Theme Of Guilt In Hamlet

Of all the feelings a person can feel, there’s but one feeling that can leave us in a state of shock, help us escape reality, commit deeds that we can’t endure, and corrupt our rationality of thinking. This is more commonly known as the emotion “guilt”, which is a feeling one feels after realizing they have done something unspeakable. The theme of guilt is clearly evident in Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Guilt is particularly used in both narratives to portray the true nature of characters in both narratives, by developing emotional tension in characters, contrasting the type of guilt felt by between characters and is also used to influence their decisions.

First, characters throughout their respective novels have different types of guilt they feel and is often contrasted with other characters in the same narrative. In Hamlet, the guilt felt by Claudius is different than the guilt felt by his nephew Hamlet. The guilt felt by Hamlet is not as strong as the guilt felt by his uncle Claudius. Hamlet feels guilty, for not being able to carry out his father’s ghost’s mission of killing Claudius. Although Hamlet is surprised that words of the ghost are true, he can’t bring himself to take action and kill his own uncle. These feelings of guilt that linger in Hamlet’s heart, are what cause the delay in him moving forward and initially drags the play. Hamlet being an honourable man, knows killing …show more content…
In Hamlet, Claudius and Gertrude, are the characters that experience emotional tension as a result of holding on to their guilt. During Act 3, scene 3, Hamlet puts on a play and he reenacts how Claudius killed his father. As the play progresses, Claudius starts to become emotionally disturbed and brings back evil memories. Due to the fact that he becomes emotionally tensed, he runs off to the church and starts praying:
Oh,my offence is rank. It smells to