Interpretation of Hamlet - Term Paper Example

 Interpretation of Hamlet According to The Oxford Illustrated History of English literature, Shakespeare Tragedies begin and end with Roman Themes. In Hamlet, the endeavor is to restore the moral order of society. The trauma of finding justice in an unjust and indifferent society. To Hamlet, who is totally alienated from the Danish society, the voice of the Ghost asking for revenge gives meaning to the life that has lost all meaning. His conception of his mission extends beyond killing into the cleansing of Denmark, and includes what was specifically forbidden by the Ghost, the moral rescue of his mother. So, Hamlet becomes the object of counter revenge, Laertes seeking requital for the murder of his father. By the last act of the play, after his adventures at sea, Hamlet is utterly convinced of the rightness of his cause and necessity of killing Claudius, whom he describes as a cancer in society. He himself sees as a humble instrument of heaven, and to fail his duty in removing that cancer would be at the peril of his own soul. Hamlet ends in Victory and failure. The possibility that a man has been picked out to do a deed which society condemns but which a higher, divine authority sanctions is balanced against the possibility that Ghost led Hamlet into delusion and error, and bewildered him till he died. Shakespeare’s Hamlet falls in the category of revenge play. It is called so as he has to avenge the death of his father whom he believes, has been murdered. This seems to be confirmed by the ghost as well. Is the presence of Ghost a hallucination or reality, it could never be confirmed but ghost gives Hamlet a motive, motive to avenge for his father’s death. His father’s death is a shock to him, when he arrives home he finds his mother already married to Claudius, his uncle and assuming the Thorne. Everything appears fishy to Hamlet .He is unable to understand this fact how his own mother could haste into new marriage bed when his father’s funeral ground is still fresh .There is no one to tell him the truth he cannot trust anyone even his own mother. Hamlet has no other way to extract the truth but to feign madness. A theme is defined as a central idea, which a literary works convey. There are various themes that run in Hamlet. The first theme that is found in this work of Shakespeare is the Revenge. Hamlet is at the core a revenge tragedy. It is his desire for the vengeance that leads to his down fall. The revenge tragedy was first introduced in Greece and on Elizabethan revenge tragedies we find large influence of Seneca, a Roman Playwright. A revenge play revolves around the crime committed. The crime is essentially committed but the culprit is unpunished by the standard laws of justice. Now, someone needs to take this responsibility and when Ghost of the king confirms Hamlet about the unjust happening, Hamlet rouse up for vengeance. Another theme is the complexity of action. The action is present in every revenge play but in Hamlet it becomes intricate because the protagonist undergoes a series of thought before performing any action. He is affected by rational and emotional considerations. He thinks too ethically and he broods on the consequence of his action. But when he prefers to act he does it blindly and recklessly .His dilemma is to be or not to be (Act III, Scene II).It is this impasse that makes him a greatest tragic hero. The third theme that Hamlet deals with is the mystery of Death. Throughout the play Hamlet ponders on the idea of death. He thinks about death and the spiritual aftermath. He is so preoccupied with the entire idea that he starts thinking about his own death. He is frustrated of the world around him and ponders suicide but what stops him is this question-Is suicide legitimate in Christianity? He fears if he commits suicide then he would be condemned to eternal sufferings of the hell. His misery is that he is unable to reconcile with his father’s sudden death, his mother’s indifference and his uncle’s apathy. His sufferings are endless. Theme of corruption is the fourth theme this tragedy conveys. The country is corrupt if the people who represent that country are corrupt. People consider Denmark as putrid; something is rotten in the state of Denmark (Act Scene IV).The very presence of Ghost is sufficient evidence to confirm it. The queen has shown such a haste to enter into new matrimony and the brother took no time in assuming the Thorne, such incidences have left people wondering that something is really wrong somewhere. Symbols are the ideas and concepts that represent the abstract ideas in any literary work. Poison is one symbol that appears at three main scenes in the play. The ghost informs Hamlet that, “Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebenonina vial, And in the porches of my ears did pour…” (I.v.61-63).Claudius pours poison in