What are the major conflicts in Hamlet?

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  • William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, is thought by a majority of avid readers to have a focal point on revenge. Although revenge is a significant part of the play, it is not the core theme. Hamlet primarily revolves around the conflict faced between the divided halves within Prince Hamlet. In the play, Hamlet pretends to be mad, but sometimes it seems that Hamlet truly goes insane. His portrayal of a madman may get quite intense, but he is not insane; he is just troubled. “To be or not to be” is not the question. What bothers Hamlet is the real question. Hamlet is greatly upset by his mother’s hasty marriage to his Uncle Claudius. Hamlet has a great battle with himself over his love and hate for women. Since he feels betrayed and angry with women, he has extreme feelings of animosity towards them throughout most of the play. He tells Ophelia to join a nunnery, rather than have children. He also criticizes women for making men act like scoundrels. When Ophelia agrees to act against Hamlet and spy upon him, it is the icing on the cake, and Hamlet becomes a misogynist. First his mother, then his lover, all seem to abandon Hamlet. He gets upset, gets too into the character of being a madman, and temporarily loses control of his sanity. However, not all of him hates women. In fact, he really does have an abundant amount of love for his mother, Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia; even though he treats them poorly until the end of the play. When Ophelia dies, Hamlet states: “I lov’d Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum.” (V,I,275). He really does love and care for Ophelia, but he does not show it until it is too late.Also, when Gertrude dies from the poison in the final act, Hamlet finally brings himself to kill Claudius. Hamlet’s father was a great warrior; He led Denmark to victory against Norway and defeated King Fortinbras. When confronted by his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns that Claudius murdered his father, and that his father wants him to avenge Claudius’s crime so that his soul can rest. Hamlet is diffident about what he should do. He wants to kill Claudius so his father’s soul can rest, but he is a thinker, not a doer, and can’t seem to bring himself to kill Claudius. Hamlet feels inferior to his father. He is expected to be a great warrior too, yet he cannot even run a dagger through a murderous old man. He is really a coward, although he tries to fight against it. He comes up with excuses not to kill Claudius, such as when Claudius is alone and praying. Hamlet refuses to kill him because “…now’a is praying! And now I’ll do’t. And so’a goes to heaven; and so am I reveng’d? That would be scann’d. A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (III,iii,73). Hamlet is fighting with the other half of himself that wants to be a good son; making his father proud, and his half that is greatly a part of who he is: a procrastinating coward. Another of the conflicts that Hamlet encounters are his thoughts on suicide. He feels completely overwhelmed by everything that is occurring in his life and he just wants to escape. Several times he comments upon suicide. However, Hamlet is never able to bring himself to commit suicide (in the same way that he cannot seem to kill Claudius). He is daunted by what lies in the afterlife (or if there is even an afterlife). Therefore, he decides to bear the ills that he has, rather than jump into something unknown. William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet is a very complex play. Revenge is a large part of the play, but it is not the main leitmotif. This play focuses more on how Hamlet, although educated, cannot understand himself, and is constantly discombobulated at what he should do and how he should feel. He hates women, but he loves them; he wants to do away with Claudius, but he is afraid. Some say he is insane, but he is not. His moments of temporary madness are due to his distress from the burdens that he has to carry. Hamlet even elucidates that he is essentially not in madness, but ‘mad in craft’ (III,iv,186). In the end, Hamlet’s indecisiveness builds up the predicaments, ultimately leading to the demise of most of the main characters. Hamlet’s war with himself leads him to face one of his halves’ fears; therefore, causing him to explore the unknown territory of his death.

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