Character Analysis of Hamlet, Research Paper Example

The question of Hamlet’s sanity is one of the most important aspects of Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . The idea that Hamlet pretends to be mad in order to distract the other members of the Royal Court from his true intention to uncover the nature of his father’s murder is the prevailing interpretation of Hamlet’s actions. However, the play leaves a certain amount of ambiguity regarding the condition of Hamlet’s mental health. even if is it obvious that Hamlet is not as mad as he pretends to be for the benefit of those he wishes to deceive, it is still possible that he mad at another, deeper level. For example, Hamlet’s hesitation in deciding whether or not to murder his uncle and revenge his father’s murder has been variously interpreted by critics as both an outgrowth of exception characterization by Shakespeare and as a “trick” that allows Shakespeare to artificially and prolong the suspense of the play’s plot. In the case of the former idea, the basic nature of Hamlet’s madness is shifted. The source of his madness is the very essence of existence itself.

In this regard, it can be argued that Hamlet is, indeed, mad. However, his madness comes from a rational confrontation with the nature of human reality. In other words, instead of being driven mad by his love for Ophelia or by his rage toward Claudius, hamlet is actually driven to mental anguish and perhaps even mental instability by what might be best described as an existential crisis. he is a young man who must face his own mortality and in doing so question the meaning of life and death. The famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy shows this to be one of the most fundamental and profound themes of the play. So, in keeping with Hamlet’s existential crisis, the idea that he may be genuinely “mad” is not quite precise. it would be better to suggest that he is suffering from anxiety and depression. The way that his madness is manifested, therefore, is not actually in the way he presents himself to the other members of the court as distant and irrational, but in the cold and methodical process he follows to personally confirm the proof of his mother and uncle’s guilt and murder.

This is not to suggest that Hamlet is a fully insane person or that he is a sociopath. however, the way in which he begins to devalue human life after the accidental murder of Polonius suggests that he has, at least, become consumed with a kid of fatalism and cynicism that makes him a danger to others and to himself. This creates an irony in the play because, as Drake points out in his essay “Notes on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,” there are actually multiple levels of meaning in the play. Drake writes that “The play involves two levels of meaning: there’s something petty, intimate, and even sordid about the royal family, yet providence seems to guide Hamlet in carrying out his revenge.” (Drake). this is ironic because it is just as Hamlet becomes most consumed by cynicism and morbidity that he begins to act heroically. In fact, hamlet becomes suicidal just as he attains the decisive power to avenge his father’s murder.

The transition of hamlet from a character who pretends to be mad in order to carry out strategy to a character whose actual madness results in his tragic death is one of the most brilliant aspects of the play. It is also the source of true suspense in the play. because of this, it becomes relatively easy to answer the question of whether or not Hamlet was actually mad. The answer is: yes, but only conditionally. Hamlet is suffering from an existential crisis. He is mad, but not irrational. His indecisiveness is a natural consequence of the self-exploration that Hamlet undertakes in response to his father’s death. The fact that Hamlet emerges from his introspection in a violent and antisocial manner shows the real elements of his madness. The end result of Hamlet’s existentialist crisis is the death of the Royal Court in Denmark — and its potential resurrection through Laertes.

Another part of the play that shows two meanings is Hamlet‘s relationship to Gertrude, his mother, and Ophelia, his potential lover. It is no accident that hamlet’s dissatisfaction in life shows itself in the way that his relationship with both of the primary women in his life. It is because, at the root of hamlet’s sorrow is the loss of his father, for which he blames his mother. hamlet comes to view his mother as not only dishonest and corrupt, but a lustful and dirty woman due to the fact that she helped to murder her husband, his father, in order to fulfill a sexual relationship with Claudius. because Claudius is her husband’s brother, Hamlet views their marriage as immoral and incestuous. It could be argued persuasively that hamlet’s love for Ophelia is dealt a lethal blow by his mother’s relationship to Claudius because Hamlet begins to view human lust as a cause for the corruption of Denmark and, by extension, the world.

