Hamlet character analysis for
Hamlet character analysis forHamlet’s Character
1In the original version of the famous play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, the character Hamlet, Prince of Denmark son of the late King Hamlet and nephew of the present king, is a melancholy protagonist and the main character of the play. This is also the case in two other movie versions of the play, one directed by Francis Zefferilli, and another directed by Kenneth Branagh. 2Hamlet has this same main characteristic, and additional emotions, that branch off of this main characteristic such as depression and anger, in both movie versions of the play. He is a very emotional character throughout all of the different productions. It is his stage of emotion that notably alters from Shakespeare’s version, to Zefferilli’s version, and to Branagh’s version, and these distinct stages of emotion constitute incontestable physical responses towards other characters in the play.
In Shakespeare’s version, in the beginning of the story, Hamlet’s character was struggling with the sudden marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to his uncle, Claudius, a month after his father is death. He is disturbed at the speed with which his mother has recovered from mourning her dead husband to marry the new king. He expresses his frustration and confusion during his soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2 after the new King's announcement to his people. Later he learned that his father’s ghost was sighted. Intuitively, he knew there had to be some kind of “foul play.” Upon meeting his father’s ghost, he learns that Claudius killed his father, and that he must take on the task of avenging his death. This encounter changed who he is completely. He said that he will wipe away books, the past, and all of the things he was taught. He will live “within the book and volume of …brain”(a.1, sc.5).
After he meets the ghost, Hamlet begins to treat people cold-heartedly. His treatment of Ophelia is detestable, and the manner in which he also treats his mother is outright rude. He felt betrayed by his mother because he loved and trusted her, but she went and married his uncle so soon after his father’s death. 3He has no feelings anymore; feelings of love, pity and remorse were no longer a part of him.
Hamlet finds himself unceasingly at war with his own hesitancy and indecisiveness. As if to provoke himself into action, he tends to describe himself and his bizarre situation in very melodramatic terms. Even so, Hamlet's attitude is more than an act or masquerade, more than just a convenient maneuver by which he tries to persuade his own unassured will into action. For Hamlet finds himself confronted with a genuine problem--the murder of his father by his uncle and the marriage of his mother to his uncle. He struggles to decide between a life of revenge and action, and a life...
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