King Hamlets Death The Young Hamlet example essay topic

The play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare reveals to the reader the torment and actions of the young Prince Hamlet of Denmark, coping with the death of his father. The circumstances surrounding the death of king Hamlet are confusing and inconclusive. Prince Hamlet has reason to believe his uncle Claudius murdered his father. This revelation gives rise to a display of a tormented Prince Hamlet from which the reader can conclude several aspects of the character of Hamlet. Shortly after king Hamlets death the young Hamlet is taken to see a ghost. Hamlets friends Horatio, Bernardo and Marcellus believe that it is the ghost of king Hamlet.

The ghost takes the young Hamlet to a private place where it is revealed that his soul is in purgatory as he died suddenly without absolution. The ghost of king Hamlet tells of his betrayal by his "most seeming-virtuous queen - and his murder by - that adulterate beast", his brother Claudius. He demands his death is avenged and young Hamlet swears he will seek revenge for his father. In essence the play revolves around how Hamlet seeks to avenge his fathers murder. However the young Hamlet is unable to find a clear plan to carry this out.

Hamlet can be assessed as a coward who believes it is right to kill Claudius, but is not brave enough to face the consequences of discovery, and the punishment that would befall him. Another conclusion can be that Hamlet believes it is wrong to kill his uncle in revenge, and is frustrated by this moral code. It is also possible to perceive Hamlet as being mentally unbalanced or even schizophrenic. Immediately after Hamlet has spoken with the ghost of his father, Horatio and Marcellus join him.

Hamlet reveals what he has seen and herd. He explains to his friends that he must avenge his father's death and tells them he will pretend to be going mad "to put an antic disposition on" in order to achieve this. His friends must take an oath never to let on that he is only pretending this madness. Hamlets behaviour changes so much that his mother, Claudius, Polonius and Ophelia all suspect he may indeed be going mad. Claudius arranges to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlets piers, spy on Hamlet. This does not reveal much to Claudius, as "with a crafty madness" Hamlet does not confide in the two men.

The audience can witness the pretence of Hamlets madness when Polonius leaves the stage after a brief nonsensical conversation and Hamlet exclaims "These tedious old fools". However, his treatment of Ophelia when she returns his gifts is so full of anger and aggression "Or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them" and Hamlets thinking out loud when he believes himself to be alone "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" that it becomes difficult to be certain of Hamlets sanity. It is possible to consider Hamlet as a coward as he does not go immediately to kill Claudius. In fact he seems to take an enormous amount of time to decide his course of action, to the point where one might begin to think he was avoiding the issue altogether. Hamlet debates with himself over his choices, almost convincing himself and the audience that it would be best not to kill Claudius for Hamlets own sake "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all". Hamlet can be understood as being of noble character because of his determination to revenge his father in an acceptable manner.

Initially he is angry at both his father's death and the swift marriage of his mother to his uncle. He is torn by his human anger, which drives him to seek revenge by murdering Claudius, and his religious belief that he may go to hell for murder "and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of". Hamlets conscience soon persuades him to follow his religious beliefs - turn the other cheek (New Testament St. Luke chapter 6) and the justice system of his country. Hamlet takes his time to gather the necessary evidence to lawfully punish Claudius. He pretends to be going mad in order to confuse Claudius and Polonius, and hopefully extract a confession from Claudius. Hamlet was not entirely convinced that the ghost he had seen was in fact his father "The spirit that I have seen may be a devil" He wanted to be sure of Claudius' guilt.

On hearing that some actors would be performing a play, Hamlet found a way to provoke the conscience of Claudius "The plays the thing wher in I'll catch the conscience of the King". Young Hamlet wrote a seen for the actors after asking them to perform a play "The Murder of Gonzalo" in wich a murder takes place very similarly to that of his fathers. Hamlet asks his friend Horatio to watch Claudius during the play "Give him heedful note; for mine eyes will rivet to his face, and after we will both our judgments join in censure of his seeming". Hamlet was determined to avenge his father's death, but he had to be certain that Claudius was the murderer. It is fairly normal for a person to experience several different emotions when faced with the situation Hamlet found himself in. He was grieving his father's death when his mother married his uncle.

This was very distressing for Hamlet "It is not, nor cannot come to good. But break, my heart", Hamlet was still a young man and found it difficult to control his emotions of anger, hatred and fear. He firmly believed that he must seek to revenge his fathers death but not in a reckless and dishonourable way. It is reasonable to conclude that Hamlet was indeed an immature cowardly person. However, one example of his bravery is his inpatients to confront the ghost of his father "Would the night were come. Till then sit still, my soul".

Also the fact that he questions his bravery "But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall" and then to reassure himself "This is most brave", demonstrates his bravery. It is possible to conclude that Hamlet had been driven mad by the torment of emotions and events in his life, many of his actions and words portrayed this. However we must not forget that he declared he would pretend to be mad. The overwhelming evidence, through actions and verse portray Hamlet as a God fearing, noble, intelligent and just person.