Hamlet: Growing Pains
In the epic tragedy Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Prince Hamlet is
entrapped in a world of evil that is not of his own creation. He must oppose
this evil, which permeates his seemingly star-struck life from many angles. His
dealings with his father's eerie death cause Hamlet to grow up fast. His family,
his sweetheart, and his school friends all appear to turn against him and to
ally themselves with the evil predicament in which Hamlet finds himself. Hamlet
makes multiple attempts to avenge his father's murder, but each fails because
his father's murder, but each fails because his plans are marred by very human
shortcomings. It is these shortcomings that Hamlet is a symbol of ...
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To Hamlet appears
his dead father's spirit, and he must continue to live in the ‘unweeded garden,
/ That grows to seed' in order to fulfill the obligation he has to his father
(I.ii. 135-6).
Making Hamlet more a story of personal growth than a dark murder mystery,
Shakespeare emphasizes the emotional, rather than the physical, obstacles that
Prince must face in accomplishing his goal. Immediately, Hamlet must determine
whether the ghost speaks the truth, and to do so he must cope with theological
issues. He must settle the moral issue of private revenge. He must learn to
live in a world in which corruption could be as near as the person who gave
birth to him. He also must control the human passions within him which are
always threatening his plans. There are no more sobering issues than these
which would catalyze growth in any human.
Hamlet's widely recognized hamartia, or tragic flaw, is his inability to
make decisions on subjects with consequences of any weight. That he is ...
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of nature in Denmark. Francisco notes, ‘'tis
bitter cold, And I am sick at heart' (I.i. 8-9). This readies the audience for
the appearance of the ghost which will represent the perversion of the
harmonious order that Hamlet must restore.
Hamlet's reactions to his father's questionable death begin to reveal
his immaturity. Suffering from an unnatural grief over his father's death,
Hamlet lets his immaturity be revealed when he says the death was ‘a will most
incorrect to heaven' (I.ii. 129). As of now, Hamlet has a ‘...heart unfortified,
a mind impatient, / An understanding simple and unschool'd' ( I.ii. 96-97). He
is, therefore, unable to bear the brunt of something tragic as his ...
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Hamlet: Growing Pains. (2004, April 16). Retrieved April 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Growing-Pains/6333
"Hamlet: Growing Pains." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 16 Apr. 2004. Web. 23 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Growing-Pains/6333>
"Hamlet: Growing Pains." Essayworld.com. April 16, 2004. Accessed April 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Growing-Pains/6333.
"Hamlet: Growing Pains." Essayworld.com. April 16, 2004. Accessed April 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Hamlet-Growing-Pains/6333.
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