them then the protagonist Hamlet does if you were to ask any other characters who they'd rather have at their dinner party I'm sure they'd all say the [ __ ] your King Claudius as opposed to the energy Ram pyre that is Hamlet it's this contrast that shows a quite unique take on the themes of good versus evil where we'd expect our protagonists to be cheerful and

ambitious in our antagonist to be gloomy and vengeful by this I believe Claudius makes a compelling villain and a great character and he'll stop at nothing to achieve his goals and does so for the most part with subtle tact and deadly efficiency Gertrud perhaps one of the most ambiguous characters in the whole play Gertrude the beautiful Queen of Denmark has inspired a lot of speculation as to who she is what her motives are whether she is a good Queen did she love Hamlet senior does she love Claudius or is she using him to maintain her

royal position does she believe in Hamlet's madness and perhaps most importantly is she in on the whole assassination of her husband frailty thy name is a woman States Hamlet demonstrating how angry he is at his mother but depend upon Claudius a theme explored throughout the play that suggests that women are entirely dependent on their male counterparts that they are weak but they are untrustworthy or otherwise unreliable you might say that Gertrude dependence on Claudius is either an emotional crutch in the wake of her husband's death or perhaps a political necessity in that without him she

has no claim to the throne it says a lot about her character if this letter idea is true in that she is as much duty-bound as Claudius perhaps even more so in that she willingly marries him and shares the same bed as him despite not loving him you might say that Gertrude is a strong woman because of this that she stops at nothing to retain her throne even between the memory of her late husband as Hamlet is quick to point out and marry his brother on the other hand you might say that Gertrude is a

power-hungry witch as she was stupid slow to marry her husband's brother and perhaps even her husband's murderer if she knew of the act all in an effort to maintain her queenship the does Gertrud have any motives well that depends on whether you think she was aware of Hamlet seniors death if she was then yes you can't say her motive is to maintain that position as Queen regardless of the moral implications but you might also say that Gertrude was a victim of circumstance fearful of Claudius ters relentlessness and scheming that she quietly went along with in

a bid to survive you'll notice that Claudius never actually confides in Gertrude about his motives and so it's more likely that she is not aware of his devious antics many have described the concept of a widow as a survivor at least in a traditional sense where a woman now alone would need to make up for the absence of her deceased mate whether this be in a financial stipulation or otherwise you may see Gertrude as this survivor - well she understands that her role as Queen and a political influence doesn't need to end just because her

husband's life has his Gertrude Noble by this endeavor I'd like to think so but she doesn't show her emotion to her deceased husband and sort of just gets on with it stiff upper lip and all that might also see Gertrude to serve as a protective character demonstrating her motherly instincts as she lies for Hamlet telling Claudius that he wept for Polonius even though he didn't so as to perhaps get him off the hook perhaps all of Gertrude's conversations have her son Hamlet at the heart of them we never hear her talk about the state of

Denmark or her own official responsibilities but instead only those that pertain to her son she plots with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with Hamlet's well-being in mind and even expresses her desire to see Hamlet happy when speaking with Ophelia all in all I think Gertrude genuinely comes from a place of innocence and good intentions but for her circumstances caused her to compromise her own happiness for the sake of the throne and the safety of her son and his questionable mental health one of the other big questions surrounding Gertrude is does she love Claudius the short answer probably

not Claudius needs Gertrude as a means to solidify his ascension to the throne and similarly Gertrude needs Claudius to maintain her status as queen and possibly to prevent her life from further changing it's also from a position as Queen that she is better suited to protect Hamlet by this logic their union is rooted in their own personal needs to either further achieve that which they desire or to maintain that which they already have a failure a Friendly's role in the play roles around her relationships with three men she's the daughter of Polonius a sister of

narratives and up until the beginning of the plays events she's also been romantically involved with the breaker of hearts himself of course Hamlet seriously Hamlet has a smoking babe like Ofelia thirsty for reciprocation and yet he's still in a pissy mood a completely missed opportunity if you ask me what was I talking about again I'll write a failure so a failure is frequently seen at the whims of the men in her life from the very first scene of a failure we see Laertes advising her over the predicament with Hamlet only doesn't necessarily come across as

