In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Shakespeare uses range of literary techniques such as soliloquies to express Hamlet’s depression and anger. Hamlet’s emotions play a crucial role to achieve his secret ambitions. Events such as King Hamlet’s death, Hamlet’s mother’s expeditious marriage, conflict between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet’s depression and anger is expressed throughout the play but what are the causes. The root of Hamlet’s feelings of depression and anger was his father’s death.
He was to the point where he thought it would just be easier to die than to live with all these struggles. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius killed his father which put a huge burden on his shoulders because he loved his father so much. What made it even worse was his mom, Gertrude, ended up marrying Claudius short after King Hamlet 's death. After the king was 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. He said it is not his place to do so and that heaven will judge her when it comes time.
In the beginning of the play it is revealed that Hamlet's father has passed away and shortly after his mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle, King Claudius. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two...So excellent a king, that was to this/Hyperion to a satyr.” (1.2.129-41) It is clearly difficult for him to accept the situation and move on. Life has gotten to be a struggle for him in more ways than just his mother marrying his uncle, his father just died less than two months ago and this leads Hamlet to believe his mother never loved his father. The tension between Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet rise from scene to scene.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet there are many male characters, but the only two significant female characters are Ophelia and Gertrude. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, a high ranking official in the court in Denmark who serves as a love interest and an object of desire for Hamlet, although it is often unclear which at many point during the play. Gertrude is the wife of King Claudius, the widow of the former king, King Hamlet, and the mother of Hamlet. In Hamlet the women often appear as if they do not have a significant role in the play. However, Ophelia’s interactions with Hamlet exaggerate his apparent madness and by being a foil to Hamlet.
In the play, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a dynamic character to cause a mental state conundrum among the audience and explore the themes of suicide, spying, friendship, madness, providence, love, hate and humour. Furthermore, by utilising literary devices such as soliloquy, characterisation, dialogue, personification, metaphor, dramatic and situational irony Shakespeare exploits these themes and questions Hamlet’s sanity. In the beginning, Hamlet is portrayed as an overthinking person, claiming to act an antic disposition. However, as the play advances his manic rage and irrational acts such as Polonius’s murder and
Like one of the reason, we betray people is to protect someone or yourself. In Hamlet, Shakespeare reveals that betrayal is hopeless because of it a domino effect. That means it keeps happening over and over again. For instance, in the play, Claudius had to betray his brother because he wanted to take Hamlet father 's throne. In this quote, “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts- So to seduce!- won to his shameful lust, The will of my most seeming- virtuous queen.” The metaphor is used in this quote and the old ghost Hamlet describes Claudius as a “ traitorous gift” meaning Claudius is an untrustworthy person because of what he has done to old ghost Hamlet.
And so he goes to heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be sann’d: A villain kills my father; and for that, I, His sole son, do the same villain send to heaven” (III.iii). Hamlet begins to question the afterlife for Claudius. He considers that if he murdered Claudius in the act of talking to the Lord he could be sent to heaven, which Hamlet did not want to risk. This scene goes to show how Hamlet’s religious view’s influences his actions and
Hamlet’s uncle Claudius killed his father, which put a huge burden on his shoulders because he loved his father so much. 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
In Act 5, the tension rests when Hamlet and Claudius are both eliminated. This act of violence also leads to many other acts of violence, including the deaths of Polonius, Ophelia, and Laertes. It puts a lot of pressure on Prince Hamlet, because he feels he must devote his entire life to getting justice for his father. Since Hamlet was the King, it also creates a theme of betrayal that carries itself throughout the play. Betrayal in a tragedy is not uncommon, and it is one of the many reasons that so many acts of violence take place in Hamlet.
It is believed that if a person confesses their sins before they die that they will go to heaven, so Hamlet believed that if he were to kill Claudius right then and there that he would go to heaven and not have any punishment for what he did to Hamlet’s father. At the end of the play this idea can be seen again when Laertes is getting ready to die: “Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet” (V.II.126). Because people believed they would have repercussions if they didn’t confess before death, Laertes makes sure to confess and make nice with Hamlet before he leaves the