Grief In Hamlet Essay

492 Words2 Pages

In the first act, Hamlet paints himself as someone with high morals who deplored those who fake emotions to sway the opinions of others and similar behavior during a conversation with Claudius. He notes that his outward appearance of grief doesn’t illuminate how sad he really is. With this, he also implies that in general, outward appearance is not indicative of who you are as a person. From this, I gather that he has honorable ideals but that changes very quickly. He was resentful of the circumstances of his father’s death but it isn’t until Act 1, Scene 5 that his anger causes him to abandon who he truly is. He attempts to throw away his hate of deception in order to avenge his father’s death. His obligation bestowed upon him by his father’s ghost, which he does not resist, begins to overshadow his obligation of morality. Despite this, it still takes Hamlet a long time to take action which suggests that he struggles with which obligation he should fulfill.
Hamlet is more than devastated about his father’s death. It appears that grief has taken over his life. Claudius and others in Hamlet urge him to “get over his father’s death,” as if it is so easy. In my opinion, this only worsens Hamlet’s grief. There shouldn’t be a time limit to how long you have to grieve but no one should …show more content…

Claudius, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern are guilty of this. Claudius shows his hypocrisy by lying to everyone about his crime against Hamlet’s father and expressing his guilt over it. One of the most disappointing acts of hypocrisy occur when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray Hamlet. They were supposed to be his confidants and the people who were looking out for Hamlet’s best interest but, they failed. In my opinion, the theme of hypocrisy is a message from Shakespeare to his audience. Sometimes, we will encounter painful tragedies which cause blind rage but we must remain