his brother’s ears and murders him. He has thirst for power which he quenches by killing his own brother. His lust does not end here and he marries his brother’s widow as well. The poison is used again when Claudius employs Laertes to kill Hamlet and the poison is used in the last scene when Hamlet forces Claudius to drink the same poisoned wine which his mother drank. The poison represents corruption and betrayal. Yorick’s jester skull is another symbol that represents the aftermath of every living being that is dust. The inevitability of life is represented by this skull. He says, “Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make loam, and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel” (V.i.209-213) Ophelia’s Flowers that appears in Scene IV, Act V, She becomes mad after her father’s death. She is unable to reconcile with his murder. She suffers apathy in the hands of Hamlet whom she loves so much. She enters the scene and gives flowers to everyone present there. She then gives fennel and columbines to King Claudius.  Fennel represents flattery, and columbines represent having no faith in marriage.  They were both given to Claudius because of his incestuous marriage and betrayal.  Next, Ophelia gives daisies to both King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, which represent deceit and lies, because they both lied to the public and betrayed King Hamlet.  Finally, violets are a symbol of faith and many people believe Ophelia gives these to Horatio because at this point, he is the only one that she still has faith in.  Also, although Ophelia does not realize it, Horatio is the only person Hamlet still trusts and has faith in as well. The message this revenge tragedy conveys is to take everything to one’s stride. Hamlet is about to give himself up, he thinks all the people around him are corrupt and there is no morality left in any relationship. He ponders suicide but then he springs into action and fights back. He is not willing to compromise with the evil .He wants to live life but on his terms. He leaves a message that life is worth living even in this imperfect world. He keeps his integrity and strikes back to those who have done wrong to him. (Friedlander) The tragedy Hamlet invited lot of Criticism .The most famous criticism that Hamlet has invited is about his role as a son. Most critics have compared Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras in relationship with their fathers. They are different from each other yet they are similar to each other with the bonding that they share with their fathers. They all desire to avenge their father’s death but the ways they adopt discern them as different individual. The character of Hamlet is intricate; he is philosophical at one time and insane at other. The education and the background make him enigmatic and unpredictable. He has ardent affection for his father and his sudden death has come as a shock to him. To add further to his woes his mother’s behavior frustrates him and his uncle’s behavior depresses him .He wants to kill himself but a meeting with his father’s ghost gives him a mission in life that is –vengeance. Though, he has got a misson, what makes him procrastinate the things? Hamlet goes into self analysis at the time of action and when he acts he acts illogically.His logic and pragmatism makes him most rational character in the play but his habit of delaying the action for no reason makes one think, is he really serious about avenging his father’s murder? Laertes, on the other hand, is all opposite to Hamlet, he learns about his father’s death and is not aware who is the murderer instead gathers the mob and charges Claudius throne, “To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, that both the worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged Most thoroughly for my father.” (Act IV, Scene V).His actions are contrary to Hamlet’s scrutiny and observation. Fortinbras is a small but vital character in the play. His situation is same as Laertes and Hamlet in the play and he also yearns for his father’s murderer. He acts when it was desired and therefore invites acclaim from critics. The above criticism can be defended on this basis that Hamlet is tragedy and it is about revenge. It is essentially not a revenge tragedy .A conventional revenge tragedy, for example Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, contains several violent murder and a character is personification of revenge. No Doubt, Hamlet is inspired by a revenge tragedy but Hamlet does not obsessively pursue revenge. He delays, beset by all kinds of doubt and distractions. As Paul Garland puts it, “An Elizabethan audience would be alert to Hamlet’s perplexity over the command to revenge, because Hamlet’s Denmark resembled Elizabethan England in its point of view on revenge.” The audience of that time would have never believed that the