The Importance Of Responsibility In Hamlet

A motif in literature is the classic war between a passion and responsibility. There are many different emotions and drives that may conflict with a character’s moral duty in literary works such as: a personal cause, a love, a desire for revenge, or a determination to redress a wrong. In Hamlet a tragic play by William Shakespeare, Hamlet is in a war between his desire for revenge against the man who murdered his father, and his responsibility as a prince to do the right thing. This war has a negative effect on Hamlet because it slowly turns his façade of being mad into a reality. This conflict is significant because it expands on the works theme of how Hamlet’s constant confusion, along with his inability to act on his desire for revenge ultimately …show more content…
Being that Hamlet is currently mourning the death of his father; this infuriates Hamlet and makes him want to murder Claudius for revenge, but Hamlet’s responsibility as prince does not allow him to do so. This responsibility inclines him to question the intention of the ghost; Hamlet does not know whether to believe that the ghost is his father, or if the ghost is a demon who is trying to take his soul. When Hamlet’s mother immediately gets married to Claudius after her husband’s death, Hamlet begins to see the world as “and unweeded garden that grows to seed” (Act I scene ii, lines 37-38) Which is an allusion to the Garden of Eden story in which Adam and Eve’s sin caused the ground to be cursed. This is an example of how Hamlet’s war between his responsibility and desire for revenge has a negative effect on …show more content…
Hamlet is so overwhelmed by his confusion on whether to murder Claudius for revenge, or to do the honorable thing and let him live, that Hamlet is considering killing himself in order to extricate himself from this state of constant confusion. Another instant where Hamlet’s madness seems to be a reality instead of a façade is when he is told that Laertes will defeat him in a fencing match, and he responds by saying, “There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow… Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes?” Which seems as if Hamlet is expecting to die, and is excepting of it. These instances essentially show that Hamlet is giving up on life, and that he does not care about or fear death, and when he finally dies during this fencing match with Laertes, this shows the play’s that because of Hamlet’s confusion and inability to act, he ultimately caused his own demise, which may have been avoided if he killed Claudius when he had the