Essay about Hamlet's Struggle and Disillusionment

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a work of immense depth in character development, most notably the personal, moral and psychological battles

clearly sets the groundwork for Hamlet’s internal struggle. A repeat of this theme is heard when

Fictional Elizabethan play written in 1601, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the tribulations between the protagonist, young Prince Hamlet, and his relationships with family, partners and friends through explorations of human nature during abstruse experiences. By examining the play’s polarity, critical perspectives of both psychoanalytical complexities and archetypal criticism allows the reader to develop an understanding of Shakespeare’s intentions with the play. This includes emphasis on the depiction of how conscious and unconscious beliefs and actions of individuals in a society can lead to tragic outcomes, revealing individual's innermost identities. Hamlet’s unique attempts to attain psychological fruition are delayed by his over-active intellectual mind, thus displaying the complications of maintaining the human spirit during times of corruption and temptations to discover the unknown.

This essay will discuss several literary criticisms of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. After skimming through several articles, I ended up with four peer-reviewed journal articles, each a different critical perspectives of the play: feminist, psychoanalytical/freudian, moral, and new historicism. My previous studies of Hamlet, as well as my rereading of the play this semester, has collectively given me a general knowledge of the text. My familiarity of the play made it easier for me to decipher the academic journals and see the connections each critic made with the play.

Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this

When you think of William Shakespeare, Hamlet is the first thing most people think of, as his work. Hamlet is also a classic example of a tragedy. In all tragedies the hero suffers, and usually dies at the end. All good pieces of literature written way back when, are usually tragedies.

Each major character of Shakespeare’s Hamlet has a major flaw, which destroys him or her. The King, Queen, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Polonius all have these flaws but Horatio does not. He is Shakespeare’s ideal man.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet is faced with emotional and physical hardship. The suffering that he endures causes his character to develop certain idiosyncrasies. Morality has a significant importance to Hamlet. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet possesses a strong sense of morality. A sense that is stronger than all other characters. Hamlet's actions and feelings are controlled by his morality. His morality grows weaker as the play progresses. Hamlet's opinions toward the characters within the play are determined by his moral standpoint. As the play goes on, Hamlet's tendency of thinking too much causes him to become mad. Hamlet's focal problem is his madness.

William Shakespeare uses the literary technique of the soliloquy to allow the audience to see deeper into his characters’ thoughts in his play, Hamlet. This technique helps to reveal Hamlet’s true character, expressing emotions that the audience cannot see through his interactions with other characters. Through Hamlet’s soliloquies, one may notice that his reluctance to take actions that involve death can be attributed to his fear of the unknown and his uncertainty in regards to afterlife.

Yet, it is imperative to remember that even though Hamlet is very attuned to right and wrong, he is not a faultless character himself. Hamlet is very susceptible to his own emotions. As critic A.C. Bradley notes, melancholy is one such emotion that Hamlet indulges in throughout the bulk of the play. Yet, it is perhaps this aspect that makes the character redeemable. Hamlet reflects society’s moral failings both external and internal and asks its readership to confront this reality. By reviewing this story from a perspective of Hamlet’s own moral competency, the reader/audience is able to attune to the complex notions of good and evil Shakespeare’s revered work

William Shakespeare’s most intricate play, Hamlet, includes many dynamic characters, including Hamlet himself. Hamlet is a very complicated character with many controversial aspects embedded within his thoughts and dialogues. One of the most essential questions one could ask about Hamlet is to question his sanity and the justification of his actions. My personal take on this subject is that Hamlet’s actions were not justified due to his split decisiveness and moral acknowledgements.

In this revenge tragedy, which is a play in which the plot typically centers on a spectacular attempt to avenge the murder of a family member, Hamlet’s call to adventure is when the ghost, whom he believes to be the ghost of his recently deceased father, beseeches Hamlet that he avenge his death (Charters and Charters 1251). At first looking at the ghost, he questions the authority of him and contemplates that the apparition is just the devil tempting him:

Hamlet is a play so rich in insight regarding human existence, so revelatory and reverberative, that Harold Bloom is justified in calling it a “poem unlimited.”2 All of its characters, and all the details of the drama that entangles them, contribute to its scope and profundity. But it is principally through the consciousness and hyper-articulate presence of Hamlet that Shakespeare so astonishingly explores the perplexities, challenges, and mysteries of human existence. The character of Hamlet is as vividly “real” and compelling as a dramatic character can be; but his complexity and depths of consciousness reveal to us much that is only partially fathomable about the meaning of existence—which is why his character will never be satisfactorily explained by any single account of who he is, why he does what he does, and why he cannot do what he cannot do.

It is important that we as viewers of this play catch the emotions that Hamlet portrays throughout the play. He is the main character that acts out with his emotions to help us understand what the characters are thinking. From these emotions we can further analyze the characters and grow more of a personal connection with them to help us understand how they justify their actions. A lot of the time our own mind can play a huge part in our decision making even for decisions that have a huge impact on others. So we as viewers

Shakespeare's writing is seen in high schools across the country and while one might say that it is outdated and not even relevant today they will find themselves wrong. Shakespeare is relevant in 2017 as it teaches students the power of morality and its importance in today’s society. Hamlet is a play about the Prince of Denmark trying to avenge his father’s murder. Throughout the play, he searches for evidence to prove Claudius murdered King Hamlet. Hamlet’s soliloquy in Act 2 Scene 2 responds to his debate over morality in a series of rhetorical questions and a stream of consciousness which allow the audience to empathize with Hamlet’s conflicting emotions over morality. He questions the morality of his situation and comes to term with his own fate.