Character Analysis Of Hamlet

Hamlet is very brave in that he does not fear a challenge. Hamlet at times can prove to be very cautious, at times he thinks when he should act, however when you are king there can be advisors for such matters. “Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 1 Scene 3) Many times in history leaders should have thought, when instead they acted on impulse, for example Odysseus, from “The Odyssey” when he and his men escaped the island of the Cyclops instead of tucking his tail and being happy with his slight victory after taking numerous loses, he instead taunted the Cyclops and brought harm near his crew and to himself. For Odysseus did not know that the father of this monster was the water god Poseidon. Odysseus like all heroes, his main downfall was hubris, and because Hamlet thinks so before he acts he avoids mistakes like this adding to his attributes as a good leader. He can also be as brave as Hercules, for instance when he travels to see the Ghost of his father for the first time, he could have sunk back and ran from the very sight of it, but instead he ran after it and confronted the Ghost and demanded answers. He did not fear what he could not understand as his companions that accompanied him did, instead he was assertive and got to the bottom of the matter. Another account when Hamlet showed quick thinking and bravery was when he intercepted a letter from his Uncle Claudius to the King of England ordering the death of Hamlet on his arrival to England, instead of running and hiding Hamlet used his wits and changed the letter from his head to be had to that of his deliverers. Then in a challenge of swords by Laretes, known to be one of the very best swordsman in his land, Hamlet does not back down. Hamlet takes the challenge head on proving his worth in battle.

The fact that Hamlet is his father’s son is very important, he was there behind his father always watching and observing how a king did and should behave, he saw his father’s bravery and his mistakes and Hamlet could use all these experiences to make himself a better king even better than his father. He is of a bloodline of kings, a tradition that is to be kept and Hamlet would have been next in line. The job of taking the throne was in his blood when he assumed the responsibility, ready or not he would have known what to do. “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 2 scene 2)

Hamlet portrayed loyalty to his country his father and his mother. He even showed love and loyalty to his mother after he found out the role she took part in aiding Claudius to take the life of her first husband, the king and take the throne and her bed. She knowingly lay in bed with the man that killed her husband the king and Hamlet still loved and forgave her. He became angry with her at times but his loyalty was not shaken. He showed an immense amount of loyalty to one person unwaveringly throughout the play, Horatio. Horatio was Hamlet’s confidant and best friend throughout much of the play Horatio was the only person that Hamlet could truly trust. Horatio was the only man that did not play pawn to the king in an attempt to change and alter the feelings of Hamlet in the matters of his father’s death and his new uncle-father-in-law. Hamlet’s ultimate allegiance lied with his father, his father asked Hamlet to avenge his death by any means necessary and if it meant to slander his name or the name of his family so be, it or if it ultimately meant death then he shied away from that neither. “Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.” (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 1 scene 1)

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Hamlet attended the University of Wittenberg and he was not there just as a noble trophy he learned and he was a highly educated man. Throughout much of the play Hamlet is drunk with anger, vengeance and sorrow, and these emotions clouded his mind and altered his actions. While Hamlet was not himself at times and he would say things that many thought off the wall or out of the ordinary, his next words could make complete sense and be beautifully stated. Hamlet showed his intelligence by expressing his thoughts and feelings on complex ideas such as; life and death, humanity, human nature, and light and dark. “To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer. The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep: No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heartache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to,–‘t is a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub: For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there’s the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death, The undiscover’d country from whose bourn No traveler returns, puzzles the will And makes us rather bear those ills we have Than fly to others that we know not of? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, And enterprises of great pith and moment With this regard their currents turn awry, And lose the name of action.” (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 3 scene 1)

Hamlet loves his country and in return his country loves him, he would without a doubt have the faith and respect of his country. Respect, a very important aspect to a relationship, every relationship that is to work must have respect. The love shown to him by his country may very well have kept Hamlet alive throughout much of the play. In the play before his father’s death everyone in Denmark wanted to be with or more like Hamlet, he was a national icon. After the death of Hamlet’s father the nation wept for him and showed him pity, for they loved their prince. In the prince was the faith of the people.

Claudius became the king through the act of treason, killed his brother and committed other crimes like incest that would question his ability to serve as a “good” king. That does not mean he is incapable of serving as a true leader but there is evidence that he may be prone to corruption. Claudius had the desire to be king and he had some of the basic traits of a good leader but that was not enough to get him through. Claudius like Macbeth suffers from similar evils, they kill the king to become king and the only thing that becomes of their advancement is lies, murder and destruction. They are not able to even enjoy their spoils because the unsolved murder looms over their heads and rains down upon them a shower of lies and blood that haunt their dreams. Shakespeare follows a trend in his plays there is a pot stirrer in each of the plays in Macbeth it was Macduff, always from the start questioning Macbeth’s loyalty and kingship, and then in Hamlet it was the Prince Hamlet that would not let the issue of the murder of his father leave the forefront of Claudius’ mind leaving him forever unsettled. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. (William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Claudius, Scene V)

In comparison to Hamlet, Odysseus is clearly a hero, especially when he faces moral dilemmas and chooses not to fall prey to his temptations. He makes decisions that would characterize him as a hero when he chooses hardship and death with his family. “My lady goddess, here is no cause for anger. My quiet Penelope-how well I know- Would seem a shade before your majesty, Death and old age being unknown to you, While she must die. Yet, it is true, each day I long for home, long for the sight of home. If any god has marked me out again For shipwreck, my tough heart can undergo it. What hardship have I not long since endured At sea, in battle! Let the trial come.” The question that presents itself is, is Odysseus a good leader or a good king in Odysseus case they work separately. Odysseus is a ruler of his lands but he is never there to rule his lands or his people. He instead embarked on quests to gain glory and honor, these were self-fulfilling ambitions. A kings stead is in his people, a king must be self-less and but his peoples best interest before his own if he wished to be a good king. He was not out fighting for his people, his land or his family but he was seeking glory, a goal that solely benefitted him. Odysseus was not present, not meaning that he did not care, or at times he wanted to return more than anything but it was simple, he was not present to rule, not making him an ideal king. As Odysseus’s rule as a leader of his crew of men, he had their utmost respect and they trusted him and served him above all to the death. Odysseus put his men before himself in certain situations but at other times he used his men as mere pawns to reach his goal. For instance when Odysseus returned home and found the suitors battling for his wife’s heart, instead of taking action and taking back his home and family he played with them and toyed with them as if he played a game chess.

Macbeth above all else showed a burning desire to be king, so strong was his desire that he would kill for it. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.” (Macbeth, Act I, Scene 3) Aside from this Macbeth was a liar a murderer and a dark cloud of his actions followed him wherever he went. Macbeth was lost to a spiral out of control of his actions, lies compounded more lies and to cover his tracks he had to kill and to cover that up he had to lie and kill another until the process needed to be repeated, never ending.