Loyalty and Disloyalty in William Shakespeares Hamlet - Essay Example

Loyalty and Disloyalty in William Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ Generally, loyalty describes an act of portraying faithfulness and abidance to the stipulated rules and regulations as well as performing required duties and complying to set of conditions. Loyalty makes one to protect those things and people to whom they are loyal in all courses whether they are right or wrong. On the other hand, disloyalty concerns acting in a way to contravene set conditions and people, go against their efforts, and will. Doing something that you know the other person would not like and opposing him or her in all his or her endeavors. William Shakespeare exposes the theme of loyalty and disloyalty in an attempt to develop the plot of his play Hamlet and to a considerable extent display the natural traits of his characters by virtue of what the characters do and say. In the play, Hamlet, loyalty as a major theme takes effect as the plot begins and displays on the characters’ nature concerning their actions. Audiences are able to discover whether the characters are loyal or disloyal through their action and what they say in the play. Certain characters in the play including Hamlet, Fortinbras, Laertes and Horatio display the theme of Loyalty and faithfulness. Although loyalty for many reasons considered good, it has a negative side that subsequently contribute to damage in the play. A breakdown of characters that arises due to disloyalty also includes Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstem among others. Shakespeare displays Hamlet as a protagonist who seems to exercise loyalty. Hamlet is the son of the late King of Denmark murdered by Claudius. Hamlet therefore seeks to take revenge on Claudius about his father’s death. His loyalty towards his father and his family’s name drives him to kill Claudius. Claudius killed the late king in order to take his position as the king of Denmark. After the Ghost comes to tell Hamlet about how Claudius murdered his father, he begins his second soliloquy where he wants to revenge and says “so, uncle, there you are; now to my word; It is ‘Adieu adieu! Remember me.” “ I have sworn” (I.V 110-112). Therefore, because of his loyalty to his father, he wants to seek revenge on Claudius. Hamlet’s ambition to seek revenge on Claudius leads to the downfall of the play Hamlet that best classifies this play as a Shakespearean tragedy. In addition, we find Hamlet trying to seek revenge on Ophelia’s father when he refuses to marry Ophelia since he realizes that Ophelia’s father also had a hand in the accomplishment of his father’s murder. Fortinbras, also like Hamlet, portrayed as another loyal character to his father after the murder of his father when Fortinbras tries to seek revenge in Denmark. He does this by forming an army to fight in Denmark. Claudius sends Comelius and Voltimand with a message to Fortinbras’s uncle when he finds out about Fortinbras’s ambition, so that Fortinbras’s uncle can warn his nephew, “his nephew’s purpose, to suppress his father gait herein, in that the levies, the lists and full, proportions are all made out of his subject” ( I.II 30-33). Therefore, due to Fortinbras’s loyalty to his father, the audience made to believe that Fortinbras is going to open a war in Denmark in order to revenge on his father’s death. As the play unfolds, we see how the loyalty between Horatio and Hamlet is different from that between Rosencrantz and Guildenstem and Hamlet. We find Hamlet trusting in Horatio because of Horatio’s loyalty to him and disclose to him that he is “acting” mad while other people actually believe that he is insane. On the other hand, we find Hamlet as angered by the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstem are disloyal. Hamlet finds a letter in Rosencrantz and Guildenstem rooms’ that read, “No, not to stay the grinding on the axe, my head should be struck off” (V.II.23-24) and this really irritates him. At first, Hamlet believes that his friendship with Rosencrantz is a long-term one until he finds out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstem are loyal to Claudius, the only murderer to Hamlet’s father. This increases Hamlet’s anger and madness. Overall, Horatio portrayed as a loyal friend to Hamlet whom he is able to trust but Rosencrantz and Guildenstem remain disloyal and even side with the King, which makes Claudius more powerful and subsequently contributing to the downfall of the play because of his excessive powers. As the play advances, it is evident that the death of Polonius makes Laertes very loyal as he tries to seek revenge on Hamlet. Laertes tries to kill Hamlet for having murdered Polonius. This brings the initial fundamental point of the tragic end of Hamlet. Laertes’s plans to kill Hamlet in fencing battle “accidentally”. This happens when, at the battle, Laertes stabs Hamlet and says, “No medicine in the world can do thee good, in thee there is not half an hour’s life; the treacherous instrument is in thy hand” (V.II.304-306). These events lead to the death of Claudius, Laertes and Gertrude. At this point, we find loyalty taking a negative course as Laertes tries to seek revenge on Hamlet and causes death of several people as a result (Bosak). One of the disloyal characters is Gertrude who comes out as disloyal to her first husband, and this act subsequently contributes to downfall in the play. This is so because she marries Claudius, this accelerates Hamlet’s anger because of the “O’ er hasty marriage” (II.II 57). This in essence is the actual source of Hamlet’s anger, which makes him to seek revenge on Claudius by killing him, however, it turns out that the tragedy makes Hamlet seek to kill Polonius. On the other hand, away from being disloyal to Hamlet, her first husband and the family’s name, Gertrude becomes more loyal to Claudius. This gets uncontrollable since we even find Gertrude aware that it is Claudius her husband, who killed the King, so that she may not be loyal to him but on the contrary, she turns to marry Claudius. Hamlet also warns her against Claudius and she promises Hamlet that she would ignore Claudius yet she just goes back and tells Claudius whatever took place between her and Hamlet. This loyalty to Claudius by Gertrude and other characters empowers Claudius as the King of Denmark. This largely leads to the downfall of the play. We also find out that Claudius betrays his brother by killing him so that he may take over the rule of Denmark. This makes the major parts of the story line in the play as we find Claudius exercising disloyalty to his brother and the brother’s family. Shakespeare creates Ophelia as a young, adorable and daughter who is a sister to Laertes and subsequently Hamlet’s love. The author displays Ophelia as being disloyal to Hamlet’s love when she leaves him. At the first, Ophelia is so much in love with Hamlet, however, Hamlet refuses to marry her when he finds out that Ophelia’s father who is the lord, also had a hand to accomplish the killing of Hamlet’s father. By Ophelia separating with Hamlet, she becomes loyal to her father since she accepts her brother and father’s requests to reject Hamlet. Additionally, Ophelia agrees to spy on Hamlet as requested by Polonius. In conclusion, Shakespeare points out evidently the two antagonistic themes of loyalty and disloyal. The loyal characters try to seek revenge on the bad things done to their allies such characters include Hamlet, Fortinbras, Laertes and Horatio. The only person seen to be a good and loyal friend of Hamlet is Horatio when he differs with people as they call him mad. On the other hand, the other group of the characters those have proved disloyal and include of Rosencrantz, Gertrude, Guildenstem, and Ophelia among others. Therefore, using different characters in the play, Shakespeare clearly exposes the antagonistic consequences of loyalty and disloyalty while at the same time using them two to develop the plot of the play. Work cited Bosak, John. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . Denmark: SGML, 2001. Read More