Shakespeare’s Hamlet Continues to Engage Audiences Through Its Dramatic Treatment of Struggle and Disiullsionment

Shakespeare’s Hamlet continues to engage audiences through its dramatic treatment of struggle and disiullsionment.

In light of your critical study, does this statement resonate with your own interpretation of the play?

In your response make detailed reference to the play as a whole.

An acclaimed example of revenge tragedy theatre, Shakespeares “Hamlet” is a dramatic exploration of what it is to be human; and therefore an exploration of struggle and disillusionment, as these are major themes within the human psyche. As a race, we constantly stuggle not only within ourselves, but with the world around us; a contemporary society sagging under the weight of its dilemma. Psychological afflictions coupled with stuggles of everday life such as debt, physical debilitations, and stress have created a system where disillusionment is commonplace; a system where the masses are striving to achieve greatness but upon reaching their goals they feel a sense of disappointment.

This is effectively transferred to William Shakespeare’s Hamlet – whether it be through characterisation, his use of soliloquys and monologues, asides, or structure, the composer has immediately transferred these timeless themes to his iconic play with impressive effectiveness; and it is with these timeless themes that the text continues to engage audiences.

Shakespeares effective use of soliloquys allows us to gain insight into the inner turmoils within his characters. In “Hamlet”, the protagonists struggles are noted throughout in seven soliloquys, which provide a tool for the audience to gauge Hamlets inner turmoils over the course of the play. For instance, this quote is derived from Hamlets first soliloquy at the beginning of the play.

“O that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw and resolve itself into a dew,

Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His conon ‘gainst self-slaughter. O God, God,”

(Act 1, Scene 2, Lines 129 – 133)

In this soliloquy, Hamlet is lamenting the fact that Claudius and Gertrude have forbid him from going back to University, as well as the untimely marriage of the new king and his mother. This first soliloquy gives the audience the first hints at Hamlets inner turmoil – for instance the first five lines (129 – 133) Hamlet is already voicing suicidal thoughts, which immediately makes the audience aware of the seriousness of the protagonists predicament. Caught between the unrequited love for his “frail” mother (“Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman.”) and his instructions from the ghost of his father to avenge his death, Hamlet is struggling to cope with the complexity of the family issues he is facing.

As the play progresses, Hamlets soliloquys provide the audience scope into the development of struggle and disillusionment within his psyche. For instance if you gauge the aforementioned first soliloquy against one presented later in the play, you immediately sense a new depth to the Hamlets struggle, for example;

“To be or not to be, that is the question –

Whether tis nobler of 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.”