manipulative or aggressive he does appease to her with a morbid point that Hamlet advances are just flirtations and that his liking for her will not last you might say he speaks out of line by assuming Hamlet who is a royal blood will soon have no time for her as he fulfills his own family obligations he explains to her that if it fits your wisdom so far to believe it as he in his particular act and place may give his saying deed which is no further than the main voice of Denmark goes withal then wait what

lost your honor may sustain if with to tread an ear you list his songs or lose your heart or chase treasure open what he essentially tells her is that Hamlet will always put Denmark and his family first and that he will only love her as far as the country will allow him to his message is a cautionary message telling her to be mindful of what Hamlet tells her and not to allow herself to fall for him so readily by this Laertes can be seen as a brotherly consult one who wants only for the best for

his sister but also who is weary of the politics which may cause her pain in the long run when an if Hamlet chooses his family over her hello Gnaeus echoes dirty statements though for perhaps the wrong reasons in the long run about Hamlet and men in general going on to say of men in love that when the blood burns how prodigal the soul lends the tongue rails the blazes daughter giving more light than heat extinct in both essentially what he means is that when a young man is infatuated he will say anything to get what

he wants even though he may believe in these things himself he is wrong and that though it may be exciting and intense it will always welter before long a fairy appears to be subservient to this rant and shows us that a failure is oppressed or at least heavily influenced by the men in her family but it also shows us the insecurities of Polonius at his duty to protect his daughter not just from Hamlet but from all men it all stems from the idea that fathers may perceive that no man is good enough for their daughter

and that they want their daughters to avoid men because they know better than any of what man is capable other ideas suggest that Laertes and Polonius are just jealous of the love between Hamlet and Ophelia because they themselves do not appear to experience the same monogamous relationships throughout the story regardless a failure appears to accept their counsel but later on we see Polonius begin to tighten his hold on a failure as Hamlet state of mind continues to deteriorate as far as the other characters are concerned this is Polonius urge of failure never to see Hamlet

again and that she should return all of his letters and gifts and reject him but particularly spiteful and perhaps unwise play on behalf of Polonius either he's essentially kicking the hornet's nest by further compromising Hamlet's mental state of course this might actually contribute to Hamlet's brush folly as he inadvertently stabs Polonius what Hamlet is rejected by a failure he doesn't take the news as gracefully as a prince or any man should for that matter in fact it unleashes him into a tirade about misogyny it goes on to say some hurtful and petty things including that

of failure should join a nunnery and that he had never intended to marry her anyway he goes on to tell her that if thou dost marry I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry be thou as chaste as ice as pure as snow thou shalt not escape calumny get me to a nunnery go farewell or if thou wilt needs marry marry a fool for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them to a nunnery go and quickly to farewell by this he tells her that if she does remarry he will hope for

the curse of his own burden to be bestowed upon her and then if she is to remarry she should aim to marry a fool because if she marries anyone smarter they will already know that women are monsters and that they will treat them poorly by this he implies that a failure would make a poor wife an abusive wife and possibly even a wife that would cheat on her spouse as he believes all women up for him to do basically he doesn't take the break-up well it's perhaps a combination of her father's death and Hamlet's tyree

that the presses are failures so much that she kills herself if Elias death is tragic in a sense that she didn't really do anything wrong that the loss of her innocence comes about because of Hamlet's actions he not only breaks her heart but proceeds to kill her father causing her to spiral into an ambiguous madness perhaps just as ambiguous as Hamlet's Polonius finally there is Polonius the definition of wrong place at the wrong time we see Polonius come across quite early on as a concerned and yet proud father who loves both of his children dearly

we understand that his love is genuine because of how expressive he is about his hesitation to allow his son Laertes to go abroad he's also equally concerned for his daughter of failure who he cherishes dearly enough to explain the pitfalls around men and desire and takes what some may say is a bold move to forbid her from pursuing a relationship with Hamlet while he comes across here as overbearing or overprotective it is interesting that some might say he is right on the money with his asset ations for Hamlet is instrumental in a failures later suicide

