Loyalty
KEY IDEAS:
- Hamlet's loyalty to his father driving the tragedy
-> catalyst for the play’s/Hamlet’s tragedy
-> complicated loyalty as his love for his father conflicts with his moral and
philosophical doubts
-> e.g. Hamlet tries to seek justice, first verifying the ghost’s demands before
killing Claudius outright
-> this leads him down a dark path of obsession and inner conflict – delay, death
-> Hamlet’s loyalty is noble in intention but tragic in consequence – personal
allegiance can become corrupted in a morally corrupt world
-> loyalty can be destructive
Ghost: ‘Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder’ [1.5]
Hamlet: ‘O cursed spite, / That I was ever born to set it right’ [1.5]
Hamlet: ‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all’ [3.1]
Hamlet: ‘whether it be / Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on
the event [4.4]
A05
Gillespie: “Hamlet is torn between thought and action”
Godwin production, 2016: Hamlet has OKH tattooed on his chest
Ryan: “miscast”
Romantic period: identified with Hamlet as a complex individual, life-like
- Elsinore's deception/R+G
-> disloyalty can be destructive
-> leads to R+G death, but also arguably Hamlet’s emotional volatility /
exacerbates his emotional decline + potential madness
-> heightens his depression (resentment towards the disloyalty and deceit in
the state) = suicidal = obsession with death = signs of madness e.g. Ophelia’s
funeral scene
Hamlet: “Were you not sent for?” [2.2]
Hamlet [to R+G]: ‘Denmark’s a prison’ [2.2]
KEY IDEAS:
- Hamlet's loyalty to his father driving the tragedy
-> catalyst for the play’s/Hamlet’s tragedy
-> complicated loyalty as his love for his father conflicts with his moral and
philosophical doubts
-> e.g. Hamlet tries to seek justice, first verifying the ghost’s demands before
killing Claudius outright
-> this leads him down a dark path of obsession and inner conflict – delay, death
-> Hamlet’s loyalty is noble in intention but tragic in consequence – personal
allegiance can become corrupted in a morally corrupt world
-> loyalty can be destructive
Ghost: ‘Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder’ [1.5]
Hamlet: ‘O cursed spite, / That I was ever born to set it right’ [1.5]
Hamlet: ‘Thus conscience does make cowards of us all’ [3.1]
Hamlet: ‘whether it be / Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple / Of thinking too precisely on
the event [4.4]
A05
Gillespie: “Hamlet is torn between thought and action”
Godwin production, 2016: Hamlet has OKH tattooed on his chest
Ryan: “miscast”
Romantic period: identified with Hamlet as a complex individual, life-like
- Elsinore's deception/R+G
-> disloyalty can be destructive
-> leads to R+G death, but also arguably Hamlet’s emotional volatility /
exacerbates his emotional decline + potential madness
-> heightens his depression (resentment towards the disloyalty and deceit in
the state) = suicidal = obsession with death = signs of madness e.g. Ophelia’s
funeral scene
Hamlet: “Were you not sent for?” [2.2]
Hamlet [to R+G]: ‘Denmark’s a prison’ [2.2]
