William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a celebrated revenge tragedy which reflects the values and ideals of the Renaissance Humanist era. The play challenges conventions through its use of universal themes such as revenge, verisimilitude, and madness. Shakespeare’s use of structure, language and content complement each other to create a multi-dimensional text tapping into the ever changing conventions of the human condition. The questioning of basic human conventions such as life, death, and truth, allows audiences to relate and cultivate their own concepts. The play revolves around the young Prince of Denmark, Hamlet, and his self-conflict with seeking revenge for his father’s murder committed by his uncle Claudius. Additionally the change in family
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Shakespeare’s apparition of the ‘ghost’ is a dramatic technique which acts as a catalyst increasing the tension and pressure for Hamlet to seek revenge. As Marcellus foreshadows “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, dark imagery of a ‘gross’ disease that consumes Denmark. However, Hamlet’s hamartia causes him to delay excessively his indecisiveness can be linked to his scholarly philosophical nature. Hamlet contemplates how his actions can affect him in the afterlife and the moral after effects of committing murder. Leading to his procrastination and pondering of less relevant issues discoursing him from the path of revenge. Another factor for his ‘tragic flaw’ is his broken ties with loved ones. Losing his father, maternal love and ironically his university friends leaveing Horatio as the only person he can trust. In Hamlet’s soliloquy, he contemplates the alliteration “self-slaughter”, as a solution to the chaos in his life. The use of iambic pentameter intrigues the audience as the sound of a beating heart is familiar therefore igniting empathy. As AC Bradely wrote Hamlet was in ‘a state of profound melancholy’ with himself and external factors. Proven through the statement “Denmark is a prison” a metaphor expressing his disgust for his hometown and helplessness in successfully seeking
Shakespeare’s apparition of the ‘ghost’ is a dramatic technique which acts as a catalyst increasing the tension and pressure for Hamlet to seek revenge. As Marcellus foreshadows “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, dark imagery of a ‘gross’ disease that consumes Denmark. However, Hamlet’s hamartia causes him to delay excessively his indecisiveness can be linked to his scholarly philosophical nature. Hamlet contemplates how his actions can affect him in the afterlife and the moral after effects of committing murder. Leading to his procrastination and pondering of less relevant issues discoursing him from the path of revenge. Another factor for his ‘tragic flaw’ is his broken ties with loved ones. Losing his father, maternal love and ironically his university friends leaveing Horatio as the only person he can trust. In Hamlet’s soliloquy, he contemplates the alliteration “self-slaughter”, as a solution to the chaos in his life. The use of iambic pentameter intrigues the audience as the sound of a beating heart is familiar therefore igniting empathy. As AC Bradely wrote Hamlet was in ‘a state of profound melancholy’ with himself and external factors. Proven through the statement “Denmark is a prison” a metaphor expressing his disgust for his hometown and helplessness in successfully seeking