Analysis: A Misguided Hamlet

In William Shakespeare’s, “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, a young prince named Hamlet is depressed and misguided. His father, the King has died and his mother Gertrude has already remarried his uncle Claudius. Hamlet is absolutely torn until his father’s ghost visits the castle and entreats Hamlet to avenge his death and kill his uncle King Claudius. Hamlet begins to test Claudius with plays and when Claudius finds out, all he has by his side is his councilor Polonius. Polonius tries to entrap Hamlet in every way possible, even by using his daughter Ophelia. As they all attempt to sabotage each other and try to protect themselves it all leads to a bloodbath in Elsinore. Hamlet is craving revenge for what Claudius has done to

At first he procrastinates and even questions if his father’s ghost is real or not. He uses a play that he calls the “Mousetrap” to find out if Claudius is truly his father’s killer. Before the play even starts Hamlet says, “The plays the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (Shakespeare 2.2 633-634). Hamlet has the best opportunity to find out the truth and he takes this play as an advantage. It is mainly for Claudius to watch and react. Hamlet will soon figure out that Claudius did kill his father because the play is specifically about a murder that relates to what Claudius did. In Henry Thew Stephenson’s review “Hamlets Mouse-Trap” he writes “Hamlet believes that no man who had committed the crime attributed to Claudius could sit through the visual reproduction of that crime without displaying emotion” (Stephenson 31). Stephenson explains why Hamlet has chosen the play to find out the truth. He uses entertainment against Claudius. He gets just what he was looking for. Claudius was caught in the trap that Hamlet set out for him and now Hamlet is ready to be loyal to his father. But little does he know that now Claudius knows that Hamlet is out to get