Sunday, March 1, 2009

The tragedy of Hamlet

This play seems to revolve around death and sadness. Each character has their own depressing moment. Hamlet is disturbed by his father's death. Hamlet (senior) is upset with his own murder and has come back as a ghost to take revenge through his son. Revenge and death is what the whole play is based on and how it begins. It doesn't help the cause that there is an accidental death either, come on Hamlet, mistaking Ophelia (your love) for your sick and greedy uncle turned step father and king! Poor Ophelia and Laertes that have to directly deal with the grief with first being lied to/not told and then finding out it was a mistake by the prince and that of course he will be pardoned. That would then have caused the death of Ophelia, but you saw that one coming because what's the theme again? Oh yes, DEATH! The ending summarizes the "tragedy" part of the tragedy of Hamlet by making the final main characters all die as well. Hamlet himself,  and even the man who thought he had outwitted his nephew. But even though there is this omnipresent idea of mortality, there is quite the opposite contrast in the play as well. Love is prevalent when it contradicts the upsetting sad moments that the characters encounter. Ophelia and Hamlet have their romance but when things go amuck, so does their love. Gertrude and her second husband have a marriage less than two months after her first husband and father of her child dies. But then again, they die and wither away in the end too. Maybe this was Shakespeare's way of expressing himself, but he sure had strong feelings by all means then.

3 comments:

David Lavender said...

Mackenzie,

Though an interesting post, this one doesn't really have much focus (at least, there's nothing here that seems to jump out as a particular, potential paper topic). Perhaps there's something to your observation that love and death (obviously)are antithetical counterparts. Certainly, there are a number of short speeches that address this antithesis--any one of which could provide an appropriate focus.

Jerry said...

Dear Mackenzie,

I totally agree with you how the play revolves around death, and as soon as something goes right another death occurs. This just show that the play is a tragedy, and everyone is not happy and loving in the end.

colors of the rainbow said...

I agree with you in that the whole play is based on tragedy and death and there would be no topic of interest if it were not for this but i still wonder if having all the main character die in the end is the best way to end a play or book. Are you going to make a connection between death and love in your essay? if so what is the connection?