Hamlet Essay

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a young prince is devastated by the fact his father has died and his mother married his uncle, Claudius, who killed Hamlet’s father. With his only motive, revenge, Hamlet struggles with his emotional and physical state and in conclusion many of unrelated characters die. His soliloquies represent his beliefs and feelings, yet he has trouble using those emotions to avenge his uncle. The method of performance utterance and self-overhearing involved throughout the play, Hamlet, is a way to relate to the growth in being of the title character and develop an understanding for why he does or doesn’t follow through in his decisions. “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” This quote shows that Hamlet is true to himself, he will do what he has started, which slightly contradicts the Performative Utterance article. Bloom and Austin were able to analyze Hamlet’s reactions and found a realization for Hamlet unable to communicate his emotions which results in a change of character and plot.

Hamlet’s attitude towards different characters is different from each other. For example, King Claudius and Queen Gertrude believe that Hamlet is unsettled by the death of his father, but Hamlet makes them believe that so his plan won’t be discovered. “Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.” He confesses to his mother about the death of her husband, but she realizes that Hamlet is speaking badly of his uncle. The performance utterance article says that Hamlet is unable to express his feelings in to action, which is true. Hamlet uses a mental game to make everyone believe that Hamlet is either extremely upset or going crazy. The characters are portrayed by Hamlet’s thoughts, because he shows his real anger to only certain amount of people.  

The plot is controlled and swayed by Hamlet’s decision on his revenge.  If Hamlet was able to express and confess his love for Ophelia, instead of lying and acting as if they don’t, Ophelia could have lived. He was supposed to get revenge for his father, but Hamlet involved everyone around him. He killed Polonius with his own hand, which leads to Laertes to kill Hamlet. The hatred for Hamlet by Ophelia and Polonius’ family is because Hamlet’s actions of toying with Ophelia’s feeling which leads her to her death. Also, Hamlet involved his mother by serving a poisonous tea to King Claudius, his father (the ghost) specifically asked Hamlet not to have his mother involved, but Hamlet’s temper got Queen Gertrude killed. “Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay, to muddy death.”

Hamlet’s manipulative attitude to kill King Claudius has led many other conflicts in the way. I don’t believe that Hamlet was exactly confused or unable to express his feelings, but the evidence in the text shows that many times it would have been better if Hamlet mentioned something. The character itself shows a complex knowledge with the communication with the ghost. The performative utterance believes that Hamlet showed a difficulty in decision making, “William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1600) has often been described as a play about a man who could not make up his mind.”  I disagree, because Hamlet has achieved his goal of killing Claudius, he never had second thoughts. Also, his soliloquy about suicide just shows that he was thinking about it, but it didn’t mean he had a difficult decision between living and suicide.