William Shakespeare was one of the world's most renowned authors. He is best known for his play Hamlet. It continues to be one of Shakespeare’s most popular and frequently staged plays. The play Hamlet is his longest play, consisting of over fourteen hundred lines. Hamlet has been named both a failure by many and celebrated by many as a masterpiece. Shakespeare's plays communicate a profound knowledge of human behavior. He illustrates this knowledge through his portrayals of a wide variety of characters.
His use of poetic and dramatic means to create a unified aesthetic effect out of a variety of verbal expressions and actions.This is recognized as a unique accomplishment in literary history (Schweizer, Bernard, 1999). This is especially true in Hamlet. Shakespeare uses poetry to communicate deeper levels of human motivation and emotion. Sandard prose could convey these deeper levels of motivation or emotion. The poetry sheads needed light on individual, social, and political situations within the play. A special emphasis is placed on the morality of the characters and their actions. Through the poetry we can draw conclusions about the metal states of the carahracters. We can also understand the internal turmoil they experience when faced with moral delimas.
The dramatic development in Hamlet is motivated by tragedy, specifically the death of hamlet’s father. Hamlet is a very good example of the dynamics involved in the transistion from the theather of the mind to the actual stage (). Throughout the play of Hamlet, he attempts to analyze and understand death. Hamlet is forced to deal with much grief and anger because of his father's death. The author argues that the murder of the sleeping king is equivalent to “a homosexual assault” (Schweizer, 1999). I belive this refers to his death as being unnatural and unwanted. However, this could apply to most deaths. I think Hamlets reactions and guilt over the the death and his feeling of guilt and responsibilty leads to the extreme ananlogy. Hamlet grieves the loss of his father and his family structure. He feels that had he not been away at school he could have stopped the plot to kill the king. He is motivated by the ghost of his father, who charges Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is also filled with intence anger twoard his mother and his uncle. He resents them for their plot to kill the king. He also is driven to rage by their adulterous relationship and their hasty marrige.
Hamlet becomes totally consumed by death. He believes the only thing he has to live for is to avenge his father's murder. The thought of death and revenge devours him. Shakespeare allows the reader to observe Hamlet's delusional thought processes through seven soliloquies performed by the character. However we can only wonder if thise are a ruse or if these are true indicaters of Hamlet’s emotions and motivations. Hamlet does imply a disguise of insanity to trap his uncle.
By the ending of the play, Hamlet and Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, are both determined to put an end to the others life. Claudius and Hamlet undergo a fencing match. Laertes poisons the sword, and Claudius puts poison in Hamlet's wine. Through the course of the fencing match, Hamlet watches his mother die, from the tainted wine that was intended for himself. Hamlet does finally stab the king and he makes him drink from the poisoned cup. He loses his life as well (Schweizer, 1999). Through Hamlets motivation to avenge the death of his father the entire royal family is wipped out. Hamlet’s love intrest also dies as a reslut of his plotting for revenge.
References
http://www.allshakespeare.com/hamlet/
Schweizer, Bernard. (1999), Hamlet’s “Mousetrap” as a Wish-Fulfillment Dream.
Psychoanalytic Studies, Vol. 1 Issue 2, p211, 10p.