hello nice is bond with his children in a sense that they are both loyal and obedient to him despite such bold requests shows us a striking contrast to the dysfunctional family of Hamlet we can see this by the way in which Hamlet responds to Claudius though not his real father of course but a man who you might say is filling the shoes of his role Hamlet though repeatedly undermines Claudius disobeys him and downright ignores him at some points Hamlet also shows his mother Gertrude the same level of disrespect if not more so as he challenges

her motives questions her morality and condemns her decisions we never see Laertes Orfalea speak this way to their father suggesting that Polonius raised them with a level of obedience where respect was likely at the forefront of their childhood Polonius is born with his children is a strong one which becomes evident in the wake of his death and the way affects his children the failure is affected by the grief so much so as she goes mad which leads on to her killing herself meanwhile Laertes seeks the vengeance on Hamlet and is so passionate about this endeavor

that he is quick to accept the schemes of Claudius and go along with the ruse that would lead to Hamlet's downfall unlike Hamlet you notice how much conviction Laertes has to avenge his father he doesn't waste time dilly-dallying about whether it's the right thing to do nor where for this recourse is substantiated with proof he simply wants to kill Hamlet for what has taken place and needs no more than that by this it can be deduced that the bond between Laertes had with Polonius exceeds the strength of the bond between Hamlet and his father but

if he loved his father as much as Laertes appears to love Polonius he may have been more relentless in his pursuit for revenge but there are those who believe the fatherly Polonius was merely a facade of a much more devious man indeed to his kids he may have been the world but beyond that he may very well have been a scummy as Claudius we see Polonius in Rinaldo to spy on Laertes while he's abroad and to make sure he's not engaging in gambling drinking or hiring prostitutes you might say he is doing so out of

concern for his own son's well-being and reputation however it also shows us how sly Polonius is that he does not trust his own children he demonstrates signs of the paranoid father in his spying on Laertes and goes on to show more signs of this trait by his warding off of failure from the advances of Hamlet we also see Polonius use his own daughter like a pawn where he uses a failure to bait Hamlet into a dialogue so that he and Claudius can determine where the Hamlet is mad or not the fact that he uses his

own daughter in this way placing her in arm's reach of a suspected madman just to prove a point does not sound very fatherly in fact quite the opposite it shows us a lack of regard for his daughter in her he's willing to place her in the wake of a potential madman in Hamlet just to prove a point will be proved right before the king another side note about Polonius is that he certainly adopts the role as a comic relief character he continuously speaks highly upon himself but proceeds to do the opposite through his actions I

mean who hides behind a tapestry personally if I was Polonius and heard Hamlet marching down the hallway I'd have jumped straight into Gertrude's bed there and then and given a young prince even more nightmares and more potential years of therapy to work through but back to my point hello Gnaeus really is the idiot of the play he's prone to these long drawn-out monologues that give off the illusion of intellect but in one instance tops it all off by saying brevity is the soul of wit he embarrasses himself without realizing it in instances like these and

when he's not inadvertently taking shots at himself someone else is serving him up humble pie Hamlet does this early on where he purposely mistakes Polonius for a fishmonger undermining his rank as a nobleman and intentionally ceding doubt into Polonius's mind doubt funnily enough is one of the central themes of the story or at least the difficulty of being certain in oneself colonias lack of self-awareness in his moments are parallel to Hamlet's like a self-awareness and his struggle with the determining of what should be done and what shouldn't ironically perhaps the only thing that Polonius is

absolutely sure of and correct about or his final words where he is murdered by Hamlet and simply utters oh I am slain now that we've covered the central characters of the play I'll spend the next bit of the video talking about some of the themes and as well as quotes that stood out for me doubt I'll have grounds more relative than this as I touched upon earlier one of the central themes around Hamlet is doubt and their lack of self belief or belief in one's own thoughts and ideas as we've mentioned Hamlet isn't a constant

war in his own mind as he deliberates whether murder is wrong and whether the ghost is correct in its condemnation of Claudius or whether he should even be the one to go about exacting justice we see him state in act two all have grounds more relative than this meaning he'll have to have more evidence that he's doing the right thing before wholeheartedly committing to this quest for the remainder of the act Hamlet delayed his revenge as he begins to ponder on whether the ghost is even his father and not some devil goading him into a

