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Or anyone can review my essay... I want to cut some redundancy of this essay, but fail...
Prompt: Wirte a 2000-2500 word (8-19 pages) academic research essay that explores and analyzes Hamlet's learning throughout the play. He return from University of Wittenberg back to Denmark as a very good philosophy student, but perhaps not such a good student of life. In your essay explore WHAT he learns and HOW he learns it. You may also want to add what he fails to learn.
Once you have consider what Hamlet learns in the play named for him, take your thinking one step further and begin considering what we as readers and viewers learn rom both Hamlet the character and Hamlet the play by William Shakespreare. How are we changed by the end of this play (consider by Marvin W. Hunt as being "without parallel, the greatest play ever written")? Add these considerations to your essay as you revise and expand it to include them.
Essay
In his famous tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, William Shakespeare tells us a bloody and mournful story of the royal family of Denmark. The play involves love, friendship, and political faith, and heroism. Its theme is unfolding and revenge. Prince Hamlet, the protagonist of the story, in front of the choices of "to be or not to be", chooses "not to be".
According to Allan Massie's "Prince of Self-pity," Prince Hamlet is "an indecisive and self-questioning Romantic intellectual (the Gielgud interpretation), or as a mixed-up kid, immature, uncertain of himself, veering from self-love to self-loathing by way of self-pity". I partly agree with this opinion because it only correctly describes Hamlet's personality at the beginning of the play. However, Hamlet completely changes at end of the story.
Hamlet is a philosophy student in University of Wittenberg. We know that during the Renaissance, Wittenberg has a close connection to Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. Absorbing the ideas from the Protestantism, Hamlet develops his own philosophy and is able to thinking critically. However, in worldly wisdom, he is still a callow child. When he hears his father's death and goes back to Denmark, he is very angry and depressed to discover that his mother remarries with his uncle Claudius, the new king of Denmark. His father's sudden death and his mother's quick remarriage drive Hamlet insane. In his first soliloquy, he reveals his mourning and irrational emotion, which fully demonstrates his helplessness and immaturity.
Hamlet decides to revenge when the spirit of his father reveals the detail of his murder at the hand of Hamlet's uncle, Claudius. At this point, revenge becomes the clue of the play. During his revenge, he learns to understand romantic love, about what genuine friendship is, heroism, and death.
Hamlet learns how to decisively deal with romantic and parental love in order to revenge. He selflessly sacrifices his romantic love to Ophelia because he has made up his mind to revenge for his father. He does love Ophelia. He writes romantic poem and show great affection to her. In Act III Scene I, when Hamlet realizes that they can no longer stay together, he suggests both of them should not get marry with other people and wants Ophelia to go to a nunnery to demonstrate her chastity. His love to her is sincere, faithful, and fanatic. Moreover, in Act V Scene I, in Ophelia's funeral, Hamlet bravely stands out, fights with Laertes, and vows to everyone that "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love." However, he fails to learn to understand the feeling of Ophelia and does not even have any compunction for Ophelia's death. In fact, he constantly hurts her and finally makes her crazy and kills herself. Their romantic love should have been sweet, but unfortunately his revenge makes it a tragedy, as David Smith says, "Hamlet's cruelty to Ophelia is one of the most powerful and moving dramatic gestures anywhere in Shakespeare".
For parental love, Hamlet carries responsibilities as a son. He tries to finish the ghost's wish, become independent from his mother, and persuade her to confess her "incest" and get away from the King. Initially, Hamlet is indecisive. He obeys his mother's request to stay in Denmark instead of going back to Wittenberg. However, as he knows the truth of his father's death, he attempts to change his mother's thought rather than follow her instruction. In order to confirm whether Claudius kills his father or not, Hamlet, regardless of his mother's feeling, puts on the play of Murder of Gonzago in front of her and Claudius. Later, in their conversation, he bravely points out her faults and tells her the truth of his father's death. However, he fails to control his resentment, loses his manner, and makes his mother feel guilty. With his father's spirit's remind, he calms down and successfully convinces his mother to defy Claudius. In fact, Hamlet loves his mother and understands his mother's love to him. However, in order to fulfill his father's wish, he has to become an unethical and disobedient son. Nevertheless, this experience shapes him into a responsible, brave, and decisive man.
