Hamlet Essay -- essays research papers

Perhaps the most famous soliloquy in literature, these words reflect the state of desperation in which juncture, the Prince of Denmark, finds himself as he contemplates suicide. His father, the King, has died. His arrest, the Queen, has remarried within a month of the Kings passing, an act which has disturbed young Hamlet in and of it. To make it worse, she has married the Kings brother, Hamlets uncle, who is now the King of Denmark. As Hamlets desperation deepens, he learns through the appearance of an apparition of his dead father that the old King was murdered by the new King. Hamlets growing awareness of the betrayal of his mother and evil of Claudius leads to a deepening depression and madness. This soliloquy contains the famous words "Thus conscience does make cowards of us every(prenominal)", hinting that the "dread of something after(prenominal) dying"-purgatory, hell, perhaps-is what keeps Hamlet alive to avenge his father.Many people incorrectly interp ret those famous words of Hamlets, not knowing the true meaning or understate behind his speech. In his soliloquy, Hamlet contemplates whether or not he should take it upon himself to act accordingly to his uncles/step-fathers crime against his own father. However, later on in the play, Hamlet realizes Fortinbras resolve and his quest for victory. By witnessing Fortinbras and his actions, Hamlet comes to realize that he has no inner struggle and sees the actions that he must take in order to strike inner peace to him and avenge his fathers murder. He is grappling with the difficulty of taking action against Claudius and the fact that he has not been able to revenge his fathers murder yet. Hamlets self-examining commentary is interrupted when he sees Ophelia.In his most famous soliloquy, Hamlet ponders whether he should take action against his "sea of troubles" and seek revenge for his fathers death or live with the pain of his fathers murder. Hamlets weakness is later ill ustrated when he passes up the opportunity to kill Claudius by rationalizing that he has made peace with God, therefore sending him to nirvana if he were to be slain. In addition to his proposal of vengeance, he also contemplates whether it is better to stay alive or commit suicide. If he were to sleep, he feels that all his troubles would vanish, and this would not be such a bad thing. However, he says that if he were ... ...very attractive because it would stop all the troubles that one has to put up with in humanity life. He acknowledges that he doesnt know what that would involve on the fundamental level, continuing on from what he has already said, explain that because he doesnt know what the lot of his soul may be after death, he is unwilling, even afraid, to take his own life. He dreads what comes "after death", probably especially because he could be maledict for committing the sin of suicide, in which case his existence after death would indeed be very bad and he points out that if he doesnt like it after death he cant come back to human life. But, of course, one can be fearful without being a coward and we see from events in the play that he isnt really a coward. He faces the ghost bravely, faces his killing of Polonius bravely, faces Claudius the powerful reigning king bravely, faces the pirates bravely, and faces death bravely. This whole speech is just thinking, at one trice in his life. William Shakespeare. Hamlet. Trans. Robert Fagles. The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Expanded Edition in One Volume. Gen. Ed. Maynard Mack. New York W.W. Norton, 1997.