Hamlet’s Hamlet Essay - 1989 Words

Hamlet’s Hamlet Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet highlights one character above all the others; it is Hamlet the protagonist, the hero, the good guy. This essay will be devoted to delineating his character in the play. The audience recognizes that Hamlet has a huge burden to carry for the entirety of the play, but few realize the full extent of this painful load. R.A. Foakes in â€Å"The Play’s Courtly Setting† explains: Perhaps the most terrible feature of his recognition of corruption everywhere is his recognition of it in himself too; where others deceive he must deceive too, where others act he must put on an antic disposition, where the inmost desires and passions of others must be revealed, so must his own†¦show more content†¦Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar in â€Å"Hamlet: A Man Who Thinks Before He Acts† explain the popularity of the protagonist as residing in the fact that modern man â€Å"must face crises in his own life that remind him of Hamlet’s dilemma. . . (62). Hamlet’s first soliloquy emphasizes the frailty of women – an obvious reference to his mother’s hasty and incestuous marriage to her husband’s brother: Frailty, thy name is woman!-- A little month, or ere those shoes were old With which she followd my poor fathers body, Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she-- O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, Would have mournd longer--married with my uncle [. . .] . (1.2) Soon Horatio, the hero’s closest friend (â€Å"Horatio, thou art een as just a man / As eer my conversation coped withal.†), and Marcellus make contact with Hamlet and escort him to the ramparts of Elsinore. Philip Edwards in â€Å"The Ghost: Messenger from a Higher Court of Values?† explains that â€Å"Hamlet is galvanized into activity by the news of the appearance of a ghost that resembles his dead father†(Edwards 66-67). At one a.m. the Ghost reveals to the protagonist the extent of the evil within Elsinore. The Ghost says that King Hamlet I was murdered by Claudius, who had a relationship with Gertrude prior to the murder; the ghost requests revenge by Hamlet:Show MoreRelatedEssay on Hamlet’s Pride in Shakespeare’s Hamlet1459 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Shakespeare’s tragic drama Hamlet, the hero, Hamlet, appears to be guilty of hubris, an overstepping of the bounds of both his and humanity’s destinies, which ultimately leads to his downfall. Reading the play with a consideration as to how Hamlet’s hubris manifests itself sheds light on why he performs certain actions, and simultaneously enlightens the reader to the dangers of attempting to overstep the confines of humanity. 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