Andrew Hitchcock
Midterm Paper
03/08/2018
Hamlet by Shakespeare
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Interpretation
Those of the royal kingdom, especially Hamlet, are trying to clear the kingdom of any evils. The evils started with killings and the characters think that killing off the one who did the killing will be more just. This is not the case. Deciding to kill off someone who killed another being does not make the situation any more just. The characters have a hard time trying to make the whole killing of the king “just.” This results in multiple deaths without reason. By one character deeming revenge as a moral action results in a large domino effect of deaths as well as questionable moral acts.
Concept and Integration
Those of which in the play are humane and just will be shown in a light blue for purity. Those who have commited a wrongdoing, and are of lesser justice, will be shown anywhere from the color purple to a deep red. Those wearing the deep color of red have commited the most evils. For example, Claudius would be wearing the deepest red. However, Gertrude also has not been faithful to her husband, however, there is worse things that she could be doing, so she would be wearing the color purple. Throughout the play, there are many who started out as innocent but that transitioned to a more immoral being. For example, Hamlet would start by wearing a light blue since he has no wrong doings so far that we know of. By the end of the play, however, he would also be wearing a deep red. Throughout the play you would see his clothing start to turn a dark blue into a purple, then into a red. I choose to use these colors because they will transition nicely since purple is the secondary color of the primaries, blue and red. These colors will help the views to understand how some of the characters are or are becoming unjust because of some of the decisions they are making throughout the play.
Analysis
William Shakespeare's Hamlet follows the story of a young prince named Hamlet. He goes home to Denmark to attend his father's funeral. Once he is returns home, Hamlet is shocked to find his mother, Gertrude, already remarried to his Uncle Claudius, the dead king's brother, Hamlet’s father’s brother. Claudius is then named the new king. After receiving this news Hamlet is even more surprised when his father's ghost appears and declares that he was murdered. His father's spirit informed Hamlet that Claudius is murdered his father by pouring poison in his ear while he was taking a nap in his garden. Hamlet’s father wanted him to get revenge on his uncle. At the end of the play, the significance is the idea that anyone who has ever contributed to something of an evil manner in Denmark has to be killed or “eliminated” in order for the country to move on and be whole again. An example of this is Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, had to die because of her not being loyal to her husband. She was loyal by marrying his brother after her husband's death. This makes her a “rotten” person, which was why she had to die. The play is worth the viewing, reading, or listening to because of the intensity and the lessons that you are able to learn from the story. Irony is shown in many different ways throughout the play and is very evident to the viewer. Another reason that this play is worth it is because of the reflection has on our society today. In society today we see many different ways that we are all divided. Like in the play, not everyone is going to like what another being is doing in life. According to HUFFPOST, “Hamlet is a revenge drama. Everyone loves a revenge drama, right? But the play consists of Hamlet’s inability to take revenge.”
