Hamlet Close Reading Essay

Introduction

Revenge gets noted as an act of trying to hurt someone in return for a wrong suffered caused by that person. Shakespeare uses Hamlet as one of his reflective characters to elucidate the theme of revenge, and he, therefore, becomes the main character in his play. Practically, Hamlet is seen covering his reputation mainly being the best dramatist. The theme of revenge gets expounded through him in the play.

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Hamlet is the hero in the play and the title character. He is the son to late King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. The current king who is the husband of his mother and at the same time the uncle is Claudius. Typically, Shakespeare play revolves on death. The death of Hamlet's father is the main part discussed in the play. The cause of his father's death is what makes the play interesting. The death of his biological father is what Hamlet is fighting to understand. It is apparent that his Uncle is the cause of the action. (Muir, Kenneth, 146)This is what subjects Hamlet to seeking justice by himself more so when we are seeing current hamlet's father Claudius killing the king to take the position of leadership. Slowly by slowly, the ghost of Hamlet's father begin appearing, and the story starts making the readers understand the truth behind the scene.

In an attempt to revenge the painful act of his current father, Hamlet causes many disasters, for instance, we are seeing him mistakenly killing the man who was behind the curtain thinking it was the right person (Claudius). The story flows creating more pain and hamlets mother dies of taking prison because of the events that were pursuing the society. There were high chances that hamlet was also the next in the line and he strengthens his final chances of killing Claudius.

The ideas of Hamlet becoming very obsessed with the issues of his father's death is what the storyline is all about. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet leaves us with many desires. To begin with, we are seeing him being weak and even not commanding and seeks justice by himself. Hamlet gets considered as a fickle and weak person. That is in contrast with him being the leading character in the play, but he does seem to be very confused at the start. In his attempts of revenging Hamlet appears being bitter, distractful and lone. It is true therefore that hamlet knows why he hesitates to have revenge. His hesitation allows him to have more understanding of how the death of his father came about. He dislikes his uncle as he is very sure and aware that his uncle killed his father. At the same note, Hamlet dislikes his mother mainly because of accepting to get married to his uncle after the death of his father. He is a young, introspective man. His actions show that he is hesitant and indecisive.

Hamlet's indecisiveness becomes clear when the ghost of his father appears and tell him how his death happened. This is what Hamlet has been seeking to understand before taking the revenge. His father was poisoned. He was first passive after getting clear information from the ghost. Indeed, Hamlet is still not satisfied with the ghost's news, and the play makes him continue seeking ways of proving the truth that his uncle was guilty of the action. Hamlet gets receiving more knowledge about the action done to his father, and it is here where Hamlet understands fundamental questions of life, for instance, the issue of life after death, the question concerning permission of suicide also crosses his mind. He is presented with the contemplation of suicide and death with their consequences.

The weakness of Hamlet as the main character is seen in the occasion where he uses the most obvious line in English relating to the action. Hamlet says in Act III ' To be or not.' This is about consequences as a result of revenge. In the same scene, Hamlet is thinking critically about committing suicide and weighing out the results of the same. Many questions cross his mind for the decisions he was after. For the case of committing suicide, Hamlet fears the consequences of the afterlife. The many questions left him with no answers; in fact, he supports his ideas by making the addition of dreaming to sleep. He says that the dreams which could come during the sleep of death are usually intimidating and they 'must provide us with the sleep.' We can, therefore, say that Hamlet understood that the main question about committing suicide is all about what happens after committing the actions.

Through his soliloquy, Hamlet tells us that he has developed all the plans of revenging the death of his father. He keeps on hesitating though he has developed full evidence of the act. At some point, we are seeing him planning acting insane and goes ahead to do it perfectly. Also, Hamlet knows why he hesitates taking revenge because he is afraid of the consequences of the afterlife. When we are seeing him trying to bring to end the inner struggles through turning to religion to get better reasons to either struggle for the strength to kill his uncle or commit suicide is a clear awareness of consequences.

Hamlet understands himself better, and because of his indecisiveness, he avoids the acts of revenge. He judges the many questions that cross his mind about revenging. He stands by his principles even after understanding the whole matter surrounding the death of his father. Ideally, he was supposed to revenge the uncle after visitation by his father's ghost. The ghost made him understand how his father got killed through poisoning. Instead of taking the immediate action as per our expectation, he goes on seeking more information. All the characters surrounding him seems to be weak. The weakest character being Claudius who become the murderer. His mother Gertrude, on the other hand, agrees to get married to the murderer of her husband two months after the act which puts his son to more pain, and he says ' Frailty, thy name is a woman.'

Conclusion

In summary, the play emphasizes the significance of standing on our principles. In life, everyone gets subjected to different occasions that require critical thinking before coming to final decisions. We should always consider the consequences of every action before taking any step. Revenge in most case is what many individuals in life would always want to do. The play, therefore, teaches us that before taking any actions we should take the stand of our principles and not the decisions of others.

Works Cited

Muir, Kenneth. The sources of Shakespeare's plays. Routledge, 2014.