Shakespeares Hamlet, I would like to make a few remarks regarding the existential and oedipal themes.

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Sofie Braunschweig Lüth AndersenEngelsk15-09-2012

Gribskov gymnasium, 3.u.

Hamlet – a question of life and death

Basically life consists of a number of decisions we have to make unaware of what the outcome might be and what the right decision is. As humans we constantly have to decide what’s true or false and what’s right or wrong. Humans are free. We can decide what we want – it’s subjective. We have to choose ourselves if we want to live a true and authentic life. Hamlet goes through this several times and by making a choice he knows that he is responsible for his actions. Based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I would like to make a few remarks regarding the existential and oedipal themes.

          The story of Hamlet takes place in the Kingdom, Elsinore, in Denmark. Hamlet’s father is dead, and his mother, Queen Gertrude, has within a short time married the father’s brother, Claudius, who has assumed the throne. Hamlet has a bitter abhorrence of the marriage and he doesn’t feel that there has been grieved sufficient over the death of his father. In particular he is angry at his mother, who has not only perpetrated incest, but also forsaken the promises she gave her former husband. One night a ghost appears and at the request of the frighten guards, Hamlet decides to seek out the ghost. The ghost signifies itself as the deceased king. The ghost narrates the story of his death, and Hamlet discovers that his father didn’t die a natural death; he was poisoned by his own brother Claudius. Hamlet swears to avenge his father’s murder.

Hamlet starts to behave bizarre and people become fearful for his mental health.  He finds it hard to take the revenge he has sworn and to avoid that Claudius gets suspicious, Hamlet acts like a madman. By mischance Hamlet kills Polonius, and his mother is in a state of chock; on the one hand because of the murder of Polonius, on the other hand because of the truths Hamlet is speaking out about Claudius. His mother, Gertrude, becomes convinced that Hamlet is right.

Claudius finds it necessary to get rid of his lunatic and murderous stepson and therefore he sends him to England with a letter that commands the king of England to execute Hamlet. Hamlet rewrites the letter, and instead it is his followers that end of getting executed. He himself returns to Denmark, where an angry Laertes, the son of Polonius, meets him. Laertes challenges Hamlet to a duel to the death and decides to poison the tip of his rapier. Claudius ensures the outcome of the duel by poisoning the cup that Hamlet will fortify himself with during the fight. Nothing passes of as expected: Getrude drinks from the cup and Laertes wounds Hamlet lethal with the poisoned rapier, but is also getting hurt himself. Hamlet realizes the connection of the matters, and kills Claudius. When they’re all dead, is only Horatio, Hamlet’s faithful friend, left to tell about the occurrences.

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          All of us can make a summary or an account of Hamlet, but what is the play really about? What is the underlying concept of the play Hamlet? In a certain sense it’s all about nothing. The tragedy about the Danish prince Hamlet is a play full of unanswered questions and unresolved actions. Under all of this lies the mysterious emptiness – everything we know nothing about. Most of it is ambiguous; everybody lies, whispers and suspects each other for the worst.

In act 1, scene 4 occurs the scene where Hamlet has ...

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