Filial Piety and its Consequences
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the relationships between parents and their grown children and the consequences of those relationships. The bond between child and parent is different than any other type of love. The child is clearly subordinate to the older and more powerful parent, and for many children, parents act as their largest role models. Prince Hamlet of Demark loses his father two months before the start of the play, and the narrative consists of his struggles in dealing with this loss. Because Hamlet idolizes both his father and his mother, he is unable to see them as human beings with faults, and fails to create a personal identity for himself. Despite the value of parents as role models, …show more content…
After Claudius addresses the court as the new king of Denmark, Hamlet relays his feelings of disgust in his mother for choosing to marry Claudius. In comparing the dead King Hamlet to his brother, Hamlet says, “So excellent a king, that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr”(1.2.143-144). His father is a powerful as the sun, one of the most powerful of the pagan gods. Like the earth and the sun, Hamlet’s life and ideology all revolve around his father and avenging his death, but the fact that King Hamlet is described by a pagan god, in the context of the strictly Christian, English audience the play was written for, describes how Hamlet’s view of his father is flawed. Although Christians still see the sun a powerful part of nature, they do not see it as divine. To a Christian audience, Hamlet’s pagan view of King Hamlet, suggests that he holds his father in too high esteem. Hamlet repeats and elaborates on this divine simile when describing King Hamlet’s superiority to Gertrude. He describes his father’s features as “Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, / An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command, / A station like the herald Mercury”(3.4.66-68). Physical beauty, wisdom, aggressiveness, and composure are the qualities that Hamlet looks up to in his father, and this affects how Hamlet, himself, acts as he …show more content…
Despite the rivalry between the late King Fortinbras and King Hamlet, Fortinbras works with the nation of his father’s rival in order to achieve his personal goal of winning land. On his journey, Fortinbras sends a messenger to “greet the Danish king”(4.4.1). He tells the messenger, “Tell him that by his license Fortinbras / Craves the conveyance of a promised march / Over his kingdom” (4.4.2-4). His use of the word “license” suggests a professional and official relationship between Fortinbras and King Claudius. Fortinbras realizes that his father’s rivalry was a mistake and the cause death. Fortinbras understands his father’s flaw, and by avoiding his mistake, his is able to be more successful than his father. The word “craves” suggests Fortinbras’s selfish desire. He wants to get this land for himself, not for his father or anyone else. Unlike Hamlet, Fortinbras realizes his dead father was not perfect, so he is able to forgo his father’s destructive habit of rivalry and create his own personal values based on diplomacy and leadership. Eventually, Fortinbras takes the kingdom of Denmark, which Hamlet was the heir to. This represents the triumph of individuality over idolization. In the last paragraph of the play Fortinbras describes Hamlet by saying “For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the relationships between parents and their grown children and the consequences of those relationships. The bond between child and parent is different than any other type of love. The child is clearly subordinate to the older and more powerful parent, and for many children, parents act as their largest role models. Prince Hamlet of Demark loses his father two months before the start of the play, and the narrative consists of his struggles in dealing with this loss. Because Hamlet idolizes both his father and his mother, he is unable to see them as human beings with faults, and fails to create a personal identity for himself. Despite the value of parents as role models, …show more content…
After Claudius addresses the court as the new king of Denmark, Hamlet relays his feelings of disgust in his mother for choosing to marry Claudius. In comparing the dead King Hamlet to his brother, Hamlet says, “So excellent a king, that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr”(1.2.143-144). His father is a powerful as the sun, one of the most powerful of the pagan gods. Like the earth and the sun, Hamlet’s life and ideology all revolve around his father and avenging his death, but the fact that King Hamlet is described by a pagan god, in the context of the strictly Christian, English audience the play was written for, describes how Hamlet’s view of his father is flawed. Although Christians still see the sun a powerful part of nature, they do not see it as divine. To a Christian audience, Hamlet’s pagan view of King Hamlet, suggests that he holds his father in too high esteem. Hamlet repeats and elaborates on this divine simile when describing King Hamlet’s superiority to Gertrude. He describes his father’s features as “Hyperion’s curls, the front of Jove himself, / An eye like Mars’ to threaten and command, / A station like the herald Mercury”(3.4.66-68). Physical beauty, wisdom, aggressiveness, and composure are the qualities that Hamlet looks up to in his father, and this affects how Hamlet, himself, acts as he …show more content…
Despite the rivalry between the late King Fortinbras and King Hamlet, Fortinbras works with the nation of his father’s rival in order to achieve his personal goal of winning land. On his journey, Fortinbras sends a messenger to “greet the Danish king”(4.4.1). He tells the messenger, “Tell him that by his license Fortinbras / Craves the conveyance of a promised march / Over his kingdom” (4.4.2-4). His use of the word “license” suggests a professional and official relationship between Fortinbras and King Claudius. Fortinbras realizes that his father’s rivalry was a mistake and the cause death. Fortinbras understands his father’s flaw, and by avoiding his mistake, his is able to be more successful than his father. The word “craves” suggests Fortinbras’s selfish desire. He wants to get this land for himself, not for his father or anyone else. Unlike Hamlet, Fortinbras realizes his dead father was not perfect, so he is able to forgo his father’s destructive habit of rivalry and create his own personal values based on diplomacy and leadership. Eventually, Fortinbras takes the kingdom of Denmark, which Hamlet was the heir to. This represents the triumph of individuality over idolization. In the last paragraph of the play Fortinbras describes Hamlet by saying “For he was likely, had he been put on, / To have proved