A Character Study of Hamlet
Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s most memorable plays has captured the minds of audiences for centuries. The principal character, Hamlet, is almost immediately recognized as someone that has more of his character hidden underneath the surface that impels them to dig for. He has an elusive quality that leaves many of them believing that he is always leaving something important out that they need to discover.
Hamlet
The play begins with Hamlet as a university student that is often intrigued and drawn to questions and issues that are difficult or impossible to answer. But his philosophical approach to his studies are suddenly disrupted by the news of his father’s death and when presented with evidence that it may have been his uncle who murdered him,(1) Hamlet becomes determined to expose his uncle’s role and to act on his suspicions. This attempt also compels him to seek answers to other more elusive questions relating to the afterlife, suicide, and what happens to the body after death.
Even though he proves to be a deep thinker, Hamlet can also be impulsive in nature. There are occasions when he acts without thinking and he suffers the consequences of these decisions. An example of this is when he kills Polonius by stabbing him through the curtains without finding out who he is. This shows that he can easily take on the persona of a deranged man complete with his erratic behavior wreaking havoc on the lives of the other characters.
Claudius
His antagonist, Claudius, is quite manipulative and makes quite a contrast with the other dominant characters in the play. While the others are primarily concerned with achieving some sort of moral balance between justice and revenge, Claudius’ main focus is on maintaining his own position in power. He is a corrupt politician whose sole goal is to act as a puppeteer of the people through his skillful use of words. Many have described Claudius’ speech as ‘poison being poured in the ear; the same way Hamlet’s father has been murdered.
The play leaves quite a few questions unanswered between these two men, causing many to wonder if Claudius was romantically involved with Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark at the time of her husband’s death and whether or not she was aware of his murderous plot beforehand. These questions and more like them often consume the reader as they dig for the answers throughout the play.
Gertrude
Shakespeare answers them all in a number of different ways depending on the reader’s point of view. Determining Gertrude’s role in all of this requires critical thinking and can often lead to confusion. Hamlet expresses his own frustration in this regard when he makes the comment, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” which indicates an outright condemnation of his mother and at the same time gives us a picture of his own state of mind.
The Conflict
The play carefully weaves an inner conflict in Hamlet that many can relate to. While he has the moral obligation to avenge his father’s death, he’s not sure just how far he should go in fulfilling that role.(2) Devastated by the loss he is forced to come to grips with the permanency of death. His philosophical mind comes to the realization that no matter how many great men had lived in the past, not one of them had escaped the clutches of death.
Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses the reactions of Hamlet and other primary characters to explore the concept of revenge to show the many variations of this powerful emotion that is often found in most people. By doing so, he forces all of us to weigh within our own minds the mirage of feelings and emotions that we all experience when we have cope with some form of injustice in our lives.
References:
1. http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/canalysis.html
2. http://vivaessays.org/revenge-in-hamlet-essay-sample.htm