How do you respond to Shakespeare's presentation of the responsibilities and obligations placed on sons by fathers in the play as a whole?

Craig Bowman English Mrs Harris

How do you respond to Shakespeare’s presentation of the responsibilities and obligations placed on sons by fathers in the play as a whole?

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a play based on the theme of revenge (otherwise known as a revenge tragedy). However there are other themes to this play that may not be as obvious as the main. Love, hate, madness are all other themes to this play, along with the theme of responsibility to sons and fathers. This theme is sustained throughout the whole play when, at the climax, the responsibility of avenging his dead father is finally undertaken by Hamlet.

The first example of the responsibility of fathers and sons is right at the beginning of the play with Hamlet and his father the old King Hamlet. When Hamlet is informed about the appearance of his father’s ghost Hamlet is not surprised, he just says “My fathers spirit-in arms! All is not well. I doubt some foul play”. This shows that maybe deep down Hamlet had some inkling that his father was killed instead of just dying, which is what Gertrude believes.

Later on in the play Hamlet gets his chance to speak with the ghost, and so begins the theme of revenge. Just as he expected the ghost is of his father, dressed in his wartime armour (this may signify that he is in some sort of defensive mode as if he has just been attacked, later this can be linked to his murder by Claudius). King Hamlet explains that his brother Claudius murdered him and Hamlet, as his son, must avenge this death by killing Claudius, he says, “ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”. King Hamlet then goes on to say that it was his brother that killed him. He does not actually use Claudius’ name but explains this by saying “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”. The idea of this ghost is to force Hamlet into avenging his dead father, and is the pivot to which the entire novel is balanced. Without the entrance of the ghost there would be no reason for Hamlet to have suspected Claudius of being the murderer of his father and therefore he would not have avenged his father’s death. The ghost, by asking Hamlet to do this initiates the revenge theme.

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When the Ghost leaves Hamlet is left to contemplate what he should do now. He decides that he must avenge his father by killing Claudius, he ends the scene by saying “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word. It is ‘Adieu, adieu, remember me’ I have sworn’t”. This means that he feels he must do this, it is his duty and he has promised his father that he will avenge him. Hamlet now has this obligation to his father and must complete it. He begins to dress in black clothes and mourns his father. He begins to look dishevelled and behaves oddly. Comments begin to be made, things like “No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled” and “ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle”. Hamlet also begins to contemplate his revenge. He plans how he is going to kill Claudius, and how he disagrees with his mother’s marriage to him.

Hamlet, many times, contemplates killing Claudius but never seems to be brave enough to do so; he is very much a procrastinator and wants to put off this revenge right till the perfect moment. We can see how badly this effected Hamlet by looking at the soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2. Hamlet is contemplating his life and how “unprofitable” it is. Hamlet frequently refers to his dead father in this text, saying that he loved his wife very much and that he was an excellent King. By saying this he is showing his love for his father and how badly he misses him (this would also explain why Hamlet never welcomed Claudius as his father). This soliloquy also shows how much pressure, or responsibility has been placed upon Hamlet and how he is struggling to cope with it. Hamlet mentions that he wants to kill himself, he says “His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter”. The fact that Hamlet has said this maybe a sign to show that the responsibility placed upon him is too great for him to handle and that he would rather end it all than continue to suffer.

Eventually Hamlet sets up a plan where he instructs the players (actors) to stage a play that is just like the death of his father so that if Claudius flinches he knows he is guilty, he says “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play have, by the very cunning of the scene, been struck so to the soul that presently they have proclaim’d their malefactions”. He then continues by saying, “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king”.

