Characterization of Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an enduring revenge tragedy which engaged his Elizabethan audience and still engages contemporary audiences, as the composer reflects on the human condition, through the characterization of Hamlet. As Hamlet is not limited by contextual barriers, various interpretations and perspectives are plausible, which has lead both critics and audiences to take different paths when understanding Shakespeare’s composition. Shakespeare introduces the audience to a young Prince Hamlet, modelled on a typical Renaissance man.   As the play takes its course, I see through Shakespeare’s use of soliloquy and various dramatic techniques, the inner workings of Hamlet’s sub conscious mind can be seen and his developing paranoia which has lead me to form a conclusion that links his behaviour coherently and which provides textual integrity. Both Elizabethan and contemporary audiences still acknowledge the texts’ textual integrity, as Shakespeare thoroughly explores the themes of madness, life and death and social corruption.

Shakespeare addresses the notion of human condition throughout the play, but more explicitly focusing on psychological uncertainty. During the opening of the play, Ophelia states the attributes of Hamlet as an ideal Renaissance man, “the courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword, the expectancy and rose of the fair state, the glass of fashion and the mould of form, th’ observed of all observers-“ . Yet several scenes later, Ophelia’s opinion of all Hamlets virtues is influenced by her perception of his “madness” through, “O, what a mind is here o’erthrown!” Here Ophelia is aware of Hamlet’s sudden change in attitude.   His sudden swings from inactivity to impulsive rash action, are seen to result from the depression and disillusionment at the death of his father Claudius and his own mother marring Hamlet’s uncle, causing him to burst out with the reproach “frailty, thy name is woman –“ . This bitter judgement escalates the acts of...