terrible sin with this in mind Hamlet goes out of his way to prove Claudius is guilt for himself which sees him set up his own play to gauge the Kings reaction to the fictional murder throughout the play Hamlet cannot decide on being sure of absolutely anything including his mother's intentions his love for a failure or even whether he himself is sane I did love you once the theme of doubt spreads into relationships - most notably Hamlet's doubts towards failure and women in general he tells her failure in acts 3 I did love you once but

later clarifies that this is no longer the case by telling her you should not believe me for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it I loved you not he's essentially telling her that no one can inoculate their old stock or no one can ever change the bad things about themselves and that everyone is truly rotten at the core this leads him to tell her I loved you not you can imagine how you might feel if someone declared their love for you through gifts mementos and letters only to turn around

and decide that they don't love you and actually never did it would no doubt create doubt confusion and possibly even despair something we understand that of failure suffers through the doubt between Hamlet and a failure is something we see in modern-day relationships where both one party or both parties hold reservations as to whether their partner actually loves them or not the audience of the play are also forced to experience this doubt for we cannot be sure of what Hamlet feels towards a failure or any other woman for that matter given a his outbursts about women

comes about out of anger from being rejected the rest is silence doubt is never truly overcome in the entirety of the play most notably Hamlet's doubts about everything in fact you might say that his doubt is only magnified by the events towards the end of the play including at the climax of his death Hamlet does not Pine over the end of his life but instead embraces it cherishes it almost as if this was indeed the answer all along his final words the rest is silence shows us that Hamlet understands that this is the end and

that to some degree he accepts this but he's nowhere closer to relieving his doubt he still does not know whether the ghost was his father's whether his course of revenge was the right one or more important what's going to happen now that he's dead Hamlet is left with more questions than he ever had before but he seems to accept this and find some peace at last he starts by the end of the play where he resigns himself to just uttering the rest is silence shows us that Hamlet maybe did gain some wisdom in that while

his questions and doubts only grew he also accepts that he cannot ever be truly certain of anything it's almost reminiscent of the Greek philosopher Socrates who once said I know that I know nothing the burden of action or quest there are many times throughout the play where we see Hamlet openly express that he is burdened by the responsibility of avenging his father now he sees the entire quest as not only a personal Redemption but as a far grander task like he's restoring some much-needed balance to the universe by this the task seems monumental and not

something that one man least of all him could hope to achieve and he allows this to play on his mind throughout the entire play he states in Act one Scene five to Horatio and the other gods after seeing the ghost that the time is out of joint Oh curse despite that if I was born to set it right by this Hamlet assumes that the purpose of his life was being born to set right this one particular wrong whatever ambitions he may have had prior to this encounter appear to vanish and suddenly Hamlet finds himself with

a single profound motive that he must avenge his father by suggesting that time is out of joint he exaggerated the task or at least gives us a peek into how troubling this task will be for him and the pain it causes him in trying to achieve it by associating it with time being out of joint and that he is the only one to fix it it shows us that Hamlet does not feel qualified to fulfill this endeavor nor does he seen as fair others might say that it reveals more about Hamlet than the situation itself

in that he compares his father's assassination to time being out of joint is just plain arrogant and that it is he who is out of joint by making such a comparison some might say that Hamlet is succumbing to the mindset of a man who has allowed his problem to grow root and has already surrendered to it in act 4 scene 4 we see Hamlet addressed the audience again in one of his joyful monologues where he tells us now whether it be bestial oblivion or some craven scruple of thinking too precisely of the event a thought

which quartered hath but one pot wisdom and ever three parts coward I do not know why yet I live to say this thinks to do SIF I of course and will and strength and means to do it in this he tells us that he himself doesn't understand why he has not yet killed Claudius for he has the cause the will and the strength to do it and yet he has not made his move he doesn't know whether it is beastial oblivion implying that he may lack the wisdom to fulfill the task or whether it is

