hamlet
... the purging. The character that sets him aside from anyone else in Elsinor. This “looks can be deceiving” theme resonates throughout Hamlet. While everyone else is insistent on looking their best, and providing a seemingly positive demeanor, there is corruption boiling through the veins of them. Hamlet, while distraught looking and guilty of an “unhealthy’ appearance, is the only one who is truly honest and lacks this corrupted mentality. Even Elsinor itself, while it is at “peace” and not involved in a war, contributes to hiding ugly truths. It is no wonder that when Ophelia goes mad, and it can be argued that she comes to terms with reality in an ironic sort of way, she too is distraught looking and a bit untidy. Those not worried about how they look to others are busy discovering and unveiling lies, while those caught up in the selves they are presenting to the world, have dark secrets they seem to be shielding with their “beauty.” Some would argue that "thinking" is Hamlet's downfall; even Hamlet himself argues and becomes frustrated with this inhibition. I however would argue that this thinking is what sets Hamlet apart form the rest of the court and allows him to see the decay. After seeing the bravery of the soldiers, Hamlet becomes distraught and discouraged. He is frustrated with the fact that these men can easily and simply fulfill their task, without thinking. They are willing to fight for a noble cause, even if it is for a piece of land so small that the army would not collectively fit on. He struggles to understand why he cannot, with a task such as grand and justifiable as his, follow through with what he is to do. He exclaims that "A thought which quartered hath but one part wisdom, and ever three parts coward...sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means...how stand I then that have a father killed, a mother stained....and let all sleep.."(4.4.40+) He condemns thinking, and breaks it down into cowardice. He therefore, equates himself to a coward. To me, this is abominable. He is not only facing a grand task, but he is facing it alone. The soldiers do not think, because they are just that-soldiers under orders and there is little to think about. If Hamlet were to never think, he would never contemplate the absurdity and corruption of Ellsinore in the first place. When the task is so trivial as fighting for a piece of land, there is not much to think about. It is either going to be conquered or not. When an entire court, namely one's family and friends is being deceived and you are the only one who can stop it, many things are to be weighed and contemplated. Hamlet can be considered to be the judgment and attempted correction of Elsinor, rather than the ambiguity, indecisiveness and failure of his task. This flaw is explained by A.C. Bradley as that combination which we deem so intriguing. He states "we feel how strange it is that strength and weakness should be so mingled in one soul, and that this soul should be doomed to such misery and apparent failure." (Hamlet, 60) Hamlet's character doesn't let the reader get away with solely facing the frustration of a constantly changing approach to fulfilling the task, but a constant contemplation to even attempt this task is developed. This proposes one of Hamlet's major dilemmas. Before he can even decide how he will go about purging Elsinor, he first wrestles with the idea of whether or not he can bear to be this entrepreneur. Hamlet is continually weighing his option of suicide against playing the hand he is dealt. This inner war proves to be more difficult a fight then he faces with the court, and himself a bigger enemy then Claudius. In his ‘to be or not to be’ speech, Hamlet wonders whether it is "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 sleep to say we end the heart ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to." (3.1.56-64) Is it more noble to tolerate his bad fortune, and make the best of what he is given, he wonders or is it easier to forever eliminate them by committing suicide? He becomes frustrated with the uncertainty of suicide, later in his speech as he exclaims "...but that the dread of something after death, the undiscover'd country from whose bourn, no traveler returns, puzzles the will and makes us bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." (3.1.79-84) He somewhat resolves that it is better to deal with problems one is given, rather than possibly face worse ones in the afterlife. This challenge further harbors the advancement of Hamlet, and provides an inner conflict boiling beneath the outer dilemma. ...