Hamlet is the account of one man’s spiritual journey as he confronts death, uncertainty, and their relationship to each other. After Hamlet’s father is killed, his mother remarries the murderer, his uncle Claudius. Hamlet, honor bound and loyal, seeks to revenge his father’s death and the disloyalty of his mother that follows. However, Hamlet’s revenge is slow and delayed, unlike the other revengers in the story, Laertes and Fortinbras, commenting on time and the use of revenge. Hamlet says to Ophelia after plotting The Mouse Trap, a play that would gauge Claudius’ guilt, “I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in” (3.1.125-27).
…show more content…
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.85), says Hamlet, and “enterprises of great pith and moment…lose the name of action” (3.1.88-90). Hamlet, who has lost faith in humanity and the kingdom of Denmark, where he sees “Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely,” does not want to degrade himself to the ignoble level of those he condemns (1.2.136-37). He fears that he might be too ruled by his passions regarding his father’s death and his mother’s quick remarriage to see clearly. He considers whether the ghost of his father may actually be the devil sent to damn him and make him mad. The Mouse Trap allows for him to get the certainty that he desires as he puts the stoic Horatio, who is well within his faculty of reason, to anticipate any sign of guilt in King Claudius. Once Hamlet gets his confirmation, he says, “Now could I drink hot blood” (3.3.360). However, Hamlet continues delaying because of the fear that he has of eternal …show more content…
During the graveyard scene, he remarks playfully, “Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, / Might stop a hole to keep the wind away” (5.1.96-7). He begins to understands that humans are allowed to live for only a short period of time, and that all who live will die and turn to dust, or food for maggots, and that nothing of their worldly possessions will remain. He asks the skull of his father’s old jester, Yorick, “Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?” (5.1.175-77). He sees it with Fortinbras and his army, who so willingly seek out their deaths in a battle over a small and worthless piece of land. Time, and the struggle and fear that it caused him to become more conscious of, become immaterial to him as he sees the exacting powers of fate and Providence. He says, “If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man have aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?” (5.2.159-61). At this point for Hamlet, past and future become unimportant, and he decides to live in the present. This acceptance of his powerlessness to time and fate is what gives him the peace to fight Laertes, and ultimately kill Claudius. Hamlet is a play that comments on the futility of revenge, and the effects of the passage of time on Hamlet’s passion, memory, and sense of mortality.
“Thus conscience does make cowards of us all” (3.1.85), says Hamlet, and “enterprises of great pith and moment…lose the name of action” (3.1.88-90). Hamlet, who has lost faith in humanity and the kingdom of Denmark, where he sees “Things rank and gross in nature / Possess it merely,” does not want to degrade himself to the ignoble level of those he condemns (1.2.136-37). He fears that he might be too ruled by his passions regarding his father’s death and his mother’s quick remarriage to see clearly. He considers whether the ghost of his father may actually be the devil sent to damn him and make him mad. The Mouse Trap allows for him to get the certainty that he desires as he puts the stoic Horatio, who is well within his faculty of reason, to anticipate any sign of guilt in King Claudius. Once Hamlet gets his confirmation, he says, “Now could I drink hot blood” (3.3.360). However, Hamlet continues delaying because of the fear that he has of eternal …show more content…
During the graveyard scene, he remarks playfully, “Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, / Might stop a hole to keep the wind away” (5.1.96-7). He begins to understands that humans are allowed to live for only a short period of time, and that all who live will die and turn to dust, or food for maggots, and that nothing of their worldly possessions will remain. He asks the skull of his father’s old jester, Yorick, “Where be your gibes now, your gambols, your songs, your flashes of merriment that were wont to set the table on a roar?” (5.1.175-77). He sees it with Fortinbras and his army, who so willingly seek out their deaths in a battle over a small and worthless piece of land. Time, and the struggle and fear that it caused him to become more conscious of, become immaterial to him as he sees the exacting powers of fate and Providence. He says, “If it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man have aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?” (5.2.159-61). At this point for Hamlet, past and future become unimportant, and he decides to live in the present. This acceptance of his powerlessness to time and fate is what gives him the peace to fight Laertes, and ultimately kill Claudius. Hamlet is a play that comments on the futility of revenge, and the effects of the passage of time on Hamlet’s passion, memory, and sense of mortality.