Hamlet Essay

Hamlet's To Be or Not to Be

600 years later, Shakespeare is still able to deliver a powerful theme of our inner thought in his play, Hamlet. The prince’s “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy contributes to the understanding of the tone and thesis of the play through its multiple meanings and expressions of deep thoughts. The speech that Hamlet expresses contains powerful themes on both the literal and deeper meaning. The deep and complicated thoughts influence the tone and the theme of the play.

On the surface level, the first line can translate to simply live or to die. Hamlet contemplates on committing suicide due to his father’s death and other influences. However, the entire soliloquy has multiple meanings. “To Be or Not to Be” can metaphorically translate to “act or not to act” on a given thought. Hamlet struggles with this concept, as his numerous thoughts cannot be easily translated into action. Also, when Hamlet says “to die, to sleep”, one may simply interpret it as death. However, it can mean that Hamlet would like to escape from his problems, or even ignore them. These double meanings of his speech give a sense of how complex one’s thought can get. It also reveals that putting one’s mind into direct action can be extremely difficult. These suggestions make the backbone of the theme in Hamlet. It also signifies how complex and human the fictional character, Hamlet is. These human like qualities helps the audience understand how emotional and thoughtful the main character is.

This soliloquy greatly impacts the tone and thesis of the play. Hamlet delivers this reflective and bitter speech when he became overloaded with his father’s murder and mother’s remarriage. He constantly refers to being decisive with his actions in lines such as “the native hue of resolution”.  He also expresses his hate for Lord Polonius and King Claudius. The word “die” and “sleep” are constant throughout the speech and gives a bitter tone. The revenge and hate that Hamlet has built up is also evident in the overall tone of the play. To be true to your actions and thoughts is one part of the thesis in Hamlet. This speech underlies how human like Hamlet is compared to the other characters. From Hamlet’s point of view, he experiences the most emotional moments compared to the other characters. Hamlet, in this way, represents how tactful and emotionally complex people can be and ultimately the central message of the story.

“To Be or Not To Be” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one significant soliloquy that helps the reader understand the tone and thesis of the play. The young prince lets out his deep and literal thoughts through double meaning, and in effect allows the audience to get a sense of how complex he is. The words that Hamlet says are bitter and extremely reflective, as suggested in his speech. Through “To Be or Not To Be”, Hamlet is able to deliver the central theme of the play.

Hamlet act IV notes

HAMLET (THE MADMAN?)

Young Hamlet is often seen as a madman in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. On the surface, the prince seems like a madman due to his behavior towards his enemies. However, Hamlet is not really nuts, or even a sociopath. He acts like a crazy teenager towards his enemies like King Claudius and Lord Polonius to avenge his father’s murder. His behavior towards Queen Gertrude and other characters is just a natural response that is common for people to have. The actions and thoughts that Hamlet has expressed throughout the play suggests that he is not a madman, but a real human being who is just trying to care for his father’s murder.

Hamlet acts severely rude or even crazy to certain characters in the play. For example, after Hamlet met the king’s ghost, the prince resolved to punish his enemies. He said “you are a fishmonger” towards Lord Polonius to make him think that Hamlet is acting like a madman. He decided to act crazy and rude-like to give his enemies the impression that his father’s death is just making him weird. Hamlet succeeds in doing this, and led to King Claudius eye on Hamlet through Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He also acts very rude towards Ophelia and give hers the wrong impression on purpose. Hamlet acted out this way to ensure his plan would succeed, so Hamlet knew consciously that he was not a madman.

Although the prince has faked his madness, Hamlet’s responses to various situations are natural as a person. He had a suspicion of the King’s ghost being a devil and confirmed himself that the ghost was actually the former king. If a normal person saw a ghost of his father soon after he was murdered, that person would most likely believe he is dreaming of it or his mind is playing tricks on him or her. That is exactly what Hamlet thought. When someone’s close relative or friend is viciously murdered, it is natural for that person to feel a bit “crazy” and hurt. Hamlet did have this quality, just as a real person would. When he faced King Claudius after knowing he was the culprit, Hamlet acted like he was disgusted towards him. It can be reasonably inferred through this reaction that seeming like a madman was perfectly normal in Hamlet’s case. Hamlet may have been slight "mad", but it was temporary.

In Hamlet, the main character is not a psychotic, sociopath who went crazy after his respected father’s death. He may look like a madman from various perspectives of the characters in the play, but Hamlet acts this way on purpose to carry out his mission. He acted in his crazy, brain damaged teenager character to fool King Claudius. Despite, this set up, Hamlet still did have a slight sign of true madness, but it is completely natural for him to have this. Hamlet acts like a real human being who reacted to the serious situation. It is almost strange to see a character like this react differently, because a real person in Hamlet’s shoes would have a myriad of influences that would make the real person act like Hamlet. Hamlet is respectful son who is trying to avenge his father, both internally and externally within his conscience.

Hamlet Act III Notes

Scene II

• Hamlet tells the actors to not "over do" their acting, and not under-do it either
•  Horatio observes King Claudius's reaction to the play acting King hamlet's death
• Hamlet seems to heavily rely on this reaction to confirm the ghost's truth
• Hamlet tells King Claudius that this is a "image of a murder done in Vienna"
• Lucianus pours the poison into the sleeper's ear, King Claudius leaves the stage

Scene III

• Claudius decides to send Hamlet to England
• Claudius feels guilty about his murder
• Lord Polonius secretly listens to Hamlet's and Queen's talk
• Hamlet acts rude against his mother
• he accidentally slains Polonius hiding in the arrays

Scene IV

• hamlet sees the ghost in the room, while Queen Gertrude cannot

"The Performative Utterance in William Shakespeare's Hamlet Notes

Reading Notes

• "For much of the play Hamlet is able to speak but not do" - he finds trouble translating his imaginary thought into action
• J.L. Austen's Theory of Performativity 
• 3 main focus
• Lucutionary force - ability of a language to deliver a message
• the force of mutual intelligibility - the illocutionary force
• perlocutionary force - what is achieved by being said
• Harold Bloom argues that the characters in Shakespeare's work develop through "self-overhearing"
• Shakespeare's characters had to reveal their inner self to the audience
• the scene with the father's ghost and Prince Hamlet is the most important scene to consider the performative utterance of Hamlet
• "if the person who has sworn to do something does that something, that is a perlocutionary effect of his utterance"
• Hamlet swore only to remember his father, and not to exactly revenge his father
• overdoing a performance in a play can undermine the "natural" or "socially accepted notion of your sincere state"
• Polonius has the Aristotelian vision of the '"true self"- his vision is provincial 
• represents the premodern man
• In contrast, Hamlet represents the modern man
• Nietzschean idea of the "created self, broad and formless"
• in this sense Hamlet is able to explore himself rather than trying to explore others
• Hamlet's character development is not towards action, but rather faith