Hamlet

Being one of Shakespeare's most famous plays, the tragedy of Hamlet includes numerous themes and elements from which many of the plays subplots stem from. The persona presented by the main character in play is a bewildering one. Greatly affected by the events around him, Hamlet portrays one of the plays most common themes. Madness overcomes him during the play, resulting in many violent outbursts and offensive comments. Due to his father's death and the betrayal of his loved ones, the main character Hamlet is driven to his madness.

Hamlet is paid a visit by the ghost of his father, who tells him the truth about how he really died. Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo are all able to see the ghost and inform Hamlet of what they have seen, "My lord, I think I saw him yesternight/ Saw who?/ My lord, the King your father" (1.2.197-199). Hamlet is in utter shock when he is informed of what his friends have seen. To find out if this is true, he comes the next night and waits for the ghost to arrive and speaks to it. The ghost appears a second time in the play when Hamlet is arguing with his mother. Hamlet sees and speaks to the ghost, but when he asks his mother if she sees it, she questions Hamlets mental state, "To whom do you speak this?/Do you see nothing there?/ Nothing at all; yet all that is I see" (3.4.149-151). How is it that Horatio, Marcellus, and Barnardo are able to see the ghost, but his mother cannot? Is Hamlet just imagining the image of his father the second time around? This puzzling event just adds to his ambiguous persona and shows the actuality of his madness.

Ophelia, daughter of Polonius, is Hamlet's love interest in the play. Ophelia, being extremely dependent on the men in her life, gives into her fathers scheme to spy on Hamlet. Polonius forbids her from seeing Hamlet and tells her that Hamlet's love for her is not real. When Ophelia tries to return gifts Hamlet had given her, he responds angrily, "...time gives it proof. I did love you once/ Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so/ You should not have believed me, for virtue/ cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall/ relish of it. I loved you not" (3.1.125-129). Hamlet denies ever loving Ophelia and begins to rudely criticize her. At the end of the play, Ophelia drowns in the river and dies. Two gravediggers are digging her grave when Laertes begins to speak about Ophelia. Hamlet immediately jumps into the grave