Loss Of Identity In Hamlet

Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare's most famous play. The play is about Prince Hamlet and his struggles with the new marriage of his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle and now stepfather, King Claudius about only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet has an encounter with his father, Old King Hamlet, in ghost form. His father accuses Claudius of killing him and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is infuriated by this news and then begins his thoughts on what to do to get revenge. Hamlet and Claudius are contrasting characters. They do share similarities, however, their profound differences are what divides them.Hamlet was portrayed as troubled, inactive, and impulsive at times. Hamlet is troubled by many things, but the main source of his problems come from the the death of his father. “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” (Act 1, Scene 2). In this scene, Hamlet is contemplating suicide, which is caused by the death of his father and the new marriage of Gertrude and King Claudius. This scene shows the extent of how troubled Hamlet is. Even though Hamlet’s father asked him to avenge his death, Hamlet is very slow to act on this throughout the play. “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act 3, Scene 3). This scene shows King Claudius praying, while Hamlet is behind him drawing his sword but decides not to kill

Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.

63. Ophelia has fell into madness following her father's death at the hands of the man she had loved. However, it is also her father’s death that leads her to a loss in identity. Ophelia had done everything she could in order to please Polonius; with his death, Ophelia has lost her identity as she had never been graced with the chance to form a sense of self. She does not demonstrate any fury in her madness, she appears singing songs which, though sung in madness, reflect her sorrows. Along with her songs, the flowers she gives to Gertrude and Claudius also hold sorrowful meaning. She hands them a variety of flowers, then proclaiming that she would give violets had they not perished along with her father. This is significant, as the violet represents faithfulness; just as the violets had, Ophelia shrivels up without someone to be faithful to.

When those held dear commit an act of treachery against you, you may feel abandoned and left in the world to fend for yourself. Hamlet feels this way when his mother marries his father’s brother soon after his father’s passing. Hamlet contemplates suicide for the sole purpose of disappearing into the world. Hamlet transitions from an attitude of self pity-like, then to comparing his father to his uncle, then to disgust in his mother for, what he feels like, betraying his father. Hamlet’s soliloquy, “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt…” (1. 2. 133) offers insight on Hamlet’s innermost thoughts and is the one time that his feelings are stated clearly.

When looking at Hamlet, one could say that William Shakespeare put the play together as a very cathartic tragedy. The emotional result of dealing with so many deaths brings on a plethora of emotions which are not usually felt in a typical play. Hamlet begins not with the normal prosperity and good fortune as do most tragedies, but with a more stifling and depressing sort of mood (Tekany 115). However, something else could be said about this play as well. The play centers on Hamlet and his existential characteristics, such as angst, isolation and his confrontations with nothingness. The exhibition of these characteristics proves Hamlet to be an existential character.

Adequately explained and symbolic in Hamlet and modern society, grief and revenge play immense roles amidst a human’s state of mind when coping with calamities like these. Grief plays a large part in Shakespeare’s Hamlet script. Displayed in many different acts and scenes, audiences engulfed in this work begin to see how relatable his penmanship can be brought into their lives particularly in families. Jonathon Herman, a 35-year-old health care executive from New York was asked to disclose information about losing both of his parents of cancer before turning 13 years old. “I felt like I wasn’t a kid anymore because I was forced to grow up and provide for a lot of things on my own,” Herman states (Zaslow).

Hamlet's impetuous desire to take his own life is only an impassioned reaction to the heavy burden of revenge that his father's murder has placed upon him. His greater struggle, and the focus of Hamlet itself, involves the questioning of the purpose and meaning of a life well-lived. The character of Hamlet pursues this knowledge through his manipulation of reality, his search for the courage

Hamlet’s character drastically develops over the first four acts of Hamlet, and his character development is most evident through the soliloquys he delivers throughout the play. The most character development can be seen from the first soliloquy, to the second, the third, the sixth, and the seventh and final soliloquy. Hamlet’s inner conflict with his thoughts and his actions are well analyzed in his soliloquys, as well as his struggles with life and death, and his very own existence. He begins the play wondering what purpose he has in life now that his father is dead and his mother has remarried to his uncle. After finding out foul play was involved in his father’s death, he is motivated by revenge. Finally, he wonders how he can enact his revenge while continuously overthinking and overanalyzing his actions.

