Brenda Zavala
March 16th, 2015
Character Analysis project: Part 2
Commonplace Journal
Entry one Hamlet
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead! — nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month, —
Let me not think on't,
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To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub (3.1.57-66).
This quote is also by one of Hamlet's Soliloquies. With this quote Hamlet is contemplating suicide again. The fact that he is so sadden by everything that is happening around him has driven him to thoughts of choosing life or death. He interprets death as a form of sleep. If he dies he would be in a state of sleep where nothing would hurt anymore. He is very close to committing suicide as he sees it as an escape goat from all the pain he has experienced. With everything going on Hamlet very much wishes this form of escape but he begins to wonder where it would lead to if he were to commit suicide.
This quote also brings a bigger meaning to the play. The play is a tragedy and with Shakespeare plays there will be deaths at the end. This quote sums up the main idea in the story that the idea of suicide and death will always be around. Throughout our lives we will be faced with hard times just like Hamlet. It is definitely our choice if one chooses to commit suicide but there is always that thought of where suicide will lead to. The fact that religion has always been opposed to this type of behavior and has viewed it as a sin it makes the human mind hesitant to go through with the action. Religion plays a factor in Hamlet's decision to commit this action but later does not find it helpful
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He is telling Ophelia that he never loved her and that she should go to a nunnery. He is saying this out of hate towards women. Since Hamlet's mother has caused him great pain, Hamlet is now putting it out towards women in general. This is clearly shown with the next thing he says that women are breeders of sinners. He is saying here that everyone is a sinner but in a way he is putting it that it is a woman's fault for bringing them into the world. He is also thinking of suicide here. He is saying that he wishes that his mother had not given birth to him. Even though he says he is an honest person he knows he is capable of horrible things. He is most likely referring to the act of murdering his uncle. He states why there are evil people in the world. With this he begins to question his very existence with Ophelia which indicates he does not wish he were alive here on earth. He then tells Ophelia to go to a nunnery again since he can not stand a woman's sin of bringing monsters into the world. Then he realizes they are being watched and he asks Ophelia where her father is. With this he knows that Ophelia can not be trusted and so he tells her for good that she is not
In this soliloquy Hamlet is all alone. He would not reveal false information to himself, if no one were around. If he truly were putting on an act, this scene would be around other people. He is thinking alone, with depressing thoughts in his mind. Hamlet is unsure at this point whether he is ready to die, or not. He knows nothing of the afterlife and is scared of what may come next.
What should Hamlet do? Explain the moral theories of each philosopher: Plato, Aristotle and Augustine. For each, determine the right thing for Hamlet to do. Then, assess the prince's actions from the perspective of each recommendation.
It is clear that the death of his father and his mother 's remarriage has taken an enormous mental toll on him and that he desires death to free himself of the burden laid upon him by the ghost. He romanticizes it, saying that suicide is the brave and courageous option akin to “[taking] arms” against troubles. However, he can’t commit to the idea of death, saying “To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub / For in that sleep of death what dreams may come” (III, i, 66-67). He craves death, which would allow him to escape all the “natural shock / that flesh is heir to” (III, i, 63-64) but the more he ponders it, the further he is from reaching a decision. Ironically, the argument within his mind about how he should free himself of the ghostly burden — murder, or death — is impeding him from carrying out any action on it. At the end of his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet hasn’t made any decisive choice and therefore is in limbo regarding death due to his overarching rationale. His inaction proves “[his] endless reasoning and hesitation and the way in which the energy of his resolutions evaporates in self-reproaches” (Morgan 259). Moreover, Hamlet tackles the decision of interpreting what is real and what is false when he questions the ghost’s true nature. At first, Hamlet is certain
What is Hamlet about? Maybe a summary of the plot could answer this question but it wouldn’t do it justice. However it’s impossible to narrow down any of William Shakespeare’s work to one theme. The fact is, that all of Shakespeare’s plays are about many things. There are many ways to look at a Shakespearean play, and none are wrong of course, but it is not entirely true to say that one theme is the most important. Some of the more common and dominate themes that can be found in any of Shakespeare’s works are: conflict, appearance and reality, order and disorder, and change.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, suicide is an important and continuous theme throughout the play. Hamlet is the main character who contemplates the thought of suicide many different times throughout the play, since the murder of his father. Hamlet weighs the advantages of leaving his miserable life with the living, for possibly a better but unknown life with the dead. Hamlet seriously contemplates suicide, but decides against it, mainly because it is a mortal sin against God. Hamlet continues to say that most of humanity would commit suicide and escape the hardships of life, but do not because they are unsure of what awaits them in the after life. Hamlet throughout the play is continually tormented by his fathers death and his
