Harmlet The Obnoxious Character English Literature Essay

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy written William Shakespeare, between 1599 and 1601. its one of the most famous play in the English language that involves Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet and his wife, Queen Gertrude. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge to his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, the King, ascended to the throne and married Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. Hamlet is visited by a mysterious ghost resembling his recently deceased father. The ghost tells him his father was murdered by Claudius. The ghost encourages Hamlet to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius. However, Hamlet is emotionally disorientated and finds it difficult to take action. He cannot balance his overwhelming hatred for Claudius, his all-encompassing grief and the evil required to carry out his revenge. Hamlet’s desperate philosophizing leads him into a moral paradox: that he must commit murder to avenge murder. It is not until late in the play that Hamlet is able to articulate his feelings freely. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption. Resulting in to two opposing forces: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. The dilemma is of the wrong feelings and right actions; he ultimately emerges, solving the problem by attaining a proper state of mind.” Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in the English language that is supremely rich and complex.

ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAME HAMLET

Hamlet’s name is filled with meaning and controversy In terms of etymology. The root name of Hamlet is an Icelandic noun, Amlooi, meaning ‘fool.’ The second way of translating the name is by analyzing the noun aml-ooi into ‘raving mad’ and the second half, amla into ‘routine’. Later these names were incorporated into Irish dialect as Amlodhe. As phonetic laws took their course the name’s spelling changed eventually leaving it as Amlaidhe. The root of this name is ‘furious, raging, and wild.’ The character of Hamlet dominates Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

HAMLET- THE PRINCE

Hamlet is a Prince of Denmark, and the main character and protagonist introduced in Act I, Scene II. He is about thirty years old he is a son to Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, and the nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet is melancholy, bitter, and cynical. Full of hatred for his uncle’s scheming and disgust for his mother’s sexuality. A reflective and thoughtful young man who has studied at the University of Wittenberg, Hamlet is often indecisive and hesitant, but at other times he is prone to rash and impulsive acts. Hamlet at the start of the play is being seen taking a passive and resentful, stance towards the events that have befallen him. The task weighs heavily on him making him to be uncertain. He is slow to take action and when he does, it is rash and violent. A different Hamlet is seen when he returns from exile in Act 5. His emotional turmoil and anxiety has been replaced by a perspective and cool rationality. In the final scene, Hamlet has come to the realization that killing Claudius is his destiny:

CHARACTER TRAITS.

EMOTIONALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY DISORIENTED.

It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely melancholy and discontented with the state of affairs. From the first encounter, he is consumed by grief and obsessed by death. His emotions run deeper than his appearance or words can convey. In Act 1, Scene 2, he says to his mother:

‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good-mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black …

Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief

That can denote me truly. These indeed ‘seem’,

For they are actions that a man might play;

But I have that within which passeth show –

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

Hamlet’s emotional turmoil was contrary to the high spirits displayed by the rest of the court at the funeral. Hamlet is pained to think that everyone has managed to forget his father so quickly including his mother Gertrude who within a month of her husband’s death had got married to her brother-in-law. He cannot comprehend his mother’s actions and considers them to be an act of treachery. In another case, Ophelia is alarmed by Hamlet’s strange behavior when he Harmlet rushed into her room, stared at her and said nothing and reported this to her father -Polonius, who assumed that it was ecstasy of love that was making the prince to behave in such manner that was similar to a mad person. He subsequently informs Claudius and Gertrude who hutches a plot to eaves drop on the courting couple to prove their stand.

When the ghost reveals that Claudius killed the king to take the throne, Hamlet vows to avenge his father’s murder. However, Hamlet is emotionally disorientated and finds it difficult to take action. He cannot balance his overwhelming hatred for Claudius, his all-encompassing grief and the evil required to carry out his revenge. Hamlet’s desperate philosophizing leads him into a moral paradox: that he must commit murder to avenge murder effectively delaying his act of revenge. At a number of points in the play, he contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide.

MALE CHAUVINIST.

He is extremely disappointed with his mother for marrying his uncle so quickly and repudiates Ophelia, a woman he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms. His words often indicate his disgust with and distrust of women in general.

DISTRUSTFUL

Anxious by Hamlet’s continuing mourning for his father and his increasingly erratic behavior, Claudius sends for two of Hamlet’s acquaintances -Rosencrantz and Guildenstern-to discover the cause of Hamlet’s changed behavior. Hamlet quickly discerns that they have been sent as spies. weary of the King’s spies, who attempt to know his true intentions, Hamlet distrusts and rejects all those around him whom he believes are spying on him for King Claudius. Together, Claudius and Polonius convince Ophelia to speak with Hamlet while they secretly listen to the conversation but When Hamlet enters, she offers to return his remembrances, upon which Hamlet questions her honesty and furiously rants at her, insisting she go “to a nunnery”.

