Does Hamlet's Attitude Towards His Mother in General Solely Contribute to the Tragedy of the Play, or Is It Just on of Many Contributing Factors?

Does Hamlet's Attitude Towards His Mother in General Solely Contribute to the Tragedy of the Play, or Is It Just on of Many Contributing Factors?

  • Submitted By: Anonymous42
  • Date Submitted: 07/31/2010 9:43 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 2247
  • Page: 9
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Hamlet’s attitude towards his mother is merely a contributing factor of the tragedy of the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. This is can be proven by examining the setting of the play with it’s underlying tragedy, other possible ‘readings’ of the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, other more greatly contributing factors towards the tragedy and how Hamlets relation ship with his mother affects the events of the play and what that relationship is.

If a ‘bare bones’ examination of the events of “Hamlet” is performed it is quite obvious that Hamlet could possibly have influenced the most tragic event of the play (a personal interpretation of the scale of tragedy). All other tragedy is spawned from this original tragedy, which is of course the murder of King Hamlet by his brother, Claudius and the queens remarriage to the brother of her former husband and Claudius’s escape from justice. Hamlet’s attitude towards his mother plays an almost insignificant role in the tragedy of the play because a great tragedy has already occurred and it was what greatly influenced all the characters to act the way they did.

If Claudius did not murder his brother then Hamlet could not have pretended to go mad and drive Ophelia to madness and kill several people, therefore the responsibility for all the tragedy is due solely to the murder most foul of King Hamlet by Claudius. If Claudius had not murdered his brother Hamlet would not have the opportunity to kill Polonius (possibly an act to try and “save” his mother from her foul second husband), Hamlet would not have the options to send Ophelia into madness (possibly due to a negative association of women by Hamlet due to his mother’s perceived unfaithfulness). Therefore since Claudius murdered Hamlet’s father and opened up possibilities for other characters to increase the tragedy of the play, all the other actions of characters in the play are the responsibility of Claudius for acting as the catalyst. Since all the...

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