command for the vengeance comes from the Ghost. The common belief the people of that era holds that the Ghost is a devil and is sent to trap man towards evil. The presence of ghost is the cause of doom. The character of Hamlet is the peculiar representation of the individual of that period who would not believe an apparition even though it is of his father himself. The knowledge of everything is must and before venturing into any action, be it a vengeance, a learned Elizabethan would have thought for a while. Hamlet’s philosophizing reflects Elizabethan endless curiosity and habit of contemplating before taking any action that makes Hamlet a melancholy man. The Hero of the play is not expected to act impetuously and then contemplate the consequences. He took a while as he loves his mother and might be the consequence of her being a widow the second time bothered him. Hamlet, being the protagonist carried some social responsibility and his actions must reflect the actions of the age he belonged to. The tragedy echoes the apprehension of Shakespeare’s England. Claudius murders the King and that is a political assassination to achieve a political power. The first Lady did not create much fuss about the murder and submissively accepts to marry a person acceding the Thorne. Claudius live in this fear that Hamlet knows the truth and Hamlet on the other hand is unable to gauge the actions of his mother who has married his uncle without any resentment. Hamlet’s actions appear very proper and convincing. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all love their fathers and would murder to avenge them, but whether they delayed, acted immediately, or even got off the ground in their revenge attempts tells us about their character and their father-son relationships. Although they are each at odds with each other, they are actually different in the sense that these characters were expected to act in certain way. As this play by Shakespeare became very famous, an extraordinary amount of criticism has been written on it .Another Criticism against Hamlet that is worth mentioning here is done by the Romantic critics of Nineteenth century. Lead by Coleridge, one of the great Romantic Poets, they explained that Hamlet draws attention more towards his character than toward his plot. They believed that Hamlet is an ultimate artistic creation by the playwright himself. He observed Hamlet as a creation torn apart by the doubt and the fear. He is doubtful, and that generates uncertainty in his character, and his being fearful also generates the same amount of uncertainty in his character. Hamlet is an idealist; he expects everything to be ideal and it appears that his vision is also limited by his idealism. It is important to understand that he found his father an ideal king and thought his mother to be an ideal wife when she hovered around his father like a shadow, now when he saw his mother behaving in this way, his image of ideal life and relationship has come cracking down before him, this is clear by his apathy towards Ophelia, whom he loved so dearly. He became cynic to the relations around him. As an idealist, this change in the people’s attitude and behavior frustrates him and he is unable to stand the harsh reality the life brought before him. He bears the tragic penalty. One can defend this by saying that the character of Hamlet stands by himself, his character is not marked by the strength of will or by evil. He is full of refinement and sentiment. He is a scholar out of university and sees everything in the light of idealism, unable to maneuver the tricky world, he is too naïve and untactful. His intelligent and unlike any other stately prince, is bovine not belligerent. He is incapable of deliberate action but sometimes acts rashly on the spur of the movement, for example, Polonius incidence. On all other occasions, he remains uncertain, indecisive, and skeptical and dallies on the purposes, misses opportunities and goes into his thought process again, for instance, he refuses to kill the king while he is in his prayers. Hamlet’s passion is in thinking not in actions. He is not an action man. He understands the limitations of his character and taxes himself with the consequences of his actions. Works Cited Friedlander, M.D, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Ed, erf@kcumb.edu .Web 7th May 2011. Anderson, Phil. “Important Symbols in Hamlet”. http://schoolworkhelper.net/. St. Rosemary Educational Institution, August 5, 2010. Web.7th May 2011. Literary Criticism, Hamlet, litcrit.wikia.com. Web 7th May 2011. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature, Edited by Pat Rogers, Oxford University press, New York.1987, P.137. Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, Google Search 8th May 2011. Garland Paul, World Literatures, Hamlet- A Prince of Denmark Analysis, Dec 19 2010.Web 7th May 2011. Read More