Hamlet's Character Essay

Hamlet is a character from the play Hamlet written by Shakespeare. The play is about how Prince Hamlets father King Hamlet died and later Hamlet found out that he was murdered. The ghost of King Hamlet is the one who told Hamlet that he was murdered by King Hamlets brother, Claudius. After the death of King Hamlet, Claudius became king and married Hamlets mother, Gertrude. Hamlet ends up killing Claudius out of revenge along with Polonius and Laertes, but Hamlet loses his life as well.

Hamlet is a scholar; he is a very intelligent person who was back in Denmark from the University of Wittenberg because of his fathers funeral. Some people say Hamlet is crazy, others say he is a genius; it is all up to how you take him to be. Hamlet is in a depressed state at the beginning of the play. He is mourning over his fathers death and the marriage of his mother and Claudius doesnt help either. He calls it incest and cannot believe his mother would do such a thing. The marriage was soon after the funeral of his father. Hamlet thinks it is way too soon, which leaves him in disgust. He states this a few times in the play as well as calling the marriage incest.

Hamlet comes off to be crazy a few times during the play when his actions seem to be questionable. A couple of these incidents are when he talks about suicide, and when he stabs Polonius without even thinking about it. Polonius is hiding behind a curtain while Hamlet is talking to his mother, and without even checking to see who is behind the curtain, Hamlet stabs him, ending Poloniuss life. This is an odd action for Hamlet because towards the beginning of the play, Hamlet seems to have to think out his actions before doing them. The ghost tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius, which that right there is enough evidence for an average person to believe that Claudius is guilty, but Hamlet has to think about it and try to prove Claudius is guilty. Hamlet does prove his guiltiness though through what he calls the mouse trap. This was a play inside a play at the castle to see if Claudius was guilty. Going through that extent just to prove Claudiuss guiltiness seems to give the audience that Hamlet has to really think his actions through before performing them. Then Hamlet kills Polonius in a blink of an eye, thus making him seem crazy. Although all the characters have different views of Hamlets insanity, they are all conclusive that it is real. It is never questioned that he may be pretending to be insane, nor is any action taken to help him. Everyone is so caught up in trying to figure out what is wrong with him; they never stop to realize that they are really just making things worse. One example of this is how Gertrude and Claudius seem to be so caught up in trying to spy on Hamlet. If they did not have Polonius spy on hamlet, Polonius wouldnt have lost his life.

Hamlets love for Ophelia seems to be a little out of the ordinary as well. He tells her he used to be in love with her, and then he goes crazy and starts yelling at her. He basically told her that he never loved her. Then while at the play, hamlet lays down at Ophelias feet, and goes to talking with her. What he talks about suggests sexual intimacy, but this is odd because the last time he talked to her he was yelling at her and telling her she was nothing to him. This seems to be another time in the play where Hamlet comes off to be crazy.

Hamlets character is so elaborate that one cannot dream of knowing enough about him to be completely sure of his sanity or lack thereof. Overall, I believe Hamlet was a good person, you just could not tell because of his vengeance during the play. He was just a student back from his studies when he found out about his fathers murder, and after he discovered it he felt obligated to avenge his death. This is understandable to me because anybody in their right mind would want to get revenge on someone who had killed one of their loved ones. Hamlet was just brave enough to actually get revenge.