Themes of Hamlet / Hamlet Themes Explained
Updated on November 24, 2017
Revenge as a Theme of Hamlet
Revenge is the most prominent theme of Hamlet. The whole story rotates around this theme. In the very beginning of the story, we observe that the ghost of Hamlet, the then King of Denmark, reveals to the Prince Hamlet that his father was not died due to a serpent’s sting. Rather, he was murdered by his brother, Claudius, by pouring poison into his ear, while he was sleeping in his orchard. The ghost of the King Hamlet orders him to take revenge on Claudius for murdering his father. Prince Hamlet takes the revenge as his prime duty and tries to murder the King, Claudius at any cost.
According to BBC,"Revenge is the initial motivation for Hamlet's transformation into anger and madness. In Shakespeare's time, "Revenge Tragedies" were a popular form of entertainment for theatre goers. The Bible explicitly forbids revenge but human instinct often wants it."
Prince Hamlet is not a simple person like a soldier to obey the orders of the ghost blindly and without any solid proofs. He wants to confirm the revelation made by the ghost. For this purpose, he arranges a mock play to catch the conscience of the King. Hamlet terms this play as “The Murder of Gonzago.” The actors perform the play, showing similar events, which were revealed by the ghost to Hamlet. When the King sees the said event, he reacts, gets shocked and leaves the place. Hamlet and Horatio sees the reaction of the King and they come to know that the King has really murdered his father. Once he finds an opportunity to kill Claudius, while he was praying. But he suspends his decision on the plea that killing him, while he was praying, would be tantamount to sending him to heaven. He wants to kill him when he is committing a sin.
In the end, the theme of revenge is explicitly shown to the readers. The King arranges a plan to kill Hamlet through the aid of Laertes, who has come from England to take revenge upon Hamlet who has killed his father, Polonius. They face each other. The King offers a poisoned goblet to Hamlet, but Hamlet refuses to take it. The queen drinks that goblet and she dies at the spot. The fight begins between Laertes and Hamlet. Laertes is able to hit Hamlet with his poisoned sword, but he does not die swiftly. Rather, Laertes is killed with his own sword. While dying, he informs Hamlet about the plan made by the King. Hamlet returns to the King, stabs him with the poisoned sword, and he dies along with Hamlet. Hamlet is able to take revenge upon the King but at the cost of his own life.
Procrastination as a Theme of Hamlet
Procrastination is another theme of Hamlet. The tragedy of Hamlet shows it very well. The fall of Prince Hamlet occurs due to his procrastinating nature. Had he been prompt and active, he would not have lost his life in the play. In the beginning of the play, the ghost informs the Prince Hamlet that the real murderer of his father is Claudius, who killed his father by pouring poison into his ear, while he was sleeping in the orchard. The ghost orders him to take revenge upon Claudius for killing his father. Hamlet is a philosophical kind of person and he does not blindly follow the orders of the ghost.
He wants to prove the guilt of the King. He arranges a play, wherein Hamlet comes to know about the reality of the words told by the ghost. Thereafter, he takes a strong determination to kill Claudius, but he does not succeed in his mission due to procrastinating nature of Hamlet. Once he finds an opportunity to kill Claudius, while he was praying. But he gets back from taking action on the plea that killing Claudius, when he is praying, would be tantamount to sending his direct to heaven. It shows us how procrastinating nature he has got. It is a lame excuse to take revenge upon the King. Any other character in the play would have delayed the killing of Claudius to such an extent.
In the end of the play, we observe that he is able to take revenge upon the King but at the cost of his life. Thus, the tragedy of Hamlet is certainly a play of procrastination.
Themes in Hamlet
Death as a Theme of Hamlet
Death is another recurring theme of Hamlet. It looms over the fabrics of the play from the very beginning to the end of the play. We are told trough the mouth of the ghost of Hamlet that King Hamlet was died not because of a serpent’s sting. Rather, he was killed by his brother, Claudius, by pouring poison into his ear, while he was sleeping in his orchard. G. Wilson Knight, in his essay, The Embassy of Death: An Essay on Hamlet, says that, “Death is over the whole play. Polonius and Ophelia die during the action, and Ophelia is buried before our eyes. Hamlet arranges the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The plot is set in motion by the murder of Hamlet's father, and the play opens with the apparition of the Ghost.”
The soliloquy in the Nunnery Scene throws light on death as a theme of Hamlet. Death is the overwhelming element of this soliloquy. Hamlet is so confused that he doesn’t know what action he should initiate to get rid of mental agony. He is ready to commit suicide, but he refrains from doing so as he knows the consequences of suicide. Look at the following lines taken from the soliloquy in Nunnery Scene:
To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The Heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die, to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Aye, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
The Grave Digger Scene reflects the thoughts of Hamlet on mortality of human body. When the gravedigger is digging grave for Ophelia, Hamlet and Horatio come over there. Hamlet focuses his eyes on the skulls, which are being excavated by the gravedigger to make room for the dead body of Hamlet. The gravedigger does not know anything about Hamlet. He tells Hamlet that the skull he is excavating belongs to Yorick, who was once King Hamlet’s jester. Hamlet is greatly bewildered at the sight of the skull. He muses on the mortality of human beings. He says that great people just like Alexander and Julius Caesar will certainly turn into dust. Hamlet thinks that Julius Caesar has become a part of the dust. Look at the following lines:
Shakespeare’s Use of Ambiguity Throughout Hamlet Is Crucial to Our Understanding of the Play’s Key Ideas
Updated on November 30, 2018
Shakespeare’s continuous use of ambiguity throughout the play heightens our understanding of an individual’s struggle with a tortured psyche and emotional turmoil from the conflict of revenge in a changing world. The protagonist, Hamlet displays an ambiguously divided nature as his tradition dictates the necessity of avenging his father’s murder but his renaissance sensibility shrank from the idea in horror as illustrated through his acute inner anxieties and mental anguish. Therefore, ambiguity is part of an essential framework of the text in ultimately revealing revenge as a dynamically destructive force, and in Hamlet, an unbeatable enemy.
