The first scene has informed the audience of the political context in which the rest of the play will take place but the following scenes reveal the deep and important personal conflicts within Hamlet. When we are first introduced to Hamlet, it is immediately clear that he is detached from his family and the court celebration. He is wearing clothes of a ‘nighted colour’, he has ‘vailed lids’ and the ‘clouds hang on him’. This is a clear contrast to the rest of the court, who are surrounded by light and colour, and assembled in a mood of celebration. The scene is guided by the new King Claudius, brother of the dead King, and he speaks of his late brother’s recent mysterious death and his even more recent marriage to his sister in law Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. When Hamlet is addressed by Claudius, we can at once sense his animosity towards his new step-father. His first line, spoken to the audience is ‘a little more than kin, and less than kind’, a bitter pun that shows us he is totally lacking in family feeling for Claudius. He thinks he is ‘too much in the sun’, implying he does not want to be taking part in this triumphant occasion with the rest of the court. Once alone on stage, Shakespeare uses a soliloquy to share Hamlet’s feelings with the audience. We can quickly see that Hamlet is in a state of mental distress. His broken disjointed speech, frequently being distracted by disgust and anger, shows his pain and confusion at his family situation. This soliloquy tells us of Hamlet’s adoration of his ‘hyperion’ father, and even more so, his fury at his mother’s instant and incestuous marriage to her husband’s brother, with the bitter exclamations, ‘O God! A beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer. Hamlet’s speech also serves to highlight his impressions of the society that he lives in. It is ‘an unweeded garden’ and he points out that if it were not a divine law made by God, he would resort to suicide. This shows that Hamlet is refusing to go along with the rest of the court for the sake of his own stability.
When confronted by the ghost of his late father, Hamlet is appalled at the revelation that his father has been murdered and even more so when he finds out it was Claudius who has committed this ‘foul and most unnatural murder’. He hastily commits himself to get revenge on his uncle ‘with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love’. Hamlet is a loyal and loving son but he has proved that he cares more about family and getting revenge, at this time, than the welfare of the state. This scene is of an extremely personal nature as it comprises of an intimate conversation between father and son, and the ghost reveals essential information to his son. It does introduce the idea of retributive justice, the notion that sin must be returned with punishment, which continues the underlying political theme.
In the third and most famous soliloquy, beginning ‘to be or not to be?’, Hamlet weighs the moral ramifications of living and dying and it is clear how tempting suicide is to him, to try and escape his wretched condition and the burden of responsibility placed upon him by his father’s ghost. So far in the play, Hamlet has spent the majority of his time reflecting on what the ghost has told him and how he is going to get revenge on Claudius and he has spent very little time thinking about the unstable country that he is living in. It is obvious how devoted he is to his father and will do whatever it takes to please him, but he is also feeling the burden of responsibility too great, stating ‘O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!’. When he sees Claudius engrossed in prayer he decided not to kill him as his soul would go to heaven, which would not be fulfilling his father’s wishes. This arguably shows that he is not hesitant about killing the king due to the welfare of the state, but so that he can carry out the murder perfectly to please his father. Alternatively, it could indicate a personal disinclination to adapt to the role of the revenge hero, as he has shown himself to be a reflective humanist thinker.
In a very intimate and personal scene, which sees Gertrude and Hamlet forming a newfound mother-son relationship, we see a crucial shift of allegiance. Hamlet reveals his true feelings, which have been building up inside of him, to his mother. The ghost then appears ‘in his habit as he lived’, rather than in his armour. This helps recreate the image of the happy family they once were, and shows how Hamlet longs for a secure and loving family once more. The scene ends with Gertrude promising that she ‘has no life to breathe’ what he has told her. She keeps to this promise and lies to the king on Hamlet’s behalf, reinforcing the new, trusted relationship between mother and son.
Hamlet encounters Fortinbras leading his army across Denmark to fight for some land ‘that hath in it no profit but the name’ and feels shame at his lack of action. Putting his situation into perspective, he tries to commit to revenge, but in reality Hamlet is not the type of hero to sacrifice lives ‘for an eggshell’. In this scene, Fortinbras acts as a foil to Hamlet as he represents the medieval ideology of duty, honour and obedience. Hamlet, a Wittenberg-taught humanist, is more concerned with moral legitimacy and inner justice.
When confronted by death and the nature of human mortality in the graveyard scene, Hamlet handles the skull of Yorick, his childhood jester and sees everything in a wider perspective. The scene represents the realization of human mortality; no matter whether a man is a warrior or an ordinary person, he will eventually be reduced to dust. Hamlet celebrates this emancipation by announcing ‘this is I, Hamlet the Dane’, finally claiming the name as his own, accepting who he is and accepting his destiny. From this point forth, Hamlet is no longer driven by revenge, but acts according to his own moral principles, and even the murder of Claudius is vengeance for his own imminent death, rather than that of his father.
In the final scene, the theme of revenge and justice reaches its conclusion when Hamlet finally kills Claudius. Hamlet’s desire to attain Laertes’ forgiveness represents an important shift in his mental state and he accepts death by saying ‘let go; by heaven, I’ll have‘t’. At the end of the scene, the arrival of Fortinbras effectively poses the question of political legitimacy once again, as did the opening scene of the play.
Returning to the statement, even though Hamlet is in one sense political, it is the personal matters that dominate the play and the audience is now left, saddened by the tragic death of a fine and moral human being with whom they have connected with throughout the play.
Bibliography
Berman, Ronald. A Reader's Guide to Shakespeare's Plays: A Discursive Bibliography’, Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1965.
Eliot, Thomas Stearns, ‘Hamlet and His Problems’, London: Methuen, 1920.
Newell, Alex. ‘The Soliloquies in Hamlet’, London and Toronto: Associated UP, 1991.
www.allshakespeare.com
By Rachel Breckner
