by Mia Hill

Created on: April 26, 2010   Last Updated: April 29, 2010

Intriguing and compelling, Hamlet remains one of Shakespeare’s most widely read, performed, and most controversial of all the plays that he has written. In keeping with the motif of many of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet explores the whole gamut of human emotions love, resentment, revenge, and the anguish of death.

The title character, Hamlet, is the melancholy and cynical Prince of Denmark who is depressed about his father, King Hamlet’s death. Prince Hamlet’s depression turns into hatred when he learns from the ghost of his father that Claudius, his father’s brother and reigning king, committed the murder. Not only does he hate Claudius, but Prince Hamlet resents his own mother for marrying Claudius. Hamlet carries out his plot to avenge his father’s murder “with turbulent and dangerous lunacy.” (III.i.4)

Hamlet seeks confirmation that it was indeed Claudius who had killed his father by putting on a play about the murder to test Claudius’ reaction. Hamlet was finally convinced that his premonition and the message from the ghost were true. However, instead of gaining resolution, Hamlet became even more perplexed.

Hamlet has grave difficulty relating to other people especially members of his immediate family. Hamlet is tormented by his suspicion that an incestuous relationship took place between his mother, Gertrude, and Claudius when his father was alive. His repeated violent outbursts toward his mother make it impossible for him to maintain a normal family life. Hamlet’s maddening thoughts about his mother’s incestuous relationship are aggravated by the suspicion that she was aware that it was Claudius who had killed King Hamlet. Or maybe his attitude towards his mother was just another sign of his deranged emotional personality traits.

In Act 3 Hamlet informs Gertrude that he was pretending to be mad, clearly Hamlet wanted his mother to believe that he was not insane. After the second vision of his father, in which only Hamlet witnesses, he becomes even more obsessed with revenge.  His bizarre behavior at the appearance of the ghost reinforces Gertrude’s belief that her son is in fact mad. Hamlet declares to Gertrude that his madness was only an act, “That I essentially am not in madness, but mad in craft. ‘Twere good you let him know, For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise” (III.iv.194-196). Hamlet attempts to further explain his actions to his mother

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