Hamlet causes the deaths of many people by the end of Act 5. To what extent does Shakespeare cause us to have sympathy for his Tragic Hero?
Jake Gallop Hamlet Cw Hamlet causes the deaths of many people by the end of Act 5. To what extent does Shakespeare cause us to have sympathy for his Tragic Hero? Shakespeare causes us to have sympathy for his tragic hero Hamlet; because of the moral dilemmas he is situated in. The murder of King Hamlet, Hamlets father who was killed by Claudius is one of his situations. Claudius, the brother of king Hamlet then married his wife we are also aware he only killed him for the throne. Therefore Hamlet has to seek revenge for his uncle. But there are parts of the play where we have no sympathy for Hamlet whatsoever. For example when he kills the innocent Polonius, thinking it was Claudius and he also kills a few more people within the play. Also throughout the story Hamlet is stuck in many religious and moral dilemmas. We have sympathy for Hamlet when, unlike Denmark, he has religious convictions. This is proven due to the fact of Denmark being a corrupt country. This again is proven by the Danish people working on a Sunday, which is considered a rest day in the Christian Bible, and as Denmark is a Christian country, they should not be working. This contrasts to Hamlet who is portrayed as a holy man. It was said “something rotten in this state of Denmark”. The word rotten is a metaphor for the monarchy. We see that the King Claudius is the one who is rotten after murdering his brother, King Hamlet. Hamlet is in many impossible situations throughout the play, thus causing us, the audience to have sympathy for him. During the play Hamlet is unsure if he should commit suicide to escape his moral dilemmas so he delays his suicidal thoughts which also causes sympathy as it tells the audience that he hasn’t decided yet, meaning he
hasn’t planned to kill the king, yet Hamlet thinks on many occasions when to kill Claudius, for example when he found Claudius praying in the church. This would have been an excellent situation to kill Claudius. Both alone in the Church, but Hamlet decides not to kill him because Claudius is in the Church and Hamlet believes that if you die in Church you are sent to heaven. But obviously Hamlet doesn’t want Claudius to go to heaven; he wants him to go to hell so he delays his revenge for the time being. This is proven by the quote ...
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hasn’t planned to kill the king, yet Hamlet thinks on many occasions when to kill Claudius, for example when he found Claudius praying in the church. This would have been an excellent situation to kill Claudius. Both alone in the Church, but Hamlet decides not to kill him because Claudius is in the Church and Hamlet believes that if you die in Church you are sent to heaven. But obviously Hamlet doesn’t want Claudius to go to heaven; he wants him to go to hell so he delays his revenge for the time being. This is proven by the quote “And now I’ll do’t - and so a goes to Heaven, and so am I revenged. That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and for that, I his sole son do this same villain send to heaven”. This causes great sympathy as he was placed in a religious dilemma and he did the right thing. Hamlets antic disposition could be known as a way of delaying his revenge by presenting it in odd behavior. This could be shown in act 3 scenes 4 when Hamlet argues with his mother. His attitude towards her was aggressive and demanding and seems threatening. Perhaps he is trying to emphasize his point forward that his mother has betrayed Hamlets father by marrying his murdering brother. Hamlet, in a room with just himself and his mother have a private conversation. Hamlet finds out he has been spied upon and taken as a fool throughout the last few weeks and he has had enough. He must have been thinking that the next person to be spying on him will get what is coming to them. Hamlet, unaware of Polonius’s presence, realizes that yet again he is being spied on. There was someone behind the curtain in the room. Hamlet has now threatened his mother and demanded her to sit down. Gertrude, now very scared shouts out for help “Though wilt no murder me? Help help ho!” She shouts for help because she thinks she is about to be murdered by her own son. A voice behind the curtain replies for her help. Hamlet being annoyed of being spied on moves in for the kill. He stabbed the person in the curtain; later to realize it is was Polonius, Ophelia’s farther which he didn’t realize at the time. The audience is now unsure about Hamlet. They would be thinking if Hamlet murdered out of antic disposition or self-insanity. His mother Gertrude had now become very scared with the site of her friend Polonius dead on the ground. Hamlet does not react acts as if this was normal. Perhaps he knew it was Polonius behind the curtain, maybe he killed him to prove to his mother he is not afraid to do anything, warning her to leave her new husband. He tells her how he feels and what he thinks about