Sample Thematic Essay: HAMLET

Thematic essay on Hamlet

In the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, characters choose their morality of being either good or bad. Just like the other genres of literature, Hamlet exhibits the fact that evil can be present in a society, even triumphing but can never conquer. One may say that by doing bad, some characters get to triumph but at the long run, all the problems that one tries to get rid of often fall back to the same person. Shakespeare in his book Hamlet explores the aspect of good and bad as a choice chosen by the characters and goes ahead to explain to the audience the various thoughts that drive the characters to take those actions that they do, showing the plot development of the story all through. Morality is by choice according to the work in Hamlet and the characters are the ones who choose either to do good or to do evil.

The evil done by King Claudius makes he to be referred to as "that incestuous, that adulterate beast"by the ghost (1.5.42), and it soon comes to our realization that his crime is "rotten in the state of Denmark." For instance, the issue of morality is exhibited in the play through the crowning of King Claudius in his new throne and how he achieves this. The Court of Ellsinore’s poisoning is symbolic, the castle setting and the wedding and love found between the brother of the late king and the sister in law. King Claudius, who is newly crowned, is portrayed as choosing the path of evil and having a mind that is twisted. The question of morality arises in the actions of King Claudius especially taking on the fact that he is the brother of Denmark’s late King and he poisons his own brother. He later moves to marry the wife of his brother after poisoning him. This can be seen as being an evil act. King Claudius seems to have chosen the path of evil as he slowly poisons the entire kingdom and even immorally marries into the royal courts, his intentions being evil. Claudius is seen trying to exert a lot of powers throughout the play which he as well lacks but insists on bearing. His choice of evil is however defeated by his brother’s good. There is ultimately the uncovering of the death of Prince Hamlet’s father which leads to the prince using evil to overcome evil.

In act 1. Scene 3 in lines 77-78 where Polonius says “And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell; my blessings season this in thee! He openly shows lack of trust in anyone. In the play, Polonius, who is the royal assistant to the king, is preoccupied in his appearance. From the outside, he looks like one who is caring and loving to others which includes to his son, Laertes. While speaking to his son, Polonius seems to be sincere in his words but in the actual sense, these words do not mean anything to him and they are merely rehearsed. Polonius makes others to believe that he is doing good and evens wishes his son blessings as he departs but later sends someone to spy on him.

‘A villain kills my father and for that, I, his son, do this same villain send to heaven (Act 3 scene 3). Hamlet presents a good situation of good against bad in the play. This is basically because Hamlet desired to see Claudius suffer for the crime he committed but raises that it is evil to murder the king prompted by both ‘hell and heaven’ (11.ii.586). Hamlet is placed in a position that is very unnatural by the ghost who asks him to commit the murder. As much as Hamlet hates the king, he opts not to act out of that hate and not to follow the instructions of the ghost. His intent to delay the death of Claudius at the request of his father leads to the questioning of his desire to uphold his father’s wish. He is offered a perfect opportunity to kill the king but he chooses good over evil, sparing the kings life. At the same time, Claudius seems to be moving from doing evil as seen when he seeks forgiveness at the time that Hamlet gets the opportunity to murder him. At this point, Hamlet thinks that killing him while praying would lead to Claudius being in heaven hence dishonoring the will of his father. 

Conclusion

The play, Hamlet, openly depicts a situation whereby characters are faced with a situation whereby they are supposed to choose between doing good and bad. The most conspicuous aspect of this is developed by Hamlet and his seeking of revenge for the death of his father. Just like other characters, Hamlet is torn between choosing the path of doing badly as opposed to good. From this revenge, a lot of pain is caused by Hamlet which sills over to others. As a result of Hamlet’s revenge, much more evil occurs in the kingdom as corruption of various characters takes shape.