Lessons from Hamlet

Introduction

Hamlet is regarded as one of the greatest dramatic tragedies ever written, which has prompted an enduring critical interest equal to or surpassing that of any other work in the English language. The play itself relates a story of delayed revenge undertaken by Hamlet, Shakespeare's melancholic Danish prince, for the murder of his father. Claudius, the murderer and Hamlet's uncle, thereafter marries Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, usurping the prince's place as rightful heir to the throne of Denmark. Hamlet successfully avenged his father at the drama's resolution, and his reprisal resulted in the sacrifice of his own life, as well as those of Gertrude and several others, while leaving the kingdom defenseless against an ensuing military invasion led by the Norwegian prince Fortinbras.

Discussion

Hamlet talks about death, revenge, passion, betrayal and the resulting mental tension. Shakespeare shows the different paths and different choices and the associated pain and suffering. Certainly, Hamlet is the art of showing that the world is both good and evil, and that they are simultaneously present in our every deed and every person. It is the presence of good and evil in human nature, which seems to be a matrix, the center of the moralistic point of view (Innes, 281). Prince Hamlet's existential problems somehow stem from the fact that he cannot at least accept this duality, and that man is not only good, but flawed in design. The idealism of the prince in a collision with reality has to lose. In this Renaissance revenge tragedy, Shakespeare presented what critics have deemed to be one of the most compelling studies of dramatic character ever conceived in his detailed and ambiguous portrait of the contemplative, brooding, rash, philosophical, and impertinent Hamlet, who feigns madness and stages an elaborate theatrical ruse in order to outwit the cunning Claudius.

The main lesson learned from the play Hamlet is that revenge makes a person to act blindly as a result of anger. Such emotions cause a person to take actions without a rationale. The play has a theme of revenge or “an eye for an eye”. However, the moral of the story suggests that this principle does not have the support of intelligence. In the play, the three characters Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet looked to take revenge for their fathers' death. As a result, the three actors took irrational actions based on emotion, which caused the collapse of two, and success of another. This led to the death of two of the three sons, who swore to have revenge.

The famous play of Shakespeare discusses the stories of three families. These three families include the family of King Fortinbras, Polonius, and Hamlet respectively. The play depicts the slaughter of the heads of the three families, which caused the eldest sons of the families to take revenge. King Hamlet killed the King of Norway named Fortinbras during one on one sword battle. “Our valiant Hamlet-for so this side of our known world esteem'd him-did slay this Fortinbras” (Marsden, 211). As a result, ...