Hamlet Essay

Dawn Graham Graham 1

13 March 2006

Period 4

English 12 P

Until the age of seven, I grew up in Richmond. Yeah, I know, it wasn't the best place to be and the school I went to was absolutely horrible, not to mention that I was a white minority! I guess you could say that the only thing good about living at 704 Wilson Ave. was that I could look across the street and see my elementary school and the park! See, there was two sides to our neighborhood; good and bad. It was very common to have belongings stollen from front yards and vehicles broken into. It also got to the point where, and to this day, I distinctly remember this, a police man came to our front door to speak with my parents and warned them: "There is a murderer on the lose so if you could please keep your children in side at all times and keep the doors locked it would be to your advantage." This killer to speak of was a madman! Now, being about six at the time, it's hard to believe that I knew exactly what he was talking about and knew that it wasn't good. I remember thinking to myself that someone must have done something very wrong to this person and for revenge he felt as if he had to kill them. In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare creates the image of a madman through Prince Hamlet's dark and desperate tone. Shakespeare explores this image with Hamlet's lengthy soliloquies of hatred towards Claudius, Hamlet's uncle. Throughout this play, Shakespeare demonstrates Hamlet's struggle to avenge his father's murder by his uncle Claudius. Hamlet is aware that Claudius is now king and is very protected: there is a very slim chance that someone could get through to harm him. Once seeing the ghost of his father, Hamlet becomes trapped in his thoughts: whether or not killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do. Through this evidence, Shakespeare creates the image of a madman through Hamlet's thoughts of death and suicide, melancholy and violent revenge.

Shakespeare explains the image of a madman through Hamlet's feelings of death and suicide: "Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed his cannon 'gainst self-slaughter!" (Shakespeare, Act I, scene ii, 129-132) Hamlet was a cheerfull Prince until the death of his father, King Hamlet. He believes that playing God would be an excellent alternative to all his pain and suffering. Once realizing that he must not disobey the All Knowing, Hamlet sinks into a state of melancholy and thinks to himself that Earth has no point for him to be there: "O God, God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!" (Shakespeare, Act I, scene ii, 132-134) Hamlet believes that since the death of his father, there is no one to tend to his needs, or what the earth needs. Furthering his thoughts, Hamlet becomes trapped in his meaningless thoughts of life.

Shakespeare expresses the state of dispirit through Hamlet's approach to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Hamlet confesses that he has lost all sense of fun and feels as if he's living in an empty world: "I have of late-but wherefore I know not-lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory." (Shakespeare, Act II, scene ii, 287-290) Hamlet feels as if he'll never be happy again