The Personality of Hamlet - A Literary Essay Example

William Shakespeare presents Hamlet as one of the unique characters that are most distinguishable due to the strong quest he had on avenging his fathers death. Throughout the play, Hamlet is viewed to be in possession of various voices: a philosopher, moralist, and an avenger hence providing a proper explanation about his personalities.

The Shakespeares play Hamlet brings outs one of the complex main characters, Hamlet goes through various challenges and diversity and as a result, he destined to murder the one which leads to the death of his father. Hamlet is recognized as one of the major characters that even though his emotions and actions may be one of an insane individual. In the first section of the book, Hamlet decides to fake madness to plan on killing Claudius. In the play, it is amazing how Hamlet act crazy when it comes to confronting certain individuals and to others his best side is experienced, and he is viewed to be demonstrated the appropriate behavior of a prince.

Hamlet voice as an Avenger is identified across the play immediately after the introduction of old king ghost. In the story, he can reveal the person who murdered his father to be Claudius, and this led to great bitterness and anger to destroy him. Additionally, his quest for killing Claudius began by initially acting insane to distract every individual from realizing his plan. He utters statements like he is but mad north-northwest and that when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw, demonstrating that he is acting crazily with the purpose of avenging for the death of his father. In the story, Hamlet is viewed to be making various attempts at killing Claudius. However, it is unfortunate on his side that every attempt he made was prevented by various unfortunate events, for example when Claudius is praying and when he was sent to England. Its amazing how Hamlet is fueling the desire to kill his father, stating that the son of a dear father murdered, prompts to my revenge by hell and heaven. (Shakespeare) Through such statement, its so serious how he is filled with a great desire and his willingness to avenge his fathers death.

Even though some of the critics have identified Hamlet to be full of various human weaknesses with the greatest one being indecision, Hamlet in the play is identified to be one of the moral individuals. His procrastination and deliberations have been noted as some of the hindrances when it comes to seeking revenge. Basically, during that century, it is very clear that Christianity and around the period, didnt allow any individual to pursue personal revenge and if in case an individual was to do that, then he was playing the role of God in the process. At one point the laws shaped Hamlet personality since all of them took great control of him. He experienced contradicting feelings on avoiding to break the law and at the same time being controlled by the feeling of avenging for his father. Taking the process of avenging for the father involved going against the Christian laws since God was the one who was allowed to punish and revenge on our behalf.

Focusing on the scene where Hamlet discovered that Claudius was praying, it is demonstrated that Hamlet didnt perform the act he intended to pursue. He was condemned due to some of the laws that were governing him. Being the Hamlet was next to Claudius with a sword, he was not able to kill him. This shows that Hamlet personality was governed by the law and God. Even though he felt all the right to revenge, his personality was governed by some supernatural power which was more than his revenge power. However, since Claudius never sent an indication to Hamlet on the regrets regarding the death of his father and by Hamlet killing Claudius, he will be sending him to heaven. Hamlet goes ahead by creating his doubt and ended up delaying the revenge that he had planned for his father.

This can be viewed as the great example as to why Hamlet is sensitive to committing murder. He was a rational individual who was ruled by feelings and emotions. The existing laws and Christian morals are also identified to be playing important roles in his development. By not killing, it is recognized that Hamlet could have ended up to the best King who could have generated new ways of solving problems without using death.

Through thick and thin, Hamlet through the play is recognized to be that great guy who stayed loyal to his country, his mother, and father. Even after the mother had played a role in aiding Claudia to take part in the killing of his father so that Claudia could take the kings throne, Hamlet didnt go against her mother but played a loyalty role to her. To add on top, his loyalty towards the mother didnt even come to an end after she knowingly shares the same bed with Claudius, the guy who ended the life of his father. Hamlet strong character is realized when he decided to forgive the mother and still showed her unconditional love. Even though to some extent he got mad and expressed his bad side to the mother, the loyalty was neither shaken and it didnt come to an end (Bastian).