It is the aesthetic or literary part of legitimacy that actually matters in Hamlet (and ironically even in “real” politics). Identity depends on who narrates the legitimizing story. Whether a character depends for his story on his ancestors or on others determines his/her political identity. According to Richard A. Lanham, “the king plays a Polonius-of-the-leading-question: “Laertes, was your father dear to you?” (277-78)

In the plays that we have covered throughout the semester, Shakespeare continuously adds layers of complexity to the events, dialogue, and characteristics of the main characters. In doing so, Shakespeare is able to create a presentation of reality as a more subjective interpretation rather than an objective truth. Additionally, this complexity is extremely prevalent in the characterization of the main characters, in which he intimates the multiplicity of human nature. Although the genres range from the history plays of Richard II and Henry V to the revenge tragedy of Hamlet, there are numerous themes that arise within all of these works that aid in the understanding of human nature and identity. Overall, the idea of identity is explored as

In the work, Hamlet himself frequently finds himself caught in a existential crisis, making the existential outlook on the play an appropriate one. Frequently throughout the play, Hamlet finds himself questioning his existence, and more specifically, “to be, or not to be” (Shakespeare, 3.1). The nature of Hamlet’s existential crisis is not one of whether or not he does exist, but rather, whether or not he should exist. Hamlet’s mindset is reflective of viewpoint not uncommon at the time of the play’s conception-- that the world is rotten, and he must suffer through it (Tekinay 117). The particular events of Hamlet’s own life lead him to the conclusion that, for his existence to remain bearable, he must either end his own life or exact revenge on Claudius. The former is where existentialism is seen in Hamlet; through his ability to decide whether or not his existence should continue, Hamlet is forced to question the meaning and value of his life. He begins to see the people around him as something entirely different from himself, and as his enemies. Save for Horatio, Hamlet no longer considers himself to be part of the rest of humanity (Tekinay 120), and this drives him to look down upon the rest of humanity. He views them as more foolish and less aware, a perception revealed to the readers through asides and impolite comments that go unnoticed by other characters in the play. This distaste for others leads Hamlet to wonder where his own worth is, and the conclusion he eventually comes to is that it is his revenge that is most important to the question of his “being.” Hamlet views his duty towards revenge as the justification for his

The death of King Hamlet effected many individuals lives to the point where great changes were made. Especially in regards to his son, Hamlet, who took the death – murder- of his father personally in both mental and emotional ways. By doing so, Hamlet portrays and experiences the death and loss of his father by acting out in manners in which magnify his isolation and alienated actions. These would include excluding and distancing himself, turning on those closest, and taking on measures one would never do so when thinking rationally or clearly.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, is summoned by the ghost of his father to seek revenge for his murder. Hamlet struggles to avenge his father’s death as he is a complex character that is more analytical and introspective, which is apparent through the first-person narrated soliloquys. As the play progresses, Hamlet’s inability to act adds a great weight and pressure upon his shoulders as he wants to do right by his father as a noble son, yet he struggles to follow through. Eventually, Hamlet does kill Claudius but as a result of his hesitancy several additional lives are lost. In the revenge tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare develops the theme of hesitancy through Hamlet’s primary dilemma of avenging his father’s murder.

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we are presented with a young man torn asunder after the sudden demise of his father. There is a point in the play where Hamlet vocalizes his feelings of displacement and loss within his world. The “To be, or not to be” monologue plunges the audience into the confused psyche of Hamlet, allowing us to empathize with Hamlet's existential crisis. This window into Hamlet’s dilemma strikes the audience, it is relatable in that we all face moments in our lives where we stand back and question our socially and self-imposed roles. The ramblings of Hamlet echo through history, and those same sentiments can be felt to this day. The true comparison lies in how we handle these tribulations.

Though Hamlet is a prince who has heavy responsibility and noble status in his country, he is also just a 17-year-old juvenile. He is smart and sensitive. His mind is usually filled with complicated feelings. He receives many sudden impacts, like the death of his dear father and the news about his mother remarries with his uncle, in such a young age. So, he becomes irritability and depressed gradually. What’s more, the truth of his father’s death is so cruel that makes his character change severely. He has not been in high and vigorous spirits no more.