Hamlet :: essays research papers

In Hamlet, Shakespeare follows regular convention for alarge piece of music of the play. In the beginning, Shakespeare sets upthe scene, having a ghost on a dark night. Everyone isworking and something strange is happening in Denmark. Itis as if Shakespeare is saying that some genial of foul play hasbeen committed. This sets up for the major theme in the playwhich is of course revenge. The ghost appears to talk toHamlet. It is quite obvious that the play had a gruesome, uncivilised death and the sexual aspect of the play was clearlyintroduced when Claudius married Hamlets motherGertrude. The ghost tells Hamlet that he has been given therole of the mortal who will take revenge upon Claudius.Hamlet must now think of how to take revenge on Claudius,although he doesnt know what to do closely it. He pondershis thoughts for a long period of time, expecting to do thedeed immediately, but instead he drags it on until the end ofthe play. Although what was important to note was that alltr agic heroes of plays at that time delayed their certainrevenge until the end of the play. In most revenge plays, therevenger was often anonymous and well disguised, stalkingthe enemy intimately to be killed, but Hamlet started a battle ofwits with Claudius by acting mad and calling it his anticdisposition, although the whole thing was a ploy to getcloser to Claudius to be able to avenge his fathers deathmore easily. The tactic was a disadvantage in that it force all prudence upon himself. More importantly though it was anadvantage that his antic disposition, isolated him from therest of the court because of the people not paying attentionto what he thought or did because of his craziness. Oneimportant part of all revenge plays is that after the revenge isfinally decided upon, the tragic hero delays the actualrevenge until the end of the play. Hamlets delay of killingClaudius takes on three distinct stages. Firstly he had toprove that the ghost was actually sexual intercourse the truth, and he didthis by staging the play The Mousetrap at court. WhenClaudius stormed out in rage, Hamlet knew that he wasguilty. The second stage was when Hamlet could have killedClaudius dapple he was confessing to god. If Hamlet haddone it here then Claudius would have gone to heavenbecause he confessed while Hamlets father was inpurgatory because he did not get the opportunity to confess.So Hamlet therefore decided not to murder Claudius at this