The Character of Hamlet Essay -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

The Character of Hamlet This essay will delve into the graphic symbol of the hero of William Shakespeares Hamlet as it develops through the drama, and will disassemble the more important features. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar in Hamlet A Man Who Thinks onwards He Acts explain the popularity of the protagonist Much of the delight of modern readers, of course, comes from the regard of the characters of the principal figures in the play, for Shakespeare has presented them in three-dimensional vividness. We feel that they are invigoration beings with problems that are perennially human. If a modern man is not called upon, as Hamlet was, to avenge a murdered father, he nevertheless must face crises in his own life that remind him of Hamlets dilemma. . . (62). Marchette Chute in The Story Told in Hamlet describes the opening circumstance of the drama For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the minute of arc of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlemen ts, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead queen regnant of Denmark, Hamlets father. . . . The hour comes, and the ghost walks (35). Horatio and Marcellus exit the ramparts of Elsinore intending to enlist the uphold of Hamlet. There is a social gathering of the court, where Claudius pays tribute to the memory of his departed brother, the former king, and then conducts some items of business. Hamlet is there dressed in black, the color of mourning, for his deceased father. His first words say that Claudius is A comminuted more than kin and less than kind, indicating a dissimilarity in value between the new king and himself. Hamlets first soliloquy emphasizes the frailty of women an obvious reference to his mothers has... ...World of Hamlet. Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York Oxford University P., 1967. Rosenberg, Marvin. Laertes An Impulsive but Earnest new-made Aristocrat. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ Univ. of Delaware P., 1992. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/ juncture/full.html No line nos. Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. Hamlet A Man Who Thinks Before He Acts. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. N. p. Pocket Books, 1958.