What
causes the tragedy in Hamlet?
F.
Mrs. G.
English 4
(Period 1)
2/9/2011
Hamlet Essay
In the tragic play of “Hamlet” by
William Shakespeare, a lot of things take place, eventually leading to the
final point. The cause of the tragedy is not due to only one circumstance. But
what are the causes that establish this tragic atmosphere? They are sorted into
five major ones. I am going to discuss these five reasons and they will show
what caused the tragedy in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”.
The first fact is the country of
Denmark. Denmark, as a lot of other countries at that time, had a corrupt
society where it was taught that nothing in the political society was better
than the king. Hamlet was not allowed to marry Ophelia because her rank in
society was too low. Another example, is that a lot of people betrayed their
friends or family. Claudius didn’t hesitate to kill his own brother to become
king. He wasn’t even going to hesitate to kill his nephew, so nobody was going
to know his secret. Later Gertrude and Claudius wanted to spy on Hamlet to find
out why he was insane, and sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to keep an eye on
Hamlet. He didn’t believe them and could fool them both, but they still volunteered
to betray a friend.
The
next major cause was fate. Fate is a very important part in literature,
especially in literature of Shakespeare’s time. Hamlet’s fate was to learn how
to be more active and independent, and to stop behaving like a spoiled prince.
He grew up having everything and being loved by everyone, he got everything he
wanted and suddenly he actually had to stand up for himself and work to get
what he wanted, even if it was the revenge for his father.
Another
example would be the fate of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. I already mentioned
that they agreed to betray their friend without hesitation. To betray your
friend is an absolute outrage today and so it was in the past. The old stories
tell us that, if you do something like that, your fate is going to change to a
worse one than you had before. In the example of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
you can see that very well because their fate is that they have to die, so
Hamlet can succeed.
The
next cause, that led to the final point, was the character and personality of
Claudius. The personality of the new king was basically the cause which got
everything going. Claudius wanted nothing more than to be the king and would
have done literally everything to get to his goal. As I said already, he killed
his own brother and also wanted to kill his nephew. We never really get an
idea, if Claudius is really sorry for what he did, except in the scene where he
tries to pray. But as we know from the quote “My words fly up, my thoughts
remain below; Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” (3.4.102-103), he
wasn’t able to pray. I don’t really think that Claudius ever feels really sorry
for the murder. If he would have felt that he would have been able to.
The
second most important cause of the tragedy is the supernatural, basically the
intervention of the ghost of the old King Hamlet. There are a lot of different
opinions, if the ghost was real, but real or not it was a really decisive cause
for the stream of the story of “Hamlet”. The play begins with a scene, in which
the guards of the castle of Denmark see the ghost of their beloved king (1.1.).
When they later try to explain the situation to Hamlet, he gets to know the
whole story of the poisoning of his father. He thought before that something
like that happened, but he never had real evidence to be able to act against
his uncle until he met the ghost.
The
most important cause of the stream of the story of Shakespeare’s play is the
character and mainly the personality of Hamlet himself. Hamlet was a very
spoiled, egocentric, arrogant and overreactive person at the beginning. Those
traits led him to the point that his personality was decisive for his and many other
deaths. In act three, scene four of the play, Hamlet argues with his mother
Gertrude and Polonius hides behind the curtains, you can see the trait of
Hamlet’s overreaction very well because thinking that Polonius is Claudius he
stabs him. I chose the cause of the personality of Hamlet as the most important
because after that point of overreaction a lot of bad things happen. The death
of Polonius made Ophelia become insane once and for all. She can’t stand all
the things that happened, like the rejection of Hamlet (“I loved you not”,
3.1.129) or that her brother left her again to go to Paris, and commits
suicide. Laertes gets so mad that Hamlet is the cause of the deaths of his family
members and wants to avenge them. So, he begins to share a plot with Claudius
and they establish a plan. All in all, we know that plan and know what the goal
of it is. If Hamlet would not have overreacted, all those things would not have
happened.
Summarized
the major causes of the tragedy are the society of Denmark, the supernatural,
the personality of Claudius, fate and the personality of Hamlet. There are a
whole lot of other smaller causes, but to understand the major stream and
meaning of the play, you basically need to understand those five major causes. “Hamlet”
by William Shakespeare is truly a great tragedy.
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