Hamlet Challenges Analysis

Hamlet’s Challenges in Act One

(An Understanding of Hamlet’s Challenges in Act One of the Play, “Hamlet”) Through the pages of the play, “Hamlet,” by William Shakespeare, the reader may learn many things about the main character, including many of his downfalls and shortcomings. Within the play, there are events which lead up to Hamlet’s challenges, and ultimately define what he becomes. Challenges come in many forms within this play, and they have various results in the end. However, the major challenges within this act show how awful scenarios may conclude in a much worse consequence. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stated within his book Strength to Love, “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,

When he hears of his mother’s remarrying, Hamlet becomes infuriated by the, “Incest” which has taken over the throne. He explicates this statement by speaking, “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot, come to good. But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.” (1:2 Lines 161-164) Hamlet becomes frustrated for the fact that he may not say anything negative about the marriage of the queen, his mother, no matter how much he disapproves. As Rosa Parks stated within journal writings after her arrest on the bus, “There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take... The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” If Hamlet would have read this quotation before he began to slip into madness, he might have understood what he was going to turn into if he opposed the marriage of his mother and uncle. Although he cannot oppose the marriage openly, his internal conflict soon becomes influential of his actions during the rest of the

Shakespeare includes many different aspects of a conflict, be it an internal conflict, where the character fights within his own mind; or an external conflict, where the character has a physical conflict which he must surpass; or a conflict where the character must upon instincts to trust or not to trust. Though all of the conflicts are important to the story, the main conflict is where Hamlet must not oppose the marriage of his mother and the new king. Secondly, the king’s ghost is also a challenge because of how Hamlet must deal with the returning of his father. Lastly, Hamlet has a challenge where he must act to avenge his father’s brutal murder. Muhammad Ali once stated, in his book The Greatest, My Own Story, “I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your