Hamlet

In William Shakespeare 's revenge tragedy play Hamlet, the prevailing themes of revenge, madness, and morality were recognized by the Elizabethan audience and appealed to them. The play 's central focus is on a young prince, Hamlet, who has gone through many challenges to avenge his father 's death. Prince Hamlet got his revenge on his deceitful uncle, Claudius, the same man who murdered his father and married Hamlet 's mother. From the original text of the play, a major scene in Act 4 shows where Hamlet decides that it 's time for vengeance, expressing it in a soliloquy. This scene would have appealed to the Elizabethan audience because they would observe Hamlet 's thoughts. In addition, the soliloquy would have expanded on the theme of revenge, and how it would affect the final scene. Finally, by emphasizing the theme of morality in his speech, it would have the audience to make connections towards their own consciousness. Shakespeare 's Hamlet successfully targets the Elizabethan audience in Hamlet 's speech from Act IV.

Shakespeare sprinkles subtle lines alluding to Hamlet’s apparent cowardice and failure as a classical revenger. In addition to this, Shakespeare may intentionally delay Hamlet’s revenge and remove emphasis from his passion to break the trend of morally blind, obsessive, psychopathic avengers as traditionally depicted in plays such as “The Spanish Tragedy”.

Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).

The relevance and significance of the revenge tragedy is in the way it explores human nature and forces audiences to evaluate ideologies such as revenge and justice. The concept of revenge is accompanied by moral conflict and Shakespeare demonstrates that by acting immorally society is likely to be riddled with corruption. Hamlet seeks to avenge the death of his father but struggles with the ramifications of seeking righteous revenge through an immoral act. The imposition of revenge instills the existential questioning on Hamlet as it contradicts his with his social expectation. His

This following is Hamlet’s first soliloquy in the play and it helps the reader to understand his innermost thoughts and his character, gives a better understanding of the plot and helps create atmosphere in the play.

This soliloquy helps the audience to better understand Hamlet but also to better understand themselves. Every Elizabethan audience, no matter their status in society has faced controversy. Therefore when Hamlet delivers this particular soliloquy, it helps the audience to better understand not only Hamlet but themselves. As Hamlet passionately confesses his need to do what he thinks is right, the audience recalls situations where they have felt the same way. The audience sympathises with Hamlet and revenge becomes the choice solution for all.

Hamlet’s soliloquy also advances the plot of the play and intrigues the audience. In the beginning of the speech Hamlet beings to panic and doubt himself. Hamlet says to

When Hamlet is first asked to avenge his fathers’ death his loyalty invades his thoughts and emotions leading to iritic behavior from Hamlet as form of procrastination, as he is unsure of the information he given by the possible ghost of his late father. Shakespeare has made use of the stylistic features of rhetorical questions and biblical language to communicate Hamlets morals and fears to act on his loyalty, “And I shall couple hell?”. “To be or not to be, that is the question, Whether ‘Tis nobler in the mind to suffer”, Shakespeare has used this rhetorical question within a soliloquy to question whether to live or not to live, then states that it is more noble to suffer life passively then conclude in suicide. Shakespeare has applied dualism to this question within his play, to act on loyalty or to suffer without revenging his father’s death. Shakespeare unlike Hosseini has created a revenge tragedy through the overwhelming theme of revenge, which expresses the true price of Hamlets inaction to act on loyalty, in which the play ends the death of many characters including hamlet and his mother

Through Shakespeare’s perspicacious genius, in Hamlet he has depicted an aspect of humanity that belongs essentially not to his age but ours. He does so by subverting the audience's’ expectations of a revenge tragedy through his characterization of Hamlet as having an overactive intellectual mind, which results in his delay from action. Hamlet spends the vast majority of the play ruminating over philosophical questions related to the typical themes of revenge tragedy; action, murder, revenge, but also the purpose of theatre, philosophical questions of life, family relationships and the importance of rituals (such as funerals). Therefore, Hamlet is essentially about the attempt to hold a mirror up to human nature and work towards expressing

From the beginning of the play it is obvious that Hamlet is extremely depressed and disillusioned with the world around him. In this soliloquy however Shakespeare has introduced Hamlets internal judgement of himself for the first

The soliloquies create an effect on the audience showing that Hamlet is depressed and confused. When he speaks, he sounds as if there is something important he is not saying, maybe something even he is unaware of, creating the sense that Hamlet's character, a philosopher, is extremely troubled at becoming a man of action.

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.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society,

The more Hamlet thinks, the more prone he is to doubt. The thoughts of death continuously consume Hamlet's mind. Unable to bring himself to kill Claudius, Hamlet questions his bravery, “Am I a coward?” (2.2.598). He cannot find a reason inside him for not taking action, leading Hamlet to question his morality: “To be or not to be” (3.1.64). Although he asks such a profound question, it is impressive that he does not give a direct answer. His mind is so full of the reasons to live and to die that

William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ is characterised as a tragedy, illustrating an abundance of significant themes, with one of the most important ideas being revenge. Revenge is defined as an action of hurting somebody in return for something that has been done unjustly wrong. The main character, Hamlet, continuously reflects on revenge throughout the play, particularly in his soliloquies. Nevertheless, he has been procrastinating, talking about the situation, but not demonstrating it. In an honour code, it displays coward-like qualities. Revenge is effectively represented in ‘Hamlet’, as it allows to develop a strong understanding of human strengths and frailties. This is because it represents the different forms of deceptive plots that result in the situation of death. This is clearly evident in Hamlet’s interaction with his father’s ghost, convincing him to murder Claudius for revenge, which extends into the play that is acted out, proving that he is the murderer of his father. Also, Hamlet’s third and most famous soliloquy provides the reader with a reflection on death in his melancholic state of mind, and Hamlet also refrains from killing Claudius as he is praying and decides to kill him at another time.