Major Themes in Hamlet

Revenge is showed through out the play. An example we see of revenge is when the king`s Ghost commanding Hamlet to seek revenge.

"Hamlet: Speak, I am bound to hear

Ghost: So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear," (1.5.10-11).

Revenge

Example 2.

Young Fortinbras tries to avenge his father's death by planning to take back the land his father died trying to protect.

“Now follows that you know: Young Fortinbras,

Holding a weak supposal of our worth,

Or thinking by our late dear brother`s death

Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,

Colleaged with this dream of his advantage,

He hath not failed to pester us with message

Importing the surrender of these lands

Lost by his father, with all bonds of law" (I.II.17-42).

Guilt

3.Hamlet and Ophelia

Hamlet loves Ophelia at the beginning, there is controversy for if he loved her all the way through the play. He considers her to be too innocent for this world, a head of the time.

Evidence

"I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers

Could not with all their quantity of love

Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?" (5.1.247-250)

"Swounds, show me what thou'lt do.

Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear thyself?

Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?

I’ll do ’t. Dost thou come here to whine,

To outface me with leaping in her grave?

Be buried quick with her?—and so will I.

And if thou prate of mountains let them throw

Millions of acres on us, till our ground,

Singeing his pate against the burning zone,

Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou'lt mouth," (5.1.253-262)

Guilt is a large theme through out Hamlet that is shown by Claudius and Gertrude.

Quote of Evidence

2.Laertes and Ophelia

Laertes shows that he is a loving and caring brother who warns Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet. He does not wish to see her used as she deserves to be treated right

 "Think it no more.

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

In thews and bulk, but, as this temple waxes,

The inward service of the mind and soul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now,

And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch

The virtue of his will, but you must fear.

His greatness weighed, his will is not his own,

For he himself is subject to his birth.

He may not, as unvalued persons do,

Carve for himself, for on his choice depends

The safety and health of this whole state.

And therefore must his choice be circumscribed

Unto the voice and yielding of that body

Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you," (1.3.11-24)

Major Themes

Major Themes of Hamlet

Love

-Madness

-Love

-Revenge

-Guilt

Guilt

Examples of Love

1.Hamlet & his father

His love for his father is shown when he states that he is depressed, cannot accept his mother moving on so quickly and by agree to his dead father's request to avenge him.

This quote shows evidence of Claudius having guilt. It shows that he has a conscience to be caught during Hamlet’s play. Claudius wore a smile on the out side but was being tormented by the guilt he had created.

O! `Tis too true;

How smart a lash that speech doth give my

Conscience!

The harlot`s cheek, beautified the plastering art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my most painted word:

O heavy burden! (3.1.49-54)

Claudius's guilt is also shown when Hamlet presents his play The Murder of Gonzago. The play goes on to show Hamlet's father Gonzago being poisended, the killer than goes on and marrys Gonzago's wife. When this part is shown Claudius is quick to leave his seat.

Madness

By: Abbigale Price

Madness is shown in real and fake states in the play. Hamlet says to have taken the fake roll of madness but what if it is to cover up the fact he actually is.

"O, that this too too sullied flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God,

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seem to me all the uses of this world!"

(1.2.133-138)

At the begining of the play Hamlet starts off complaining about how depressed he is over his fathers death and how his mom could remarry so quickly after. He states that it would be so nice if his flesh would melt off body so that he could be dead. This quote is taken before he come up with his clever plan to pretend to be mad.

Ophelia's character is shown going mad in the play but what if there is more to the story that the audience can't see. Her farther was killed by her lover Hamlet and her brother is determined to seek revenge, she is left alone to figure out this mess by herself.

"When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,

And mermaid-like a while they bore her up,

Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element. But long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death." (4.7.170-175)

Ophelia is reportedly said to have gone made and committed suicide, but only the Queen saw this happen and did nothing to save her. Ophelia's death is suspicic, what if she didn't actually kill herself but was murdered?

Mortality