Logan Rose
Dr. Richard Gabri
Shakespeare
19 February 2023
The Role of Emotion in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Precursor of Doubt
Background information:
In Hamlet’s Shakespeare, the character Hamlet discovers that Claudius, his uncle, has murdered Hamlet’s father when a ghost of his father appears to him and retells the story of his murder. Later in the play, Hamlet doubts the validity and sanctity of the ghost that appeared to him, questioning its role and purpose. Upon the arrival of players, he alters the play to draw out a reaction in Claudius in order to determine whether Claudius had murdered his father. After viewing the players’ initial performances, Hamlet emotionally breaks down as he compares the performance of the player to his
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The ending of this excerpt allows the reader to delve deeper into Hamlet’s character, specifically with the lines “and all for nothing!/For Hecuba!” (Hamlet 2.2.492-493). Hamlet becomes distraught at the thought that the players could display more emotion towards something artificial, while he could not muster the same emotion for his father’s murder. Accordingly, this outbreak of emotion sows seeds of doubt into Hamlet’ rational thought and appears later in the soliloquy. Hamlet begins to question whether the ghost was his father, presumably as a defense mechanism to prevent himself from believing that he didn’t love his father. Dating back to an earlier soliloquy, Hamlet is obsessed with what “seems” versus what “is”; to prevent his love for his father from being what “seems”, he projects a narrative of deceitfulness onto the ghost. This is why, later in the soliloquy, Hamlet states: “The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil: and the devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape” (Hamlet 2.2.533-535) in order to rescind resposibility for his …show more content…
However, only four lines later, Hamlet again impedes himself by making up another plan. This inadvertently plays into his fear that procrastinating the revenge of his father is a mirror image of his inability to act. Hamlet’s expression of the fear that he is unable to act for something as important to him as the death of his father overwhelms rational thought, and Hamlet begins to convince himself that this action is necessary to confirm that Claudius was responsible for the death of Hamlet’s father. Upon closer analysis of the text, the mood of the scene shifts into a desperate tone that unveils the workings of Hamlet’s mind. This begins on the intersection of two drastic emotional changes; when Hamlet is angry at himself– “Fie upon’t! Foh! About, my brain!” (Hamlet 2.2.523) and when he begins to formulate his plan– “Hum/I have heard” (Hamlet 2.2.524). Further evidence to this being an emotional outbreak is the scansion on line 523. The syllable count here is short, hinting at Hamlet’s true feelings. Hamlet seems to be scrambling for an answer to why he cannot revenge his
He learned that Claudius and the suspects killed his father and that his mother might have been involved with the murder. While the mind is a powerful place, it is challenging to fully grasp the emotions a character is feeling just through text alone. The film, however, portrays the scene as changing from anger, to sadness, to rage suddenly much like how many would react if they were in a similar situation. The actor during this scene sells the role of Hamlet, which assists viewers to understand how Hamlet feels and how much pain he is experiencing. It was not only in this scene either where the actor aids the viewers in understanding how the characters in Hamlet are feeling but in other scenes shown throughout the film.
At this point in the play, Hamlet discovers that Claudius is only putting on a show and is "a villain" who is only "smiling" to disguise his murderous actions with happiness. This foreshadows the rest of the play when Hamlet makes the sudden decision, fueled by his despair, to perform the same act as Claudius. He takes Claudius's deception and twists it into his own, where Hamlet pretends to go into a manic state of despair to distract the court from the revenge plan that Hamlet is planning to both expose and dispose of Claudius. Hamlet's lines through these passages show the despair he feels by discovering the true nature of his father's death and
To find out if the ghost is trustworthy of his accusations, Hamlet fabricates two plans. He first decides to act “mad” for others to start to ignore his ways and how he acts “To put an antic disposition on” (Shakespeare I.v. 192). He then decides to add a few more lines to an upcoming play that is performed in the kingdom. He makes Horatio watch to see if there was any reaction from King Claudius. After Hamlet executes his scene of the possible murder, Claudius reacts in an unmannered way letting Hamlet confirm the Ghosts' acquisitions.
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Ghost's use of cynical diction and vicious imagery in his speech emphasizes his contempt for Claudius and Gertrude, aligning the reader with Hamlet's vengeful feelings towards them. The Ghost's description of Claudius as "incestuous" and Gertrude as a seemingly-virtuous queen creates a negative perception of them in the reader's mind. The imagery of the serpent and garbage used by the Ghost reinforces this negative perception, creating a vivid picture of Claudius and Gertrude's actions that aligns the reader with Hamlet's disdain for them. Act 1, scene 5 of Shakespeare's Hamlet is Prince Hamlet's first encounter with his deceased father who exists between the borders of life and death, presenting himself as a ghost
Hamlet at first was a little bit weary of the ghost but when the ghost told Hamlet that he was stuck in purgatory until revenge was sought out, hamlet was on board. Hamlet adored his father so when the ghost asked him to seek revenge, and when it told him to murder claudius it's all he focuses on for the majority of the novel. The effect seeking justice had on Hamlet was profound. He became obsessed with finding a proper way to kill the king. His first attempt was to put on a play where he hired actors to recreate the old king's murder to see how the queen and Claudius would react.
