Mortality plays a huge role in the play of Hamlet, they are introduced from the very beginning. After his father’s death, Hamlet cannot stop thinking and wondering about the meaning of life, and it’s ending. The entire play is steeped in the question of what happens after you die. Hamlet at one point even refuses to kill Claudius while he had the chance because Claudius was praying at the time, and Hamlet thought that if Claudius dies whilst praying he would go directly to heaven, “When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? No.
Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent.”. (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 3, line 91-93.) Another matter is that people of the time thought that if you were to commit suicide, you would not be permitted to get into
…show more content…
Dead for a ducat, dead.
[He kills Polonius by thrusting a rapier through the arras.]” (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4, Lines
26-28). And again slipping into madness when he performs his famous speech “To be or not to be, that is the question”. (Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 1, Line 64). And there is also real madness, like that of Ophelia, who fell into madness after finding out Polonius was killed by Hamlet, and proceeded to drown herself.
The Characteristics of the characters are well thought out, and play a huge role in the story. The protagonist Hamlet, is Melancholy, bitter, and cynical. He hates his uncle for his schemes and his mother for the awfully quick remarriage. He is indecisive at the start, yet slips into rash action as his madness grows. Horatio is the other protagonist, who is Hamlet’s close friend. He is loyal and helpful to Hamlet, and a person that he trusts dearly. Horatio also tells Hamlet’s story after he dies.
Claudius is the main antagonist in the play, the entire plot is due to his schemes, he is an ambitious politician driven by his lust for power, and yet sometimes shows signs of guilt, such as the time when he left the stage during the poisoning scene in the play that Hamlet
…show more content…
Polonius is a father to Ophelia and Laertes, and seems stuck up and holds himself in high regard. Ophelia is an innocent girl who is the love interest of Hamlet, yet her madness was because of him, eventually leading to her death. Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother who was quickly and recently married to Claudius after the death of Hamlet’s father, she loves Hamlet, but wants affection and status more than faith or morals.
The relationships between the characters are also well thought out, and show a touch of reality in them. Hamlet and Horatio are the best of friends, and Horatio is fiercely loyal to
Hamlet throughout the entirety of the play, even during his madness. Hamlet and Polonius are neutral towards each other, though Hamlet had thought highly of Polonius until he had found them spying on him and his mother, at which point his outlook on Polonius had soured.
“Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better.” (Hamlet, Act 3,
Scene 4, Lines 38-39). Hamlet and Claudius are the basis for the entirety of the plot, and are also the reason that anybody in the play dies. Hamlet at first did not want to believe that