her and criticizes. Hamlet is so ashamed of his mother what it he thinks of her. “Heaven’s face...at the act” ( 3.4.48-51). What he is trying to tell her is has disbelief in her and compares his disbelief with doomsday, which was a day, which was avoided by many. His odd behavior towards his mother and stepfather builds up suspension between the people around Hamlet. Hamlet convinces everyone that he is in not in a mentally stable condition. Although at first Hamlet feels the idea of the antic disposition and being assumed unstable is good, Hamlet is unsure of his own genuine condition, perhaps it could be the case that he cannot change from how he is acting to how he naturally is. It seems not very obvious to the audience at times if Hamlet is still putting on an act or actually genuinely mentally unstable. When Hamlet murders Polonius he still seems to be obsessed with his mother’s betrayal, never mind himself committing his first ever murder. Again this is proven by the quote “A bloody deed-almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother”. This then gives him the confidence to kill even more. This confidence also leads him into being more naturally ill. Further more, when Hamlet has killed in cold blood, in the heat of an argument, he is more concerned about his mother’s behavior and suggests that she was involved in the murder of his father. Hamlet then for a strange reason idolizes everything, like his father he says he is a “satyr”. Perhaps he is doing this to show how much he is hurt by the murder of his father and he knows who the murderer was. His parent’s relationship has put on a feeling of disbelief between the parents and Hamlet so his mothers sudden lack of commitment towards her late husband seemed completely against Hamlets what Hamlet and Gertrude went through at the murder scene of Polonius. His attitude towards his mother also projects onto Ophelia, telling her to ‘get thee to a nunnery’ meaning she is a prostitute. He also seems to mistrust Ophelia, putting her into his view of all women, “frailty, thy name is women” and “God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another”. He wants Ophelia to be put in a nunnery because of her untrustworthy self especially as she new she was being spied on during there “open talk”. So he has caused friction towards many people in this play including Claudius, Ophelia and Gertrude. Hamlet’s delayed revenge is even more so when the audience see Hamlet refuse to tell Horatio and Marcellus what the ghost had said to him just previously, “No, you will reveal it” It hurts not to be open with very close friends and Hamlet is doing that. He cannot even keep a secret with his best friends. This makes the audience feel sympathy because they can see the pressure Hamlet is under. But he resents at times, he wants to tell his friends but can’t the ghost said he cannot and he wants to obey the ghost. The ghost had told him to seek revenge for him and kill Claudius. The ghost also told Hamlet not to speak further of this matter. Hamlet had huge religious aspects to consider as well, he is already aware that by law, to kill a King is considered a serious offence but Hamlet also has to consider what will happen to him in the after life if he was to murder the king. The king told Hamlet to ‘leave her to heaven’ when talking about his mother, perhaps Hamlet may think that if it Heavens right to deal with Gertrude then surly it’s heavens right to deal with Claudius. In Christian belief it is thought that everyone gets what they deserve and that Claudius will suffer what he gets coming to him. Hamlet could also be unsure whether the act of revenge would be look upon with sympathy in heaven. But then again heaven forgives all sins. Hamlet contrasts with Laertes the tragic revenge hero as Hamlet and Laertes both display strong reactions when angered. Once Laertes discovers his father has been murdered he immediately assumes the murderer is Claudius, due to him murdering before. This is what Hamlet also had thought As a result of Laertes's opinion he then moved to avenge Polonius's death. Hamlet and Laertes share a different but deep concern for Ophelia. Before Laertes’s departure for France, Laertes provides advice to Ophelia telling her to end her relationship with Hamlet. She takes the advice but she doesn’t put it too action. To some extent we have sympathy for Hamlet because of the many moral and religious dilemmas he is faced in. For example the murder of his father, and then his mother’s marriage to the murderer of his father. However, to some extent we do loose sympathy for Hamlet because of his sexist nature towards women for example when he demands Ophelia to go to a nunnery. Also all the murders he commits, even some, which were innocent, for example the murder of Polonius. I have sympathy for Hamlet because he has faced many moral dilemmas and yet he did the right thing in most of them. The fact that he killed people was a thing he thought he had to do so he did them and this shows an inner strength within himself. Jake Gallop, 10 Sheridan