This is explained by the Ghost when Hamlet learns of his father being murdered in Act 1 Scene 5, in lines 35 -39, “’Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life . Now wears his crown.” 2) The soliloquies that Hamlet provides over the sequence of the entire play allows us to distinguish what Hamlet was thinking about and display how he was losing his sanity.
Kaitlyn Fahy Mrs. Shjarback English 4A 21 February 2023 Living Through Fear The afterlife, often associated with ghosts and spirits of the dead, evokes fear in many people. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the ghost of King Hamlet appears to warn his son, Prince Hamlet, of his uncle Claudius' evil doings. King Hamlet creates both fear and rage in his son sending him to spiral out of control throughout the play. Through the years, many film adaptations of the play have been created in which each version interprets the play in different ways.
In the beginning of the play ‘Hamlet’, the lead character Hamlet is approached by a ghost; something that people in the Elizabethan Era believed, due to underdeveloped scientific understanding, to be in the realm of reality. (“British Library” par. 3) The ghost in the play claims to be Hamlet's father and informs Hamlet of a great injustice and instructs him to take revenge. (Hamlet 1.5.45)
The main character of William Shakespeare’s tragedy is actually a confused person that’s stuck between two choices. Some may argue that he feels guilty for his father’s death and so it’s his duty to avenge it. While others may disagree and conclude that he is just a maniac who is both violent and dangerous. Hamlet passes through the lane of hesitancy, where he hesitates to kill King Claudius. As a matter of fact, the main conflict of Hamlet is that he feels both the need to solve the crime and punish the responsible.
Hamlet, also, could not get over the death of his father. He found out when his father’s ghost came back that his brother, and Hamlet’s uncle, murdered him. He then was willing to do anything possible to get revenge on Claudius, his uncle. Both of
Throughout Hamlet, Prince Hamlet is faced against many situations that question his mental stability and ability to make decisions. His indecisiveness comes from the way he reacts to the situations he is put in and the way his mind presents these situations to him. The most important indecisive moments are Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts, his father’s ghost, and his vengeance to Claudius. When Hamlet is told by a ghost that has a resemblance of his father that Claudius had killed him, he vows to take vengeance and revenge his father’s death.
One of Hamlet’s tragic flaws that leads to his ultimate downfall is his indecision. In Act II scene ii, Hamlet’s soliloquy reveals how much loathing he has for himself. He sees himself as weak and useless for not avenging his father’s death after the spirit of King Hamlet discloses the information of his murder. Hamlet calls himself a coward because he does not have nearly as much passion for his deceased father as the actor does for Hecuba, a fictional character that the player does not even know. However, Hamlet convinces himself that he has a reason for not immediately killing Claudius.
Hamlet is one of the most memorable Shakespearean plays due to the focus on a young prince`s struggle with obeying the ghostly figure that we witness briefly on stage. The ghost is certainly an important figure in shaping the outcome of this revenge tragedy. Thus, we must ponder what is the ghost and how it can be interpreted in a plethora of ways. It is arguably seen as the spirit of Hamlet`s father, a figment of his imagination and being Shakespeare himself. Therefore, this essay will examine these potential answers to the question.
Or it can be seen as the ghost being some type of evil spirit trying to destroy hamlet through bad advice. The ghost is simply trying to free its spirit from purgatory and not trying to destroy hamlet, this is evident due to the fact that we know that Claudius killed Hamlet’s father in cold blood before he could pray for his sins. The ghosts role in the play is to tell Hamlet how he truly died. The nature in which the ghost appears in the play changes from appearance to appearance.
Due to himself being too idealistic and restrained, he does not take decisive actions even after using the planned play to test the Claudius's conscience that could possibly expose himself and left himself in unfavorable circumstances. Hamlet’s inability to act is caused by his overanalysis of the situations that further render him from not carrying out actions in response. If Hamlet is not indecisive, he would not be uncertain about the evidence regarding to his uncle’s crime, he would not be delaying his revenge, he would not be having emotional breakdowns and become a tragic figure. Hamlet’s personality ‘borns’ and develops under his royal position and the growing