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Hamlet Fate Vs Free Will

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Hamlet was destined to be damned the moment he was asked to avenge his father, it was his predestined fate. However, Hamlet hesitates when confronted about avenging his father’s death knowing the consequences of killing a King. Throughout the play, Hamlet fluctuates between avenging his father or walking away. Ultimately, Hamlet’s decisions led to his death and the death of others in the play. At the end of Hamlet, was Hamlet’s death predestined or caused by his own free will? At what point is Hamlet responsible for the things that happen to him and when fate step in?

I.iii.20-21
“His greatness weighed, his will is not his own
For he himself is subject to his birth.”
When Ophelia confronts her father, Polonius, about Hamlet’s love towards …show more content…

free will. Although not directly stated in the quote, the fate of Ophelia’s death is the Christian burial because she had no control over it and it was bound to happen anyway. As for her willfulness to seek her own salvation, seeing as suicide is a sin, Ophelia’s ghost is the deciding factor on where she will end up going. In this way, as with Hamlet, fate is presented at the beginning and is used to lead up to the ending where free will overpowers the beliefs of …show more content…

If she had gone to the water to drown, it would have been suicide. However, if the water had come to drown her, it would have been an accidental, Christian death. What is quoted is exactly what it means. If a man goes into the waters and drowns himself, it is his own free will to do such a thing. If the water comes to him and he cannot stop it, it is fate that has caused him to drown. The image of Ophelia suicidally “going to the water” compliments Hamlet’s soliloquy of “to be or not to be.” Suicide and dying is a large part of what makes Hamlet a tragedy and is seen multiple times in the play foreshadowing his actual death at the

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Ophelia’s character went through quite a large transformation. In the play her father tells her that she is to stay away from Hamlet and she readily agrees. In the movie Ophelia doesn’t disagree with her father but she also doesn’t agree just to please him. This shows that Ophelia isn’t easily persuaded, even by her own father. Despite her father’s warning about Hamlet, Ophelia met with him in secret at her apartment until her father found out.

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Laertes believes Hamlet is to blame not only for his father’s death, but also for Ophelia’s death because the death of her father is ultimately what drove her to killing herself. Once Laertes returns, he asks King Claudius who is responsible for the death of his father and is informed that Hamlet is the one to blame. Ophelia enters and reveals to everyone that she has gone crazy and ends up killing herself. Hamlet returns to Denmark and is surprised to find out that Ophelia has died. Laertes and Hamlet start fighting at her burial service and Hamlet says he wants to be

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When Ophelia returns all his letters and gifts he tells her that he has never loved her and that she should “get thyself to a nunnery.” This is one example how his mood changes throughout the play. Then after all this her father, Polinous, is murdered by Hamlet. The Hamlet is sent away to England All of these actions result in her feeling such stress that she becomes insane in the end.

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Ophelia goes mad throughout the story. She is overwhelmed by the loss of her father and the rejection of Hamlet. Her character is seen spiraling down a dark path that also ends in death. Ophelia is depicted as not having control over her actions; speaking and acting erratically. While Hamlet is speaking erratically and behaving oddly, he still maintains control over his actions and movement throughout the story.

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Ophelia's father, brother, and her lover have controlled every aspect of her short life and even treated Ophelia with no respect. Although it may have seemed that Ophelia committed suicide over the loss of her loved ones, she actually committed suicide over the loss of her newly gained freedom. Exploring deeply into the play, one would uncover that in every instant that Ophelia had lost a loved one she does not show sadness. Only after her brother returns, does Ophelia truly lose her mind.

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Even though, compared to Hamlet, Ophelia has someone who supports her after her father's death , Hamlet and Ophelia loss of a parental figure and both of them are obedient to the orders of their fathers because they have a mutual feeling for each other. When we lose a loved one we are used to having someone to comfort us about the loss. In these case

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In the Tragedy of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, some of the most significant events are mental or psychological events that make the audience feel and have an emotional connection with the characters. Moreover, these significant events are categorized as new awakenings, discoveries, and changes in consciousness that set off a mental or psychological effect to the readers. The author, Shakespeare, gives these internal events to characters such as Ophelia, Gertrude, and Hamlet throughout the play to give the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax which associate with their external action. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes, who both tell her to stop seeing Hamlet. To Polonius, Ophelia is an eternal virgin who is going to be a

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Hamlet faces many problems because of his own character and actions or decision that he takes. Hamlet was sent to England with his friends where Polonius had a plan to kill him. This is a physical trap in which his own actions drags him into the death. Claudius says, “By letters congruent to the effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me” (Hamlet 4.4.73-76).

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The overall theme of the scene with the gravediggers is death. The subject of suicide is important in this scene because Ophelia has killed herself and the gravediggers discuss whether it is deemed okay to bury her if she has not had her last rights. This subject has been discussed earlier in the play when King Hamlet was killed abruptly and also didn’t have his last rights given to him before dying. Hamlets famous soliloquy of “to be or not to be” is also about taking one’s own life and the repercussions of that decision.

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Hamlet no longer wanted to live in this life despair and pain. Another illustration of his indecisiveness is during the play when he had a clear chance to avenge his father by killing Claudius but choose not to do so, because he thought that Claudius was repenting for his

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He was to the point where he thought it would just be easier to die than to live with all these struggles. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius killed his father which put a huge burden on his shoulders because he loved his father so much. What made it even worse was his mom, Gertrude, ended up marrying Claudius short after King Hamlet 's death. After the king was murdered, Hamlet saw his father’s “ghost” which told him that Claudius was in fact the one that killed him and that he wanted Hamlet to seek revenge for him by killing Claudius, but not to punish his mother for remarrying. He said it is not his place to do so and that heaven will judge her when it comes time.

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Throughout the play, Ophelia acts as a very honest person in the beginning, willing to tell Laertes and Polonius anything. She then receives mistreated love from Hamlet that leads her to drowning herself in a river. The true face and actions from Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Queen Gertrude, King Claudius, and particularly Hamlet lead to their deaths. The end result leads to unfortunate events, including death. The love throughout the kingdom of Denmark becomes toxic, killing all who lives

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Ophelia’s death results from Hamlet's madness, his telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, and Polonius's death. Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery made Ophelia feel insecure. Especially when Hamlet told Ophelia that he would marry her just so she would sleep with him. Then, Hamlet comes back to Ophelia telling her that she needs to go to a nunnery. Which is basically calling Ophelia a whore, because a nunnery is like a whorehouse. Ophelia at this point felt very insecure about herself and she questioned her relationship with Hamlet.

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Although her death initially seems to be like a suicide, yet it was an accident. Suicide may have crossed Ophelia’s mind, because of the state she was in and everything that has happened with the men in her life. The pain and grief she went through is something she would probably like to get rid of, and perhaps once the tree branch broke, she just gave up and didn’t decide to fight the river currents. She was likely aware that she was drowning, and didn’t fight it because it is ironically a solution to her problems; but she did not consciously think of committing

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The actions of Hamlet is carried by his free will but the reactions for his actions were determined by his fate. It is a bit confusing. Throughout the play, Hamlet’s free will has been predetermined by his fate. In the process to take revenge on those who killed his father, leads to death of some characters and Hamlet at the end. “Nature’s livery or fortune’s star”, in act 1,scene 4,page 124.

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