Action and inaction
1. Hamlet’s dilemma
- The person seeking vengeance, can't actually bring himself to take his revenge.
- As Hamlet struggles throughout the play with the logistical difficulties and moral burdens of
vengeance, debating between whether he should kill Claudius and avenge his father once and for
all, or whether to do so would be pointless, cruel, and self-destructive
2. To be or not to be
- Question of existence
- Question whether or not it is better to act
- Faked madness to buy time and distract others
- Hamlet is quick to act towards the end of the play
3. Laertes’ revenge
- Laertes + Hamlet = similar in the fact that both fathers have been murdered and the seek revenge
- Laertes is determined and does not need to be told to take revenge, he springs into action
whereas Hamlet fears acting on impulse
- Where Hamlet talks of sleeping and wishing he were dead in order to save him from doing what
his father’s ghost has asked him to do, Laertes is ready to fight. Before this speech is given,
Laertes wanted “To cut his throat i’th’ church”. This powerful and sacrilegious act that Laertes
wants to perform juxtaposes Hamlet’s inability to kill his uncle while Claudius is praying. Instead
of being frightened that Hamlet will not go to hell, Laertes wants to kill Hamlet in the most unholy
and gruesome way he can.
4. Claudius’s plan
- Ultimately, Hamlet resolves too late to kill Claudius—Claudius and Laertes have already put a
plan to kill Hamlet as revenge for the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia into action.
5. Fortinbras revenge
- Fortinbras is determined to take back lands his father lost in battle
- Fortinbras’s decisive action on his late father’s behalf as all that Hamlet is unable to bring himself
to do. In the end, when Fortinbras arrives at Elsinore to find a massacre before him, he accepts
Horatio’s (and the late Hamlet’s) nomination to the Danish throne. For his decisive action,
Fortinbras is rewarded with the one thing Hamlet partly longed for but could never take the action
necessary to secure: political and social control of his country
Death has come for all the major players, and while some have been slain as a result of Hamlet’s actions, others
have been killed by his inaction. Death is humanity’s great equalizer, and Shakespeare shows that it does not
discriminate between the valiant and the cowardly, the motivated and the fearful, or the good and the wicked.
Appearance vs Reality
1. Hamlet’s madness
- Makes the court members of Elsinore believe he is mad so that hecan sneakily investigate
Claudius and come to a conclusion about whether or not his uncle did murder his father
- Deceives those around him
2. Play-within-the-play
- Hamlet conceives the plan of staging a play called “the murder of Gonzago”
- Invites Gertrude and Claudius
- Motive is to seek verification of the Ghost’s story
- Contributes to development of action
- Portrays a re-enactment of how Claudius killed his brother/late King
, 3. Claudius
- Marriage to Gertude = only reason is to allow himself to usurp the throne
- Claudius' actions during the old King Hamlet’s death are just forms of appearance. He puts up an
appearance of caring and grief for his brother’s death.
- Claudius also refers to his late brother as “a dear brother”. In reality, the audience knows that
these actions are just appearances. Claudius murdered the old King Hamlet.
4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s friendship
- Hamlet’s childhood friends
- In reality are manipulated by Claudius to help him kill Hamlet. Claudius tells them to visit Hamlet
and find out what is wrong with him. They go to Hamlet pretending to be his friend when the truth
is they are pawns in Claudius’s plan.
5. Ghost
- Ghost’s true nature
- Ghost appears in Gertrude's bed chambers but she could not see him
- Is the Ghost a figment of Hamlet’s own imagination?
- Question of whether he is a demon in disguise
Moral choices
1. Claudius
- Kills brother, usurps throne defies divine right of kings
- Self-protection
- Collusion with Polonius
- Plots Hamlet’s death
- Conspiring with Laertes
2. Gertrude
- Protects Hamlet (gloss over Hamlet’s role in killing Polonius)
- Wants to make him appear remorseful and therefore less guilty
- Hasty marriage to Claudius suggests immoral act as she is pursuing in her own interests
3. Laertes and Fortinbras
- Avenge fathers death instead of letting justice take its course
- Laertes compromises morality when he conspires with Claudius to kill Hamlet
4. Polonius
- Forbid relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet
- Use of Ophelia to spy on Hamlet
5. Hamlet
- Feign madness (ploy to confuse enemies/time to investigate)
- Highly moral person; does not act hastily; does not act until he can verify
- Play-within-the-play (determine Claudius guilt/innocence)
- Upbraids his mother
- Kills Polonius
- Treatment of Ophelia (cruel/unwarranted/lacks moral resolution)
- Opportunity to kill Claudius (does not/ morally reprehensible to kill while praying)
- His indecisiveness = born of his internal struggle to remain morally correct
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern death = hardly moral
1. Hamlet’s dilemma
- The person seeking vengeance, can't actually bring himself to take his revenge.
