Personality of Hamlet

Among Shakespeare’s many great works, Hamlet probably is the greatest. The whole play is about power and authority. The king of Denmark was murdered by his brother Claudius, who married his wife Gertrude, and became a king of Denmark. Hamlet was the son of murdered king, who was getting his education away from the kingdom of Denmark. He comes back and finds his mother married to his uncle. This makes Hamlet very frustrated. Then Hamlet sees his father’s ghost and he tells him that his uncle, the present king has murdered him. He was suspecting that it even before his father’s ghost had told him. So he starts thinking of ways of killing the king and his mother. The queen, wasn’t aware that the king was murdered by his brother. So Hamlet after couple of attempts succeeds in killing his uncle. His mother dies by drinking poisoned wine, which was prepared for Hamlet. Hamlet gets wounded while sword fighting with son of Polonius, whom he have murdered earlier, because he though that he helped his uncle to murder his father. During this fight poisoned Hamlet gets wounded. And son of Polonius, tells him that this sword was poisoned by king to kill him. So he stabs the king and kills him. At the end of course he dies himself.

There are so many murders in this play that could be avoided. Especially death of Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, who died because of Hamlet’s mistreatment. She drowned herself. Hamlet could’ve saved her if he reacted to her love on time. Also the death of the Queen, Polonius, and his son was unnecessary. These characters weren’t related to his father’s death.

Hamlet suspected his uncle in his father murder even before the appearance of his

father’s ghost. After hearing it from his father’s ghost his thought was to revenge. He planned it several times, and several times could do it. Hamlet was a clever man. He pretended that he was mad. And his murder of Polonius wasn’t punished, because everyone thought he was mad.

I think the main thought that touched Hamlet so much in his father’s death was his mother marriage to his uncle. He hated his mother for marrying his uncle. He saw it as adultery, both sexual and moral. She not only married after her husband death, but she also married his brother. So Hamlet thought that his mother has helped his uncle to murder his father, and therefore Hamlet was from the beginning planning on murdering both of them.

Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet I think is a mystery. After reading the selection, I am just not sure what the author was trying to convey to his audience. Is it indecisive, melancholic, brutal character of Hamlet? Or is it the deeds people would do to gain power? Or is it the unrequited love of Ohpelia? Or is it friendship of Horatio or etc? There are so many I think unnecessary or irrelevant parts to this play, that doesn’t make sense to ordinary people. But we must understand that this is a masterpiece of great writer, which could be called “Mona Lisa” of writing. And “Art doesn’t have to be beautiful, for people to understand it.” We don’t necessarily have to understand artist’s work; we just have to perceive it as they are.