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Blindness In Hamlet Research Paper

725 Words3 Pages

For many humans, seeing is believing. An old proverb instructs people to see things with their own eyes before accepting it to be the truth. Eyes are the key component of sight. Without eyes, blindness occurs. Blindness can be more than a physical limitation; it can be a mental and emotional limitation as well. In Hamlet by Shakespeare, the word “eye” is mentioned thirty nine times, making it the sixteenth most common word in the play. Before Hamlet makes any decisions, he tries to see the truth for himself. For Hamlet, the truth needed to be revealed after his father’s death, but his eyes had to prove that his father’s ghost was honest and that the rest of his family was deceiving him before he would take action. Hamlet is not the only character that relies heavily on sight to believe situations. Marcellus, Bernardo, and Horatio are standing on a guard’s platform at the royal palace waiting for a ghost to appear. Earlier Marcellus saw an apparition, yet others did not believe him. He begged Horatio to come to the platform so he could approve of their “eyes and speak” to the ghost (1.1.29). Right away, sight is being validated as proof to others. Horatio saw the ghost with his “own eyes” and certainly knew the ghost was not a figment of imagination (1.1.58). The ghost is trouble to the …show more content…

Hamlet can see his guilt. Hamlet’s family has been deceiving him by sending people to spy on him. Hamlet is aware of the deception. The Queen and Hamlet begin to talk while being spied on by Polonius. Hamlet states that his mother has “eyes without feelings”, meaning that her eyes have been blind to the brutality occurring (3.4.79). Everything Hamlet sees tells him that his family has turned a blind eye to his father’s death and the Ghost was telling the truth. Hamlet’s stream of consciousness becomes more distressed and emotional as he sees the truth. Consequently, the blur in his stream of consciousness and sight cause his

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