Character Studies The reasons for Hamlet's delay have led to various critical interpretations of his character. One critical perspective treats the prince as atragic hero having three prominent characteristics: awillpower that surpasses average human beings, an extraordinarily intense power of feeling, and an unusually high level of intelligence. Each of these traits can be found in Hamlet, but the ambiguity surrounding his tragic flaw, or the defect in his character that leads to his downfall, remains the subject of critical debate. One argument is that the prince's fatal error which causes him to delay killing Claudius is his preoccupation with moral beauty and, with its loss in Denmark, his desire to die. Hamlet's obsession with death and suicide thus demonstrates that even before he encounters the Ghost, he has lost the will to involve himself in worldly affairs. This notion corresponds to another important reading of the prince as avictim of excessive melancholy, or of an abnormal state of depression. Hamlet's melancholy is initially attributed to his father's death and his uncle's hasty marriage to his mother. The appearance of the Ghost, however, intensifies his grief, and the spirit's demand that his son remember him arrests the natural progression of Hamlet's mourning and recovery. Further, the prince is grieved by amounting sense of loss-not only does he lose his father, but he is betrayed by his mother, he loses Ophelia's affections, and he is confronted with deception by his two friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet dwells on these problems in periods of brooding inaction that reveal the full extent of his pain and suffering. Another, more controversial, reading of the hero's character is that he suffers from an Oedipus Complex. This psychological disorder reflects the unconscious desire of ason to kill his father and replace him as the object of the mother's love. Viewed in this light, Hamlet delays killing Claudius because he subconsciously identifies with his uncl_'s crime and shares his guilt. According to some critics, Hamlet's Oedipal impillse also explains why he speaks to Gertrude like ajealous lover, why he dwells on his mother's sexual relations with Claudius, and why he treats his uncle as arival throughout the play. Of the other major characters in Hamlet, the Ghost is important because his demand for revenge sets the plot into motion. The apparition's ambiguous role in the dramareflects the general confusion about spirits in Shakespeare's day. Throughout the tragedy, the Ghost is alternately viewed as an illusion, aportent foreshadowing danger to Denmark, aspirit returning from the grave because of atask left undone, aspirit from purgatory sent with divine permission, and adevil who assumes the form of adead person to lure mortals to doom. While Hamlet is chiefly concerned with this last possibility, each of these perspectives are put to the test at some point in the play. Claudius's character provides perhaps the best illustration of the theme of appearance versus reality in Hamlet. Initially, Shakespeare depicts Hamlet's uncle as the consummate monarch who justifies his ascent to the throne and his marriage to Gertrude with confident eloquence and who competently handles Fortinbras's threat to Denmark. But as the play progresses, Claudius's villainy becomes more apparent, revealing that he is little more than an evil hypocrite. In addition, critics generally regard Gertrude as highly dependent on and easily manipulated by Claudius; her chief contribution to the dramais the anger and disillusionment she arouses in Hamlet by marrying his uncle. Some critics have risen to the queen's defense, however, arguing that she often offers concise and pithy remarks in the play which reflect her ability to grasp the magnitude of various situations. Moreover, she demonstrates strong character in the closet scene (Act III, scene iv) by accepting Hamlet's accusation of lust and admitting her sin. Ophelia's character represents the ideals of youth and innocence that are ultimately corrupted by the Danish court in Hamlet. Her descent into madness begins as the result of the "nunnery scene" (Act III, scene i), where she is manipulated by her father and cruelly abused by Hamlet. At the outset, Opheliatrusts both Hamlet's nobility and Polonius's wisdom, but by the end of the episode her emotions are damaged and she loses faith in both men. Ophelia's insanity and tragic drowning thus illustrate how the Danish court has degenerated to the point that it poisons even the purest form of beauty and innocence.
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