How Anger is Quickly Portrayed as a Major Theme in Hamlet.
The portrayal of anger in Hamlet and how it is used as a key theme in Hamlet to make him seek revenge.
“Hamlet” written in 1609, is one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays and perhaps his most famous as it is best known for its many soliloquies, with “to be or not to be that is the question” being well known even among people who have not seen a single play. In a nutshell, Hamlet tells the tragic and drama-filled story of the prince of Denmark, Hamlet, who seeks to avenge his dead father after he finds out his uncle (now king), killed him. What makes Hamlet special you might ask. I believe it is probably how it is still an extremely relevant piece of writing to this day and how it is filled with great use of language and is a very well written story from a literature standpoint still to this day. The plot is mostly driven by Hamlet’s anger and wanting revenge, which I want to talk about here. How well did Shakespear manage to symbolise and portray Hamlet’s anger throughout the play?
The many soliloquies in Hamlet make it a very interesting piece of writing, as every line, quote and phrase possess meaning which connects to its core themes of revenge, madness and doubt. Our first look into Hamlet our protagonist, along with some of the supporting characters such as Claudius and Gertrude’s characters is during Act I Scene II during the wedding. Hamlet appears in Claudius and Gertrude’s wedding wearing all black which is quite the opposite of what is expected as black worn at funerals to mourn. Black is also symbolic of ‘edginess’ in the modern-day which is very fitting of Hamlet. Hamlet is evidently still very depressed about his father’s recent death. His desolation turned into irritation and disapproval as his uncle and mother were already married as if nothing had happened. Gertrude even said “seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou know’st ’tis common: all that lives must die”, which seemed like a betrayal to Hamlet. After the wedding is where Hamlet proceeds with his first soliloquy.
This first soliloquy in my opinion is very significant because it is very early on while providing tons of insight on Hamlet and his thoughts with the use of rich language techniques effectively used by Shakespear. This soliloquy is quite literally just Hamlet letting out his feelings of anger. “Too solid flesh would melt” and “thaw and resolve itself into dew” is probably Hamlet begging for himself to “melt” away so he can just forget about what is going on and cure his unhappiness. Hamlet then continues to express his hatred of the world he is with repetition of negative descriptions such as “tis an unweeded garden” “things rank and gross in nature” along with repetitive use of “fie” which meant dismay and disapproval. This sort of language and train of negative thoughts symbolises Hamlet being suicidal and depressed due to the unfortunate events.
Hamlet is also infuriated with his mother’s actions of marrying his uncle “within a month” of his father’s death even though his father was “so excellent a king” and “so loving to my mother” and emphasises it all by juxtaposing “heaven and earth” to compare his mother and old Hamlet and “I to Hercules” to describe his probably rocky relationship with his uncle.
Right off the bat from the second scene in the play, we can already infer that Hamlet is very saddened and depressed by his supposedly great father’s death, which results in a huge rant after right the wedding seeing his mother and uncle marry without even shedding tears to mourn for his father’s recent passing as if his father were already a no longer important figure in their minds.
In Act 1 scene 5, Hamlet meets the ghost of his dead father which results in the ghost getting angry and telling Hamlet of how old Hamlet actually died. This is a significant part of the play as Hamlet ends up trusting the ghost, after the ghost hammers Hamlet with coarse and rough language, trying to persuade and convince Hamlet. Hamlet is ultimately convinced likely due to him also being extremely infuriated by his mother and uncle’s hasty marriage so that was probably a major factor in him choosing the belief the ghost of his dead father’s words to avenge him. Hamlet was still extremely upset, and the ghost’s words was likely a way to help him get some confirmation and a reason to hate his uncle and mother and a way for Hamlet to cope with his depressing thoughts emotionally.
Hamlet proceeds to speak his second soliloquy in Act I Scene V after the encounter with the ghost. Hamlet once again juxtaposes “O all you host of heaven!” with “and shall I couple hell”, comparing the contrast of heaven and hell with his now even more powerful grief and anger. He then starts referring to his uncle as “villain” and his mother as “pernicious woman”. Hamlet ends up with setting his mind on wanting to seek revenge to avenge his father by killing Claudius (villain). This is a very pivotal point in Hamlet as he is now engulfed in anger and grief after hearing the ghost’s story.
All in all, I personally believe that Hamlet portrays anger (mostly in the protagonist Hamlet) exceptionally. Shakespeare packed a lot of detail and effectively used modern writing techniques to convey Hamlet’s anger in the first Act’s soliloquies. Shakespeare’s portrayal of Hamlet’s anger is also very understandable to a modern audience by referencing him to a modern edgy teen/young adult.
Sources/Bibliography
https://useruploads.socratic.org/qLk5yQx5Sa2fGXomTJED_hqdefault.jpg
http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Hamlets-1st-Soliloquy (used for the images of the soliloquys)