'The Hero keeps our sympathy from the beginning to the end of the play'

Authors Avatar

‘The Hero keeps our sympathy from the beginning to the end of the play’

‘Prince Hamlet loses audience sympathy as he commits several unnecessary murders and insults the women he loves’

The questioning of where the audiences sympathy lies within Hamlet is an interesting subject for in many ways it can be argued that ‘The Hero keeps our sympathy from the beginning to the end of the play’ this is maybe because Hamlet is the plays lead role and when the audience meet him he appears to be upset due to the fact that he is grieving for the loss of this father. A second argument maybe ‘Prince Hamlet loses audience sympathy as he commits several unnecessary murders and insults the women he loves’  this can be argued for as the play continues the audience witness a form of madness which is not clear to be real or fake. Hamlet changes drastically as the play goes on he begins to treat Ophelia with complete disrespect.

The audience first meet Hamlet in Act 1 scene 2 he appears to be grieving His mother Gertrude and his uncle/ step father Claudius are both trying to cheer him up. “How is it that the clouds still hang on you?” Claudius asks hamlet this question it appears he is concerned about him, Hamlet replies “not so, my lord, I am too much in the sun” Shakespeare has used the metaphor of too much in the sun meaning he is too much in the spotlight of events as a form of sarcasm on Hamlets part towards Claudius. In Hamlets first appearance Shakespeare makes it difficult to not feel a sense of sympathy for him for he seems very alone for his father has died, his mother has remarried his uncle and he is away from university.

Join now!

When the audience next see Hamlet he meets and speaks with the ghost which was first seen by Horatio in Act 1 Scene 1. Shakespeare carefully builds Sympathy for Hamlet as it comes to Hamlets attention that his Father was killed by his Uncle Claudius. The audience sees Hamlet in many different states from depressed at the beginning to mad he reveals “Antic disposition” Hamlet is explaining he will pretend to be mad and finally take revenge on Claudius for killing his Father.

When hamlet acts mad the audience are questioning appearance and reality this is a ...

This is a preview of the whole essay