Good Example Of Argumentative Essay On William Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Type of paper: Argumentative Essay
Topic: Shakespeare, Family, Hamlet, Literature, Parents, Revenge, Father, Death
Pages: 4
Words: 1100
Published: 2020/12/26
Introduction
Hereditary kinship was one of the main causes of chain deaths and murders in Shakespeare. Kinship could only change hands on the death of the sitting king and the immediate heir would be his son. In the story of hamlet, we are encountered with one of the strategies that were used by the king’s relatives to transfer kinship to a different family through murder. The murder was done in a clever way that will not be suspicious and at the same time prompt revenge. However as it happens, the late king appears in form of a ghost and reveals that he was murdered by his own brother, who not only took over the kingdom but also the kings wife. The story introduces us to a revenge mission that has to be accomplished by hamlet in honor of his late father. Thesis: The theme of revenge shall be at the center of our focus as we look at it’s in depth implication and how it contributes to the development of the plot.
Revenging on a sitting kind was most probably the most difficult thing that hamlet could do. The only evidence he had was that of his father’s appearance as a ghost, which could easily be dismissed as fallacy by anybody who heard it. Shakespeare uses a crisis to solve the mystery of another crisis that is being faced in the community. Hamlet is held in between obeying his father by revenging on Claudius, who is the sitting king and his uncle. The dilemma that hamlet is found in causes him distress considering that her own mother is at the center of the crisis. Hamlet is disturbed at the fact that the ‘angel’ who came to their rescue, by acting his foster father and husband to her mother who was now lonely is in fact the devil whose intentions were preplanned. His is sad at the thought of how they have trusted Claudius yet he was the source of the predicament they are found into it (Shakespeare 27). The crisis that Shakespeare brings up in the novel is on how to prove that Claudius is indeed the perpetrator of his late father’s murder without hurting the feelings of her mother.
Shakespeare uses a play within a play to unveil the mystery, which will enhance in developing the plot of the play by making it easier for hamlet to revenge on the death of his father. At the beginning of the play, there was a focus on the life of King Claudius as he had just taken over the leadership of the kingdom. He became the potential heir, after the death of the king considering that hamlet was still too young to inherit the kingdom.
“Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's deathThe memory be green, and that it us befittedTo bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdomTo be contracted in one brow of woe,Yet so far hath discretion fought with natureThat we with wisest sorrow think on him,Together with remembrance of ourselves. (1.2.1-7)” All was merry as Hamlet and his mother found a new lease of life by having the next of kin take good care of them. The mood of the plot changes immediately after the late king appears to his son and reveals that he was killed by Claudius who wanted to forcefully inherit the kinship. This becomes the beginning of distress in the family that had accepted the happenings and was moving on well. The distress is transferred to the other characters of the novel, including Gertrude who realized that the man he was currently living with was not a friend but an enemy.
It is at this point that Shakespeare is able to now bring about and effectively communicate the intent of the novel. Shakespeare took the audience from a point of having a happy family and community that was able to happily move on after the death of their king. They had all accepted that the king died a natural death and even accepted the next heir, Claudius to take over from him. Shakespeare slowly introduces as to other events that would change the happy and contended mood of the play to a solemn one by the mysterious appearance of the late king’s ghost. “I am thy father's spirit,Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,And for the day confined to fast in fires,Till the foul crimes done in my days of natureAre burnt and purged away. But that I am forbidTo tell the secrets of my prison-house, (1.5.9-22).” Shakespeare introduction of the ghost changed the remaining part of the story and the mood. With one character’s mood already changed, Shakespeare had to develop the story in a systematic way that would transfer Hamlet’s mood of grief and sorrow to other characters (Eliot 54). It would have been expected that Hamlet reacts with anger by directly confronting the issue, yet this would reveal certain weaknesses on the author as there was no substantial evidence to prove the claim.
A play, revealing the incidences that followed the murder of the king would have been the perfect way of prosecuting the king. Shakespeare considered the fact that by the time of the death of the late king, hamlet was still too young to understand anything. The play, which would revisit the story, would therefore reveal to King Claudius that Hamlet is aware of what he did and was now in for revenge. The purpose of having the play within the play was not only reveal to the king that the secret was out but also act as an eye opener to Gertrude who will agree to the revenge mission as proposed by his father’s ghost. The intent of the play was to bring out the issue in an intended entertainment mood that would draw the interest of the king and his wife and at the same time reviving the story to the kind, who would definitely react in a way that reveals the scene is familiar (Keyishian 39). By the end of the play that was acted inside the play, it would be obvious to the two audiences that King Claudius was the murder of the late king and that hamlet was not only justified but also ready to revenge on his late father.
Conclusion
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is not only a breath taking piece of literature work but reveals more on style and creative ways that were applied to shape the plot of the novel. People who have read Shakespeare’s literature understand that his work revolves around revenge and sour love. People hence look forward to the literature with a particular predictability that Shakespeare tends to solve by introducing interesting scenes in the literature. Just when the reader feels that the literature is about something else that is not revenge, Shakespeare introduces other characters that shape and communicate the intention of the play. The style that Shakespeare uses to convey his message and the creativity he employs has made his literature works stand the test of time by remaining among people’s favorites. The plot of the play starts from tragedy, which was the death of the king, happiness, which was displayed by the community getting a perfect heir, the to trauma, where the ghost of the late king appeared and gave shocking revelation of his death and finally to tragedy, as the evidence against the king is proved and he has to die. It is a happy ending for the family and the kingdom as they are granted what is rightly there’s as the roots of evil are dealt with.
Works cited
Eliot, Thomas Stearns. "Hamlet and his problems." The Sacred Wood 92 (1920).
Keyishian, Harry. The shapes of revenge: victimization, vengeance, and vindictiveness in Shakespeare. Humanities Press Intl, 1995.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: William Shakespeare. WW Norton & Company, 1996.
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