William Shakespeare 's Hamlet is a play of many themes. Not the least of which being the consequential nature of impulsive emotion. Reckless emotion is what drives Shakespeare 's characters in Hamlet. Every fatefully mortal character in the play either dies as the result of their own reckless feelings or as the result of someone else 's. Shakespeare uses the main characters of his play to create a cautionary tale for the audience about the severe, and potentially deadly, danger and consequence of rash, illogical, and selfish decision-making.
The eponymous, tragically heroic main character of Hamlet is one of the most emotional and dramatic characters in the entire play and, therefore, was one of the most deadly. Shakespeare establishes his …show more content…
Shakespeare repeatedly illustrates that Ophelia has little to no control over her life such as Act I scene iii, where Laeretes tells her to abstain from her lover, Hamlet, and she accepts. Shakespeare uses this lack of power and the dramatic irony put against her to communicate a admonitory message about the dangers of emotional over-sensitivity and making rash judgments based on potential falsehoods. An example of such dramatic irony is Hamlet 's elaborate plan that involves him tricking Ophelia into believing that he does not love her, which becomes a factor contributing to her eventual suicide revealed in Act IV scene vii. Shakespeare utilizes this irony to make the tragedy of Ophelia 's suicide all the more potent as it is partially the result of a misunderstanding brought on by Hamlet 's elaborate lie rather than the truth. Therefore, Shakespeare intended Ophelia 's character to represent the danger of making rash, emotional, consequential, permanent decisions given that one might not even be aware of the entire …show more content…
Shakespeare establishes Horatio 's stoicism in the first scene of the play by a minor character, Marcellus, portraying him as a skeptic of the ghost saying, “Horatio says 'its but our fantasy/ And will not let belief take hold of him” (I, i, 23-4). As a result of Horatio 's stolidity, he perfectly epitomizes what Hamlet desires to be throughout the play: intelligent and wise without being overly meditative and driven by his emotions and
The eponymous, tragically heroic main character of Hamlet is one of the most emotional and dramatic characters in the entire play and, therefore, was one of the most deadly. Shakespeare establishes his …show more content…
Shakespeare repeatedly illustrates that Ophelia has little to no control over her life such as Act I scene iii, where Laeretes tells her to abstain from her lover, Hamlet, and she accepts. Shakespeare uses this lack of power and the dramatic irony put against her to communicate a admonitory message about the dangers of emotional over-sensitivity and making rash judgments based on potential falsehoods. An example of such dramatic irony is Hamlet 's elaborate plan that involves him tricking Ophelia into believing that he does not love her, which becomes a factor contributing to her eventual suicide revealed in Act IV scene vii. Shakespeare utilizes this irony to make the tragedy of Ophelia 's suicide all the more potent as it is partially the result of a misunderstanding brought on by Hamlet 's elaborate lie rather than the truth. Therefore, Shakespeare intended Ophelia 's character to represent the danger of making rash, emotional, consequential, permanent decisions given that one might not even be aware of the entire …show more content…
Shakespeare establishes Horatio 's stoicism in the first scene of the play by a minor character, Marcellus, portraying him as a skeptic of the ghost saying, “Horatio says 'its but our fantasy/ And will not let belief take hold of him” (I, i, 23-4). As a result of Horatio 's stolidity, he perfectly epitomizes what Hamlet desires to be throughout the play: intelligent and wise without being overly meditative and driven by his emotions and