Internal Conflicts In Shakespeare's Hamlet

In the drama Hamlet (1601), William Shakespeare uses the protagonist character Hamlet to illustrate the internal conflicts we all face as humans. Many times throughout the drama, we can see Hamlet struggling within himself—self-doubt, misogyny, depression. All of these conflicts define Hamlet’s actions. In the Hamlet Tragedy, everything is a matter of man versus mind. Hamlet battling his conscience attempting to figure out what he feels is best. Hamlet obviously struggles throughout the play with self-doubt. When the ghost of his father first appears to him, Hamlet seems shocked to find that his uncle murdered his father. The ghost asks him to avenge his death and Hamlet agrees. “I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past that youth and observation copied there, and thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain…” (Shakespeare 1.5.104-108). After the …show more content…
After a conversation with the Claudius, Hamlet says “O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God, O, God, how weary, stale, flat and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!” (1.2.131-136) Here, Hamlet is basically saying he wishes he was dead, wishes that his religion had not made law against committing suicide. He feels that his life is useless and pointless. This is also where Hamlet’s famous soliloquy comes into play. “To be, or not to be, that is the question: whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them” (3.1.63-67). In this soliloquy, Hamlet is again questioning whether or not he wants to leave. He is debating with himself over whether it is nobler to live through the troubles of life, or to end them by ending his own