Hamlet: A Play by William Shakespeare
Hamlet is one of the best and longest plays written by the famous Shakespeare. The play mainly focuses on the prince of Denmark, Hamlet. The tragedies of the prince Helmet and his revenge mission towards his uncle Claudius through the use of the spirit of his father is discussed. As such, the authors view on religion, human nature and reality as the pieces of art and the key themes are outlined. Also, the book plays a role in unravelling the peculiar and potential dramatic skills as used by Shakespeare during this historical period (Shakespeare et al. 16). Therefore, the essays aims at examining Hamlet's view of reality, human nature, and religion and if this changes in the course of the play.
Analysis Hamlet's View
Basing William Shakespeare's work especially in the analysis of this play, a number of changes are experienced that focus on his discussion on reality, religion and human nature. In the quest of Hamlet to revenge against Claudius, his belief is changed over time. This happens when his meaning of life changed the moment his father died. He begun viewing life in a different perspective especially his reality and uncertainty. The central idea is the possibility of being certain which introduces the play in the world of illusion and mystery as the author says, In the wake of his father's death, Hamlet can't stop pondering and considering the meaning of life — and its eventual ending (Shakespeare et al. 95). As such, the action displayed by Hamlet indicate the uncertainty and his distorted reality on the cause of his father's death. The fails to face reality and uses this as an avenue of rising into power. However, Hamlet begun thinking of committing suicide because he was tired with life after the death of his father. He gets frightened due to the bodies and the skulls of the people who died. In this regard, his view on reality changed over time in the entire play.
Changes in Hamlet's Actions
Furthermore, his actions changed as Hamlet's originality was based on madness in which he made people believe he was harmless. This occurred when he was interrogating people on his father's death and whether Claudius was involved in causing the death. The madness was noticed by Polonius as he ironically posted that Hamlet was changing and tricky in the message he displays through his crazy behavior (Hapgood 56). However, as the play progresses Hamlet's behavior and character became erratic. The acting madness made him lose touch with reality and thus he lost his grip. He lost control of his emotions to a point when he engaged in discussion revolving the loss of his father. The extreme stress made him succumb to physical violence which was an exponential change in his temperaments and the way of life. In addition to that, the view of Hamlet and his reality changed especially when he was talking to women. Initially, he used to talk to women, his mother Gertrude inclusive properly without much feelings. As he turned to talk in agitated to women, for instance he accused his mother that she remarried quickly after his father's death and that meant that she did not love his father with all her heart and mind (Shakespeare et al. 29-33).
Changes in Human Nature
The human nature as per the play by Shakespeare has indicated a number of changes throughout the book. This is indicated by the way Hamlet and other characters have changed over time. In this view, the complexity of action is clearly an element of human nature that is portrayed by the author in the book. This occurs in a number of scenarios for instance, Hamlet is always the prey of indecisiveness after the death of his father. As a result, Hamlet suffers several challenges that warrant his actions in the entire play. His focus or action are exposed in form of rational consideration especially with his demand for certainty, ethical, psychological, and emotional factors (Hapgood 100-102). As such, the actions of Hamlet were without purpose as he turned out to be blind and bitter which was human nature. For example, his human action when dealing with the challenge between him and Claudius before and after he took power from his father. Therefore, this determined or made him to follow his uncontrollable human instinct that sent him signals or revenge all the time he saw his father's grave or spiritual presence around him. On the other side, other characters act with much control of their human nature and thus they were bold enough to face the challenges head on collision. Despite the guard Marcellus who famously concluded that, something is rotten in the state of Denmark, Claudius acted boldly as if nothing is going on (Shakespeare et al. 26). As the book progresses, the action of Hamlet were even worse, he human nature was changing even to the people close to him as he could not control the inside person in him. In due process, other characters such as Laertes took it upon themselves and revenge against Claudius. However, as time passed by, Laertes changed his human character and became on the side of Claudius, this is the nature of men as the author said, 'I will hit him now and revenge all he did to my father (says Laertes)' (Shakespeare et al. 169). The mind and the instincts of Laertes haunts him till he turned to the side of his adversary in the due course. This was coupled with the action of indecisiveness and the ability of people to take control of their actions to a point of being driven by their human nature that has never been constant at all. They allowed emotions to take care of their minds and action and therefore, they finally succumb to the control of human natural forces especially for the case of Hamlet and Laertes in the play (McAlindon 222).
The Mystery of Death
Also, the mystery of death throughout the play was another genesis of changes in both human nature, religion, and the view of reality. This emanated from the time Claudius killed king Hamlet in order to have power. The death of the king was a big blow to Hamlet as it sparked the thoughts of death in all dimensions of his life. As a result, this involved the spiritual existence of ghosts, the aftermath of death, and remnants of the dead which were lingering in Hamlets mind each passing day. As the authors says, 'Yorick's skull and the decaying corpses in the cemetery sparked feelings to Hamlet whenever he came across them' (Shakespeare et al. 68). The changes in his religious beliefs were noticed when he begun saying that death was the only sure way of finding solutions to his questions and the ambiguous world that he was in to. The quest for truth and justice dominated Hamlet as death led to the commencement of revenge and evil thoughts of committing suicide. Basing on the religious perspective, the change in the reasoning and moral judgement of Claudius as he was haunted by feelings of murder. He later wanted to be end his life though he realized that as a Christian this was not proper especially from the religious perspective. However, his death came as a result of revenge of the wrongs he did that kept him at loggerheads with at people in the society including Hamlet (Shakespeare et al. 200).
Conclusion
Finally, considering the entire book or play, a myriad changes have taken place to a point that Hamlet's view on religion was altered by consistent thoughts of the dead. He instead banked his hope on spirits and death to offer him solutions through revenge to his closest adversaries. Also, the human nature changed in the entire play to appoint that Hamlet who was viewed as a composed and organized person who is able to control his moods, was instead seen as the play progressed as unable to control his moods. Furthermore, the view on reality for most of the characters was also changed especially Hamlet. His view on a number of concepts did not add up as it was not in line with the real world. As such, he became an illusionist and therefore, his decisions were not a true reflection of his original or initial view on reality.
Works Cited
Hapgood, Robert. "Hamlet: Shakespeare in Production." (1999): 289.
McAlindon, Thomas. Shakespeare and decorum. Macmillan, 1973.
Shakespeare, William, Laurence Olivier, and Jean Simmons. Hamlet. University Press, 1948.
