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    HAMLET Formalist Criticism

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    dennis
    The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare follows Prince Hamlet of Denmark who is tasked by the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing his uncle Claudius, who had murdered Hamlet's father and married Hamlet's mother. Hamlet struggles with whether to trust the ghost and carry out the killing. Throughout the play, Hamlet plots to confirm Claudius' guilt which leads other characters like Ophelia and Polonius to meet their deaths. In the end, Hamlet enacts his revenge during a fencing match but not before others like his mother drink poison meant for Hamlet and many lives are lost, including Hamlet's own.

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    HAMLET Formalist Criticism

    Uploaded by

    dennis
    2K views4 pages
    The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare follows Prince Hamlet of Denmark who is tasked by the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing his uncle Claudius, who had murdered Hamlet's father and married Hamlet's mother. Hamlet struggles with whether to trust the ghost and carry out the killing. Throughout the play, Hamlet plots to confirm Claudius' guilt which leads other characters like Ophelia and Polonius to meet their deaths. In the end, Hamlet enacts his revenge during a fencing match but not before others like his mother drink poison meant for Hamlet and many lives are lost, including Hamlet's own.

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    The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare follows Prince Hamlet of Denmark who is tasked by the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing his uncle Claudius, who had murdered Hamlet's father and married Hamlet's mother. Hamlet struggles with whether to trust the ghost and carry out the killing. Throughout the play, Hamlet plots to confirm Claudius' guilt which leads other characters like Ophelia and Polonius to meet their deaths. In the end, Hamlet enacts his revenge during a fencing match but not before others like his mother drink poison meant for Hamlet and many lives are lost, including Hamlet's own.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    2K views4 pages

    HAMLET Formalist Criticism

    Uploaded by

    dennis
    The play Hamlet by William Shakespeare follows Prince Hamlet of Denmark who is tasked by the ghost of his father to avenge his death by killing his uncle Claudius, who had murdered Hamlet's father and married Hamlet's mother. Hamlet struggles with whether to trust the ghost and carry out the killing. Throughout the play, Hamlet plots to confirm Claudius' guilt which leads other characters like Ophelia and Polonius to meet their deaths. In the end, Hamlet enacts his revenge during a fencing match but not before others like his mother drink poison meant for Hamlet and many lives are lost, including Hamlet's own.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    HAMLET

    William Shakespeare

    On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in


    Denmark. Discovered first by a pair of watchmen, then by the scholar
    Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose
    brother Claudius has inherited the throne and married the kings widow,
    Queen Gertrude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the
    son of Gertrude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him,
    declaring ominously that it is indeed his fathers spirit, and that he was
    murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on
    the man who usurped his throne and married his wife, the ghost disappears
    with the dawn.
    Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his fathers death, but, because
    he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a
    deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertrude worry
    about the princes erratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. They
    employ a pair of Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch
    him. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, suggests that Hamlet
    may be mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on
    Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems
    mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunnery and
    declares that he wishes to ban marriages.
    A group of traveling actors comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an
    idea to test his uncles guilt. He will have the players perform a scene closely
    resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have
    murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When
    the moment of the murder arrives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and
    leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet
    goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing
    Claudius while in prayer would send Claudiuss soul to heaven, Hamlet
    considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait.
    Claudius, now frightened of Hamlets madness and fearing for his own
    safety, orders that Hamlet be sent to England at once.
    Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has
    hidden behind a tapestry. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestry, Hamlet
    believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the

    fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to


    England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. However, Claudiuss plan for
    Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given Rosencrantz and
    Guildenstern sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet
    be put to death.
    In the aftermath of her fathers death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and
    drowns in the river. Poloniuss son, Laertes, who has been staying in France,
    returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to
    blame for his fathers and sisters deaths. When Horatio and the king receive
    letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after
    pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use
    Laertes desire for revenge to secure Hamlets death. Laertes will fence with
    Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes blade so that if he
    draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a
    goblet, which he will give Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or
    second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as
    Ophelias funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and
    declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells
    Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come
    at any moment. A foolish courtier named Osric arrives on Claudiuss orders
    to arrange the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes.
    The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink
    from the kings proffered goblet. Instead, Gertrude takes a drink from it and
    is swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though
    Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his
    own swords blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is
    responsible for the queens death, he dies from the blades poison. Hamlet
    then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink
    down the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies
    immediately after achieving his revenge.
    At this moment, a Norwegian prince named Fortinbras, who has led an army
    to Denmark and attacked Poland earlier in the play, enters with ambassadors
    from England, who report that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
    Fortinbras is stunned by the gruesome sight of the entire royal family lying
    sprawled on the floor dead. He moves to take power of the kingdom. Horatio,
    fulfilling Hamlets last request, tells him Hamlets tragic story. Fortinbras
    orders that Hamlet be carried away in a manner befitting a fallen soldier.

    Roselyn G. Dorotan
    AB41FA2
    July 30, 2015

    FORMALIST CRITICISM OF HAMLET


    Hamlet

    is

    a tragedy play

    written

    by William

    Shakespeare at

    an

    uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. It is Shakespeare's longest play and
    among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with
    a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others. The
    play seems to have been one of Shakespeare's most popular works during
    his lifetime.
    Hamlet feels a responsibility to avenge his fathers murder by his uncle
    Claudius, but Claudius is now the king and thus well protected. Moreover,
    Hamlet struggles with his doubts about whether he can trust the ghost and
    whether killing Claudius is the appropriate thing to do.
    Shakespeare used foreshadowing in the play to let the audience
    predicts the uncovering of the bad deeds in the Kingdom of DenMark . It all
    started when Hamlet dreamt about the ghost of his father, his reasons of
    death and who killed him. Upon knowing this, Hamlet planted vengeance in
    his heart that leads the flow of the story to its end. Because of his plan of
    revenge to his uncle who is Claudius, whose according to the ghost is the
    culprit, the characters life was taken. His mother died from saving him by
    drinking the poison in the goblet which is intended for him. His beloved

    Ophelia let herself drown in the river due to depression because of the death
    of his father, and so on.
    To be, or not to be, that is the question. This phrase tells that he
    simply ask whether life or death is preferable. The protagonist has repented
    from his revenge. If only he chose not to revenge and tries to accept what
    happened and let the time judge whom to be judged. He shouldnt let his
    eyes be blinded by hatred and anger; it prevents him to do what is right. His
    actions conclude that the experiences stems from the conflict between his
    ego and his superego, and by the end of the play, the self-destructive
    superego wins. This leads to the end of his life and the other character.

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