- As Hamlet struggles throughout the play with the logistical difficulties and moral burdens of
vengeance, debating between whether he should kill Claudius and avenge his father once and for
all, or whether to do so would be pointless, cruel, and self-destructive
2. To be or not to be
- Question of existence
- Question whether or not it is better to act
- Faked madness to buy time and distract others
- Hamlet is quick to act towards the end of the play
3. Laertes’ revenge
- Laertes + Hamlet = similar in the fact that both fathers have been murdered and the seek revenge
- Laertes is determined and does not need to be told to take revenge, he springs into action
whereas Hamlet fears acting on impulse
- Where Hamlet talks of sleeping and wishing he were dead in order to save him from doing what
his father’s ghost has asked him to do, Laertes is ready to fight. Before this speech is given,
Laertes wanted “To cut his throat i’th’ church”. This powerful and sacrilegious act that Laertes
wants to perform juxtaposes Hamlet’s inability to kill his uncle while Claudius is praying. Instead
of being frightened that Hamlet will not go to hell, Laertes wants to kill Hamlet in the most unholy
and gruesome way he can.
4. Claudius’s plan
- Ultimately, Hamlet resolves too late to kill Claudius—Claudius and Laertes have already put a
plan to kill Hamlet as revenge for the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia into action.
5. Fortinbras revenge
- Fortinbras is determined to take back lands his father lost in battle
- Fortinbras’s decisive action on his late father’s behalf as all that Hamlet is unable to bring himself
to do. In the end, when Fortinbras arrives at Elsinore to find a massacre before him, he accepts
Horatio’s (and the late Hamlet’s) nomination to the Danish throne. For his decisive action,
Fortinbras is rewarded with the one thing Hamlet partly longed for but could never take the action
necessary to secure: political and social control of his country
Death has come for all the major players, and while some have been slain as a result of Hamlet’s actions, others
have been killed by his inaction. Death is humanity’s great equalizer, and Shakespeare shows that it does not
discriminate between the valiant and the cowardly, the motivated and the fearful, or the good and the wicked.
Appearance vs Reality
1. Hamlet’s madness
- Makes the court members of Elsinore believe he is mad so that hecan sneakily investigate
Claudius and come to a conclusion about whether or not his uncle did murder his father
- Deceives those around him
2. Play-within-the-play
- Hamlet conceives the plan of staging a play called “the murder of Gonzago”
- Invites Gertrude and Claudius
- Motive is to seek verification of the Ghost’s story
- Contributes to development of action
- Portrays a re-enactment of how Claudius killed his brother/late King
, 3. Claudius
- Marriage to Gertude = only reason is to allow himself to usurp the throne
- Claudius' actions during the old King Hamlet’s death are just forms of appearance. He puts up an
appearance of caring and grief for his brother’s death.
- Claudius also refers to his late brother as “a dear brother”. In reality, the audience knows that
these actions are just appearances. Claudius murdered the old King Hamlet.
4. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s friendship
- Hamlet’s childhood friends
- In reality are manipulated by Claudius to help him kill Hamlet. Claudius tells them to visit Hamlet
and find out what is wrong with him. They go to Hamlet pretending to be his friend when the truth
is they are pawns in Claudius’s plan.
5. Ghost
- Ghost’s true nature
- Ghost appears in Gertrude's bed chambers but she could not see him
- Is the Ghost a figment of Hamlet’s own imagination?
- Question of whether he is a demon in disguise
Moral choices
1. Claudius
- Kills brother, usurps throne defies divine right of kings
- Self-protection
- Collusion with Polonius
- Plots Hamlet’s death
- Conspiring with Laertes
2. Gertrude
- Protects Hamlet (gloss over Hamlet’s role in killing Polonius)
- Wants to make him appear remorseful and therefore less guilty
- Hasty marriage to Claudius suggests immoral act as she is pursuing in her own interests
3. Laertes and Fortinbras
- Avenge fathers death instead of letting justice take its course
- Laertes compromises morality when he conspires with Claudius to kill Hamlet
4. Polonius
- Forbid relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet
- Use of Ophelia to spy on Hamlet
5. Hamlet
- Feign madness (ploy to confuse enemies/time to investigate)
- Highly moral person; does not act hastily; does not act until he can verify
- Play-within-the-play (determine Claudius guilt/innocence)
- Upbraids his mother
- Kills Polonius
- Treatment of Ophelia (cruel/unwarranted/lacks moral resolution)
- Opportunity to kill Claudius (does not/ morally reprehensible to kill while praying)
- His indecisiveness = born of his internal struggle to remain morally correct
- Rosencrantz & Guildenstern death = hardly moral
