The play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is full of many acts of betrayal. One such of these acts is when Hamlet goes against the wishes of his father’s ghost and debates on whether or not he should kill Claudius. Not only this but he also is extremely cruel to his mother and hurts her feelings which were also against the wishes of the ghost. He wanted Hamlet to avenge his death without hurting others along the way and almost everything Hamlet did in the play went against that. Hamlet’s first act of betrayal against the ghost of his father is one that stretches throughout the entire book. Everytime that Hamlet has a chance to kill King Claudius, he hesitates and ends up not even doing it until his final attempt. The first time he has a chance …show more content…
The ghost even gave him specific instructions on that telling him “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive/against thy mother aught” (pg. 25, l. 19-20). The ghost could not have said it any cleared to him to leave his mother out of this whole situation and just focus on killing his uncle. Hamlet thinks t his mother needs to be taught a lesson as well though so he criticizes her on this new marriage. He exclaims to her “the funeral baked meats/Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (pg. 12, l. 10-11). In his mind, the marriage to his uncle was much too quick and she should’ve waited longer to remarry. His father had been dead for a very short period of time and she already had moved onto a new man. None of this seemed right in Hamlet’s eyes. This is just one of the many things Hamlet says about this but his mother takes this to heart and gets strongly offended. Later on when Hamlet puts on the play Mousetrap, his mother takes even more offense to how he was indirectly referring to his uncle the entire time. In a private conversation with Hamlet after the play, she tells him “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended” (pg. 72, l. 9) with father referring to his uncle. Anything that Hamlet did against his uncle his mother took that as an attack on her as well. This was her new husband after all and whatever he felt she felt with him. This attack was a way of him hurting his mother but in more of an indirect way. Even though it was not directly against her, it still hurt her and that was still against the wishes of the ghost of his father. There is many example of betrayal of trust in this play but Hamlet betraying his father’s ghost may be one that is not as well noticed. Yes his father may be dead, but he is still given a mission of just killing his uncle without harming others and not to harm his mother. This is something
The play begins by having Hamlet's uncle marry Hamlet's recently-widowed mother in order to become the new King of Denmark. Hamlet, while mourning the death of this father, is disappointed at his mothers lack of loyalty at the same time. The guards of Denmark's Elsinore castle see a ghost that resembles Hamlet's deceased father and decide to tell Hamlet. In act 1 scene 5 the ghost appears to Hamlet, stating that he is the ghost of his father, and that Hamlet's uncle murdered him. This is a huge turning point in the play as Hamlet swears vengeance for his father.
King Hamlet’s ghost in Hamlet plays a very significant role in Shakespeare’s play even though he only appears briefly in the very beginning and two other times throughout the play. King Hamlet’s ghost furthers the play in many ways. He affects action by setting the play in motion, he affects the theme of revenge, and he helps develop other characters, specifically his son, Hamlet. He sets the play in motion by causing the wheels to spin inside of Prince Hamlet’s head, the ghost is the whole reason for Hamlet trying to extract revenge upon his murderous Uncle Claudius who is now the King of Denmark. The ghost affects the theme of revenge by causing Young Hamlet to be seized by vengeance, the whole play turns into a story of Prince Hamlet trying to avenge his
In the play Hamlet, we find that Hamlet meets with his father’s ghost, and about his father murder by the hands of blood related brother, Hamlet takes a decision, to revenge and restore the glory back
What made it even worse was his mom, Gertrude, ended up marrying Claudius shortly after King Hamlet's death. After the king is murdered, Hamlet saw his father’s “ghost” which told him that Claudius was in fact the one that killed him and that he wanted Hamlet to seek revenge for him by killing Claudius, but not to punish his mother for remarrying. The ghost said to Hamlet, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Murder most foul, as in the best it is, / But this most foul, strange, and unnatural” and Hamlet replied, “Haste me to know 't, that I, with wings as swift / As
With regards to the loss of his father, Hamlet lost his sense of self-worth/value. He began to question life and whether it was specifically for him as a result of his mother marrying his uncle, Claudius, in a month's time after her husband’s death. Through the visitation of Old King Hamlet’s ghost, Hamlet was able to find purpose in life which, destroy his core issue of an insecure/unstable sense. Likewise, Hamlet had the ability to control his psyche in order for his antic disposition to work; this all lead for his quest to murder Claudius to be successful. After the encounter with the Old King’s ghost, Hamlet says, “The time is out of joint.
