The Impression Of Hamlet's Character In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

The story of Hamlet mostly takes place in Elsinore, Denmark during the late middle ages. However, it also has aspects of Shakespeare’s time, the 16th century, scattered throughout the play. During both the 15th and 16th centuries, public image played a crucial role in every noble’s life. How society viewed a noble was just as important as a noble’s honor. Hamlet, the main character of the play, grows in that society, but he fights against the pressure to maintain a positive public view. Instead, he acts based on both his own thoughts and his father’s spirits last wish. Due to Hamlet’s self-righteousness, he is the strongest character in the entire play. Every other character was written into the play to support him and show how important having …show more content…
He was able to easily get over the death of his supposed long-time friend because he had a one-track mind, with the motive of self-improvement and maintaining a good name and reputation. He is similar to Hamlet because eventually, each of them both had one goal which they fixated on with their entire beings. Polonius even put his name before his daughter and son when he forced Ophelia to not socialize with Hamlet because he was a bad influence and when he told Laertes to not act uncouthly in France because it would ruin Polonius’s reputation. Even though, Hamlet and Polonius were similar in terms of having one motive, Hamlet survived longer in the play than Polonius because his resolve was justified. Polonius died at the hands of Hamlet when serving the corrupt king Claudius by committing the underhanded act of eavesdropping to gain pivotal information. Polonius best served as a foil to Hamlet in death as he spurred Laertes, Hamlet’s counterpart, into …show more content…
Claudius’s was Hamlet’s stepfather; he adopted Hamlet, but Hamlet never adopted him. Hamlet hated him for stealing his throne and bewitching his mother into loving him. Claudius’s motives for goal were almost the exact opposite of Hamlet’s. His motives were lustful. He was willing to and actually killed his own brother in cold blood, even though he never had a stake at the throne. Hamlet, on the other hand, had a stake to the throne because he was the heir to the late king. Similarly to the story of the tortoise and the hare, Claudius and Hamlet took action at two different paces. Claudius’s pace for taking action was much faster than Hamlet’s. He immediately married the queen after his brother’s death, thus putting his bid in to become king. Once he was king, he became complacent, and Hamlet’s slower pace for action was able to triumph over him, thus allowing Hamlet to kill Claudius in the end to avenge his father. Hamlet’s good intentions triumphed over Claudius’s evil intentions, and supported Hamlet’s resolve for morally righteous