Hamlet

The central character in Hamlet is charged with a duty to avenge his father, but in the broader sense, he is to avenge the natural order and so restore it. That natural order has been rent asunder by the murder of the king, and Hamlet is the instrument of divine justice who is told to destroy Claudius and Gertrude and so to set things right. Yet, Hamlet does not act immediately, and instead he devises his ploy of a play-within-a-play and also toys with various characters as he prepares his revenge. One such instance of this occurs when he is speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Act III Scene 2, two men who are ostensibly his friends and yet who have been ordered by Claudius to kill Hamlet. He knows this, and they do not now that he is aware of the fact. The banter in this scene therefore has a double meaning throughout, and Hamlet takes delight in confusing his supposed killers and in using them as a means of sending a false message about his ambition and his intent to others in the court.

At the beginning of Hamlet, the kingdom may seem calm but is actually in turmoil, and the nightly appearance of the Ghost underscores rather than causes this turmoil. In Hamlet the disorder in the kingdom derives from the fact that the natural order has been challenged--a king has been murdered by his wife and brother, and Hamlet is to act to restore the natural order by avenging his father. The appearance of the Ghost at the beginning of the play shows the degree to which

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s same context. It is evident before Guildenstern and Rosencrantz speak with him that Hamlet is deliberately confusing everyone around him, leaving them uncertain as to his sanity and unclear as to what he intends to do. When the members of the Court. The play is presented, and Horatio and Hamlet watch the King and see guilt in his response. As the others flee the hall, hamlet is left to give a triumphant cry as he now believes that the Ghost has told the truth. It is then that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern return to tell Hamlet that the King is upset by what he has seen in the play and that the Queen wants to see her son alone as soon as possible. Hamlet allows his excitement to guide his actions as he is faced with these two men who have been his friends and who have often engaged him in banter to amuse him and relieve his mind. They will seen be given the task of killing him, but for now, they are messengers with whom he has toyed in the past. In this scene, Guildenstern does the talking for himself and Rosencrantz as Hamlet toys with them, knowing that the two have been asked by the King to watch him and to learn why he is putting on a confused air. He sees them as plotting against him, and in this scene he uses the

Category: Literature - H