Because Hamlet father was one of the important kings in the land, he was always there behind his father, observing and watching the performance of the King and how he was supposed to be presenting himself. Hamlet learned from some of the past mistakes that the father made and was experienced enough to practice some of the good character and courage that he was able to gain behind his father. He had the best chance of becoming the best king since he learned most of the leadership skills from the father (Shakespeare). Additionally, looking at Hamlet generation, it is important to note that he felt from the generation of kings, a traditional that was kept in their linage hence he could have been the next king in the line. Through lineage and passage of kingship from one generation to the other, the blood of becoming a king was in him and without staying relevant to some of the responsibilities, he was going to learn what to do with time. It is important to note that through the play being the son of a king played an essential role in developing his personality.

On the other hand, Hamlet is identified as one of the brave individuals who by chance never feared any challenge. He learned to be composed and was cautious by practicing to think before making any decision to act. From the experience and the advice that he gained from the father, Hamlet learned to prevent down falls by having to think before making any serious decision in his life. Such trait made him be viewed as a good leader. The period when Hamlet was traveling to see a ghost with the father for the first time, fear could have made him sink back and run away from the whole experience of the site. However, the surprise on that day was that Hamlet ran towards the ghost direction and confronted the ghost to demand answers. The surprise is that fear didnt hold him back, he didnt also focus on back up that he was traveling with, rather Hamlet was so assertive, and with confidence, he focused on achieving the results.

Additionally, Hamlet strong personality is also expressed when he demonstrated bravery and quick thinking at the point when he intercepted one of the great letters that were being sent to the king of England from his uncle, Claudius. The letter was bad news, and it demanded the death of his father, immediately he was to step in England. This was one of the worst letters that could have initiated mixed reactions from Hamlet. Rather, Hamlet handled the whole issue with great calmness. He didnt run around to inform various individuals rather he was composed with great wit and managed to change the letter to pass different information that is different to those who were sent to deliver it.

Through the play, Hamlet is viewed to be one of the most self-disciplined, moral, reserved and intelligent characters. He is told by the ghost that his uncle Claudius is the one who is responsible for his fathers death (Hadfield). This is driving Hamlet to reveal his fathers death and hence focused on avenging his murder to gain justice. Just to punish the wrongdoing, Hamlet strives to achieve justice. However, through the whole process, there is an excellent demonstration of self-discipline and showed great significance of not acting rationally and not emotionally; this made him delay justice by refusing to kill Claudius when he had one great chance of doing so.

Reaching a point that now he wanted to end Claudius life, he went through all the stages of having to prove that Hamlet was guilty and he was responsible for his fathers death and he can now act out his vengeance on Claudius. After gaining enough information, he stopped accepting some of the lies that Claudius was bringing out and started living with the knowledge that Claudius was totally responsible for the death of his father.

In this work of art, the title of Hamlet Shakespeare's is viewed to be speaking in seven soliloquies with each ensuring various advancement on the plot hence having to reveal Hamlet inner thoughts of an audience and hence creating a good atmosphere to control the play. In the first soliloquy Hamlet character is revealed to the audience, and through this, he can express the death of his father and the quick remarriage of his mother. Going through the story, Hamlet is identified to be one of the gifted thinkers who is viewed to be incapable of pursuing a positive action.

In the whole play, Hamlet is identified as one the great heroes, more so when facing moral dilemmas and make the decision that shaped him to be a better person. He chooses hardship and made decisions that characterized him as a great person. Being the main character, he played the role of a strong personality and brought a great influence on the role of Shakespeare in the society.

Works Cited

Bastian, Niklas. "Why did Hamlet delay his revenge? An analysis of Shakespeare's play." (2016).

Hadfield, Andrew. "William Shakespeare, My New Best Friend?." Journal of Early Modern Studies 5 (2016): 53-68.

Shakespeare, William, Laurence Olivier, and Jean Simmons. Hamlet. University Press, 1948.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: Arden Performance Editions. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017.