In Hamlet, there are numerous references made to other countries. These countries include France, Germany, Norway, Poland and England, but the majority of the play occurs in the area around Elsinore Castle. This castle is located in Denmark. Elsinore can also be known as Helsingor. This is a real locations and even serves as the home to Hamlet. Shakespeare seems to be very aware of the home of Denmark since he lists true locations. The weather is usually drowsy with cold temperatures during the winter. Sometimes the sunshine does appear, kind of like our winters here in Iowa. Yet. the area still consists of plenty of flowers, trees, clouds, birds, and sometimes rain. Hamlet takes place in the Renaissance period which is somewhat around the 800s. The country’s political environment and conditions is unresting and distressed. The King, (older) Hamlet is dead, and now Claudius is the new ruler. He is not a just king since he murdered his brother. The country is in political unrest since The beloved King Hamlet is dead. Claudius is now at the head of the political system. He is a murderer. He is unjust. The country is in the hands of a man who is untrustworthy. This causes the political system to be out of balance. In Act 1, scene 2, even Claudius admits that the country is disorganized because of his brother’s death. The political situation during this time is very important because during the Renaissance culture, they tended to be organized hierarchically. Those who tend to be higher up on the “chain” have a special obligation to be on their best behavior as perfect as possible. Hamlet is from the royal family, stating clearly that he is from the highest class level in these times. The social environment includes fancy dinner parties, attending theater, and sparing for entertainment. It is clear that during these times their customs and conventions were a bit different from today’s day and age. In Scene 5, Hamlet says to Horatio, “Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, my Lord.” (Scene 5) Saint Patrick's Day is March 17th, and this is in reference to springtime. Spring is the season of Lent. In Scene 7 Rosencrantz says, “To think, my Lord, if you delight not in man, what Lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you.” (Scene 7) This is referring to Lent, which can be hard to decipher. Lent is a religious season and this shows the conditions that these people were to believe in. The previous action was that of Claudius killing his own brother who happens to be the king. Once Claudius marries the queen, his brother’s wife. It is evident that drama is going to start to occur. The action begins when Hamlet speaks with his father’s spirit directing him to achieve revenge on Claudius. What actually happens during the play is that a ghost comes to the castle and Hamlet meets this ghost. The spirit declares that he is indeed Hamlet’s deceased father, Claudius’ brother. The deceased king demands Hamlet to seek revenge on his uncle for killing his father. This creates a fight within Hamlet’s self making him totally mad. Hamlet wants to seek revenge for his father, but is of good nature and does not want to harm anyone. Claudius and Hamlet’s mother hope to find out what is causing Hamlet to act absolutely mad. Claudius has Hamlet’s friends spy on him. Hamlet wants to see if Claudius feels bad about killing his brother, Hamlet’s father, so he takes him to a play where the actors provide a scene similar to how Claudius had recently killed his own brother. When this scene arrives during the act, Claudius leaves the area. This proves that Hamlet was correct and Claudius does not want to keep remembering what he had done. Since Claudius has become frightened by Hamlet’s craziness, he says he will send him away to England. Hamlet goes to confront his mother about this and find that someone is hiding behind a curtain in the room. Hamlet thinks that it is Claudius so he stabs through the curtain and it ends up being Polonius, who is Claudius’ chief counselor. This is a major shift in action for the audience because that was very risky of Hamlet to just assume that is was Claudius. Then, Claudius plans on killing Hamlet by poisoning him with a drink. Hamlet declines the drink and so his mother, Gertrude, takes a drink instead and is killed by the poison. This is a major shift for the audience because no one would expect the queen to pass after the king had just passed not too long ago, and to be killed by the same person too. This was at the sword fighting event where Hamlet fights Laertes in a “friendly” joust. Laertes’ sword is also filled with poison by Claudius to kill Hamlet. After Laertes strikes himself with his own sword, he reveals to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for his mother’s death. Then Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisonous sword, killing him, and Hamlet dies immediately after Claudius’ death. The norwegian prince is then entering and is surprised to see the royal family so gruesomely sprawled out. After hearing Hamlet’s tragic story, he has him carried away how a “fallen soldier” would have been. The issue that Hamlet was trying to solve the whole time was to rid the kingdom of Claudius for he is the reason for all of the evil. He becomes so obsessed with this that he ends up becoming evil himself and harms another family and himself in the time being. This is what hinders Hamlet from being able to defeat Claudius since he loses himself completely trying to do so.
The choice of words throughout Shakespeare written play is not exactly straightforward. In fact it is quite intriguing to try and decifere each sentence on your own. Most readers may have to flop back and forth between text and a translated text of Hamlet. The word choice indicates that Shakespeare was a very educated individual with well thought out work. The play is very dark and intriguing, full of uncertainty and suspicion. For example, from the very first line, we are dumped on with anxiety and uncertainness of what is about to happen next. This shows that the tone is very dark and intense. The play is written with a combination of poetry, a combination of verse, and prose, which is how we talk everyday. The power of these words help to draw the attention to the to the action of the plot. With the use of some of our language, this makes the play more common, but with the poetry, it can get confusing and harder to understand what the author is intending.
