РефератыИностранный языкHaHamlet Flaws Essay Research Paper Hamlets Flaw

Hamlet Flaws Essay Research Paper Hamlets Flaw

Hamlet Flaws Essay, Research Paper


Hamlet?s Flaw: The Central Question of the Play? If the main question of the


play is ?Why doesn’t Hamlet kill Claudius at once upon hearing the ghost’s


accusation?? The easiest answer is that if Hamlet had done so, the play would


have ended in Act I. And then "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" would be a


tragedy of plot writing skills. If we must find ourselves looking for an answer


to the central theme, a long analytical expedition is in order In his 1904 work


"Shakespearean Tragedy," *A. C. Bradley describes "Hamlet"


as a play which includes eight violent deaths, adultery, a ghost, a mad woman,


and a fight in a grave. Here are all the ingredients of a horror story. Bradley


then asks the question, "But why in the world did not Hamlet obey the ghost


at once, and so save seven of those eight lives?" The answer to this


question lies not in the fact that had Hamlet done so the play would have ended


in the first act. The answer lies in the character of Hamlet. Precisely, what is


it that delays Hamlet from acting on his father’s ghost’s command? Let’s look at


some typical views. Is it the fact that at that moment Claudius is surrounded by


courtiers and his Swiss guard? No, for throughout the play Hamlet never refers


to any external trouble in drawing near and killing Claudius. Hamlet states in


Act IV, scene 4 that he has "…cause and will and strength and means To


do’t.? Does Hamlet want to bring Claudius to civil justice? Again, no. Hamlet


organizes the play within the play not to persuade others of Claudius’s guilt,


but to convince himself: "if ‘a do blench, I know my course." (Act II,


scene 2). Throughout the play, Hamlet never talks of public justice. He talks


instead of violent death: "To quit him with this arm?" (Act 5, scene


2) Hamlet’s mission and his purpose is to kill his uncle, not to bring him to


the bar of justice. Would slaying Claudius trouble Hamlet’s conscience? Not at


all. Hamlet may question the integrity of the ghost however, he never questions


his course if the ghost is real. On the contrary, Hamlet blames himself for not


acting quickly: "O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" (Act 2, scene


2) and "How all occasions do inform against me," (Act 4, scene 4).


Does Hamlet lack courage? Apparently not. Hamlet rarely misses a chance to


insult the king. Hearing a noise behind the arras in his mother’s bedroom he


whips out his sword and thrusts, unhesitatingly through the curtain. He sends


Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to their deaths without a second thought. When his


ship is attacked by pirates,

Hamlet is the first to board the pirate ship. He


fights with Laertes in Ophelia’s grave, duels with Laertes, and, dying himself,


runs the king through completing his mission. Does Hamlet simply substitute


thought for action? As we have seen, Hamlet is a man of action. Why, then does


he not act promptly in executing his father’s ghost’s command? A.C. Bradley


offers this explanation: ?Hamlet has received a violent shock to his moral


being. Hamlet adored his father; that father has met an untimely death.? ?So


excellent a king,? (Act I, scene 2) His mother has shown what to Hamlet is a


despicable nature-marrying almost immediately following Hamlet’s father’s death:


?O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer.?


(Act I, scene 2) and has married a man Hamlet finds utterly hateful and


contemptible: ?My father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to


Hercules.? (Act I, scene 2) Finally, there is the loss of the crown


"Popped in between th’ election and my hopes," (Act V, scene 2).


These, especially the disclosure of his mother’s weak nature, poisons Hamlet’s


mind and impregnates in Hamlet a despair of human nature. To Hamlet, life is


?. . .an unweeded garden That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature


possess it merely.? (Act I, scene 2) Thus weakened, Hamlet is unable to act on


his father’s ghost’s command. So after all is said and done I wonder if we have


truly found the answer we were looking for or is it simply put as this: ?The


central question of the play is, a question without an answer if one is seeking


the answer within the play. Shakespeare was supposed to supply us with an


answer, or at least with a reason why there is no answer. He offers us neither.


Instead, this most famed of Shakespeare’s plays offers us a literary mystery


which has taken the attention of all who have come into contact with it. T.S.


Eliot has called ?Hamlet? the "’Mona Lisa’ of literature." Like


the painting, the play smiles at us from a distance but refuses to be formulated


or simply understood; everything about it is problematic, not only the events of


the drama itself, but also the proper context and tradition in which to consider


them. And for those who persist in analyzing the plot of the drama, or Hamlet’s


psychology, or both in order to explain this particular mystery, I suggest


letting the beauty of the poetry, the richness of the story and the brilliance


of the author encompass your soul and enjoy it for what it?s worth.


3b3


A. C. Bradley, "Shakespeare’s Tragic Period-Hamlet," Shakespearean


Tragedy, MacMillan and Company Limited, 1904, pp. 70-101

Сохранить в соц. сетях:
Обсуждение:
comments powered by Disqus

Название реферата: Hamlet Flaws Essay Research Paper Hamlets Flaw

Слов:982
Символов:6281
Размер:12.27 Кб.