Referring to the script of hamlet the above is proven by having the king murdered by his brother Claudius because of his greed toward the throne. The king reveals himself to his son young hamlet telling him the truth about his murderer, “upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebona in vial and in the porches of my ears did pour the leprous distilment; whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of men”. Even though the ghost of king hamlet warns his son to be careful while seeking vengeance and not to endanger the mother in anyway, “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught” young hamlet goes through with it in spite of everything else, which also proves the second statement on the guide: ‘the main character goes through with the revenge in spite of everything else’.
So far the story is building on the last step of the guide and as an audience I definitely think we are given a full insight about the character of young hamlet as Shakespeare displays his true emotions about his father and most importantly why he wants revenge. As part of the audience we are also left with tension as the story builds into the next scene, you are left with questions and assimilations about young hamlet courage and this encourages you to read on.
‘The main character then usually has a period of doubt, where he tries to decide whether or not to go through with the revenge, which usually involves tough and complex planning’. In the play hamlet goes through a lot of emotions at this point his is going through the mother remarrying, “She married. O most wicked speed to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come to good. But break my heart, for l must hold my tongue” his father dieing and his father’s ghost relevance and last not least his revenge for Claudius. In fact a lot of writers have written and debated if he had turned mad, obviously lots of opinions have been raised concerning this issue, so whether or not he was mad even other characters in the play debate upon his new bourn lunacy. “And can you by drift of conference. Get from him why he puts on his confusion. Grating harshly all his days of quiet. With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?”
I think that he is just filled with anger that makes him appear as if she is mad. The way I see it is he is creating insanity as a cover to his plan to gain vengeance. Which also proves the next guide point ‘The revenger places himself outside the normal moral order of things, and often becomes more isolated as the play progresses-an isolation which at its most extreme becomes madness’.
Hamlet is pondering his thoughts through out the play and as the audience we suspect he acts on the revenge as fast as possible but instead he drags it on to the end of the play.
Other themes in the play of hamlet such as the tragedy and horror are often shown through imagery. Most of the imagery is about the poison, betrayal, the environment of Denmark, the diseases in their country and what his mother went through. Breaking down each of the points individually you come to find out that hamlet always used each description for each character. Whether this was done purposely by Shakespeare, we don’t know but I think this was a way to display clearly hamlets feelings toward each character and how these feelings add up to conclude a tragedy at the end of the play.
Disease is one of the most common imagery and mostly used to describe the country, but after analysing the language and finding meanings behind the words you come to realise that hamlet describes the way he feels inside, about his life, his uncle and his mother’s remarriage to the uncle.
Poison is also very common and a major image of the play, as it satisfies hamlet with his revenge to his uncle. This is the source of death in the play and with it vengeance is gained. It works well as this makes the reader or audience think of it as something so powerful and whenever it used or mentioned through the play, you feel the sense of horror and the closeness of revenge.
To present how important revenge was for Hamlet Shakespeare also used emphasis in the text. Hamlet kept on repeating himself showing that it was very important for him to take revenge for his fathers death. “Yea from the table of my memory l will 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, unmixed with baser matter. Yes by heaven! O villain, villain smiling dammed villain” This quote clearly illustrates why it is so important for him and he is getting ready to fight his uncle by clearing all good thoughts of the past and just focussing with the matter at hand which is revenge. Shakespeare makes sure that his audience is clearly notified that hamlet has set his mind and that nothing will distract him from taking revenge. “So uncle there you are. Now to my word it is adieu, adieu, remember me l have sworn it”