RESENTFUL.

Hamlet resents his mother Queen Gertrude marrying King Claudius within two months of his father’s death.

INTELLIGENT AND PHILOSOPHICAL.

Famous for the graveyard scene where holding the skull of deceased jester Yorick, Hamlet realizes man has little lasting control over his fate thus describing man as the “paragon of animals!” Educated in Wittenburg, Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative and this leads him into a moral paradox: that he must commit murder to avenge murder. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle’s guilt before trying to act. He is equally plagued with questions about the afterlife, the wisdom of suicide, what happens to bodies after they die etc.

SCHEMER.

Slow to the conviction that the ghost is his dead father and that Claudius is guilty of regicide, he does not go straight to the task at hand but delays his revenge. The arrival of a troupe of actors at Ellsinore presents him with a solution. He skillfully stages a play re-enacting his father’s murder, in order to determine Claudius’s guilt or innocence by studying his reaction. The court assembles to watch the play; Hamlet provides an agitated running commentary throughout. When the murder scene is presented, Claudius abruptly rises and leaves the room, which Hamlet sees as proof of his uncle’s guilt.

Hamlet changes the lines of a play performed before King Claudius to divine whether King Hamlet’s Ghost told him the truth about his father’s death coming out as Cunning and inventive. At the end of the play, Hamlet kills both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (indirectly), Laertes and finally King Claudius before dying himself from a wound inflicted by Laertes.

A SENSITIVE AND COURAGEOUS HERO.

He is a brilliant young man who has been thrust into unfortunate circumstances. He is a noble and sensitive hero- a gentleman. His refinement of spirit is evident when he criticizes Claudius for his drunkenness. His sensitivity is seen in his horror over his mother’s too rapid remarriage to the new king and his humility in his love for Ophelia.

RHETORICAL (SYMBOLIC).

Hamlet’s statement that his dark clothes are the outer sign of his inner grief demonstrates strong rhetorical skill. Hamlet is the most skilled of all at rhetoric in the play. He uses highly developed metaphors, stichomythia, and deploys both anaphora and asyndeton e.g. to die: to sleep- to sleep, perchance to dream. when an occasion demands, he manifests himself as precise and straightforward, as when he explains his inward emotion to his mother: “But I have that within which passes show, / These but the trappings and the suits of woe.” he also relies heavily on puns to express his true thoughts while simultaneously concealing them. His “nunnery” remarks to Ophelia are an example of a cruel double meaning as the word also meant a brothel. His very first words in the play are a pun; when Claudius addresses him as “my cousin Hamlet, and my son”, Hamlet says as an aside: “A little more than kin, and less than kind.” An unusual rhetorical device, others include Ophelia’s speech at the end of the nunnery scene: “Th’expectancy and rose of the fair state”.

ENIGMATIC /MYSTERIOUS.

There is always more to him than what the other characters in the play know. Hamlet actually tells other characters that there is more to him than meets the eye. When he speaks, he sounds as if there’s something important he’s not saying, something that even him is not aware of.

RASH, IMPULSIVE AND CARELESS.

Hamlet behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act, it is with swiftness that has little or no premeditation, e.g. when he stabs Polonius through a curtain without even checking to see who it was. He generally fits into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild speech and pointed innuendos

AVENGER

The prince has secretly vowed to avenge the death of his father who had been slain by his uncle Claudius after the murderous act was disclosed to him by his father’s ghost. This he achieved at a disastrous cost through a scheme that included faking madness so as to console his intention.

INDECISIVE.

Despite Prince Hamlet determination to carry out revenge, he procrastinates too long and allows time to slip by without doing a thing to avenge his father’s death. He devotes himself to avenging his father’s death but because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. He gives up an ideal opportunity for killing Claudius because he cannot bring himself to strike at him while he is kneeling at prayer. He apathetically allows himself to be taken to England even though he knows of Claudius’ evil intentions of killing him. Hamlet is very aware of his indecisiveness and inaction and criticizes himself for these weaknesses. He remains uncertain if the Ghost has told him the truth.

RELEVANCE OF HARMLET’S CHARACTER

The character of harmlet aids in the development of the plot as he is the main character whose events of the play revolve around him. The play focuses on the character of the casts more so Harmlet rather than on the actions of the cast as a basis of plot development. Harmlet’s character indeed leads to the development of other characters in the play as their interactions with him bring out their true form .e.g. the character of Claudia. Shakespeare has also used Harmlets character to bring out various literature styles that have made his work to be distinguished, these include to name just a few; a play within play, imagery, soliloquy, poems etc. The whole play is a tragedy with the main themes being of death, madness love, treachery, revenge and moral corruption that have been effectively developed out of Harmlets character.