To be or not to be morally ambiguous is to have the lack of coherence in making moral life decisions. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet goes through a great transformation. Hamlet seeks revenge toward Claudius who he believes killed his father for the throne. In many of Shakespeare’s play there is always a hero and a villain, but in Hamlet, Hamlet plays a pivotal role because he can be viewed as both the hero and the villain. Hamlet is seen as a morally ambiguous character due to the decisions he makes throughout the plot of the novel that ends up leading him to his demise. In this paper, the audience will understand how Hamlet’s moral ambiguity is significant to Shakespeare’s play as a whole. In the beginning of the …show more content…
Due to Hamlet dismissing all of his moral behavior and not caring about what is right or wrong changes the whole direction of Hamlet’s character. This leads to the entire demise of the royal family who is left slain on the floor dead by the end of the play. Although Hamlet’s behavior ends up killing multiple people who were not even meant to die, discourages readers from identifying him as purely evil or purely good--which is the true definition of an ambiguous character. Hamlet was not trying to be purely evil, he was only trying to seek revenge for his beloved father. Furthermore, Hamlet ends up dying in the end of the play after fighting and killing Laetres and Claudius, who had created a plan to slay Hamlet. In spite of everything, Hamlet ends up dying a hero due to his best friend Horatio, fulfilling his final dream, which was to tell the truth about his tragic story. The new king of Denmark, Fortinbras, states that Hamlet be remembered as a fallen soldier, “Bear Hamlet like a soldier to the stage, for he was likely, had he been put on, to have proved most royal; and for his passage, the soldier’s music and the rite of war, speak loudly for him” [V.ii 441-446]. Through this closing quote of the play the audience is able to understand Fortinbras’ decision to have Hamlet remembered as a hero. One must remember throughout the novel that Hamlet’s ambiguous decisions were solely to redress the murder of his father who was slain out of jealousy and the acquisitive desire of his uncle
Hamlet is still a hero, even though he often overthinking about a situation and lose his chances. Being driven and guided by his father ghost, he made the best out of the situation that he did not prepared for, and had his goal was accomplished. His path was uneasy. So what he made a few mistake, it just shows that after all, he is still a human
Moral Truth comes into play when Hamlet is debating about whether or not to kill Claudius. He often debates on whether or not he would be justified in killing his own uncle. He knows that murder is wrong, but is it wrong to avenge his own father’s murder? This question is constantly in his head and part of the reason as to why he goes insane. He tries to plan out the murder of Claudius in a way that he will not feel guilty afterwards.
Hamlet Character deception is a common characteristic that has and will be a reflecting characteristic in literature for centuries. In many of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, deception, whether positive or negative, is being used to mislead, to protect characters, or to hide a crime or future crime. Analyzing why the characters are using deception against each other is very important to the reader’s understanding of the work as a whole. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, He uses Hamlet’s deception of character and also the character’s use of deception towards Hamlet to carry out the overall theme of the tragedy. The theme that is represented, is that in able to get malicious revenge, you must be able to act as if you are someone different than your true self while in turn, being able to deal with others deceiving you.
Hamlet had no other thoughts in this matter, he chose to act as a crazy mad person and lose his honor and certainty from those who were around him to gain his dad’s name back and so the Old Hamlet kind would rest in peace. Hamlet know he will go through not an easy bath, which by that lead him to hastition in his decision, he still toke on the role of a mad person but not sure what to do, even though he know who did it, Hamlet was not certain that losing his honor which lead to losing the trust of many who were around, including his lover Ophelia. Hamlet goes back and forth, how about my honor, and my mom’s honor that has been lost from the time she thought of marrying, her husband’s brother. The action which have token at this point was i am going to bring her honor so that I could be able to start the revange. The struggle that hamlet went through is all because he knew and understand the meaning of an honorable king and hero been betrayed and killed by the person who spend the life with.
