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Hamlet's Dilemma

A young man comes home from the university to find his father dead and his mother remarried. His new stepfather happens to be Hamlet's uncle Claudius, his father's brother, so he considers the marriage incestuous. These elements can be found in the Greek tragedies, and Shakespeare uses them to set up a tragic end for the young college graduate, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Hamlet encounters his father's ghost one night when he is walking outside. The ghost complains that Claudius murdered him, and he demands that his son exact revenge for that foul deed. This leads to Hamlet's downfall because he hesitates. Instead of immediately confronting Claudius, he spies on him and speaks in riddles. Although Shakespeare does not state it explicitly, Hamlet cannot trust the word of the ghost. First, it might not be his father, but rather an evil spirit masquerading as his father. Second, even if the ghost is his father, it might not be speaking the truth. The ghost says that Claudius dropped poison into his eyes while he was sleeping, but how does he know what happened while he was sleeping?

Hamlet haunts the castle as if he were a ghost himself, walking through a graveyard with his friend Horatio, entering his mother's bedroom unannounced, and generally spying on the others. His mother, Gertrude, is convinced that her son has been driven mad with grief by the death of his father while he was away at the university in Paris. Perhaps she is right. However, Claudius reveals his guilt when he arranges to have Hamlet killed. He does not consider killing Hamlet himself, but arranges for two courtiers to take his nephew to England and have him killed there. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who accompany Hamlet on the journey, carry a letter asking the King of England to execute Hamlet, but Hamlet discovers the letter and changes it to have his two companions killed. After this first attempt fails, Claudius must arrange a second attempt.

Enter Hamlet's lover, Ophelia, and the play reveals the young man's negative feelings about sex and love. Hamlet rejects her, and the audience of Shakespeare's time (around 1590 to 1610) would have understood that he could not marry her. Hamlet is the son of the king, the heir to the throne, while Ophelia is merely the daughter of a servant in the castle. When Ophelia drowns herself, her brother Laertes vows to revenge her death. Ironically, Laertes is Hamlet's friend. The plot thickens when Hamlet stabs Polonius to death after finding him hiding behind a curtain in his mother's bedroom. This incident reveals Hamlet's raging opposition to sexuality. Hamlet does not know who is hiding behind the curtain, but he assumes that it is someone who has been having sex with his mother. Even if he does not believe his father's ghost, he does believe that evil deeds are being done in the castle.

Hamlet's own actions seal his fate. Now Laertes must avenge the murder of his father Polonius, as well as the suicide of his sister Ophelia.

Hamlet might have succeeded, and lived, if he had simply confronted his uncle in a public forum. However, he would have had to cite the testimony of a ghost. He was not home when his father died, so he has no other explanation for his suspicions. This dilemma led him to act like a madman and ensure his own doom.

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