Cain 2

Dominique CainCarter 6BAP Literature9 February 2015The Characterization of HamletIn William Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, the moment the main character, Hamlet, is introduce, characterization is immediately established. Sheathed in his "inky cloak" of melancholia, Hamlet becomes consumed with the gothic presentations of life around him, such as the death of his father and the incestuous betrayal of his mother. During Hamlet's most contemplative and personal soliloquies, Shakespeare's revels reveals the dynamic internal and external conflict with Hamlet, as well as characterizing him as cynical melancholic and Oedipal Son. Driven by emotion and impulse, Hamlet is a shroud of depression and militant inconsistency. The murder of his father, the taking of his future-crown, the betrayal of his loves ones all stand to create a shell in which he is doomed to livehe lives in. Throughout the rising action of the play Hamlet examines the theme of the ethical legitimacy of suicide and how it could cure him of the sociological and physical pain he's experiencing. He soliloquizes: "To be, or not to be," ultimately to live or to die - "Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them," (H III.i.1749-1753). As he questions if it is "nobler" to suffer rather than to commit suicide, it is also one of the first times Shakespeare alludes to Hamlet's religion - questioning if he is still holy if he takes his own life. He then goes to compare death to the lulling affects of sleep, deciding that suicide often becomes a desirable course of action stating: "To die - to sleep - / No more; and by a sleep to say we end / The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to. / 'Tis a consumation / Devoutly to be wish'd," (H III.i.1753-1757). Later within the speech he soliloquizes: "To sleep - perchance to dream [...] for in that sleep of death what dreams may come / When we have shuffled off this mortal coil / Must give us pause," this states that as we sleep our conscience is even more awake - questioning the intention or reasons behind our actions (H III.i.1757-1761). Hamlet continues on stating, "[...] the dread of something after death / The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn / No traveller returns - puzzles the will, / And makes us rather bear those ills we have / Than fly to other that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," (H III.i.1771-1780). Thus Hamlet concludes that the "dread" of the afterlife makes people continue their life, and the ethical sensitivity of suicide creates the synapse between action and thought. Hamlet reflects his melancholic attitude as he passionately searches through his conscience for the solution to killing Claudius. This soliloquy not only reflects the internal struggle that is occurring within Hamlet as he searches for rational inquiry, but it also reflects the deepen deep and delicate melancholic ailment Shakespeare's characterizes him as. Throughout the action of the play Hamlet continuous revels reveals his intense disgust for the incestuous relationship between his mother, Gerturde, and Claudius. By keeping Hamlet's commentary often preoccupied with his mother's sexuality, and his feeling of betrayebetrayal d because of it ,Shakespeare consequently characterizes Hamlet as a Oedipal son. He soliloquizes: "Why, she would hang on him / As if increase appetite had grown / By what it fed on; and yet, within a month / Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is women," (H I.ii.347-350). Here Hamlet not only questions the increased sexual desires of his mother, but also reflects on how inconsistent love is, while questioning how could she (his mother) love someone else so quickly when she just have deeply before. He states: "Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears / She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets," (H I.ii.360-361). Later within play Hamlet speaks of Nero who was known to have incestuous relations with his mother, Agrippina, before he murdered her and burned all of Rome. Hamlet soliloquizes: "O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever / The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom," this revels his sexual affections towards his mother and can also hint to unhealthy intimate involvement between the two parties (H III.ii.2269-2270). The complexity of Hamlet's characterization can viewed in many different aspect - yet it is clear through many of his soliloquies of his internal psychosocial struggle. His "cloak" of melancholy dragged him through each scene. Trying to deal with the murder of his father, while trying to grieve took a mental and physical toll on Hamlet. Ultimately entombing him in a balm of nothingness as he continued throughout life until the end of the play, hence his melancholic tone and characterization throughout the entire play. Not only was he dealing with the internal struggle of depression and suicidal thoughts, he also had to deal with the external repulsion and pain from watching his mother, Gertrude, confine in Claudius (who he later found out murdered his father). Consequently, this characterizes Hamlet as a melancholic and aan Oedipal son.