So, we can conclude that, Hamlet in this play is obviously not mature enough to handle the situation at hand. He needs to get himself out of his situation, and this is why he is contemplating suicide. He knows he is young and immature, too immature to not know how to handle everyone dying and turning their backs on each other. At this point the play is too chaotic for Hamlet to handle. But heck, that's what the whole rest of the play is for, to see if Hamlet pulls through or
Hamlet contemplates the idea of life and death many times, especially during his soliloquies throughout the play. Hamlet thinks “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come” (3.1.74) This rhetorical comparison of sleep and death is driven home, and Hamlet believes that if death is sleep escalated, then the possible dreams in death are likely to be increased as well. Hamlet considers death to be a long sleep forever. He believes that instead of having good dreams while sleeping, bad dreams appear when you are dead. Hamlet’s problem is that he doesn’t know if he wants to continue living a super depressed life with his uncle killing his father and marrying his mother, but he doesn’t know what death will bring to him. He could totally end up being a mopey and lonely ghost like King Hamlet, because he did not repent his sins before being
Hamlet is not only angered with the fact of his father’s death, but also with his mother’s decision to marry Claudius. Devastated by his mother’s decision to marry so soon after her husband’s death, Hamlet becomes skeptical about women in general. He shows a particular obsession with what he perceives to be a connection with female sexuality and moral corruption. He almost develops hatred towards women because of his mother’s decision. This hatred occurs and is shown with his relationship with Ophelia. He urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery rather than experience the dishonesty of sexuality. This hinders Hamlet from experiencing a love that is really needed at this time of his loss. One can say that this is another flaw, which Hamlet is unaware of.
In act 3 scene 1 of William Shakespeare “Hamlet” the main protagonist, Hamlet, recites a soliloquy “To be, or not to be.” Throughout his lines Hamlet explains the concept of suicide and why people choose to live long lives instead of ending their suffering. The main point he speaks on is the mystery of one’s afterlife, they never know for sure what happens when they die. For this reason, his speech does a good job highlighting the plays underlying themes of pervasiveness of death, and tragic dilemma, and tragic flaws.
Next, in one of the most famous soliloquies in the English language, Hamlet again contemplates the subject of suicide, but he does not do so on impulses of emotion. Instead, his contemplation is based on reason. “To be or not to be, that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer outrageous fortune…or end them. To die, to sleep- no more- and by a sleep to say we end the heartache…’Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time…who would fardels bear, to grunt and sweat under a weary life, but that the dread of something after death, the undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler
Hamlets contemplation of ending his life shows an inward conflict within himself. In his first soliloquy, he debates whether he should commit suicide. "To be, or not to be- / that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer/ the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, / or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them" (3.1. lines 64-68 Shakespeare). He questions why he should live with all of this chaos but overcomes this internal conflict because he acknowledges that in his religion suicide is a sin. “O, 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). O God! God!” (1.2. lines 133-136 Shakespeare). This soliloquy signifies the reality of Hamlet s internal conflict and also shows the reality of his external conflict with the society he is surrounded by. This declamation establishes
How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to
Hamlet recognizes that suicide is a sin in the eyes of God, so consequently wishes that he could simply cease to exist. In doubting that life is worth all the hardships one must face, Hamlet briefly relishes in the concept of death, equating it to nothing more than a sleep wherein one can be rid of the “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks” of physical life (III.i.70). Though immediately thereafter Hamlet acknowledges the startling unknown, and the fact that one does not know what comes after death. Hamlet feels a great deal of uncertainty, which surely enhances his overall frustration. Herein lies Hamlet’s reservations in regards to committing suicide: it is a sin, and the afterlife may prove to be more unpleasant than life itself.
The Shakespearean tragedy, Hamlet, entertains the title character's split between head and heart, and accordingly, the arduous struggle he must endure in order to reconcile the two. It is a difficult struggle that is generated by the necessity to unite the two internal counterparts of human consciousness, head (logic and reason) and heart (passions and emotions). From the very beginning of the play, Hamlet is split against himself in a state of entrapment, which is spawned by the unbearable situation with his family. Throughout much of the play, Hamlet attempts to rationally think his way through his situation. His emotions, however, are far too strong for him to adhere to reason alone. Accordingly, his
Within William Shakespeare's “ Hamlet”, it shows how the main character Hamlet, mistreats the women in the play and how their mistreatment later affected Hamlet. The way the women are perceived in Hamlet’s eyes are evil, dishonest and adulterous. The reasons why he feels this way, is partially from the lies ophelia told in order to grant her father's wishes, to his mother marrying his uncle, one month after the passing of his father. To Hamlet himself, his lust for revenge and the tensions between his mother and Ophelia, ultimately made him mad, thus causing the fated tragic deaths of his mother, Gertrude and his lover , Ophelia. In various scenes throughout the play, Hamlet’s attitude towards women begins especially in the scene where