The question remains as to the nature of hamlet’s true feelings toward his mother and toward Ophelia. on the one hand, it is clear by his despair and anger that he loves his mother because her betrayal and crime against his father and against the family have deeply wounded Hamlet. On the other hand, Hamlet comes very close to murdering his mother in the scene where he accidentally kills Polonius. During this scene, hamlet tells his mother that he knows what she has done and he openly accuses her of being morally and sexually corrupt. his tone and attitude are not loving, but border on being murderous. He also expresses a violent sexual urge toward his mother which brings forward the issue of how Hamlet’s sense of love has been destroyed by his mother’s affair with his uncle. It is possible that Hamlet has come to despise his mother at the same time that has come to view sex as a weapon and a tool that is corruptive and immoral in terms of earthly political power.

This means that his sexually threatening attitude toward his mother is meant to express that he no longer loves her as a son, but only views her as a corrupt part of a broken and meaningless world. The same attitude is present in the way that Hamlet relates to Ophelia. Instead of relating to her as a friend and confidante, he treats her as a corrupted and immoral person who must cleanse herself by becoming a nun. Hamlet, in turning away from Ophelia has, in fact, merged his ideas about Gertrude with his feelings for her. Since he can no longer view sex and love together, he desires Ophelia put, ironically, does not want to corrupt her with his lust. he also fears that her lust will corrupt him. In other words, as Kirschbaum points out in Character and Characterization in Shakespeare (1962) “the dishonesty of Gertrude merges with the dishonesty of Ophelia” (Kirschbaum, 90). For Hamlet, the failings of one woman indicate a general failing of all women. The same can be said for his perception of men, Because he knows Claudius to be corrupt, hamlet begins to assume that all men are either corrupt, or in dangerous peril of becoming that way due to their lust for worldly power.

The relationship that hamlet has with Gertrude and Ophelia is very much one that indicates a boy rising through trial and tribulation to try to attain manhood. However, because Hamlet is unable to overcome his sense of betrayal and emptiness, his reaction to losing his childhood innocence is violent and passionate rather than controlled and mature. He rejects the world of manhood as being too morally corrupt to gain his participation. As he rejects the world, hamlet also rejects all notions of love, romance, ane sexual fulfillment, which means, in effect, he has rejected the world of femininity which is symbolized by Gertrude and Ophelia.

Just as Hamlet’s relationship to Gertrude and Ophelia shows the way in which he eventually turns against femininity, hamlet’s relationship to Claudius and Polonius shows how he relates to masculinity. In the case of Claudius, Hamlet’s relationship is one of pure suspicion which eventually turns to hatred. It is fair to say that Hamlet’s relationship to Claudius is, in itself, the main theme of the play. it is the question of whether or not Hamlet will answer the violence and corruption of Claudius and Gertrude with violence and corruption of his own that defines the crisis and theme of the play. The fact that Hamlet eventually determines to murder his uncle shows that he has settled on becoming involved in the corruption and violence of the Court in order to avenge his father’s murder.

Seen from this perspective, Hamlet’s relationship to Claudius defines his changing perspective on masculinity in the same way that hamlet’s relationship to Gertrude and Ophelia shows his changing vision of femininity. If, in hamlet’s mind femininity symbolized love and sex, then in terms of masculinity, it is evident that Hamlet associated ideas such as law and personal honor with the concept of maleness. In rejecting Clausius, Hamlet rejects not only the corruption of politics that his uncle symbolizes, but the very notions of masculine authority and law that a King represents. This is something that is very important to keep in mind about Hamlet because it shows that his rejection of society is total and not simply confined to a rejection of traditional life. He is actually so alienated from his mother and Uncle that he has become fixated on the idea of rejecting their authority altogether as if in doing so, he might reclaim some semblance of honor and morality.

Of course, along with rejecting the authority of the state as represented by Claudius, hamlet also rejects the church, which is symbolized by Polonius. Since Polonius operates in the play as an ironic symbol of patriarchal power, Hamlet’s murder of him is seen by the audience as a wayward but still profound aspect of Hamlet’s rejection of authority. At one point in the play, Polonius characterizes hamlet as someone not to be trusted with his daughter due to his likely being motivated only by lust. In the book Shakespeare’s Women (1981), Pitt writes that both Polonius and Laertes are protective of Ophelia in regard to hamlet’s intentions. Pitt observes that Polonius warns his daughter about Hamlet: “he pours scorn on her naivety and insists that Hamlet only wants her sexual favors. Laertes, her brother, has said the same” (Pitt, 54). this is significant because it shows that Hamlet’s turning against society is also a turning against the lies and hypocrisy that is represented by traditional institutions such as marriage and the church.

