Hamlet: Emotions of Despair, Sadness, Anger, and Inner Peace :: Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

Hamlet Emotions of Despair, Sadness, Anger, and Inner Peace          The character of Prince Hamlet, in Shakespeares Hamlet, displaysmany strong yet justified emotions. For instance, in Hamlets To be Or NotTo Be soliloquy, perhaps one of the most well k instantern quotes in the Englishlanguage, Hamlet actually debates suicide. His discouragement, sorrow, anger and knowledgeable peace are all justifiable emotions for this troubled character.         Hamlets feeling of despair towards his life and to the worlddevelops as the play moves on. In Hamlets first soliloquy he reveals thathis despair has driven him to thoughts of suicide How weary (horrible) His law gainst self slaughter. Likewise, when Hamlet talks to his friends,Rosenerantz and Guildenstern in Act 2 scene 2, Hamlet wishes they tell the major power and pouf that he has lost all mirth, in this world so foul andpestilent. In his To be or not to be soliloquy , he expresses his despairthrough thoughts of suicide, suggesting that suicide is an easy way to endlifes conflicts. But luckily he concludes that the fear of an unknownafterlife is what keeps us living. All of Hamlets thoughts of despair toiletbe understood when one looks at the horrible conflicts Hamlet goes through.         Sorrow, perhaps the most evident emotion, is very well developedthroughout the play. Initially, the only lay down of Hamlets sorrow is hisfathers death. However, after reading Act 1, scene 2, we see in Hamletsasides that another source of his melancholy is his mothers hasty marriageto Claudius, the new king of Denmark. Further, when Queen Gertrude asks herson why his fathers death seems so important, he replies, Seems, madam?Nay it is. I know not seems. In addition, Shakespeare reveals anothersource of sadness now Hamlet is alone, with the most loved character inhis life, Ophelia, rejecting him. This cause is well brought out inHamlets soliloquy in which he states Now I am alone. O, what a rouge andpeasant slave am I Finally, when Hamlet discovers that Ophelia has died,new reasons for Hamlets extreme feelings of sorrow are added. In fact, hissorrow is so gravid that Forty thousand brothers/Could not (with all theirquantity of love) Make up my sum. Thus, Hamlets well developed sadness,is reasonable throughout the play. Unfortunately, Hamlets thoughts ofmourning are replaced by those of anger.         nigh readers of Hamlet agree, to some extent or another, thatHamlet is well justified in expressing anger. Perhaps the first incident ofHamlets true expression of anger is during his scene with the ghost in Act