In addition to love, Hamlet learns to correctly judge friendship as he interacts with his old friends Horatio, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. Horatio is faithful, selfless and helpful, as Keith Doubt states, "Horatio makes Hamlet aware of the existence of the ghost of his father, which is the first step in healing Hamlet's grief. Concretely, Horatio helps Hamlet see his father's ghost. Metaphysically, Horatio helps Hamlet remember his father's character." Therefore, Hamlet completely trusts Horatio and considers him his closest friend. At the end of the play, Horatio, to demonstrate his honorable loyalty, attempts to suicide as he knows Hamlet will die soon. On the contrary Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are obsequious, selfish and selfish. They follow the Claudius' mission to spy on Hamlet and report his behavior to him. They abandon their friendship to Hamlet merely for their own benefit. Fortunately, Hamlet quickly knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern "are sent for" after talking with them and realizes their potential threat on him. Thus, he takes precation against them and angrily berates them that they "play upon him" like an instrument in Act III. Moreover, on his voyage to England, he replaces the official letter from Claudius to kill him with his forged letter to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They are both killed right after they arrive in England. Because Hamlet rightfully and determinedly trusts Horatio and executes Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, loyalty gets recognition and treachery deserves punishement. It shows that Hamlet is a potentially good leader.
As for politics, Hamlet learns to become wary, wise, and mature. He fully demonstrates his political maturity during his wrestle with the powerful king Claudius. After meeting the spirit of his father, Hamlet, instead of being mad, consciously and composedly makes up a plan to confirm if Claudius murders his father. Before that, he tactically hides himself with his pretended "antic disposition" in front of everyone to lower the vigilance of Claudius, showing his counter-reconnaissance ability. In "Dangerous conjectures: Madness in Shakespearean Tragedy," Duncan Salkeld agrees that "Madness in Shakespearean tragedies is depicted not as a dissolution into the crazed but secure inferiority of its characters, but as a means of personal and political survival." (86) His suspicion that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of "are sent for" reflects his counter-espionage skill. After he knows that Claudius does kill his father, he decides to kill him, get back the crown, and eradicate the corruption in Denmark, as his father's spirits tells him that "Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damn incest". (1419) In addition, he crushes Claudius' plot to kill him in England by replacing the original letter to execute him with his forged letter to execute Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Here, he demonstrates political wariness and ability to write political documents. Finally, before he dies, he wisely votes Fortinbras to be the king of Norway and lets Horatio speak with Fortinbras to strengthen the friendship between Denmark and Norway. Hamlet selflessly sacrifices himself to exchange the bright future of Denmark. Politically speaking, he is great and immortal.
Aside from love, friendship and politics, Hamlet learns what heroism, death, and fate mean to him. Hamlet, facing "the sling and arrows of outrageous fortune" (1442) of his father's death and mother's remarriage, initially believes that people, who is afflicted by the cruel reality, stay alive merely because death is unknown. Rationality deprives people's courage. Then he gradually understands the relationship between heroism and death. In the synopsis "Before leaving for Denmark, Hamlet encounters Fortinbras's army bound for Poland. Hamlet Questions the validity of war and certain death. Still, he thinks, if man can accept the risks involved with battle, he can accept the risks involved with revenge," Hamlet knows that for some people, honor is even more important than their life. Later, after talking with the gravedigger, he has a new perception of heroism. He laments that the people are trivial compared to vastness of the world and eternity of the history. Even great heroes like Alexander the Great and Julie Cesar eventually died and became dust or clay. Heroism, in his new opinion, is nothing and cannot surmount the power of death. Hence, Hamlet, after comprehending this philosophy, becomes surprisingly composed to mortality. He agrees to duel Laertes and tells Horatio that "we defy augury" (1501).
