Hamlet experiences a wide range of intense emotions after his return to Denmark. The primary emotions he grapples with are grief, anger, betrayal, doubt, and a sense of powerlessness. He is deeply mourning the loss of his father, King Hamlet, whose death has left him devastated and emotionally vulnerable. Additionally, he feels overwhelming anger and resentment towards his uncle, King Claudius, whom he believes murdered his father to usurp the throne and hastily married his mother, Queen Gertrude. This betrayal by both his uncle and mother further compounds his emotional turmoil. The revelation of his father's ghost claiming to be murdered by Claudius throws Hamlet into a state of moral conflict and doubt. He questions the authenticity and …show more content…
His grief, anger, and conflicting emotions cloud his judgment, leading him to make impulsive and irrational decisions. He becomes preoccupied with thoughts of revenge and proving his uncle's guilt, to the point where it consumes his every waking moment. This obsession with vengeance takes precedence over rational thinking and leads him to contemplate drastic actions. Hamlet's inability to act decisively and his constant overthinking reflect a lack of clear-headedness and reasonable thought. He often procrastinates and struggles with indecision, which hinders his ability to carry out the task assigned to him by his father's ghost. Furthermore, Hamlet's encounters with the ghost and his uncertainty about its reliability cause him to question reality and his own sanity. This skepticism adds to his mental instability and contributes to his loss of reasonable thought. Overall, Hamlet's emotional turmoil, erratic behavior, and difficulty in making sound judgments indicate that he has indeed lost some control over reasonable thought due to the overwhelming impact of his emotional …show more content…
The play, after all, is a tragedy, and its characters are subjected to extraordinary circumstances, which can intensify their emotional responses and behaviors. Human beings do experience intense emotions like grief, anger, betrayal, and doubt, and these emotions can lead to complex and sometimes erratic actions. Hamlet's reactions to his father's death, his uncle's betrayal, and his mother's hasty marriage are all rooted in relatable human emotions. While his behavior towards Ophelia and others may seem extreme, it is important to remember that individuals under tremendous emotional stress may exhibit unexpected or erratic behaviors. Hamlet's actions serve as a dramatic portrayal of the consequences of unresolved emotional turmoil and the desire for revenge. In essence, Hamlet's actions can be understood as a heightened representation of human experience, exploring the complexities of emotions and the impact of intense emotional turmoil on one's thoughts and behaviors. While they may be exaggerated for dramatic effect, they resonate with the fundamental aspects of human nature, making them within the normal range of human experience in the context of Shakespearean
This leaves Hamlet conflicted about what his mind tells him he has to do and what his conscience prohibits him to carry out. The character Hamlet is faced with a conflicting decision whether or not he should take an act of vengeance against his uncle for his crime to appease his father's ghost or remain inactive and keep the peace. Hamlet utilizes rhetorical devices such as metaphors, hyperboles, and rhetorical questions to appear “mad” in hopes of achieving revenge, his manipulation of the idea of facade results in the downfall of characters around him and ultimately leads to his tragic ending. In the
Anger is experienced by almost all characters in Hamlet on and off throughout the play, but in the finale, more anger and hate is displayed there than in all the collective of the Tragedy of Hamlet acts combined. Dan Ariely continues to deduce that, the concept of being impassioned can severely affect our decisions in the heat of the moment and what we deem as acceptable (133). The majority of anger is displayed primarily by Hamlet himself once he is given his chance to display his anger in its entirety, which culminates with him killing Laertes and Claudius in Hamlet’s immense state of anger. Dan Ariely makes an adequate representation of how self-control and immediate gratification for our actions play a big part in how individuals can be so irrational (157). Hamlet’s truly embodies the concept of the appeal of immediate gratification in that during the final scene of fighting, he commits actions that he may not have had he not been so immensely affected by his emotions, particularly the sting of anger.
This is explained by the Ghost when Hamlet learns of his father being murdered in Act 1 Scene 5, in lines 35 -39, “’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life . Now wears his crown.” 2) The soliloquies that Hamlet provides over the sequence of the entire play allows us to distinguish what Hamlet was thinking about and display how he was losing his sanity.
