With particular reference to the language of the play, discuss the development of Hamlet's revenge in the first three acts

Rob West 10W 08/05/2007

English

Miss Kitson

English Coursework:

With particular reference to the language of the play, discuss the development of Hamlet’s revenge in the first three acts.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet belongs to a genre of plays known as Revenge –Tragedies popular in Elizabethan England, it shows how Hamlet’s life is transformed when his father is murdered, and in the first three acts the audience sees how his revenge develops towards the three most important people in his life: Gertrude, his mother; Claudius, his step-father and uncle; and Ophelia, the woman he loves.

From Hamlet’s very first lines it is clear that he dislikes Claudius, and his mother’s “o’er hasty marriage” to him. It is also obvious that he is desperately unhappy and angry at how close he is to Claudius now: “A little more than kin and less than kind”; “… I am too much in the sun.” This word play showing that he doesn’t consider himself Claudius’s son.

Hamlet has his suspicions about his stepfather but doesn’t have any evidence to prove what he suspects; his desperation, frustration and anger are all seen in his first soliloquy: “O that this too too sullied flesh would melt … married with my uncle, / My father’s brother – but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules. … She married – O most wicked speed! To post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” The hissing words used by Hamlet (e.g. incestuous) show his anger and disgust at his mother, and the use of Greek mythology shows how much better old Hamlet was than Claudius: “Hyperion to a satyr”; “My father’s brother – but no more like my father / Than I to Hercules.”

The report of the arrival of old Hamlet’s ghost by Marcellus and Horatio confirms Hamlet’s suspicions that his father’s death may not resulted from natural causes: “My father’s spirit – in arms! All is not well / I doubt some foul play”, and his reaction to discovering that the perpetrator was Claudius; “O my prophetic soul! My uncle!” shows that he already had an suspicion as to who the perpetrator was, particularly the word “prophetic” shows that he thought he knew who killed him, but now he has something dynamic to focus his anger onto: revenging his father’s death and killing Claudius. The ghost pleads with him to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”, but to not harm Gertrude. When he learns of that his father has been murdered he asks the ghost for detail so that he “May sweep to my revenge.” But “sweeping to his revenge – with its idea of swift and immediate action is the last thing that he does; rather he continues to brood on his father’s death, his mother’s faithlessness and his uncle’s villainy. In his next soliloquy, Hamlet’s single minded devotion to avenging his father is seen: “I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, / All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past / That youth and observation copied there, / And thy commandment all alone shall live/ Within the book and volume of my brain,”

Hamlet’s meeting with the Ghost initiates the main action of Hamlet’s revenge, and at the end of the conversation with the Ghost he asks himself the question, how can he bring the King to public vengeance without implicating the Queen or being condemned as a traitor himself? He knows his destiny and it will be one that is hard for him to bear: “the time is out of joint: O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right.”

One of the devices that Hamlet uses to carry out his revenge is to ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

One of the devices that Hamlet uses to carry out his revenge is to pretend to be mad .By this pretence he hopes to draw the attention away of the court away from him so that he can watch and follow Claudius to see if he is showing any signs of guilt. He tells Guildenstern of his assumed madness. “I am mad but north-north-west. When the wind is / southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.” His stated intention is to gain irrefutable evidence of Claudius’s villainy. But is it yet another device for him to delay action?

He initiates this by visiting Ophelia in a state of undress and handing her a love letter, making Polonius believe that his madness is due to Ophelia’s rejection of him. Hamlet uses his feigned madness to show his true emotions and insult people he doesn’t like: “You are a fishmonger.” A fishmonger in Elizabethan times could have meant pimp, showing that Hamlet thinks that Polonius is using his daughter to gain favour within the court. Hamlet’s madness convinces everyone, even Ophelia who cries for him in act 3 sc 1, “O, what a noble mind is here overthrown” and hopes that he returns to normal. Claudius is the most affected by Hamlet’s madness and appears to be quite shaken: in the first act he delivers long speeches, but by Act 2 he is reduced to short sentences like “We will try it.”