The reader completes their examination of the Hamlet tragedy, and we agree that Hamlet is a significant text, as it encourages us to think again about our values and
Although he wants to avenge his father’s death, he also does not see the act of killing as moral. As a result, his revenge no longer becomes a desire, but rather a burden that continues to stay with him until he is relieved of it at death. To relieve himself of his frustration. However, Hamlet is reminded several times to carry out his duty. For example, after seeing Prince Fortinbras’ army conquer land in Poland, he expresses, “When honour 's at the stake.
Especially through his character Hamlet, Shakespeare outlines commonalities present in human nature. However, alongside Shakespeare 's insight into the secrets of human nature, there is also a lot of ambiguity. John Russell Brown explores these ambiguities and various interpretations of the last scene of Hamlet in his paper, "Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet." Brown
Like many things, Hamlet is intelligent and honorable, but his indecisiveness is the cause of his tragic downfall. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare portrays that Hamlet is very incapable of finishing the task at hand. Throughout the drama Hamlet faces many trials and tribulations due to his late father Hamlet, who was murderously killed by Claudius. His inability to kill Claudius and himself is one grand flaw of an epic hero. After King Hamlets passing, Hamlet entered an unknown state of mind that not only feared others for his wellbeing, but also feared himself.
Hamlets tragic flaw is his indecisiveness to make decisions. This trait is demonstrated through the entire play and causes Hamlet to his own demise. When Hamlet has immediate suspicious of his fathers murder and later proof, he delays the murder, which is puzzling because the play is about revenge, and one would expect him to have done it earlier as he had ample amount of opportunities to do so. His indecisiveness has puzzled many.
So this pushes Hamlet to lead his friends to their death. As a result,Hamlet was betrayed by his comrades who works for a king that is a murderer who took another king’s
He is firm in his actions and knows that though he could go to hell for murdering Hamlet, it’s still what he wants to do. He more or less “sees red” in the face of anger and is driven to act no matter what the consequences may be. His agreeance to partake in the fencing fight with Hamlet proves this. He is so sure in his decision that before the battle, he dips his sword in poison to ensure that if Hamlet does not drink the poison he will still be killed indefinitely. At the end of the play, his indecisiveness leads to his own death as well, but he also gets what he wants because Hamlet is still murdered.
Hamlet is William Shakespeare 's renowned tale of mystery, intrigue, and murder, centered on a young misguided prince who can only trust himself. Some may say that the actions of Prince Hamlet throughout the play are weak and fearful, displaying a tendency to procrastinate and showing an apathetic nature towards his family and peers. Others spin a tale of a noble young scholar, driven mad by the cold-blooded murder of his father by his uncle. In truth, I believe Hamlet is neither of these things. Hamlet is a sort of amalgamation of the two, a bundle of contradictions thrown together into one conflicting but very human mess of a character.
The importance of memory and remembrance of the dead in Hamlet can be examined in three facets. Firstly, through how the act of remembering the dead examines practices of mourning. The play is about what it means to remember, therefore tensions are created between characters when they choose to cope with the memory of the dead in different ways. Secondly, the importance of remembering the dead is that it fuels the actions taken in the play, as the events of the play are a fallout of Hamlet’s bid to remember his father. Thirdly, the importance of memory and remembrance of the dead is that the impact vengful actions have on the character’s of the play.
The morality of murder stretches further than whether someone feels bad or not about their actions. Morality is what makes us human. It separates us from every other being in the world. Hamlet by Shakespeare exhibits many different types of mortality. It is not only in the story of Hamlet that the ethics of death are discussed but in the real lives of our soldiers that are fighting for our country.
Through the entirety of the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, the characters were overcome with the need for revenge as the outcome of many deaths. Therefore, no one was happy through “Hamlet” and it resulted in a tragedy. The character Hamlet played a big role in turning towards revenge and never would classify himself as being happy. Hamlet displays positive and negative behavior throughout the play. Hamlet exhibits strengths and weaknesses as well, although his weaknesses of over-thinking, bitterness, and his inability to accept the death of his father overshadow his strengths.