Theme Of Violence In Hamlet

Hamlet has many problems dealing with the fact that his mother married his uncle less than two months after the death of his father. Hamlet sees his mother's remarriage as disgusting and sees murdering Claudius as a way of freeing his mother of an incestuous marriage as well as avenging his father. Hamlet and his mother's relationship is also shown as more sexual than the traditional mother son relationship because of Hamlet's long and private conversation with his mother, as well as his rivalry toward Claudius for his mother's attentions. Hamlet makes numerous sexually allusions. The "closet scene" in Act 3 Scene 4, proves to be essential in understanding Hamlet's and Gertrude's relationship because the

Hamlet kills Polonius and Gertrude becomes scared as to what is going to happen with Hamlet. Claudius betrays her trust by taking advantage of it and takes matter into his own hands. Claudius solution to the problem is to have Hamlet sent to England, where he is going to be safe from the law and will not have to deal with any consequences for his actions. " O Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch. But we will ship him hence, and this vile deed. We must, with all out majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse" (4.1.28-32). Claudius makes Gertrude believe he is setting this up because he wants to protect Hamlet. But even though the audience knows the real reason as to why he is doing this. He is sending Hamlet to England to be killed. " By letters congruing to that effect, The present death of Hamlet" (4.3.66-67).

Delaying, Hamlet continues to avoid murdering Claudius. After hesitating to kill Claudius, Hamlet flees to his mother’s room. Polonius hides in Gertrude’s room while Hamlet is speaking with his mother, but Hamlet soon catches on and murders Polonius. Shocked, Gertrude confronts Hamlet about the murder, but Hamlet retaliates by asserting, "A bloody deed! almost as bad, good

As Hamlet says, ?Frailty thy name is woman?, her actions cause Hamlet to curse women all together. In the first Act, Claudius and Gertrude question Hamlet?s depression. They push Hamlet to accept his father?s death and move on with his life. Hamlet hides his feelings about his mother and the king. He should have admitted his hatred for their marriage. While Hamlet is holding back his feelings, he becomes more angered at their attempts to calm him. Gertrude is also aware of Hamlet?s feelings for Ophelia and uses this as an excuse for Hamlet?s madness. Hamlet has plenty of time to confess the cause of his madness and that?s what he should have done. Instead, Hamlet allows his mother to think he is madly in love rather than tell the truth. After Hamlet delivers his play and sees guilt in his uncle, Gertrude sends for Hamlet. Instead of hurting his mother, he insists on her to tell him the truth. It would have been easier to just go ahead and hurt Gertrude. Also, Hamlet should have acted more swiftly on this, then her confession could have taken place earlier in the play. This could save him from a great deal of pain and leave his thoughts for other problems.

Hamlet's rant to persuade her that Claudius is a bad man and the murderer of his father depicts his disrespect to his mother. For instance, he tells her, "You go not till I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you." (III.iv.20-21) He is threatening his own mother! Later, he addresses her as "thou wretched, rash, intruding fool" (III.iv.32) Even though Gertrude's lust for Claudius aggravates him, Hamlet fails to show even the most fundamental respect to his superior. The relationship is full of disloyalty and distrust from Gertrude's part. First, she appeases, "Be thou assured... I have no life to breathe what thou hast said to me." (III.iv.201-203) It is assumed that she will listen to Hamlet and stay away from Claudius. However, in the next act, she displays her true loyalty to her husband, telling him that Hamlet is "in this brainish apprehension kills / The unseen good old man." (IV.I.12-13) This is partially contributed by her observations of her son talking to a ghost that she doesn't see. Polonius' death causes her to think Hamlet is dangerous, further driving the two apart. Her distrust to her son harms him by further solidifying Claudius' plan to execute him in England because the king sees him as a threat to the throne who is capable of killing. In the end, Hamlet and Gertrude's relationship take a bittersweet ending.

Hamlet puts off avenging his father’s death because of his severe Oedipus complex. Hamlet did not kill Claudius until his mother had already died. This is a sign that Hamlet did not want to hurt his mother because of the sexual feelings he had for her. Hamlet felt that killing Claudius would hurt his mother too much, and he could not do that to her. Hamlet wants to save Gertrude form Claudius because of his feelings for her, his incestual feelings, not maternal ones. Subconsciously the queen knows the effect she has on her son. Gertrude tries to play off that fact that’s she knows about Hamlet’s feeling several times in the play. Gertrude is very fond of her son and wants to protect him however she can. This can be seen in the play, many times even up to when Gertrude is about to die. She tries to save Hamlet from drinking the poison himself. She also decided not to tell Claudius that Hamlet knows what Claudius has done.

Polonius seemly hear all these vulgar and misogynistic rants and becomes ever more convinced that Hamlet is mad. He never rests easily until he ends up behind yet another arras, scheming, yet this time in Gertrude’s room and gets himself killed. The act of betrayal, by both Polonius and Gertrude has far-reaching consequences; Polonius is killed by Hamlet, Ophelia becomes mad and Laertes demands vengeance. Polonius’s betrayal disgusts Hamlet and he can only but refer to him as ‘a foolish prating knave’ and his mistreatment of his body when he says he will ‘lug his guts in the neighbour room’ can equally be taken as his disgust towards him.