In his first soliloquy, he expresses his intense grief and inner conflict of wanting to commit suicide but not wanting to be punished by God. From this the audience can infer one of Hamlet’s fatal flaws; he is indecisive. He is constantly searching for certainty, since he is unable to make decisions without it. Although Hamlet is wary of the story given to the public to explain the King’s sudden death, it is not until the ghost confirms his suspicions and he uncovers the truth that he vows to “Remember thee!”. He suspects foul play was involved, yet he never acts on this uncertainty until certainty is provided for him.
we see prince Hamlet feeling far from cheerful due to his father 's death and his unstable family. He shows his hardships and loss of identity throughout the story, but we see it in-depth during his mourning phase when he can 't seem to deal with anyone. He goes to the people that he feels close to, the ones he can trust, and his perspective on life and maturity grow throughout the story. Adversity can at first leave us feeling a strong sense of emotion, people gradually take more control and act rationally and more stable. Hamlet is affected harshly with deep and dark feelings of thought and emotion when his father passed away.
When the actors come to town Hamlet asks them to put on a special play that he has written, one that will reveal if the King is truly guilt. The play is reenacting the death of King Hamlet as the ghost describes it; as murder. His plan is to get a reaction from the King to assure the ghosts is telling the truth about King Hamlet’s death. When the actors get to the scene of the murder, King Claudius exits the theater. Hamlet now knows that the ghost was being truthful.
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
Throughout Hamlet, Prince Hamlet is faced against many situations that question his mental stability and ability to make decisions. His indecisiveness comes from the way he reacts to the situations he is put in and the way his mind presents these situations to him. The most important indecisive moments are Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts, his father’s ghost, and his vengeance to Claudius. When Hamlet is told by a ghost that has a resemblance of his father that Claudius had killed him, he vows to take vengeance and revenge his father’s death.
Furthermore, the ghost’s cause of presenting uncertainty plants the seed of madness throughout the play. Not knowing, or being in a state of grey, can lead to a wandering mind, of which many of Hamlet’s characters portray. Whether the ghost is real, whether the ghost is that of the
Prince Hamlet of Denmark is a remarkably intense character put in an even more intense situation. readers witness Hamlet’s mental health deteriorate over the course of the play. Hamlet seems to continue to go “crazy” as the play progresses. The audience gets to see the severity of Hamlet’s depression develop as he tries to figure out the mystery as to how his father died. Hamlet’s many soliloquies show his emotions to the audience as his depression develops as well as his strategies to catch Claudius with the death of his father.
This shows several character traits of Hamlet that are indicative of his actions throughout the play. The first is that he is melodramatic and overly emotional. He is unable for large sections of the story to think logically and rationally.
The previous quote also justifies an interesting aspect of the play that strongly reinforces the work’s theme of human uncertainty when analyzed with the element of dramatic irony. While few characters consider attributing Hamlet’s moodiness to his father’s death, they quickly conclude that he is simply going mad when he starts acting differently,
A common thought in every student's head when it comes to reading Shakespeare’s plays such as Hamlet is “Why are we reading this”. Well, even though the language is difficult to understand and takes time to comprehend, the literary significance underlying the events and the terminology all serve as a timeless theme reverberating throughout human experience across history and cultures. First off, "Hamlet," the protagonist of this play, is a rich character that delves into the human psyche, exploring the depths of human emotions and the impact of grief and loss; furthermore, this can be related to oneself by the audience in the present era. Hamlet's core struggle with his mental health and own uncertainty raises philosophical questions about
Hamlet is William Shakespeare 's renowned tale of mystery, intrigue, and murder, centered on a young misguided prince who can only trust himself. Some may say that the actions of Prince Hamlet throughout the play are weak and fearful, displaying a tendency to procrastinate and showing an apathetic nature towards his family and peers. Others spin a tale of a noble young scholar, driven mad by the cold-blooded murder of his father by his uncle. In truth, I believe Hamlet is neither of these things. Hamlet is a sort of amalgamation of the two, a bundle of contradictions thrown together into one conflicting but very human mess of a character.
Looking at Hamlet through a modern psychoanalytic lens provides an insight on each of the characters, specifically in terms of their actions. As a protagonist, Hamlet is quite unique due to his philosophical nature and verbosity. The play is a “study in Hamlet's hesitation, his inability to act,” (Pearce 1). Throughout the play, Shakespeare has created a constant internal battle for Hamlet between impulse and the need to carefully craft a plan. But is Hamlet crafting a plan, or is he simply too timid to act on his impulses?