Hamlet
Having been away, Laertes ignores the truth about what has happened at the royal court. This makes it easier for Claudius to convince Laertes that Hamlet carries the entire blame for the death of Polonius and Ophelia. Claudius nourishes Laertes's hunger for revenge by suggesting that killing Hamlet represents a demonstration of love towards his dead father. Nevertheless, as the king calculates his moves thoroughly, it comes as no surprise that the confrontation between the two should not be an equitable one. Claudius sets a trap, he poisons both the tip of Laertes's sword and the wine form the cup of victory. No matter what, Hamlet cannot escape. Although Laertes allows himself to accomplish Claudius's game, his sense of honor pushes him in the end to confess the king's treachery. He has done evil in order to correct what he thought to be evil, and he realized his mistake when it was already too late. Death falls upon the royal court. Queen Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup, Claudius is stabbed by Hamlet, which in his turn dies wounded by Laertes's poisoned sword. During the fight, the protagonists exchange swords and Laertes will finally succumb hit by the same malefic sword.
The gravediggers are named clowns but they jest upon the macabre issue of Ophelia's Christian burial.
They highlight once more the existential issue of death, only that they question man's freedom to choose life or death. Comic relief is needed, because the play is coming towards its end and in order for readers to experience catharsis they should not be burdened excessively with emotional tension. The scene in the cemetery shows Hamlet's mental evolution in what concerns death. He is no longer furious, he has accepted the fact that men are mortal, including himself and he can't fight this fact, famous celebrities couldn't either and moreover, he is able to detach from his human condition in a playful way. The irony is visible if we compare his actual state of mind with that when he spoke his famous soliloquy: "To be or not to be." In the end, Hamlet urges
Horatio to stay alive and make his story known, for he fought to set the world right.
Works Cited
William Shakespeare. Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987
That is, Ophelia is limited to seeing herself through the eyes of others, and men in particular, having achieved no core identity of her own. Her brother Laertes could easily today also be a modern-day "organization man," as could have been his father Polonius before him), that is, listening to higher authority and then acting to please that authority, without thinking or reflecting on the wisdom or efficacy, generally
Of course, Hamlet would then likely assume the throne, but Hamlet seems to have little interest in ruling, as he scoffs when Guildenstern and Rosencrantz say that it is his frustrated ambition that makes him melancholic. Hamlet is a rational and philosophical individual, hence his constant self-searching about the nature of the ghost, about the possibility of an afterlife that no traveler may return (if the ghost is a
Hamlet" by William Shakespeare The play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare has a story that revolves around the main themes of revenge and search for the truth. Shakespeare's male characters, in particular, are portrayed somewhat villainously because of the element of revenge inherent in each character's motivations in the play. Among the male characters in the play, the characters of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras emerge as the most remarkable among the
Hamlet The play "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare contains a rich diversity of issues and relationships, some of the greatest of which concern those between father and son. These relationships, most notably those between Hamlet and the late King Hamlet, Fortinbras and Old Fortinbras, and Polonius and Laertes, demonstrate a number of significant, unique characteristics as well as several themes that are both timeless and universal. The first evidence of father/son conversation occurs
A hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave (V.1.244-247). When Hamlet is feigning madness and wishes to tweak Laertes, he claims to have loved Ophelia, though his actions previously have not shown much love for her: lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers Could not (with all their quantity of love) Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her? (V.1.280-282). Laertes
He does however, have a reason for his treatment of these people. In the case of the king's courtiers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, they can be seen as plotting against Hamlet and being 'two faced' in their treatment of him" (Hamlet). From the above evidence, it is clear that due to the consequences of the actions of characters, lives are destroyed, which can be seen from the direction of the stage.
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