Character of Hamlet.

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Character of Hamlet

“Wer gar zu viel bedenkt wird wenig leisten”

             -Schiller

“ He who reflects too much will accomplish little”

                 It is impossible to attain completeness in the assessment of any one’s character and more so in the case of Hamlet’s, for its note are complex and mysterious. But on rigorous study, Hamlet’s character can be described though partly but adequately by the above quote.

‘Hamlet’ is the most famous, the most popular play in the English language. But to quote T.S.Eliot –“So far from being Shakespeare's masterpiece, the play is most certainly an artistic failure…. And probably   more people have thought Hamlet a work of art because they found it interesting, than have found it interesting because it is a work of art. It is the “Mona Lisa “ of literature.”

              “The grounds of Hamlet’s failure are not immediately obvious.”T.S.Eliot in his essay “Hamlet and His Problems”, says this and after his analysis he concludes that in order to understand Hamlet – the play and the character - we need to understand things, which Shakespeare did not understand himself. A similar view is aired by A.C.Bradley who says that the character of Hamlet as one can understand from the play cannot answer several questions which pertain to the logic and rationality of Hamlet’s deeds like his idea to pretend madness and in order to get a reasonable answer one must try history where we find the story of Amleth,the Prince of Denmark which inspired Shakespeare to write this “Mona Lisa “ of literature.

               The story of Amleth is a story, which involved just the revenge of a son avenging his father’s murder. In this story, Amleth ‘s uncle is the usurper and he kills Amleth’s father and also wishes to kill Amleth to establish his unquestioned authority. Here Amleth directly knew that his uncle was guilty quite in contrast to Hamlet’s case and Amleth’s life was in great danger also in contrast to Hamlet’s as his uncle Claudius was fond of his nephew. He takes good care of him and calls him his “son” as well.

                             There is no great apparent danger to Hamlet’s life from Claudius until he is aware that Hamlet knows of his devilish act of murdering the King Hamlet. In the case of Amleth he had every reason to act as if he were mad because that was necessary to him to accomplish his  “duty” of avenging his father’s murder. It is hard to understand why Hamlet pretends madness when he could have done what he had to with great ease and no one would have objected to Claudius’ dethronement as Claudius was not popular with his people, which is quite evident from the fact that Laertes could raise a public revolt against the king so boldly. In Amleth’s case it was completely different, his uncle had complete support in the coup. And A.C.Bradley further observes that Shakespeare was not properly able to link all the portions of Amleth’s story into ‘Hamlet”.

                The other way of analyzing Hamlet is from the play itself. This  is the most fascinating part and it makes the most interesting reading. First and foremost we must go to the backdrop in which the play is set and the introduction of Hamlet  into the play.

                 The country is Denmark .The King Hamlet is declared dead due to a serpent’s sting. Within two months of his death Queen Gertrude marries his brother Claudius who takes over the King’s throne.

                 And here enters our hero-Hamlet. He returns to Elsinore from his school and he is shown to be in deep and profound melancholy, due to the sudden demise of his father and more than that he could not bear his mother marrying again, and that too his uncle. In a way the essential emotion of the entire play   is the feeling of a son towards a ‘guilty’ mother.

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                  The following extracts from the play beginning with the first dialogue to Claudius when he calls him ‘son’ help understand his thoughts better:

“ A little more than kin, and less than kind”

                                                                (Act I Sc ii)

                   Hamlet probably means ‘ I am indeed something more than your kinsman (“cousin”), but very far from a ‘son’ in kind feelings towards you.’ (A.W.V.)

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This is a preview of the whole essay