To make oppression bitter
Hamlet’s binding conscience means he also never considers using poison to gain revenge. Hamlet spends more time contemplating whether and, if so, when to kill Claudius and never actually considers the method. This is surprising, as poison is normally the main method of killing in revenge tragedies. The revenger is cold blooded, quick to act and calculating, everything that Hamlet is not. Normally the revenger lacks access to the criminal. Hamlet in this case is his own obstacle. His principles and conscience will not allow him to kill Claudius. That is, of course, until he learns that Claudius’s devious plotting has killed his mother. Hamlet loves his mother dearly but does not understand her actions. He is unable to comprehend how she can sleep night after night in her “incestuous bed”. Her actions lead him to think that all women are untrustworthy. He clearly views Ophelia as a being not to be trusted. He insults her –
Get thee to a nunnery. Why, wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?
A nunnery in Elizabethan times was also used as slang for a whorehouse. Hamlet here shows his jaundiced view of women.
Shakespeare uses poison not only as an aspect of the plot, but also as a metaphor for Claudius’s lies poured into people’s ears and the extreme corruption his reign has brought. The court of Elsinore has been corrupted by the fact that its king, Claudius, is a murderer, a sinner by any religion, a ruler who supports lies, deceit and the use of spies. Claudius committed a great sin by pouring poison into his brother’s ear for the sake of a crown, which is not his, and a kingdom full of people who do not support him. To gain their trust he continues to pour the poison of lying words into all his followers’ ears. This is moral corruption. Literal corruption is also present in the play, in the form of the decaying bodies in the graveyard. Hamlet uses black humour in this scene to describe the cycle of life, death and the afterlife –
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?
Hamlet here takes the idea of a food chain to extreme levels. This quotation shows how simply he views life, and supports his view that the afterlife is much more important.
Ears play a significant role in the imagery of this play, in the form of Hamlet’s “words like daggers” as well as the literal poison poured into Hamlet’s father’s ear, who then returns and conveys the curse to Hamlet’s ears by crying out for revenge.
Fatherly advice is very much present in the play. Polonius gives a great deal of advice during the play, but it is never extremely direct. When giving advice to Laertes, he uses platitudes to hide what he really means and then employs spies to check up on his son’s behaviour. This is a direct contrast to Hamlet’s father who on appearing gives Hamlet very direct orders –
List, list, O list!
The order given to Hamlet is to listen to each word carefully and then act on it.
Ophelia is also given much advice by Laertes and Polonius. She is a pathetic figure, torn by love and driven to madness. She is forced to choose between her father and her lover. Unfortunately Ophelia chooses her father – “I shall obey my lord”. This decision leads to Ophelia’s destruction when Polonius is killed.
Polonius, however, is not the only one who believes himself always to be right. Claudius presents himself as a good king who deservedly sits on the throne no matter what actions he undertook to reach it. This is shown by Claudius’ words, using the stately “ourselves” in contrast to the ghost who uses “I”.
Claudius’ words flow smoothly, but when listened to closely, it seems as if he has no respect for Gertrude. He refers to her as the “jointress” and “our queen” which makes it seem as though he considers Gertrude to be his property. This also is in direct comparison to Hamlet’s father who valued Gertrude above all else.
‘Hamlet’ is also a play about perception and seeing. It seems as if every character is either being watched or watching someone else. There are the guards watching for the ghost, Claudius watching the play, Polonius watching most of the characters. This has a relation to the fact that Claudius is merely acting as a king, as he does not in reality belong there.
Hamlet refuses to be called an actor –
Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not ‘seems’.
However Hamlet’s feigned madness is acting, in contrast to Ophelia who cannot control her madness. After Polonius’ death she is left without anyone to protect her and goes mad as a result. Ophelia’s purity is contrasted with the smutty songs she sings whilst mad. Ophelia’s purity is a contrast to all things that are rotten in the state of Denmark. In her mind she goes to a place of healing herbs to get away from Claudius’ “un-weeded garden”
The imagery of gardens is present in ‘Hamlet’. Hamlet refers to his world as an “un weeded garden”. He believes that “things rank and gross in nature possess it merely”. Here he is referring to his mother and her marriage to Claudius so soon after his father’s death. The garden is comparable to the Garden of Eden; therefore the imagery is that Eden has been corrupted into the rotten state of Denmark. The ghost makes this same comparison saying he was stung by a serpent whilst in the garden. Claudius assumes the role of the serpent and has taken over the peaceful garden of Denmark. The analogy with the devil is clear here.
The ghost is the object of much debate in ‘Hamlet’. Hamlet cannot be sure until reassured by the play that the ghost is not a form of the devil trying to lure him into hell. Another theme is revealed here, that of the afterlife.
Hamlet considers what makes a man,
What is this quintessence of dust?
What differentiates man from beast and what becomes of man once he has left the earth? Heaven and hell are contemplated at length by Hamlet. Death could be compared with peaceful sleep but there is always the fear of nightmares, in other words, of damnation. The fact that Hamlet’s father is in purgatory shows that the play follows Catholic teaching even though it was written at a time of Protestant supremacy.
Religion plays a large part in this Revenge Tragedy. Hamlet is a heavily religious man. That fact stops him from committing suicide when in an extremely depressed state. It is surprising that Hamlet, who is so religious, still agrees to revenge his father’s death. He goes against his religious values by taking the Lord’s work into his own hands. Hamlet risks going to hell but will not as he is different from every other revenger. Hamlet’s revenge was committed in the heat of the moment. He only uses the poison on Claudius after he finds out he has killed his mother. As Hamlet grows as a person he becomes more like his parallel, Fortinbras. He becomes a quick thinker and an action taker much more as a revenger should be.
‘Hamlet’ is very much a play of three dimensional characters. The deep psychological character studies and universal themes of matters such as truth, lies, life and death make it a timeless piece, which has outlived other revenge tragedies. To call ‘Hamlet’ merely a revenge tragedy is to look at a single aspect of this multi-faceted drama. In most revenge tragedies the revenger is a fairly simple character but in ‘Hamlet’ we find a depressed man, a philosopher and a character who is heavily religious presented with a dilemma in which his duty conflicts with his qualms. Hamlet is the character who makes this play what it is. The central character who should be cold and devious is one who longs for death and debates which is worse, killing himself or killing Claudius.
Bibliography
Jenkins, Harold (ed.), ‘Hamlet’ (1982)
