The belief in nothing, the rejection of all values, moral principles and religions. The philosophy that all values are baseless and believing that life is meaningless, this is Nihilism. In Hamlet, there are three different kinds of nihilism that are shown; passive, active and ubermensch. Passive nihilism is when there is belief that there is no going further, its the end. Passive nihilism can be distinguished by rejection, death/suicide, and defeat. Active nihilism is the beginning or starting point, the creation of whole new values. Someone who is presenting active nihilism would be wanting to get rid of anything meaningless. Lastly, ubermensch is the next step in human evolution, giving himself/herself value and morality. All three of these …show more content…
Nihilism is shown through Hamlet’s state of mind during the play through his feelings, actions and emotions. Hamlet uses active nihilism when Hamlet finds out that Claudius, his father's brother, murders King Hamlet. Hamlet then has his soliloquy during that period of sorrow. After that, Hamlet then wanted to get revenge on Claudius for murdering his father. The feeling of getting revenge starts the signs of active nihilism in Hamlet. Hamlet goes through passive nihilistic views in most of the play and shows this through his lack of motivation to live. Hamlet says, “How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world,” (I,2). Hamlet talks on how that everything in this world is useless. This suggests that he really does not have a reason to live. Hamlet shows random signs of powerful emotions and those result in nihilistic traits. An example of this is Hamlet says "Should have fatted all the region kites With this slave's offal: bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain," (I,2). This quote shows how Hamlet battles his inner-self and his own ideas. Hamlet thinks about a choice of whether he should give up as a passive nihilist would, or to go his own way and choices with active nihilism. These Nihilistic views are apparent and strong throughout
The story of Hamlet is all about his tragic journey through life. Throughout his journey he has to deal with the passing of his father and his mother's hasty remarriage to his uncle C laudius the dead king's brother. It is remarkable how one person can deal with the amount of betray he has had to deal with in his life. I can come to the conclusion that hamlet has depression, you are able to see this through his constant mood swings and lack of interaction with his family and so called friends. As a result of all the stress he is encountering he is slowly driving himself mad and many health problems can occur from this.
He is constantly faced with death and hardships and almost never catches a break. While Hamlet is not exactly in the denial stage, he is certainly in the dead center of the other four stages. When someone has been through everything that Hamlet has, it is obvious that one would be furious. His Uncle, Claudius, killed his father so that he could be king and then proceeded to marry his mother. Almost all of Hamlet 's anger in the play is based around this event which happened before the play even
He does nothing with his life for a long time. He walks and dresses in black. When someone is lazy with their life, no matter what the reason is, they become distracted and wrath builds up in their hearts. We see this in Hamlet as he begins to hate everything around him and lives in depression.
The idea that our actions could be meaningless is one that is not uncommon for one to ponder; though a troubling thought, it cannot be denied that once an individual is dead, their previous actions don't make any difference to things anymore. This idea is elaborated on by two great writers, William Shakespeare and T. S. Eliot. A universal theme about the futility of life is shared in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Eliot's The Wasteland. In Shakespeare's play, the main character, Hamlet, regularly has doubtful and somewhat nihilistic views on his life.
The emptiness and lack of support cause Hamlet to be more cynical about living and not have much closure about
We see his relation to death and how he is intrigued by it, in his soliloquy in Act one scene 2 he says the lines”o, that this too sullied flesh would melt” signifying his sense of wanting to disappear. The re-marriage of Gertrude with Claudius, his Uncle taking over as king instead of him, makes hamlet feel a
Hamlet no longer wanted to live in this life despair and pain. Another illustration of his indecisiveness is during the play when he had a clear chance to avenge his father by killing Claudius but choose not to do so, because he thought that Claudius was repenting for his
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.
The personality of such characters as Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is much remarked upon. However, it is even more meaningful to analyze changes in Hamlet’s character throughout the play. As Hamlet becomes more driven in his revenge, his actions lose morality and gain consequences. In fact, Shakespeare uses the relationship between a character’s cruelty and the meaning in the pain they cause to comment on the cyclically destructive nature of cruelty.
Nothing at all, yet all that is I see. HAMLET: Nor did you nothing hear? GERTRUDE: No, nothing but ourselves” (3.4.132-153).
“But o, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes” Hamlet written by William Shakespeare during the Elizabethan age revolves around the setting, time and the nature of its characters. Happiness in Hamlet is a vague theme that involves almost all the characters, who are significantly influenced by the time and place of the play, the sexuality of the characters and also, how they practice deception. The tragedy of Hamlet presents various characters who pursue or compromise their happiness to satisfy their conscience. This is shown through characters such as Hamlet, Claudius and Ophelia. In addition, to how their differences and similarities shape their personalities, which causes them to pursue or compromise their happiness.
Revenge is a very strong and powerful theme found in stories across all ages and all cultures. During the course of this class two books have also held this theme, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Shelley's Frankenstein. Revenge seems to be such a large theme for both Hamlet and Frankenstein's monster because they both feel utterly betrayed by the people closest to them. In Hamlet, King Hamlet is murdered by his brother, his ghost reveals this to Prince Hamlet.
Throughout the play Hamlet, it is discovered that Hamlet goes through many ordeals in such a short period of time and these ordeals altered his perspective on life. In the play, we learn what Hamlet’s perspective is, how his perspective is formed, and how it affects the meaning of the play. To begin with, through Hamlet soliloquies, we learn what Hamlet’s perspective on life is. At the beginning of the play, it is revealed that Hamlet believes life is worthless. This is evident in his “to be or not to be” soliloquy.
He does not see that as the beginning of his Shadow and lets his Shadow overcome him in the end. Jungian Psychology was the basis behind the song “Forty Six & 2” by the metal band Tool, and the lyrics can be applied to Hamlet as well. One of the lyrics is
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.v.90). Hamlet is about a young prince who is mourning the loss of his father. He then tries to seek revenge on his uncle Claudius because he poisoned his father. Throughout the play Hamlet’s behavior starts to change which causes him to become mad. The theory about all this is a Psychological Approach.