due to some craven scruple implying he is not brave enough to do it or maybe it could be because he's thinking too precisely of the event overthinking the entire endeavor and allowing a quarter of his thought process to benefit from wisdom but also allowing three-quarters of his thought process to suffer from cowardice essentially it shows us that Hamlet doesn't know if he is capable of doing the deed or even if he is brave or wise enough to pull it off he knows he has to do it and he knows that without doing it he will

be miserable and yet the thought of actually having to do it also brings him a feeling of suffering whether it be the realization that he might not be smart enough and perhaps wrong about the whole thing all might actually be too scared this leads me on to the most famous quote of the play and all of Shakespeare's works to be or not to be many see this quote as Hamlet referring to life and death as in is it better to live and be well is it better to die and not be it confirms the turmoil

that Hamlet is going through and the decline of his mental health that he is pondering on death at all and considering the benefit of not having to live in death he can find peace in nothingness and does not need to endure the burden of existing the fact that he is processing this thought at all needs us to believe that he is not happy that he is too satisfied with his life and use death as the only solvable method first dilemma however the fact that he is also contemplating to be it also shows us that he

is not completely decided now there may be benefits and living perhaps that living is the only thing he has left and therefore does not wish to lose it it could also be his fear of the unknown that makes him ponder both life and death for in death he cannot possibly know what awaits him at the time of the play being written Christian teachings of life and death would have been most prevalent and the idea that one might go to hell particularly if they took their own life could have been enough to compel Hamlet to consider

both living and dying it could be that death is actually worse than living but the tragedy is that one can only know after he has made a permanent choice the feem of suicide rings out quite true in this quote showing us the complexities and chronic feelings that once thought for us s may engage with should they decide to take their own life is this the right choice is this going to end my pain is there something on the other side waiting for me will I be in more pain because of this no one has the

answers to these questions which is quite poetic in a play about a man who strives her complete certainty but falls short of it time and time again the quote also has a subtle effect of glorifying death in the case of Hamlet Hamlet is in pain almost every moment of his existence is suffering as he takes on the role of a victim of circumstance a victim of the actions by those around him and a victim of the toughness of life itself indeed this mindset you might say is self imposed by Hamlet but Hamlet sees death not

only as an escape from his burden but also as an empowering opportunity it allows him to oppose the barrage he believes he is facing from life and becomes a weapon that he can use despite life and those around him by paying the ultimate price by choosing death he would not only be relieving himself of the burden of his quest but also may gain some grim satisfaction mijitos to end his life and chose to deny the ghost his father life and universe itself of using him as a means to facilitate revenge conscience does make cowards of

us all Hamlet tells us in Iran and given that he does not kill himself it implies that he thinks beyond himself possibly considering the moral implications of ending one's own life and maybe even the religious implications in committing such a sin you might say that his conscience in this sentence is reserved for his mother Gertrude and the others around him that his death may further complicate an already messy situation he decides his conscious therefore makes him a coward but he might argue that he has it backwards but his conscious actually makes him brave that he

continues to live in spite of his struggles it can also be said that to be or not to be is referring to the burden of action and not death at all by being or acting we risk opening ourselves up to new experiences some of which may not invite wholesome or positive feelings in fact they may attract quite the opposite and may even harm us it is the risk we take like asking our boss for a raise or asking out the pretty girl at the bar it's a gamble that will either pay off or leave us

feeling worse than we did before we tried if we do not act or not be we maintain our comfortable station and are not unlimited to sustain a negative experience however we cut ourselves off from feeling the highs of achievement if our action is successful and it's through these experiences that we grow in essence to be or not to be can be rephrased albeit sloppily - should I act and risk becoming something else or should I not act and remain comfortably the same you might argue that both are equally scary realities something that Hamlet becomes increasingly

aware of the final theme I'll talk about in this video is revenge or at least the consequences of revenge you see while Hamlet is tasked with avenging his father Shakespeare takes us on a journey of not necessarily blunt revenge but the effects that live revenge has on others and not just the intended target indeed Claudius does get his just deserts and Hamlet is successful in achieving his revenge but just look at what it does virtually everyone in the play bites the dust as a result of it Hamlet's increasing desperation for revenge and clutching out ways

