Hamlet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 4

Hamlet - Essay Example These include the 'Histoires Tragiques' by Francois de Belleforest and the ‘Saxo Grammaticus' History of Denmark, written in Latin in the 12th century. The plot revolves around Hamlet and his psychological turmoils in the midst of a vortex of violence and murders. In the play Hamlet's uncle usurps his father's throne and takes his father's wife as his own. His uncle does this after first killing Hamlet’s father the King of Denmark. Hamlet, in an act of revenge, kills his uncle in turn. This basic storyline is the backdrop of a great emotional and psychological inner turmoil on the part of Hamlet. Here Hamlet is unable to resolve some fundamental dilemmas, including a large degree of uncertainty over his uncle's accountability for the crime (Shakespeare; Mabillard; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This paper focuses on the literary element of character, and in particular the character of Hamlet, focusing on the theme of uncertainty and the subjectivity of human experience. The thesis is that this uncertainty is at the root of Hamlet's inner struggles to come to terms with the death of his father and the hands of fate that seemed to have thrust him into the position of avenging son and tormented soul (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Mabillard). II. ... In this scene Hamlet is in a Danish plain, pondering after he had asked Rosencrantz to go ahead of him while he took some time to collect himself (Shakespeare): Now, whether it be   Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple   Of thinking too precisely on th' event, A thought which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom   And ever three parts coward,- I do not know   Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do,'   Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means   To do't. (Shakespeare Act 4, Scene 4, p. 81) In the passage above Hamlet is examining his own thought processes and his own subjective way of processing his reality, and come face to face with an ambiguity in his understanding of how he thinks and acts (Shakespeare Act 4, Scene 4. p. 81). Yes, in the end Hamlet understands that to live is to live in ambiguity. Within this subjectivity the character of Hamlet unfolds. One lives with one’s biases. In the following passage Hamlet demonstrates this, as in grief he colors the chain of events leading to her mother's remarriage and his father’s death with his own subjective bias (Shakespeare): My father's brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules. Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. O, most wicked speed, to post With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2, p. 11) In the passage above the subjectivity springs from Hamlet’s grief over his father’s death, which prompts him to feel aggrieved and to be affronted by what he subjectively interprets as his mother and uncle’s deceit (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 2, p. 11). An aspect of that subjective uncertainty is in evidence in the way