5 most painful facts of life that Hamlet has to face
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a story that is full of grief and agony. The protagonist in the story Hamlet endures suffering due to the ill will and intentions of various characters in the story. In the light of this, this paper explains five of the most painful facts that Hamlet has to face within the plot of the story.
First of all; Hamlet suffers from the loss of his father. His father, King Hamlet, is killed by his brother Claudius who is malicious about the successes of he has realized. Claudius ascends to the throne to become the new King of Denmark. However, Hamlet is in much pain for the loss of his father, but he has no idea about how his father dies. He is also in much agony because of the fact that his uncle had married his mother Queen Gertrude. His mother asks him to shed off the “nightly color,” but Hamlet is still sad about the turn of events (Shakespeare I.ii.68). Amidst this agony, Hamlet learns through the ghost of his father that his uncle Claudius was responsible for the death of his father, King Hamlet. The ghost of his father urges Prince Hamlet to seek revenge for the life of his father. But the ghost of his father urges him not to revenge against his mother. The ghost tells him to “leave her to heaven and to the pangs of her own conscience” (Shakespeare I.v.86). As a result of the pain that Prince Hamlet feels regarding his uncle Claudius, he embraces the idea. In agreement to the direction of his father’s ghost, Hamlet says “The time is out of joint: O cursed spite / that ever I was born to set it right!” (Shakespeare I.v.189–190).He embarks on a mission of ascertaining that his uncle Claudius was indeed responsible for the death of his father. Prince Hamlet crafts a play which he believes illustrates the manner in which Claudius killed King Hamlet. Hamlet explains that “The play’s the thingwherein I’ll catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.581–582). Claudius shows a sense of guilt for his actions when he leaves the room when the part of the killing of the King arrives. The king is concerned about why the “the clouds still hang” on him (Shakespeare I.ii.66). The sends rage in Prince Hamlet’s heart because he is now certain that his uncle was responsible for the heinous act of killing his father.
The second most painful fact of Hamlet’s life was that he was not able to kill Claudius immediately he discovered that he was responsible for the death of his father. Instead of killing Claudius immediately Prince Hamlet is thoughtful about the validity of the allegations. The appearance of the ghost of the King suggested that “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Shakespeare I.iv.67). However, Hamlet wants to be certain about the fact that Claudius killed his uncle before he can kill him. However, when Prince Hamlet goes to Kill Claudius he realizes that he is praying and atoning for the sins that he had committed after killing Hamlet’s father. Hamlet is well aware that if he kills Claudius when he is at the middle of his prayers, there is a high likelihood that the soul of Claudius is going to go in heaven. Aware of this possibility, Prince Hamlet decides to postpone his quest of wanting to kill Claudius for the heinous actions that he had done of Prince Hamlet’s father. Therefore, it was a painful fact that Prince Hamlet knew the person who had killed his father but was not in a position to revenge for the life of his father immediately.
The third most painful fact of Hamlet’s life is when he mistakenly kills Polonius who was the Chamberlain instead of Claudius. Claudius had instructed Polonius to hide and watch Hamlet whom Claudius described as “madness in great ones must be carefully watched” (Shakespeare III.i.187). This caused Hamlet to kill Polonius unknowingly. This was unfortunate for Prince Hamlet because Claudius found a window of opportunity to be able to punish Hamlet by sending him away from Denmark to England. By so doing, Claudius would be in a position to alleviate issues of his safety. He understood that sending Prince Hamlet abroad would make him safer from death for the actions that he had taken against King Hamlet. In addition to being sent away from Denmark, Hamlet also got into loggerheads with Polonius’s son, Laertes, whose father had been killed by Hamlet. Laertes was in deep rage when he realized that Hamlet was responsible for the death of his father, Polonius. Claudius also used this chance to create more grudge between Laertes and prince Hamlet. Claudius wanted to use the antagonism between Prince Hamlet and Laertes to kill Hamlet. In this way, Claudius would be in a position to protect his life and his position as the King of Denmark. Therefore, it was very painful for Hamlet to kill another individual by mistake while he was looking forward to achieve justice for his father through killing Claudius.