Hamlet's Ambiguous Inaction
Hamlet’s ambiguous ‘inaction’ depicts the exploration of the universal emotional and psychological costs of an unforeseen calamity. The play begins with an interrogative tone with the first line of dialogue being the terse question, ‘who’s there?’ These first words foreshadow the questions and ambiguities that will plague Hamlet’s search for truth and justice and thus establish a setting of uncertainty. Questioning is a feature of his soliloquising throughout – until his resignation. Moreover, his encounter with the ghostly apparition triggers an ominous mood in the play. This is seen in the metaphor of Denmark as a rotting garden, ‘Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,’ which ominously alludes to the moral and political corruption now existing under Claudius’ rule. This coupled with symbolism of the midnight setting, would resonate with the Elizabethan audience as an uncertain and suspicious time. It is unclear whether this ‘dreaded sight’ is an ‘illusion’, a ‘spirit of health’ or a ‘goblin damn’d’. This accentuates the difficulty in distinguishing the appearance of a situation from its reality. Additionally, Hamlet is initially eager to take immediate revenge for his father’s murder, “I with wings as swift as meditation and thoughts of love will sweep to my revenge.” The employment of the simile demonstrates Hamlet’s quick commitment to avenge his father and the imagery of flight shows his naiveté regarding the impediments to action. His vengeance is driven by the demands of duty, honour and filial responsibility. However, Hamlet is caught in an ambiguous world, between different attitudes and values. For Elizabethans, revenge was expressly forbidden by Christian faith, however sympathy was given if it related to an heir’s legal duty to avenge a father. Consequently, Hamlet questions the dichotomy of man revealed within the confliction between duty and morality.
Unconscious Dynamics in Human Nature
Furthermore, Shakespeare's complex characterisation of Hamlet in a state of perpetual ambiguity accentuates his dramatization of the unconscious dynamics in human nature that drive the poisonous revenge. This is most evident to the reader through Hamlet soliloquies, as they give insight into Hamlet’s deep obsession in over analysing and thus his indecision. Hamlet in his ‘to be, or not to be, that is the question’’ soliloquy ponders on the problematic state of existence. He debates on whether he must endure the sorrow of life or end them with a death, ‘to die, to sleep - / to sleep, perchance to dream.’ The repeated use of caesura, which creates a pause and a break from the rhythm, emphasizes the Renaissance man humanism by highlighting his contemplation of humanity and the absence of a simple solution. Additionally, the repetition of ‘to die, to sleep,’ establishes the ambiguous undertone throughout the soliloquy on whether there is ‘a dreamless sleep,’ or a spiritual retribution for committing the sin of suicide. In addition, Hamlet is plagued with the burden of various contemplations and questions, ‘the dread of something after death, / the undiscovered country.’ This sense of unknown and questioning of uncertainty highlights his introspective character that restricts his ability to act. Moreover, Hamlet’s soliloquies are suffused with revealing the inner workings of the Christian mind. Hence, Shakespeare’s characterisation of Hamlet with a multilayered complexity of personality and language helps escalate the play’s unfolding revenge tragedy so that Hamlet’s victimhood is both individual as well as representative of humanity. Therefore, Hamlet’s moral and religious challenges adds a cultural and anthropological dimension to the play and thus contributes to the timeless and universal interest in Hamlet.
Limitations Illustrated By Hamlet's Sense of Self-Knowledge and Fatalistic Mood
Moreover, Shakespeare emphasizes the limitations of dictating our own lives through Hamlet’s sense of self-knowledge and fatalistic mood at the end of the play. Hamlet resigns to a sad yet stoic tone and results in a conclusion that ‘there’s a divinity that shapes our ends.’ This coupled with his spondee response, ‘let be’ to his earlier dilemma ‘to be, or not to be’ soliloquy highlights his eventual acceptance of the inability to control our fates. Also, Shakespeare reinforces this lack of control by ending the play ambiguously on who should rule. This would resonate strongly with an English audience who lived in an uncertain time as Queen Elizabeth I had no heir to the throne. Therefore, Shakespeare’s ambiguous ending is a disturbing realization of the limitations on life and a challenge to audiences on a metatheatrical level to consider the extent to which they are playwrights or actors in the drama of their own life.
Ultimately, Shakespeare use of ambiguity throughout the play is used to dramatize the uncertainty in life and the unconscious forces driving revenge. Hamlet’s ambiguous resolution invites us to reflect on our own deepest conflicts and desires and leaves us not only moved by his tragic dilemma, but also enlightened. Thus, the play continues to have textual integrity as it still engages the mind and heart and explores humanity in ways that will remain forever relevant and confronting.
© 2018 Billy Zhang
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