Hamlet, after learning about love, friendship, politics, and heroism from his revenge, changes from a helpless, puzzled, and indecisive young man to a mature, judicious, and determined hero. In the article "Hamlet's Heroism," Bert Honback points out that "Hamlet's heroism is in his careful thoughtfulness, in his valiant determination to live by principle rather than by passion." If he were alive and became the king, he would eradicate the corruption, promote loyalty and integrity, and strengthen the friendship between Denmark and Norway. Hence, Fortinbra is certainly correct to say that, "he was likely ... To have proved to be most royal" (1506). However, it is a pity that Hamlet sometimes fails to control his impulse and kills Polonius, which motivates Laertes to revenge and causes his inevitable death.
As the proverb says, "There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes" we readers can learn a lot by looking at different aspects of Hamlet the character and Hamlet the play. We may not have similar experience as Hamlet. However, we should learn to think critically about ourselves as Hamlet does. As long as we still have breath and heartbeat, we should think about why we live in the world. In Hamlet's opinion, people should live or die for something they want. As he says, "To be, or not to be, that is the question" (1442) adversity does not drive him to suicide or live mundanely; instead, he become decisive to face and change his fate. Although eventually he dies, he can say that he lives and dies for what he wants. Life is transient and death is unavoidable. To fulfill our fleeting life, we should learn from Hamlet's determination and courage to defy misfortune and achieve our dreams.
Furthermore, from the wrestle between Claudius and Hamlet, we learn how lust, money, and power erode people's inherent conscience and innocence. Claudius murders his brother old Hamlet to get the crown and the queen. Threatened by Hamlet's revenge, he plots to execute Hamlet in England and abets Laerte in revenge and killing Hamlet with his envenomed foil. Here, his lust drives him from human to a beast, as Hamlet says that he is an "incestuous, murderous, damn Dane" (1504). Thus, in this materialism scoiety, how can we survive, maintain our morality, but not be harmed by vallians? The play Hamlet admonishes us to be moral and believe in justice, as Benjamin Franklin said, "Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power". In human history, evil can never defeat justice.
As for Hamlet, we know that rashness is human's devil. Although he has suffient reason to revenge, his revenge is bloody and impulsive because he unintentionally kills Polonius, drives Ophelia to suicide, and causes Laertes's animosity. John Wilks, in his article "The Discourse of Reason: Justice and the Erroneous Conscience in Hamlet," insists that "Hamlet's predicament evokes that of man ... the 'dram of eale' which insidiously corrupts man's virtue and undermines the integrity of his motives" (117).
Thus, at the end of the play, Claudius dies for his evil while Hamlet die for his rash. In fact, when we are harmed by scroundrels, unlike Hamlet's vengeance, we should bravely "revenge" in a legal way.
From Hamlet's death, we also learn that it is improtant to be positive and optimistic in our life. Facing misfortunes such as his father's death, mother's remarriage, and old fellows' betrayal, Hamlet can only see the darkness of the reality. The desire of revenge makes him mad, madness provokes him to do something impulsive, and impulse finally leads to his death. In fact, Hamlet is a conscient man. However, failing to understand the sweetness of his life, for example, Ophelia's love, his madness becomes his enermy. To some extent, Hamlet's pessimism creats this tragedy. Thus, we should learn to be thankful and not let indignation destroy our consciousness and conscience.
From other main characters, their personalities are . Ophelia is a childish and innocent girl. She is always guided by his father and brother. The Queen Gertrude is a typical noblewoman. These two women reflects the vulnerabilty of women in that era. Polonius is a typical cunning and wise old man. Laertes is an immature and unthoughtful young man. He does not have his own judgement, desires to revenge, and is controled by Claudius. Nevertheless, finally, before he dies, he regrets and forgives Hamlet.
As Chinese writer Lu Xun once said, "For viewers, tradegies destroy valuable things while comedies tear apart worthless things." tragedies deeply impress their readers, inspire them to comprehend life philosophy, and guide them to change. The play Hamlet, which begins with murder, incest, and treachery and ends with the death of all main characters except Horatio, seems to suggest that only after the corruption and evil are completely destroyed, can we see the brightness and happiness of the future. Comedy is arising at the end of tragedy.