The character Hamlet, is one of the male protagonists of the play. We can see Hamlet with a pale face, tousled hair, and intense, brooding eyes. He is dressed totally in black to show the moods and shapes of grief. Hamlet is 30 years old. This is said to be true because the gravedigger says that he has been in his profession since the day that (old) Hamlet defeated Fortinbras, which was the same day that (young) Hamlet was born. Then, a little later, the gravedigger says, "I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years." This is how it is shown that Hamlet is 30 years of age. We can see that Hamlet’s mental health seems to be suffering a bit, for he seemed to go mad quite quickly. Hamlet’s relationship with his mother Gertrude was quite complicated after she remarried to Hamlet’s uncle only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet was unsure how to react, yet he loved his mother greatly as a son. Hamlet also hates his new stepfather, the new king, Claudius. The only person that Hamlet trusted anymore was Horatio. Hamlet's attitude towards his task of revenge has changed in act IV because he no longer is being rational about the situation. He's acting out of passion and isn't thinking about the consequences of his actions at all. For instance, when he killed Polonius all he thought about was the fact that there was someone behind the curtain. He was not being rational and thinking that it could have been anyone. He starts to act reckless the further the play goes on. Hamlet wants justice for the kingdom and wants the evil to be ridden of the beloved community. He wants Claudius dead due to the hatred he has toward him for killing his father, but he does not think before he starts acting. Hamlet seems to make quick and unjust decisions. He does not seem like he is using his brain so much. Especially when he draws his sword and sends it through the curtain, killing whom he thought was Claudius. This was not thought out. He just assumed it was him, when really, he took a life for no reason at all since it was not Claudius. This shows that he is not thinking before he is acting. Hamlet's sense of himself as a coward is derived from a crude, simplistic judgment turning on whether or not he has yet taken any action against the man who murdered his father, Claudius.
The issues at stake in the play include the evil that is brought about when Claudius first kills his brother. From here on out the play revolves around Hamlet trying to fix this issue of evil by trying to get back at Claudius for killing his father. From there, Hamlet creates a new issue with killing innocent others. Death has been considered the primary element that is communicated to the viewers throughout the playwright. The play is clearly a tragedy about Hamlet. Hamlet is the title of the play, whom is the prince of Denmark. This is pretty straight forward. The one thing that should be pointed out though, is that this title ties together the person, Hamlet, and the political, Denmark. I Hamlet acting the way he does personally, or is he acting this way so he can be in charge of the country, rather than his uncle who is of all evils? The title of the play shows that Hamlet is the main character and that also the play will be about the royal family. One of the most famous Shakespearean lines is the “To be or not to be, that is the question,” spoken by Hamlet himself. While this is the most obvious reference that Hamlet makes to his own philosophy, Hamlet makes frequent proclamations about his philosophy of life. Hamlet’s philosophy touches on the subject of love, loyalty, family, and suffering. His philosophy is reflected in his actions. Hamlet’s philosophy is specific for himself and in his own
The play, Hamlet, uses both modern and poetry as a language. The characters seem to only focus on the negativity in the world. Without focusing on any positivity, this results in a very tragic ending. Each character acts on the means of revenge and the thought that life will be better after revenge is made. The atmosphere includes some funny moments, but also there are times where the scene was not meant to be funny at all. The mood of Hamlet is at times dark and suspenseful and at others, humorous. For example, when (old) Hamlet’s ghost arrives, the mood and setting is very suspenseful. This is how their world seems to be emotionally. Physically, it seems cold and yucky out, but it is evident that spring is on the way. An appropriate environment for the ideas of the play to be revealed would be in a respectful and responsible area. Basically, Hamlet is a tragic story that results in Hamlet going mad because of the death of his father. He seeks revenge, creating suspense and tension throughout most of the play. However, Claudius wants Hamlet gone and wants to kill him as well. These two characters lose themselves trying to kill one another. This results in accidentally killing others up until the death of eachother. Overall, the tragic story can be taken as a serious lesson as to let things go before things go way too far.
Sources
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-critchley/9-things-you-can-learn-fr_b_3529453.html
https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/what-role-does-political-situation-play-hamle-400802