During this play Claudius becomes very agitated and decides to leave, which proves his guilt. Hamlet now knows he must avenge his father by killing Claudius; he follows him and discovers him praying. Hamlet contemplates killing him right there but doesn’t. Hamlet knows that if he kills Claudius while he is praying it will just send him to heaven. Hamlet ponders this for a few seconds, “Now might I do it pat, now ‘a is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so ’a goes to heaven; And so am I reveng’d. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven”. Hamlet decides not to kill Claudius at this point, choosing to wait until he is committing an act of sin, which will send him to hell. There are many times that Hamlet contemplates killing Claudius, but he seems too scared to actually do anything about it. In his soliloquies he states how badly he hates Claudius, he says things like “I should have fathered…with this slaves offal”. This is comparing Claudius to a slave, saying a slave would be better than him, and in Elizabethan times this would have been a serious insult to a King. Another example of the father son relationship between Hamlet and King Hamlet is that when Hamlet is arguing with Gertrude (his mother, the Queen) King Hamlet appears to stop him from hurting her. Gertrude cannot see the ghost so thinks that Hamlet is mad, but King Hamlet is telling Hamlet “Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works. Speak to her, Hamlet”. This means that he does not want Hamlet to have ill feeling for his mother, as she is not the real criminal, it is Claudius.

In Act 5 Hamlet finally gets his revenge on Claudius when he stabs him with the poisoned sword. After all the contemplation of killing Claudius, Hamlet is finally given the chance. Hamlet says, “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother”.

Another relationship in Hamlet is that of Laertes and Polonius. Polonius is murdered by Hamlet when he thinks it is Claudius behind the arras. Laertes comes back to Denmark demanding to know why his father has died, he says “O thou vile King, give me my father”. This action is in stark contrast to Hamlet who just bides his time and doesn’t go rushing in threatening Claudius. He later discovers that it was Hamlet that killed Polonius and he swears revenge on Hamlet. When Claudius asks what Laertes would do to avenge his father he replies “To cut his throat I’th’ church”. This shows how strong the relationship was between Polonius and Laertes, as he is willing to avenge his father without fail. Laertes gets his revenge when he wounds Hamlet with the poisoned sword; he says “Have at you now” as he wounds him. Laertes here shows that he has avenged his father’s death by killing Hamlet where he still hasn’t avenged his on dead father, and has a longer period of time to do so than Laertes.

The final point about the responsibility placed on sons by their fathers is between Hamlet and Claudius. Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle, until he marries his sister-in-law, Hamlet’s mother Queen Gertrude. This makes Claudius Hamlet’s stepfather, which does not make him happy. In a normal situation a son would have obligations to his stepfather, as he is the husband of your mother. In this case Hamlet totally rejects Claudius as a relation and does not hold any obligation to him. Throughout the whole play Claudius makes out that he cares about Hamlet and just wants what is best for him, whereas secretly he wishes he were dead. In Act 1 Scene 2 Claudius speaks to Hamlet and addresses him as son, he says “But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son”. This angers Hamlet and he replies with the words “A little more than kin, and a little less in kind”. This is a very sharp comment by Hamlet as it is basically telling Claudius that he does not want to be related to him in the slightest bit. Later on in the play Claudius attempts to find out the cause of Hamlet’s madness by sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet’s old friends) to discover this cause. Hamlet is later sent to England to be executed, as wanted by Claudius. Hamlet escapes this and manages to return to Denmark to finally avenge his father. It is clear from this play that the two do not like each other, and in Hamlet’s case, hate. In his soliloquies he says things like “O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!” and “Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain!” These words show how much Hamlet hated Claudius and how badly he wanted to kill him. However, the feeling was mutual, as Claudius did want to kill Hamlet and eventually did, through the use of Laertes and the poison sword. But what Claudius did not anticipate was the death of Gertrude, which was also his doing as she drunk from the poisoned cup that was meant for Hamlet. This shows that Claudius did not clearly think about his actions, and could be described as having a blind rage toward him, because he did not think about the consequences of his actions and for this he paid the price.

Overall there are many relationships in Hamlet and responsibility is a main role. In my opinion Laertes seemed to deal with this responsibility in the best way as he just faced his problem head on without fail. Hamlet, on the other hand, just procrastinated, and eventually paid the price for this, as he may not have died had he just killed Claudius when he had the chance. However, the fact that Hamlet procrastinated may largely be due to the fact that he did have to cope with so much more pressure than Laertes, therefore it would be unfair to assume that he was putting it off whereas Laertes just got on with it. Hamlet also had much more to lose, his mother, Ophelia, his old friends and to an extent his mind.