Hamlet, also, could not get over the death of his father. He found out when his father’s ghost came back that his brother, and Hamlet’s uncle, murdered him. He then was willing to do anything possible to get revenge on Claudius, his uncle. Both of
Instead of taking action and killing claudius, he questions whether the ghost was actually his father asking to revenge his death or the devil resembling his father to try to tempt him into murder. In No Fear Shakespeare from Sparknotes, Hamlet talks about his doubts to believe the ghost is actually his father or not by saying “May be the devil, and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape. Yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me (Act 2 Scene 2 Page 24). This shows how Hamlet was indecisive and how the ghost of his father was one of the major reasons why he was indecisive.
King Hamlet’s ghost in Hamlet plays a very significant role in Shakespeare’s play even though he only appears briefly in the very beginning. King Hamlet’s ghost furthers the play in many ways. He affects action by setting the play in motion, he affects the theme of revenge, and he helps develop other characters, specifically his son, Hamlet. He sets the play in motion by causing the wheels to spin inside of Prince Hamlet’s head, the ghost is the whole reason for Hamlet trying to extract revenge upon his murderous Uncle Claudius who is now the King of Denmark. The ghost affects the theme of revenge by causing Young Hamlet to be seized by vengeance, the whole play turns into a story of Prince Hamlet trying to avenge his father’s wrongful death.
The ghost’s appearance has a significant impact on Hamlet’s behaviors and forms his decisions through the play. Hamlet, who is suffering from depression since he is dealing with his father’s death and the hasty marriage of his mother with Claudius, his uncle, became obsessed with the concept of life and death after seeing his father’s ghost. In the first appearance of the ghost, he reveals the truth about the how the king has been murdered, which drives Hamlet to seek revenge, and by revenge killing his uncle. The ghost establishes a dilemma and gives Hamlet time to think about his father’s request. But Hamlet has an uncertainty about the existence of the ghost as he notes “the spirit that I have seen may be the devil, and the devil hath power T ' assume a pleasing shape” (2.2.561–563) here, Hamlet is concerned that the ghost may be the devil and questions the motivation of the ghost for killing Claudius.
He is later disgusted by his mother’s quick remarriage to his uncle, Claudius, almost two months after the death of his father who was also his mother’s husband. After Hamlet’s conversation with his father’s ghost in which Hamlet was told that his father was murdered by Claudius, he became filled with even more grief because he has a difficult duty of killing his uncle in order to avenge his father’s death. This is seen in the “to be or not to be” soliloquy.
When Hamlet meets with the ghost King Hamlet in the opening scene, he realizes that his father is murdered by Claudius. From Act I scene 5, the ghost King Hamlet is asking Hamlet to seek for revenge, “So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” (1.5.12). By knowing this, Hamlet starts the revenge for his father and sets the tone of the entire play where death, revenge, murder, and suicide become the symbols of the whole play, and leads to the deaths of almost all the characters, including Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet himself. Also, because of his father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage with Claudius, Hamlet has the idea of committing suicide. From Act I scene 2, "O, that this too sullied flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself to dew" (1.2.133-134).
By declaring that his own brother had murdered him, the Ghost indirectly shows Hamlet the dishonesty of the world. Thus, this makes Hamlet wary of those around him even his own friends such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Additionally, this discovery of his father’s murder turns Hamlet into an outcast, for he fails to trust others. Because he acts as an outcast, many people perceive him as a madman. These ideals of life introduced to Hamlet by the Ghost influence the actions and thoughts of Hamlet throughout the
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, there are a series of events that causes Hamlet to act abnormally. He has to deal with his father’s death, mother’s remarriage, and his lover Ophelia. However, it is often argued whether Hamlet’s madness is real or fake. Throughout the tragedy, he is over-exaggerating his madness for his plan of revenge.
Hamlet himself is unaware that he behaves instinctively as a killer and doesn’t realize that his actions are morally wrong, and the reader can easily take from this that Hamlet is truly in the right and that the actions he takes are justified due to his problematic relationships. Claudius tells Gertrude, “When sorrows come, they come not in single spies, but in battalions” to remind her that bad things normally happen in quick succession after long periods emotional rest (IV, v, 61-62). In Act 1, the Ghost says, “Murder most foul, as in the best it is. But this most foul, strange, and unnatural” when Hamlet is becoming gung-ho about murdering his father’s killer (who he does not yet know is Claudius). Hamlet is pushing the Ghost toward telling him about the murder so that he feels like he has the right to move forward with his plan of revenge.
When Hamlet’s father returns to Denmark as a ghost, he tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet listens closely, and when his father tells him to take revenge for his death he says “Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift, as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge.” This shows Hamlet is eager to take revenge for his father’s death. He becomes obsessed, trying to avenge his father’s death. This causes him to inadvertently kill Polonius, an innocent victim.