Xorak on 3/11/2010 at 02:37
I just finished a class on 7 Shakespeare plays. And I'm starting another on another 7 plays. I didn't do any essays on Hamlet, but if you needed one to compare Henry IV part 1 and King Lear, or Antony and Cleopatra and Othello, I could give a few good pointers.
Hamlet's dilemma is his cowardly inaction and his tendency for self-analysis rather than for action. Hamlet's words become the substitute for any action. Although he can move the audience by his passionate language he is unable to act with purpose. When he does act, he fails (i.e. when he kills Polonius by mistake) [Spoiler].
Hamlet would rather play a role (the play within the play, the pretend madness) rather than just resort to the needed action. To be a man (and to avenge his father's death) requires action, so thus he struggles too with what it means about him that he can't act accordingly. He can't even take action and commit suicide (the ‘to be or not to be' speech) because he fears the after world and what might happen to his soul. He is likely fated to death though because he refuses to take action, and he accepts this meek end for himself but loathes that others (Ophelia) should also die because of him.
Edit- what kind of research essay do you have to do?
Just as ideas:
The role of robotics and bots on the future of art
The effect of social gaming and social immersion in virutal worlds
The use or uselessness of an 'Internet Archive'
Social Happiness in the past and present. Were people ever 'happier'?
I did an essay once on the non-plausability of the Genesis Project from Star Trek 3.
hopper on 3/11/2010 at 09:54
Hamlet's dilemma is his obligation to bring his uncle to justice for murdering his father and usurping the crown, which is both a crime and a sin, which he cannot honour without committing a crime and a sin himself: murdering his uncle in return. He is considering suicide as a way out, but fears what will happen in the afterlife. Assuming of course that there is an afterlife, which no man can ultimately know. This is what the "to be or not to be" monologue is about (is the end really the end?), describing Hamlet's internal struggle with himself, which the whole play is essentially about. This is why it is considered a centrepiece of the play (although there's a plot hole here: Hamlet has actually spoken to his father's ghost, so he knows there is an afterlife).
demagogue on 3/11/2010 at 14:36
Quote Posted by hopper
(although there's a plot hole here: Hamlet has actually spoken to his father's ghost, so he knows there is an afterlife).
First, he was never 100% sure the ghost was really his father (at least early on). But anyway, the debate wasn't about whether there is *some* kind of afterlife, but what it was like. That's what the 'to be or not to be' speech is worried about (the undiscovered country, flying off to ills we know not of).
And even if he recognized the ghost as his father or the afterlife of something, it looked like the ghost might stay miserable and restlessly floating around for eternity, and who knows what else when he disappears... So if anything it just added more things for Hamlet to worry about in killing himself. Now he's seen direct proof that the afterlife isn't necessarily a release from torment at all. So it's not a plot hole IMO; it's actually helping the plot out.
Volitions Advocate on 3/11/2010 at 16:13
I always thought Hamlet's dilemma/flaw was when he found out Claudius really did kill his father by listening to him confess it in his prayers. He wanted justice but he also wanted revenge. and he didn't want to kill Claudius right after he had confessed because he wanted to send his to hell, not to heaven, so rather than following justice, he chose revenge, to wait for Claudius to sin, and then kill him. That was always my take. Justice or Revenge.
As for your research paper. what subject is it for? I've never had a paper to write where the professor just said "oh go write something" they always has a subject in mind, if not a topic.
june gloom on 3/11/2010 at 16:30
Where were you guys when I needed to write something interesting about the least interesting people in history, the Puritans?
hopper on 3/11/2010 at 17:17
The very first line "To be or not to be, that is the question" seems to say he is pondering whether there is an afterlife, and not just what it will be like. He sees three alternatives for action (or lack thereof):
1. The zero alternatve: do nothing, and continue to suffer his outrageous fortune;
2. Put an end to injustice by killing his uncle;
3. End his suffering by killing himself.
Since he is a pussy, suicide actually seems to be his preferred course of action. He is wishing for death to end his misery. But it can only be the answer if he can be sure that death will actually end his suffering:
"To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd."
He is imagining death to be like a dreamless sleep --in effect, nonexistence-- but there's a catch: Maybe death is not the end, after all:
"To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause"
He is afraid that there will be something after death:
"For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
[...and a bunch of other unpleasantries...]
But that the dread of something after death,
[...] puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?"
So he is by no means treating the existence of an afterlife as a given.
Shayde on 4/11/2010 at 12:07
Quote Posted by reizak
That line is in iambic pentameter but curiously has an extra unstressed syllable tacked on, which gives it a weak or
feminine ending. I think that's a subtle indication that Hamlet is struggling with with his sexual identity and is probably a homo.
I think I love you.
In terms of advice, I think the OP has enough on Hamlet here - advice for your research essay. Don't kill youself trying to impress. An analysis of the single member simple plurality electoral system (if not something that interests you) will become a giant ball ache that will either never be completed or will be half-assed. Do yourself a favour and pick something that holds a kernal of interest for you. Research can be exciting and fun if the topic is right for you.