to facilitate it see him inadvertently kill Polonius which causes a failure to kill herself which causes Laertes to agree to Claudius his plan which sees him kill Hamlet and that Hamlet kills him and that Gertrude gets caught up basically everyone dies virtually everyone else has to die before Hamlet can finally end Claudius essentially what Shakespeare is trying to show us is that revenge itself might feel sweet in the act of plotting but it is equally true that more people end up getting hurt because of it it also shows us that the sweetness of revenge is

likely bittersweet at least for Hamlet who dies knowing that his quest has brought about the death of so many in essence that's the danger in starting a fire you can never really know how many bridges you'll burn this leads me on to the moles of the story and then I swear I'm getting out of here because I've been sitting here way too long and when left cheek has gone to sleep hesitation causes more pain but brashness leads to mistakes by this I mean that the more we ponder on something and fear the outcome the more

we trap ourselves in a state of suffering just like Hamlet does throughout the duration of the play however if we act too boldly and become overconfident or allow our emotions to govern us in these situations then we may be prone to making critical errors we see Hamlet do this when he kills Polonius and abandons all sense as he strikes through the tapestry what the story of Hamlet shows us is that one must keep level-headed and one must strive for a balance between analyzing a situation and deploying action to wait too long is to miss our

shot and act too horribly is to blunder it altogether the second more accursed the point about revenge in that blood brings more blood or two wrongs do not make a right as mentioned a moment ago we see all the main characters suffer fatal ends all because of Hamlet's revenge while I'm not saying he wasn't just in his convictions to end Claudius's life one cannot argue with the explosive repercussions the Hamlet's revenge ultimately causes for everyone else furthermore the Venge doesn't bring Hamlet any real contentment much as we find revenge is often a hollow feeling that

leaves us not with the Bliss we thought we might experience but instead of feeling of apathy or perhaps even with virtues of guilt Hamlet appears to be stoic in his achievements as he stays the rest is silence the subdued connotation of this almost suggests that yes what he was true to his purpose in the end it almost seems like it wasn't worth it in short revenge is bad don't do it or do it back to ina i'm little conscience in conclusion Hamlet is flawed and his introspection may be what contributes to his madness he literally

thinks himself into insanity which may have been avoided had he just done as the ghost said and killed the king then again the burden of murder may have played on his mind and this led him to deliberate though fast showing traits of a man with no conviction and that he cannot reach a decision he has the ability to do so but second-guesses himself much as we all do and it ultimately prevents him from making a move he doesn't strike when he should have and this results in more death he doesn't handle the events of his

father's death in a becoming way and draws more attention to himself he should have struck in silence like an assassin and been ready to accept the consequences but he allowed his emotions to get the better of him the play is a perfect example of how we talk ourselves out of stuff and how we become our own worst enemies we deliberate on big decisions to the point where we don't make a move at all and if we do we do so erratically sometimes out of desperation from the time we've wasted or Hamlet is not necessarily what

I call a hero we are able to identify and connect with him far more easily than the other characters despite not being sure of his mental stability we still root for him I could probably talk for hours about the tragedy of Hamelin while I slated him a lot in this video it's probably because I understand the part of him or at least see a part of myself in him is this video good enough am i covering all the right points is it too long is it even worth doing another YouTube channel are people even going

to watch this is the microphone even plugged in properly freaking bearbie all these sorts of questions circulate my brain and leave me often in a space of doubt and hesitation much as we see Hamlet in as he questions everything around him what I'm trying to say is that maybe there's a bit of Hamlet in all of us and perhaps that's okay so long as we recognize the thought patterns and actively do something productive with them in any case I hope you enjoyed today's video hopefully the first of many as I look to dive into all

sorts of different worlds from both classic and modern texts let me know what you thought about today's video and about Hamlet himself what are some of the things that struck you about this tragedy and who do you most identify with before I head out I regret to inform you that this is a brand new channel it isn't monetized at all and for those of you who don't know it does take a while to get there even after you meet the requirements therefore I'm being a total sellout and taking donations on patreon this will allow me

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