The Portrayal of the Main Character in the Play Hamlet
As a result of my study of Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet”, there is no doubt in my mind that Hamlet possesses many strengths that I admire, such as his intelligence, nobility, wit, loyalty and also his bravery. However, throughout the course of the play his flaws and weaknesses gradually emerge. Hamlet is slow to act but also frequently lashes out on those who he believes have betrayed him. We forgive his weaknesses and continue to admire him because in each case we understand that he is simply a flawed human being in the midst of deep emotional turmoil.
Hamlet is a noble and idealistic youth. He is represented throughout as a very rich and complex character, a man of profound wit and intelligence who is “loved of the distracted multitude”. Hamlet is endowed with a greatness of mind and possesses an unusual degree of perception and mental agility. These skills allow him to see through peoples falsity and master them. In my opinion, this ability of his is admirable, he is a unique man, with a “prophetic soul”. Hamlet’s use of language while acting his “antic disposition” furnishes him with a useful safety valve and defence mechanism. He strongly utilises this skill while addressing Polonius, making continuous use of misleading statements, innuendos, illogicalities and ambiguity. Hamlet possesses a deep philosophical capacity that enables him to analyse life and death in so many ways, for example, his “To be or not to be” soliloquy.
When we meet Hamlet first in the play we realise he is brooding deeply over his fathers sudden death and his mothers swift remarriage. “Within a month, ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears, had left the flushing in her galled eyes, she married”. We can sympathise deeply with Hamlet due to this chain of events. He is sarcastic and angry when referring to the queen. She undermines his grief and comes across as a selfish mother. We hear of how Hamlet truly feels in his many soliloquies “it appears no other thing to me but a fowl and pestilent congregation of vapours”. As a really pf his father’s death and his mother’s marriage, he believes the world is place full of disgust and despair, and he broods on the idea of committing suicide multiple times throughout the play. “whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arts against a sea of troubles”. With the appearance of the Ghost early on in the play, and his command to revenge the “foul and most unnatural murder”, Hamlet finds himself confronted with a huge dilemma. He cannot find anyone other than Horatio whom he can confide in and trust, and so he must rely on the “antic disposition” to deal with the situation as best he can. His feign of madness is certainly deceptive but I understand that this act was fuelled with good intent.
Two moments in the play where I struggle to justify or admire Hamlet’s actions have to be in the Closet Scene with his mother, and his treatment of Ophelia in the Nunnery Scene. On these two occasions, Hamlet use an exceptional degree of verbal violence when chastising Gertrude for her guilty behaviour, and demeaning Ophelia for rejecting him. The first moment in the play where I am shocked by Hamlet’s behaviour is in the Nunnery scene with Ophelia. The scene begins with a soliloquy about life or death from Hamlet, but then moves on to him speaking violently to Ophelia. He questions her honesty and her “paintings” or her efforts at deceit. Both Ophelia and Hamlet feel betrayed by one another, he tells her to “get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?”. He also denies he ever loved her. Ophelia interprets his behaviour as that of a mad person, but it still upsets and effects her. I am disgusted at Hamlet’s words and actions in this scene, he is disrespectful and rude towards Ophelia and shows no regard for her feelings. This scene perfectly encapsulates Hamlet’s lack of remorse and his tendency to find refuge in cruel words. Not long after Hamlet’s atrocious behaviour in the nunnery scene, I am left shocked again by him in the Closet Scene. Hamlet wishes to “set up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you” he wants his mother to be aware of the vile things she has done, and repent her sins, but this is too much for Gertrude to handle. She tells Hamlet that he “cleft my heart in twain” and begs him to “speak no more; these words like daggers enter mine ears”. Hamlet shows no sympathy for his mother, and causes her great pain in this scene, which I certainly do not admire.
Another eyeopening moment in this scene has to be Hamlet’s brutal murder of Polonius. While Hamlet was conversing with his mother, he heard a noise behind the arras and stabbed at it. This is one of the first moments in the play where Hamlet acted impulsively, but I believe that he knew exactly what he was doing. In my opinion, Hamlet has lost control in this scene, as he shows no regret or remorse after unjustly killing Polonius, and instead makes vile jokes about it. “indeed the councillor is now most still, most secret and most grave, who was in life a foolish prating knave”. He acts inhumanely in this scene, and in many to come after.
Hamlet possesses a powerful ability to improvise, for example, with the immediate arrival of the players he manages to organise the staging of a play, almost instantly to “catch the conscience of the king”. This showcases his quick thinking, efficient and business like and shrewd personality. He also loses no time in informing his mother after affirming his guilt. As for the manner in which Hamlet deals with his two old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, there are multiple different ways in which people interpret his actions. His exchanges with them are filled with a bitter cynicism and innuendo. He distrusts and chastises them. When he learns of their links with Claudius his disgust and hostility intensifies, calling them “sponges”. Many would argue that that when he alters the commission changing his death sentence to theirs, with “not shriving time allowed” some would say that it was merely an act of survival, but I do not agree. There is a strong aspect of unwarranted brutality, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have done nothing to deserve a death of this nature, bar their prying nature and disloyalty to Hamlet. All of these actions reveal a decisiveness, revolution and promptness of action that is not evident in any of his soliloquies.
