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  • Essay / Allusions to war in Hamlet

    "The aim of war is not to annihilate those who provoked it, but to bring them to mend their ways; not to ruin the innocent as well as the guilty , but to save both” (Polybius, since the beginning of man’s political consciousness, war has become almost a necessity for humanity and, therefore, part of its nature, even though it is). is not an object to be killed, it is an immediate mechanism. In Hamlet, Shakespeare's 17th century work, the writing employs not only the themes of tragedy and indecision, but also those of revenge. , espionage, mystery and death In this sense, Hamlet can also be defined as a play about war, whether the themes of war are literal or metaphorical. In fact, they are both. literal and metaphorical, and the metaphorical civil war plotted within the royal family is perhaps the greatest aid to the plot development and mystery of Hamlet. Between the first and last deaths of this tragic revenge play, a critique of the nature of man is required since neither the guilty nor the innocent are saved, and the primary objective of annihilation on the part of each character is injured in a horrible and unnecessary bloodshed. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay In the opening scenes of the play, the allusion to war is already evident, as the plot focuses on a recent change in royalty, and most know this change in royal power is a possible outcome of the battle. In this case, the first metaphorical battle takes place between the old King Hamlet and the new King Claudius, for the crown of Denmark and marriage to Queen Gertrude, in which Claudius wins. This battle thus begins the plot of the entire play, as Hamlet returns to Denmark, the ground "in which all his sufferings and all other sufferings will be buried" (Kerrigan), and which will become his own metaphorical battlefield. Furthermore, the introduction of the idea that his uncle Claudius murdered his father further complicates the plot, creating in Hamlet a feeling of hatred and a need for revenge. Early in the story, the reader discovers a secret revenge between Claudius and Hamlet, which makes lying, deception, and espionage almost inevitable factors in their success. In his attempt to gain recognition from kingship through his advice to Claudius, Polonius becomes an important character in the themes of espionage and deception. Nothing more than a naive interloper, Polonius chose to familiarize himself with royal affairs by spying on Hamlet for the king, and ended up paying the price of death for something he wasn't even fighting for. For example, in order to prove Hamlet's mad love for Ophelia, Polonius hides himself and the king and queen behind the tapestry to spy on Hamlet during his meeting with Ophelia (III, ii). Although this act of espionage has something to do with Polonius' daughter, giving him reason to participate, in a later scene his espionage goes to the extreme, and for this he is punished. While hiding behind a curtain in Gertrude's room to listen to her conversation with Hamlet, he awkwardly reveals his presence to Hamlet and is mistaken for Claudius, therefore instinctively killed without mercy (III, iv). While the bulk of Polonius' espionage concerns his advice to Claudius, he even distrusts his own son by sending a servant, Reynaldo, to secretly watch over Laertes when he is away (II, I). Therefore, while Polonius represents the innocent actor in the main plot, in his own family he plays a rolemore treacherous. Furthermore, his death represents the eminent moment when Hamlet pushes dissolution beyond its metaphorical terms and how he ultimately becomes obsessed with the facts of death (Kerrigan). Hamlet himself takes part in investigations and deceptions to uncover the truth behind his father's murder and to seek revenge on those who try to harm him. In order to discover the truth about his father's murder, he resorts to trapping his uncle in his own guilt. By forcing Claudius to watch a play that closely resembles his murder of King Hamlet, Hamlet decides that he can "catch the king's conscience" (II, ii, 634). He succeeds in bringing out the king's guilt with this trap, but this evidence is not enough to make Hamlet act on his instinct for revenge. Shortly after the incident, Hamlet catches a vulnerable Claudius attacking God, but he refuses to kill him while he is in a state of grace, because Hamlet believes that Claudius is unworthy of going to heaven so that his own father is abandoned in a state of purgatory (III, ii). This is a fine example of the art of revenge, according to Kerrigan, who argues that revenge must go far beyond the initial crime, a characteristic that often turns the genre's heroes into vindictive villains. This could also be seen as a characteristic of war itself. Later in the play, Hamlet goes beyond murder to achieve his original goal when he orders the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (IV, vi); a punishment for their betrayal of his friendship and their devotion to Claudius' proposal to kill Hamlet. The final battle and final bloodbath occur in the fast-paced final scene of mass annihilation. This scene is preceded by extremely deceptive actions on the part of Claudius, who embraces the sad and revenge-seeking Laertes in order to carry out his own arrangement of Hamlet's death. The plan between the two is to trick Hamlet into a one-on-one duel with Laertes, whose sword will be impregnated with poison, so that "where it sheds blood, no poultice so rare can save the thing of death" (IV, VII, 163). The safeguard is a cup of poison, which Claudius should ask Hamlet to drink for his victory (IV, vii). However, even this entirely deceptive plan cannot lead Hamlet to his death (or at least not alone). In the final scene of Act V, the duel takes place and a number of flashbacks result from the plan. First, Gertrude drinks the poison which Hamlet refuses, thinking it is just a glass of wine. Afterwards, Hamlet is scratched with Laertes' sword, however, he returns by stabbing Laertes with the tip of his own poisoned blade. Laertes, “rightly slain by [his] own treachery” (V, ii, 337), informs Hamlet that they have both been poisoned, leading Hamlet to the instinct to murder Claudius within seconds. The war ends here, with the death not only of the guilty and responsible, but also of the innocent and ignorant. In some sense, Shakespeare could be critiquing the victimization of war in his written homicides of seven main characters. In addition to Shakespeare's metaphorical analogy to war, there is a literal war threatening Denmark. The threat is provoked by Fortinbras, who unwisely demands from Claudius the lands that King Hamlet took from his father in battle (I, ii). This only poses a risk to Denmark at the beginning of the play, because in Act II Claudius learns that Fortinbras has declared peace with the Danes, on the condition that he can use their lands as a passage to enter Poland (II, ii). . Although it seems like a small part of the plot, Fortinbras' attack on Poland provokes a powerful reaction from Hamlet, regarding the., 1992.