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Hamlet has fascinated
audiences and readers for centuries, and the first thing to point out about
him is that he is mysterious and hard to figure out. Even a learned scholar
does not feel easy to achieve a complete knowing of his character. When he
speaks, he sounds as if there was something important he is not saying,
maybe something even he is not aware of. The ability to write soliloquies
and dialogues that create this effect is one of Shakespeare’s most
impressive achievements.
But even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet
also behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act, he does it swiftly
and with no premeditation, as when he stabs Polonius through a curtain
without even checking to see whom he is. He seems to step very easily into
the role of a madman, behaving irregularly and upsetting the other
characters with his wild speech and pointed implications.
It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely
melancholy and discontented with the state of affairs in Denmark and in his
own family, and in the world at large. He is extremely disappointed with his
mother for marrying his uncle so quickly, and he repudiates Ophelia, a woman
he once claimed to love, in the harshest terms. His words often indicate his
disgust with and distrust of women in general. At a number of points in the
play, he contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide.
But, despite all of the things with which Hamlet professes
dissatisfaction, it is remarkable that the prince should think about these
problems only in personal and philosophical terms. He spends relatively
little time thinking about the threats to Denmark of foreign invasion, and
the threats to the domestic stability. That is why he is often accused of
ignoring his responsibility as the heir to the throne.
Claudius is Hamlet’s major antagonist who is a shrewd,
lustful and ambitious schemer. Whereas most of the other important men in
Hamlet are preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and moral
balance, Claudius is only interested in maintaining his own power. The old
King Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt
politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his
skillful use of language. Claudius’ speech is compared to poison being
poured in the ear, the method he used to murder Hamlet’s father. Claudius’s
love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely that he marries
her as a strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after
the death of the king. As the play progresses, Claudius’ increasing fear of
Hamlet’s insanity leads him to ever greater self-preoccupation. When
Gertrude tells him that Hamlet has killed Polonius, Claudius does not remark
that Gertrude might have been in danger, but only that he would have been in
danger had he been in the room. He tells Laertes the same thing as he
attempts to soothe the young man’s anger after his father’s death. Claudius
is ultimately too crafty for his own good. In Act V, Scene ii, rather than
allowing Laertes only two methods of killing Hamlet, the sharpened sword and
the poison on the blade, Claudius insists on a third, the poisoned glass.
When Gertrude accidentally drinks the poison and dies, Hamlet is at last
able to bring himself to kill Claudius, and the king is felled by his own
cowardly machination.
Gertrude, the beautiful Queen of Denmark, is one of few
Shakespearean characters that have caused much uncertainty. The play seems
to raise more questions about Gertrude than it answers, including: Is she
involved with Claudius before the death of her husband? Does she love her
husband? Does she know about Claudius’s plan to commit the murder? Does she
love Claudius, or does she marry him simply to keep her high station in
Denmark? Does she believe Hamlet when he insists that he is not mad, or does
she pretend to believe him simply to protect herself? Does she intentionally
betray Hamlet to Claudius, or does she believe that she is protecting her
son’s secret? The answers to these questions depend upon readers’ reading of
the play. The Gertrude who does emerge clearly in Hamlet is a woman defined
by her desire for station and affection, as well as by her tendency to use
men to fulfill her instinct for self-preservation, which in turn makes her
extremely dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlet’s most famous comment
about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of women in general, “Frailty,
thy name is woman!” (Act I. Scene ii, L146) This comment, to a great extent,
seems to suggest that Gertrude is morally frail. She never exhibits the
ability to think critically about her situation, but seems merely to move
instinctively toward seemingly safe choices, as when she immediately runs to
Claudius after her confrontation with Hamlet. She is at her best in social
situations (Act I. Scene ii and Act V. Scene ii), when her grace and charm
seem to indicate a rich, rounded personality. At times it seems that her
grace and charm are her only characteristics, and her reliance on men
appears to be her sole way of displaying her abilities.
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