Emotion In Hamlet Essay

Logan Rose

Dr. Richard Gabri

Shakespeare

19 February 2023

The Role of Emotion in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Precursor of Doubt

Background information:

In Hamlet’s Shakespeare, the character Hamlet discovers that Claudius, his uncle, has murdered Hamlet’s father when a ghost of his father appears to him and retells the story of his murder. Later in the play, Hamlet doubts the validity and sanctity of the ghost that appeared to him, questioning its role and purpose. Upon the arrival of players, he alters the play to draw out a reaction in Claudius in order to determine whether Claudius had murdered his father. After viewing the players’ initial performances, Hamlet emotionally breaks down as he compares the performance of the player to his

The ending of this excerpt allows the reader to delve deeper into Hamlet’s character, specifically with the lines “and all for nothing!/For Hecuba!” (Hamlet 2.2.492-493). Hamlet becomes distraught at the thought that the players could display more emotion towards something artificial, while he could not muster the same emotion for his father’s murder. Accordingly, this outbreak of emotion sows seeds of doubt into Hamlet’ rational thought and appears later in the soliloquy. Hamlet begins to question whether the ghost was his father, presumably as a defense mechanism to prevent himself from believing that he didn’t love his father. Dating back to an earlier soliloquy, Hamlet is obsessed with what “seems” versus what “is”; to prevent his love for his father from being what “seems”, he projects a narrative of deceitfulness onto the ghost. This is why, later in the soliloquy, Hamlet states: “The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil: and the devil hath power / To assume a pleasing shape” (Hamlet 2.2.533-535) in order to rescind resposibility for his

However, only four lines later, Hamlet again impedes himself by making up another plan. This inadvertently plays into his fear that procrastinating the revenge of his father is a mirror image of his inability to act. Hamlet’s expression of the fear that he is unable to act for something as important to him as the death of his father overwhelms rational thought, and Hamlet begins to convince himself that this action is necessary to confirm that Claudius was responsible for the death of Hamlet’s father. Upon closer analysis of the text, the mood of the scene shifts into a desperate tone that unveils the workings of Hamlet’s mind. This begins on the intersection of two drastic emotional changes; when Hamlet is angry at himself– “Fie upon’t! Foh! About, my brain!” (Hamlet 2.2.523) and when he begins to formulate his plan– “Hum/I have heard” (Hamlet 2.2.524). Further evidence to this being an emotional outbreak is the scansion on line 523. The syllable count here is short, hinting at Hamlet’s true feelings. Hamlet seems to be scrambling for an answer to why he cannot revenge his