The fourth most painful fact about the life of Hamlet was the death of Ophelia. It was not until the burial procession approached the churchyard that he realizes that it was Ophelia who had died. Hamlet loved Ophelia but had not demonstrated much love to her when she was still alive. It was very painful for Hamlet when he realized that Ophelia was not being given a descent funeral rite on the grounds that she had committed suicide by drowning herself into the river. Hamlet is so affected by the death of Ophelia that he proclaimed that he loved her very much. He got into a fight with Laertes at the burial scene because Laertes believed that it was hamlet that was responsible for the death of Ophelia. To signify the pain that Hamlet had in his heart owing to the death of Ophelia, Hamlet says that even forty thousand siblings could not in way match the deep love that Hamlet had for Ophelia (Shakespeare V.i. 254-256). In fact Hamlets goes ahead to argue that he would have done anything that Ophelia wanted in life. At one point Hamlet says that he was even ready to feed on a crocodile if by any chance Ophelia required him to do so. Hamlet continues to fight with Laertes at the burial site such that they had to be pulled apart so that the burial ceremony would continue. It is painful that even after the pain that Hamlet was undergoing at the time, the Claudius who was the King argued that Hamlet was insane. As his acting father, we would have expected him to console his son for the agony that he was undergoing, but he instead used the opportunity to talk to Laertes to craft a plan to kill Hamlet. It was this revenge pan that led to another painful experience in the life of Hamlet where he witnessed the death the death of his mother Queen Gertrude, who had been married by Claudius at after he had successfully killed King Hamlet and ascended to the throne as the King of Denmark. Claudius had organized a fight between Hamlet and Laertes so that he would use the opportunity to kill Prince Hamlet. Hamlet agrees to the fight by saying that “all’s ill here about my heart, but that one must be ready for death, since it will come no matter what one does.” (Shakespeare V.ii.222)As a way of ensuring that Hamlet died as a result of the fight, Claudius gave Laertes a sword that was enriched with poison. Claudius also understood that Hamlet had great fighting skills and therefore poisoned the drink that Hamlet would take after winning the first two strikes against Laertes. Contrary to the expectations of Claudius, Prince Hamlet did not drink the poisonous drink. Instead, Queen Gertrude unknowingly took the drink and died immediately from the poisoning. The loss of his mother was a painful experience for him. This gave Laertes the opportunity to harm Prince Hamlet using the poisonous sword. However, Hamlet does not die immediately; instead he kills Laertes with the sword and stabs Claudius to death. As Laertes dies he says “am justly killed with my own treachery” (Shakespeare V.ii.318). In this episode, it was painful that Hamlet watched his mother die from the poison that had been created by his uncle Claudius.
The fifth most painful fact about Hamlet’s is that despite his success in killing Claudius, he was not lucky to live. The poison from the sword that had injured him eventually killed him. As Hamlet was dying from the poison of the sword he expressed the idea that the death of Polonius had led to his own death. Hamlet says “to punish me with this and this with me” (Shakespeare III.iv.174). This means that Prince Hamlet did not live to inherit the throne of his father, King Hamlet. Instead, the throne was assumed by the Fortinbras who was an outsider and not a member of the Royal family. It is painful that in spite of the success that Hamlet had realized by finally managing to kill Claudius who killed his father, he was not fortunate enough to reap the successes of his struggles. Instead, a man who did not understand, the difficulties that hamlet had endured became the heir to the throne. It is painful that the story ends in a melancholic mood instead of a mood of success and conquering by Prince Hamlet.
In conclusion, some of the most painful facts about Hamlet’s life include the death of his father as a result of betrayal by his uncle Claudius, the killing of Polonius by mistake, the death of Ophelia, and the death of Queen Gertrude. In addition, it is painful that Prince Hamlet did not get to become the heir to the throne of his father because he also died from poisoning.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. Leicester: Charlwood, 1991. Print.