In effect, hamlet’s relationship to Claudius and Polonius shows his rejection of patriarchal society. The only character in the play who is not wholly rejected by hamlet is Horatio. As hamlet’s true friend, Horatio symbolizes a love and bond that stands outside of traditional society. Horatio also is used by Shakespeare as a way to “translate” hamlet’s actions to the audience. Because Hamlet is an unusual hero in tragedy, it is necessary that the audience is reassured throughout the play that Hamlet is, indeed, a heroic and tragic figure. Horatio serves this purpose in the play, and this purpose is two-fold because it also shows a relationship of true honesty and affection between Horatio and Hamlet. The fact that hamlet preserves his friendship with Horatio until the end of his life does not mean that there is any aspect of formal society that he still believes in; instead it simply means that Hamlet came to belive that honesty and real friendship were the only things that actually mattered in human life. In this sense, Horatio must be considered both a sympathetic and moral character.

As mentioned, the character of Horatio is used by Shakespeare as a kind of bridge between the audience and the action of the play. Horatio is especially important in helping to guide the audience in regard to Hamlet’s actions and motivations. this is necessary because Hamlet is a non-traditional tragic hero. Most of his time is spent in inward contemplation rather than in outward action. he is defined by his inability to act. He is erratic, moody, young, and confused. These attributes stand in contradiction to the traditional attributes of a tragic hero. This means that, in creating an off-beat hero for his tragedy, Shakespeare risked losing or alienating his audience. therefore it was necessary for Shakespeare to adhere to at least some of the primary traditional aspects of a tragic hero.

One of these primary aspects is the moment of self-awareness that both indicates the tragic hero’d downfall and explains it. In traditional tragedies, the hero has a “fatal flaw” that brings about their ruin. Hamlet, despite being in many ways and experimental character, is no exception. he also has a recognition scene in the play and he also has a tragic flaw that brings about his ruin. The tragic flaw that Hamlet has is, of course, his indecision. he is unable to come to a decision regarding whether or not to avenge his father’s murder. This indecision brings about an eventual bloodbath that includes Hamlet’s own death and which could have been avoided in hamlet would have acted decisively to murder Claudius or to forgive him to equip him with a fatal flaw? The answer to that question can best be made by referencing the aforementioned recognition scene. In Act 5, Scene One, while standing on a grave-site, Hamlet questions Horatio about the meaning of existence. This scene can be thought of as hamlet’s scene of self-recognition, in that be both recognizes that he is a tragic figure destined to die and that his great inhibition in living life has been that life seems cruel and meaningless. Hamlet’s famous lines about Yorick show all of the essential aspects of Hamlet’s tragic character. Hamlet delivers the following lines to Horatio, but they could just as easily be spoken by hamlet to himself. Hamlet says, “Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath borne me on his back a thousand times. And now how abhorred in my imagination it is!” (Shakespeare 5.1. 179-188). The tragic flaw in hamlet is, as mentioned above, his indecision, but in Act 5, Scene one, the motivation for his indecision is shown.

This recognition scene acts as a way for hamlet to both glimpse the nature of his fate and to also experience the depths of his own angst. While contemplating death, hamlet can see no virtue in the pleasures of life. he is indecisive because he is ambivalent about the nature of existence itself. throughout the play it appears that Hamlet suffers from a moral crisis, and then a romantic crisis, and then a crises of faith society and religion. However, by the end of the play, the reader understands that all of these crises are rooted in hamlet’s existential fear and his unwillingness to create an inner-0meaning and morality for life. In seeing that the meanings and morals of his parents and the other members of his society were insufficient, hamlet chose to reject not only society and its conventions, but life itself.

Works Cited

Drake, Alfred J. “Notes on Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Prince of Denmark” Shakespeare Notes. 11/6/2011; Limbsofalarbus.com; accessed 3-28-13; http://www.limbsofalarbus.com/2011/11/hamlet.html

Kirschbaum, Leo. Character and Characterization in Shakespeare. Wayne State university Press, 1962.

Pitt. Angela. Shakespeare’s Women. David and charles publishers, 1981.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. G. R. Hibbard. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998.