Hamlet_Essay_on_His_Conflicts

Luke Hearn Mr. Marshall Period 1 4/23/10 With any good play, you need conflict. If the play didn’t have conflict why would you go to see it' That’s right, you wouldn’t. If the play were just a happy-go-lucky play, no one would stay past the first Act. Most playwrights write to have people stay interested throughout the whole play. Shakespeare was no exception. Most of his plays have some the oldest conflict that can even be brought to modern day. Shakespeare writes quite a few tragedies, and this is quite evident in one of his most famous plays, the play Hamlet. Within the tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet was having some issues wondering who he was, did he want to be a fierce soldier, or does he want to be a smart scholarly man. He goes through the play moping around and trying to avenge his father’s death. Hamlet has two goals, one of them being having his father be proud of him, even in death; the second goal that Hamlet has is to find the women he loves. While trying to achieve these goals, Hamlet is having a war inside himself, trying to find out where he fits in the world. Hamlet doesn’t really act on his first goal. He has depression issues. Hamlet can’t get over the fact that his mother married his uncle only two months after his father died; After the party on which Claudius lets everyone know of the marriage, and after everyone leaves the room, Hamlet talks to himself saying "O that my too, too solid body would melt, Thaw, and change itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting God has forbidden Suicide! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable all the habits of this world seem to me! Shame on it! O for shame! It is an unwedded garden that is going to seed, only things that are decaying and disgusting grow there. That it should come to this! Only dead for two months! No, not so much, not two." (Act 1 Scene 2). Hamlet couldn’t just say this to the rest of the guest that his new father has invited, so he waits until all of them leave, and then proceeds to have a soliloquy in which complains to himself and plays the victim in the situation that he is in. At this point, Hamlet has lost all interest in the things in the world, and that he has also lost interest in the things that once gave him pleasure. He at this point has considered suicide, but chooses not to for he couldn’t just disappear, and that god will not let him act on this desire that he so yearns for. Most of his conflict root from the fact that his dad was the old king and was then killed, in which you would think Hamlet would take the place of his father, but then his uncle comes in and (two months after his father died) his mother marries his uncle. This brings Hamlet to have hatred towards his uncle, but what he doesn’t even realize is that is that Claudius (his uncle) was the one that killed his father. Hamlet decides that he shall kill Claudius. Hamlet then distances himself from everyone who loves him to achieve this goal, and in the process of trying to kill his uncle, plenty of people around Hamlet die as well. Hamlet’s father comes back to Hamlet to coach Hamlet towards his goal of avenging his goal. It really comes back to what does Hamlet want/ who does he want to be. Does he want to be a soldier or a scholar' This brings forward more questions like: did Hamlet kills Claudius for' Did Hamlet kill Claudius for the shear reason to kill him, or did he kill him because his father wanted/ pushed him toward the idea of killing him' Hamlet not only fights with the thought of killing Claudius, but he also wonders if he should live himself. In the beginning of Act 3, Hamlet really doesn’t know whether to live or not. He really debates the act of suicide, and once again talks to himself; not realizing that other people are around listening he goes on to ramble “To be, or not to be: that is the question: 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'” (Act 3, Scene 1) During his rant of self-pity Ophelia walks out and tries to thank him for all the gifts that he has given her, he denies this whole idea that he has ever done anything for her. He then wants her to join a nunnery rather than become a “why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners'” (Act 3, Scene 1). It seems that Hamlet’s mother remarrying has changed his views with women, and in this scene Hamlet is negating ever loved Ophelia and is telling her to go to a nunnery. Earlier in this conversation when asked if he loved her once Hamlet replies to Ophelia “You should not have believ'd me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it. I lov'd you not.” (Act 3, Scene 1). This scene is quite odd because in an later scene the roles were switched, Hamlet was trying to get Ophelia to love him, it was like Hamlet had fallen head over heals for Ophelia; he said things like “O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man do but be merry'” And “Ay, or any show that you'll show him…” (Act 3, Scene 2) .He has begun to slip into a deep spiral of depression in which he just gets angry with everyone he comes across. Hamlet struggles with almost every character in the play; even Ophelia with it is the struggle of love. It is said “Although Hamlet denies his love for Ophelia in Shakespeare's play Hamlet it is possible to realize that he never stopped loving her. In his ploy to make those around him believe that he was mad, Hamlet sacrificed his love for Ophelia, hurting her when he did not want to hurt her” (http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2006/6/3/171154/0599) Hamlet doesn’t know who to be. He doesn’t know whether he should be a warlike ruler like his father, his uncle, and Prince Fortinbras, or to be the true, scholar like manning that he was most of his life. When he meet Horatio, a scholar who “represented the true Hamlet, before he was ‘from himself taken away.’” (http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/q-and-a/what-hamlets-outward-conflict-inward-conflict-75387), but then when he met the ghost of his father he promised to “wipe away all trivial fond records” (Act 1, Scene 5) everything of his old self, and in turn forgetting himself. After much thought in the matter, hamlet decides that he will become “Hamlet the Dane” (Act 5, Scene 1). Hamlet has strong distaste towards his mother who had married his father’s brother so soon after his death, and this anger comes out in the form of cutting of most to all ties of love that Hamlet has. He becomes very cruel towards the woman he loves and dismisses their relationship completely. Once he finds out who actually killed his father, Hamlet fight within himself on what he should do. He doesn’t know if he should kill Claudius or let him go. He also builds huge walls against everyone he has had a relationship with. Hamlet also has to worry about a conflict that is not only all about him. He doesn’t know what to do with Claudius, the man who has taken the throne now that the old king Hamlet is dead. The old kings ghost told Hamlet that it was Claudius that killed him. Hamlet begins another spiral of a man vs. man conflict. He fights with Claudius throughout the whole play, and in Act 3 Scene 4, while conversing with his mother (who has been plotting against him, Hamlet notices that there is someone spying on him, and stabs them. This happens to be the innocent Polonius who was just carrying out Claudius’ orders. Hamlet realizes that he has not yet achieved his goal, but has just killed someone innocent, and feels guilt. Hamlet takes Polonius in his arms and wishes him a good trip. Killing Polonius was just the “inability to coordinate his thoughts and actions, which might be considered his tragic flaw.” (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/hamlet/section9.rhtml) He realizes that he really doesn’t have the balls to kill Claudius when he has the chance, but while having a normal conversation with his mother; Hamlet goes and kills an anonymous enemy, or someone that he thinks is an enemy. It is evident that Hamlet hopes his revenge will be quick and he wouldn’t have to think it through; making it a total and complete accident. It seems that Hamlet doesn’t want to kill Claudius, but is going back to his Internal conflict of not feeling self-worthy. He thinks he has to please his father, even though his father is now dead. Hamlet is sent to England for killing Polonius, but he doesn’t go without a fight. He plays with Claudius while Claudius tries to get information out of him, and once he does tell Claudius where he buried Polonius. While on his way to England Hamlet meets Prince Fortinbras; a man who is very strong-willed and this reminds not only Hamlet, but also the reader of Hamlet’s inability to act on his wants. Hamlet is amazed on Fortinbras’ devote energy to his army and the shear willingness of marching to just get back a scrap of land. Hamlet decides in the end that all of his thoughts will be “from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!” (Act 4, Scene 4) Hamlet needs that reassurance that someone cares for him, or even is pleased on what he has done, and during this play it is his father. He goes through a deep depression throughout the whole play, and in the end does not get over the external conflict that he was going through with Claudius by accepting the duel that Laertes challenges him to.