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The tragic history of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ( The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ) by William Shakespeare is considered one of the richest literary works in English thematic proposals. The plot of the tragedy revolves around Prince Hamlet’s decision to take revenge for the death of his father and murder his uncle. The main themes that are developed are the contrast between appearances and reality, revenge in action and passivity, and the nature of death.
appearances and reality
The duality between reality and fantasy is a recurring theme in Shakespeare’s plays and often blurs the line between acting and people’s expression of reality. In Macbeth , the central character tells King Duncan towards the end of Act I, when he already intends to kill him: “the false face must hide what the false heart knows.” At the beginning of Hamlet , the prince wonders how far he can trust the ghostly apparition. Is it really the ghost of his father or is it an evil spirit whose purpose is to lure him into the sin of murder? Uncertainty is a fundamental aspect of the narrative throughout the entire work, since the manifestations of the ghost determine a large part of the plot.
Hamlet’s madness blurs the line between appearances and reality. In Act I, Hamlet states that he plans to feign madness. However, in the course of the play the assumption that he is only pretending to be crazy becomes less and less clear. Perhaps the best example of this mixed message is found in Act III, when Hamlet rejects Ophelia, thus leaving her completely distraught as to what Hamlet’s feelings towards her are. In this scene Shakespeare brilliantly captures the confusion through his choice of language. When Hamlet tells Ophelia “to take you to a nunnery,” an Elizabethan audience would perceive a pun on the term nunnery .; On the one hand, it was associated with a place of piety and chastity, but in the common language of the time, a convent was also associated with a brothel. This collapse of opposites reflects not only the confused state of Hamlet’s mind but also the inability of both Ophelia and the viewer to interpret him correctly.
The appearance and reality is reflected in the Shakespearean idea of the game within a game. Remember the phrase “all the world’s a stage” in As You Like It , another Shakespearean play. The approach of the public that observes the actors of Hamlet watching a play, The Assassination of Gonzago, suggests that they step back and consider how they themselves might be on stage. For example, within the play, Claudius’s lies and diplomacy are clearly a mere pretense, as is Hamlet’s feigned madness. But is not Ophelia’s innocent acquiescence to her father’s request that she stop seeing Hamlet another pretense, since he clearly does not want to disdain his mistress? Here Shakespeare is making the point that we are also actors in our daily lives, even when we don’t want to be.
Revenge: action and passivity
Revenge is the catalyst for the action in Hamlet . The ghost king’s order to Prince Hamlet to seek revenge for his death leads him to act or choose the alternative of remaining passive. However, the play is not a simple revenge-based drama. Prince Hamlet continually postpones the revenge that he is supposed to wreak. He even considers his own suicide instead of killing Claudio; however, he raises the issue of life after death and the punishment for committing suicide.
Similarly, when Claudius decides that he must kill Hamlet, he sends the prince to England with a note to be executed by others, rather than himself. Laertes’ forceful action poses a stark contrast to the passivity of Hamlet and Claudius. As soon as he finds out about the murder of his father, Laertes returns to Denmark, ready to take revenge on the murderers. It is only through careful and clever gestures and quibbling that Claudius manages to convince the enraged Laertes that Hamlet is to blame for the murder.
But at the end of the play they all get their revenge: Hamlet’s father, when Claudius dies; Polonius and Ophelia, when Laertes kills Hamlet; Hamlet himself, as he kills Laertes; even Gertrudis, guilty of adultery, dies drinking from the poisoned cup. Also, Prince Fortinbras of Norway, who was seeking revenge for the death of his father at the hands of the kings of Denmark, breaks in to find most of the royal family, responsible for the crime, murdered. But perhaps this fatally intertwined plot has a more important message: the destruction that the value of revenge entails in a society.
Death, guilt and life after death
From the beginning of the work the theme of death is raised. The appearance of the ghost of the deceased King Hamlet, father of the protagonist of the work, induces the public to consider what are the religious aspects that are developed in the work. Does the appearance of the ghost mean that Hamlet’s father is in heaven or in hell?
Prince Hamlet questions aspects of life after death. He wonders if by killing Claudio himself he will condemn himself to hell. Doubting the ghost’s words, Hamlet also wonders if Claudius is guilty, as the specter claims. Hamlet’s interest in proving Claudius’ guilt beyond doubt drives the development of much of the play. Even as Hamlet approaches the murderer of his father to kill him, raising his sword in the church over an unsuspecting Claudius, he pauses, wondering if killing Claudius while he prays would mean he’s going to paradise; the idea of life after death remains in his mind. In this scene, the viewer can appreciate the difficulties that Claudio faces to be able to pray, since his heart is overwhelmed by guilt.
Suicide is another aspect of this topic. The work takes place in a time when the Christian religion predominated, which maintains that suicide condemns the individual to hell. However, Ofelia is buried in sacred ground after committing suicide. In fact, her final appearance seems to indicate her innocence, as she sings simple songs and distributes flowers; is a stark contrast to the supposedly sinful nature of her death.
Hamlet addresses the question of suicide in his famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy. Considering suicide at this moment, Hamlet feels that the fear of something after death gives him a respite. This theme is echoed in the skulls that Hamlet encounters in one of the final scenes: he is astounded by the anonymity of each skull, unable to even recognize that of his favorite jester, Yorick. Thus, Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s struggle to understand the mystery of death, which he disassociates us from even the fundamental aspects of our identity.
Sources
- Hamlet. Hudson Shakespeare Company.
- Hamlet Synopsis . Shakespeare at Winedale. The University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts.
- Hamlet: Themes . SparkNotes.
