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Why do we sympathize with Hamlet?
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16-12-2010 7:46pm#1
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He is bereaved ... he has just lost his father.
In some ways, he has just lost his mother too ... she has re-married "before the funeral meats were cold".
He is confronted with the ghost of his father, who claims he has been murdered and demands revenge, and Hamlet is (naturally) angry enough to want revenge. Yet he shies away from killing Claudius, suggesting a more noble character than Claudius or indeed Laertes, demanding more absolute proof before he will act. Perhaps indeed he is in fact mistrustful of his own sanity (seeing ghosts?).
He demonstrates a strong loyalty to his father and king, and feels doubly betrayed by his mother's marriage as it is in his mind betrayal of both her husband and her king.
He loves Ophelia, who by the end of the play is also dead.
So this is the story of a young man, not that much older than you, who in a short period has lost:
- father (and king)
- mother
- uncle (who turns out a betrayer)
- loved one
His life has been entirely turned on its head, with the psychological trauma which might be expected, and death may in the end be a relief.
Perhaps a little sympathy is warranted?
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I disagree that Hamlet shows loyalty to his father. He prioritizes Gertrude and his fixation with her over his command to kill Claudius what with his antic disposition and play within a play, delaying the inevitable until he confronts Gertrude. Also, Ophelia's a weird one. I don't think he really demonstrates any real love for throughout and yet at the end he talks about 40,000 brothers.randylonghorn wrote: »He is bereaved ... he has just lost his father.
In some ways, he has just lost his mother too ... she has re-married "before the funeral meats were cold".
He is confronted with the ghost of his father, who claims he has been murdered and demands revenge, and Hamlet is (naturally) angry enough to want revenge. Yet he shies away from killing Claudius, suggesting a more noble character than Claudius or indeed Laertes, demanding more absolute proof before he will act. Perhaps indeed he is in fact mistrustful of his own sanity (seeing ghosts?).
He demonstrates a strong loyalty to his father and king, and feels doubly betrayed by his mother's marriage as it is in his mind betrayal of both her husband and her king.
He loves Ophelia, who by the end of the play is also dead.
So this is the story of a young man, not that much older than you, who in a short period has lost:
- father (and king)
- mother
- uncle (who turns out a betrayer)
- loved one
His life has been entirely turned on its head, with the psychological trauma which might be expected, and death may in the end be a relief.
Perhaps a little sympathy is warranted?
I think he has to be the tragic hero of the play. No other character fits that tag. I sympathize because he is full of self-pity for himself, hes suicidal, but he's witty at the same time, and scathing and dismisses those that are disloyal like R+G. It's obvious i think that hes really conflicted and is overcome by pressure and responsibility.... so yeah.
Just did my test today on this very question so i'm a bit over enthusiastic. What do you think?0 -
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I think there are conflicting loyalties, yes ... the tension "between the head and the heart", perhaps ... a sense of residual loyalty to the living mother, despite his anger and sense of betrayal, warring with what I do think is a real loyalty to his father.IveSeenFire wrote: »I disagree that Hamlet shows loyalty to his father. He prioritizes Gertrude and his fixation with her over his command to kill Claudius what with his antic disposition and play within a play, delaying the inevitable until he confronts Gertrude.
It is a difficult one to pin down. Is his love real, or is he, like Romeo, "in love with the idea of being in love", as one critic put it? Or has his love for Ophelia become more a matter of habit than passion? Does it take her death to wake him up?IveSeenFire wrote: »Also, Ophelia's a weird one. I don't think he really demonstrates any real love for throughout ...
To what extent does Hamlet transfer his anger against Gertrude to Ophelia, especially after her father uses her naivete to spy on him? As he has lost his unquestioning trust in his once adored mother, has he also lost his trust in all women as a result, and especially in the woman he himself was to marry? ... the Gertrude of the next generation, as it were.
The great thing about a good play, of course, is that it speaks to each of us differently, and we each take different things from it. And that is as it should be, and provided you can back your argument up with evidence from the play, you should make your own argument rather than feeling obliged to follow anyone else's opinion slavishly. 0 -
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And back it up with a few quotes / examples, and it's a very valid opinion.IveSeenFire wrote: »To me, if hamlet was loyal, he would have acted upon the instruction of the ghost sooner. I think loyalty and respect are slightly different. Yes he acknowledges the qualities of the king but he really is not interested in avenging the murder- caused by an unrelenting need to resolve circumstances with gert. In his soliloquoys his attention is more on Gertrude rather than his father and he becomes super emotional/hyterical at the thought of his mother with claudius. I think that this completely overrides any other relationship/thought and sort of consumes him. Don't wanna impose on people either. It's just an opinion I've sorta settled upon.
Personally, I see a young lad who ...
... has just lost his father
... discovers that his father has been murdered (albeit on the word of a ghost!)
... loves his mother dearly, and she's the only parent he has left!
... at the same time feels betrayed by her / starts to hate her
... is severely conflicted by the whole situation
... wants revenge, but finds it difficult to steel himself to kill his uncle
... is (very personal opinion) unsure of his own sanity; has he really seen a ghost, is it all a delusion, hence the constant seeking for more definite proof
On the other hand, ofc, you could argue that Hamlet does believe in the ghost and in his own sanity, and is seeking proof for other people ... the former king's son murdering the current king (his uncle) could suggest other motives for murder than avenging his father to the Danish lords; this is a period when regicide and heirs rebelling against the incumbent sovereign is not uncommon.
Remember too that Elizabeth does not sit securely on the throne, with Scotland on one side and France on the other, a religious schism and plenty of alternate claimants for the throne (primarily the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots, her cousin). For Shakespeare to suggest that a reigning monarch should be easily toppled from the throne by a nephew on the word of a ghost with no further proof needed would not be popular with Queen or court ...
Anyway, these are all different ways of looking at the play, as you say yourself, I'm not attempting to impose my opinions on anyone.
Decide on your own view, and have the evidence and the quotes to back it up.
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