Hamlet - Identity Crisis
Shakespeare's Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.An identity crisis can be defined as 'a psychosocial state or condition of disorientation and role confusion occurring especially in adolescents as a result of conflicting internal and external experiences, pressures, and expectations and often producing acute anxiety.' (www.dictionary.com) It was apparent that Hamlet did indeed have an identity crisis because of his conflicting internal and external experiences and the pressures and expectations from those in the Royal Court of Denmark. He endures conflicting internal and external experiences such as the ghost of his father requesting him to exact revenge on Claudius and in doing so contradict all of the morals he has formed. Pressures to accept the dubious marriage of his mother to his uncle, pressure to accept Clau
Further, in order to discover the truth about Claudius' supposed crimes, Hamlet slips into the Machiavellian world and produces a play for the court. The play is a re-enactment of the murder of his father so that when Claudius saw the murder scene he would hopefully react to it in some way, and in doing so prove his implication in King Hamlet's death. Secondly, Hamlet had to fall again to the Machiavellian world by deceiving Guildenstern and Rozencrantz, which inevitably meant their demise so as to save himself from Claudius' plan. Hamlet is a man with an identity crisis because of the conflicting emotions he is feeling and expectations being thrust upon him. His eventual plunge into a state of insanity was a direct consequence of stress. The stress between worlds destroyed his moral base, the actions of his mother and his consequential treatment of Ophelia left him with no 'north point' to follow and his constant changing of moods either caused his crisis or were as a result of losing his way. Hamlet to this day remains a complex character in the centre of perhaps the finest play in the history of the English language. snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a Hamlet has been described as a barbarian by some scholars because of the way he treats women. His hatred for women was launched by his mother's incestuous and hasty marriage to his uncle, Claudius. His mother's behaviour is incomprehensible to Hamlet's belief system that ironically, she helped to create. Consequently, Hamlet lost all respect for women in general and felt alone in the world, for the one last thing he had to love, he now despised Ophelia.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Guildenstern Rozencrantz, Polonius King, Ophelia Hamlet, King Hamlet, Court Denmark, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet Christian, Consequently Hamlet, Secondly Hamlet, machiavellian world, identity crisis, heroic world, antic disposition, conflicting internal, external experiences, internal external, internal external experiences, conflicting internal external, hatred women, King Hamlet's, hamlet identity crisis, hamlet's death, marriage uncle, identity crisis conflicting, external experiences pressures,
Approximate Word count = 1842
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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