In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the reader is drawn into a world where disparity reigns and destruction is imminent. The tragic tale serves as a warning as it is filled with existential dilemmas brought upon Prince Hamlet because of his apprehension of others’ engagements. Through the use of suspense, mystery, and tension, the main character undergoes transformative changes, which take him from a student with a feigned lunacy into a Prince who embodies a genuine madness. These dynamic changes later become the grounds for his eventual death. Hamlet’s mental illness is generated by his relationships with his mother, Queen Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia, thus enabling these two women to serve as the catalyst for his self-destructive
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It is this marriage, which sets Hamlet on his jaunt toward madness. In Hamlet’s eyes, the implied actions of Queen Gertrude portray an unloving and uncaring woman, which can be seen as altered from the way her son has perceived her in the past. Hamlet feels a new sense of disloyalty, as he “believes that his mother married with his uncle, Claudius, in haste and this was an unforgivable betrayal against his dead father” (Yücel 533). Hamlet is melancholic and disconnected within his dialect, not just in his initial interaction with King Claudius, but also within his first soliloquy. In his first words to Hamlet, Claudius states, “But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son” alluding to the paradoxical idea of being twice related to Hamlet (Edwards I.ii.64). In response to this, Hamlet portrays his feelings to the situation: “A little more than kin, and less than kind,” again, continuing with the pun that Claudius is neither kin, nor kind, and further showcasing his resentment of the marriage (Edwards I.ii.65). This disconnect continues within Hamlet’s first soliloquy, when he states that Gertrude, “followed my poor father’s body like Niobe all tears” (Edwards I.ii.148-149). Edwards references Niobe as the “mythical mother whose fourteen children were slain by the gods because she boasted about them. She wept until she was turned to stone – and still the tears flowed” (Edwards 101); the Oxford English Dictionary continues this description of Niobe as “an inconsolably bereaved woman.” Shakespeare references Niobe in order to depict Hamlet’s sarcastic tone while referencing his mother’s marriage two months after her late husband’s death. He states, “O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourn’d longer” (Edwards I.ii.150-151). Hamlet uses these words in order to compare his mother to a monster
It is this marriage, which sets Hamlet on his jaunt toward madness. In Hamlet’s eyes, the implied actions of Queen Gertrude portray an unloving and uncaring woman, which can be seen as altered from the way her son has perceived her in the past. Hamlet feels a new sense of disloyalty, as he “believes that his mother married with his uncle, Claudius, in haste and this was an unforgivable betrayal against his dead father” (Yücel 533). Hamlet is melancholic and disconnected within his dialect, not just in his initial interaction with King Claudius, but also within his first soliloquy. In his first words to Hamlet, Claudius states, “But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son” alluding to the paradoxical idea of being twice related to Hamlet (Edwards I.ii.64). In response to this, Hamlet portrays his feelings to the situation: “A little more than kin, and less than kind,” again, continuing with the pun that Claudius is neither kin, nor kind, and further showcasing his resentment of the marriage (Edwards I.ii.65). This disconnect continues within Hamlet’s first soliloquy, when he states that Gertrude, “followed my poor father’s body like Niobe all tears” (Edwards I.ii.148-149). Edwards references Niobe as the “mythical mother whose fourteen children were slain by the gods because she boasted about them. She wept until she was turned to stone – and still the tears flowed” (Edwards 101); the Oxford English Dictionary continues this description of Niobe as “an inconsolably bereaved woman.” Shakespeare references Niobe in order to depict Hamlet’s sarcastic tone while referencing his mother’s marriage two months after her late husband’s death. He states, “O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourn’d longer” (Edwards I.ii.150-151). Hamlet uses these words in order to compare his mother to a monster