After the death of King Hamlet, Claudius marries Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. Claudius marries Queen Gertrude for the “betterment” of the country. Claudius stated, “I am still possessed of those effects for which I did the murder: my crown, my own ambition, and my queen." (3.3) “My words rise upward, but my thoughts remain below. Words without sincerity never reach heaven. (3.3 101-102). Claudius’s motive was to become king, to become important and powerful. Hamlet was the next in line for King after his father’s death and Claudius did not want that. Hamlet is disturbed that his mother married his uncle and doesn’t mourn her husband’s death. Hamlet sees the overall picture unlike his mother. At first, Queen Gertrude doesn’t see anything wrong with marrying her brother in-law. Claudius murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear while he was sleeping. Claudius’s actions give Hamlet a reason for his

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the playwright introduces the compelling, complex, and complicated character of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet. In the events of the play, Hamlet swears revenge against his uncle for the foul murder of his father, the king. However, despite his intense catalyst, Hamlet reveals to be continuously torn between his motive of revenge and conflicted conscience, generating an inability to carry out his desired actions. While Hamlet possesses the passion and intellect to murder his uncle, Claudius, his actual inclination to act upon the murder directly opposes that of his powerfully emotional contemplations (S.T. Coleridge). Hamlet’s overzealous thoughts become unrealistic compared to his actual endeavors throughout the play.

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 comes across the King in a secluded room. This was the perfect moment for Hamlet to strike, but he observes the King praying and the outcome of what would happen if he killed them right then. Hamlet said, “And so he’ll go to heaven, and so I’ll get revenge. That needs to be thought over” (3.3.78-79). Later on in Act 3, the reader finds Hamlet speaking to Queen Gertrude in her chamber. They are having a conversation and Hamlet toward the end of the conversation, tells the queen to follow certain rules and not to sleep with the King any longer. The queen said, "Be assured, if words are made out of breath, and if breath comes from life, there is no living part of me that will breathe what you have said to me" (3.4.214-217). Hamlet now has the Queen’s loyalty and

Since the death of his father, King Hamlet, Hamlet his son is eluded between his thoughts and his emotions. The real struggle begins when a ghost, namely the ghost of King Hamlet, his father, accuses Hamlet’s uncle Claudius for his murder. When the ghost tells Hamlet about the reason for the murder Hamlet expresses his thoughts and feelings with passion, “The serpent that sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown” (Shakespeare). The passion from his anger is also evident at the end of the soliloquy when he calls his uncle “damned villain” (Shakespeare). Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude is also accused by the ghost of King Hamlet for being sexually involved with Claudius and hamlet passionately with rage and anger calls his mother “O most precious women” (Shakespeare) at the end of his soliloquy. This situation put Hamlet in a sensitive and fierce battle between what’s truth and what’s right. His thoughts do not run in parallel with his emotions, Hamlet being caught up in this internal confusion keeps on delaying his actions. Furthermore Hamlet’s reason to kill Claudius comes from his passion, but his intelligence gives him reasons not to kill his uncle Claudius. He keeps

This, in turn, exploits Hamlet’s similar flaw of ego and furthers the conflict, but what’s more, it illustrates Claudius’ sheer audacity and lack of repentance. He continues to try to cover up the sin and appease Hamlet into complacency rather than confess and ask for forgiveness. In a mark of pure arrogance, Claudius tells Hamlet to “throw to earth / This unprevailing woe and think of us / As of a father”, conceitedly requesting that Hamlet merely forget the murder and replace his father with the murderer himself (I, ii, 110-112). Similarly, instead of directly confronting Hamlet about his mental condition, the king more or less hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince, again cementing his smug mindset. The king does not believe he can be caught or, rather, that Hamlet is competent enough to figure out his plan and foil him. Claudius, too, thinks only of himself after Hamlet’s inadvertent killing of Polonius, pondering “how shall this bloody deed be answered? / It will be laid to us” instead of considering the ramifications of the murder with respect to Hamlet (4.1.17-18). The other two paper-thin traps the king hatches only reinforce his failure to see beyond the apparent; his attempt to deport Hamlet to England and have him killed reeks of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a

Claudius is ultimately revealed as the antagonist of Hamlet because he removed the good from his life, becoming the prime opposition of Hamlet. He is then faced with the king’s direction to avenge his father’s death by doing anything it takes to reveal the crimes of Claudius. Although not the chief antagonist, another opposition to Hamlet is his mother, whose crime is also revealed by the deceased king Hamlet. The king tells Hamlet how his wife betrayed him when he comments, “whose love was of that dignity that it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine” (I.vi.786-791). Queen Gertrude has also crushed Hamlet’s belief of his mother’s faithfulness by forgetting her vows and looking to Claudius’ gifts and love when she should be remembering king Hamlet. Both Claudius and Gertrude threw Hamlet’s integral foundations out the window, leaving Hamlet infuriated and ready to do what it takes to avenge his father’s death and accuse his opposing family of their crime against him.

Furthermore, Sterling points out how it is illogical for hamlet to assume that Claudius is the one behind the curtain as right before Hamlet goes to talk to Gertrude “he passes the kneeling Claudius and mistakenly believes that the king is praying” (Sterling par. 2). This indicates that it would not make sense that Claudius would arrive in Gertrude's Room and hide before Hamlets arrival. In addition Polonius's disapproval of Hamlet for his daughter Ophelia, who Hamlet is in love with, would be another motive for Hamlet to commit this crime. Despite the numerous motives Hamlet has to kill Polonius his ultimate revenge, as instructed by the ghost, is to kill Claudius and “thus, to sanction his murder of Polonius, the prince must pretend that he mistakes the courtier for Claudius” (Sterling par.