In Hamlet’s third soliloquy, at the end of the act, Hamlet shows his true feelings behind the veil of madness he has conjured. He is angry with himself that he cannot like Pyrrhus covered in blood “total gules, over-sized with coagulate gore “ avenge his father’s death, while one of the players can cry over Hecuba’s speech, a fictional woman to whom he is not related: Hamlet reproaches himself for his apparent cowardice and lack of action “o what a rogue and peasant slave am I!” He still maintains his hatred towards his uncle: “Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! He plans to use the “Mouse-Trap” play to test whether the ghost is honest or an evil spirit sent to trap him into eternal damnation ”The spirit that I have seen /May be a devil. He will find out if Claudius really is the murderer: “The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king.”

In Act 3 sc 1 the audience sees how Hamlet carries out his revenge on Ophelia: insulting, but confusing her at the same time: “Get the to a nunnery” he could have meant for her to go to a nunnery, and not ever lose her chastity, or her could have meant brothel, as nunnery was a nickname for brothel in Elizabethan England. We then see the “Mouse-Trap” play in the next scene, which is a mirror image of what has happened in Denmark. As the courtiers settle to watch it, Hamlet insults Ophelia further: “Do you think I meant country matters?” country matters in Elizabethan times was slang for sex, and the use of this shows Hamlet’s misogyny echoing his opinion of Gertrude in Act 1 “ Frailty thy name is Woman” The Mouse - Trap play does get a result for Hamlet, and although it is not directly revenge, He has made both the King and Gertrude uneasy. When the king rises from his seat, Hamlet shouts “What, frighted with false fire?” Hamlet has all the confirmation he needs, and now knows that the ghost wasn’t lying and, three months after he first learned of his uncle’s guilt, finally looks like he might kill Claudius.

Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius in Act 3 sc 3, but again he procrastinates, letting himself think about what will happen to Claudius’ soul “A villain kills my father, and for that I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.” He doesn’t act, because he thinks that Claudius is praying, cleansing his soul. This would send him to heaven, not hell where he belongs. The irony is that Claudius himself has too much on his conscience and cannot pray, ”My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. / Words without thoughts never to heaven go”. Hamlet curses himself in a later soliloquy for his lack of action, but he does promise to kill Claudius while he is sinning, so that he goes to hell. “Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent: / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage / Or in th’incestuous pleasure of his bed, / At a game a-swearing, or about some act / That has no relish of salvation in’t”.

Hamlet begins act 4 Sc 3 with a planned attack on his mother, confronting her and abusing her verbally. Not physically however as the Ghost had previously warned him not to hurt her. “But howsomever thou pursues this act / Taint not thy mind, not let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught.”’ It is now that he stabs Polonius, hiding behind the arras, thinking that he was Claudius, and that he had caught him spying, a sin. This action shows that Hamlet will only act on the spur of the moment, before his brain can interfere and reason himself out of it. Dismissing Polonius without much regret “ Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. / I took thee for thy better.” Hamlet continues to insult her: “ In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, / Stew’d in corruption, honeying and making love/ Over the nasty sty. Hamlet is reminded by the Ghost of his duty to his dead father: “Do not forget. This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” Showing that Hamlet has been deflected by his anger at his mother’s betrayal from avenging his father. This Act finishes with a renewal of a calmer Hamlet’s trust in his mother “ Mother, good night indeed.” And the promise of a final outcome when his plans and Claudius’s plans coincide. “When in one line two crafts directly meet.”

Hamlet is the most complex of Shakespeare’s tragic heroes – there isn’t one specific character flaw that leads to the failure of his mission – his tragedy stems from the fact that he cannot act quickly enough to exact his revenge; Hamlet prefers to be a thinker, but is cast in the role of an avenger, his need for absolute proof of Claudius’ guilt, his fear of precipitate action gives rise to his need to be absolutely certain of the justice of his actions, and results in him plunging the Danish court into further tragedy and needless deaths.

Page of