Hamlet English Essay.
In the play Hamlet, there are many characters that add to the dramatic force
ofthe play. Characters like Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius are just some of the
characters that have made big contributions to the dramatic force of the play.
Claudius adds dramatic force to the play with the murder of his brother, King
Hamlet, which he committed. Hamlet adds a sense of drama to the play with his
plot to kill Claudius, his uncle, for the killing of his father. Polonius adds drama to
the play by introducing the theme of spying, a very important theme in the play,
Hamlet. With these facts laid out, it’s easy to say that Hamlet, Claudius, and
Polonius are the three characters in the play Hamlet that add the most dramatic
force into the play. These points will be examined and proven by looking through
excerpts of the dialogue of the play, Hamlet.
Claudius is responsible for the murder of his brother, King Hamlet, which
begins all the drama within the play.
He admits to the heinous crime by saying:
“Oh, my offence is rank. It smells to heaven.
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder. Pray can I not.
Though inclination be as sharp as will,
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent,
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursèd hand
Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence?
And what’s in prayer but this twofold force,
To be forestallèd ere we come to fall
Or pardoned being down? Then I’ll look up.
My fault is past. But oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn, “Forgive me my foul murder”?”
(Act 3, Scene 3, lines 37-73)
Claudius tries to ask God for forgiveness for what he has done. He says that his
guilt overwhelms his intentions, which I see is true. This is one of the only times in
the play Hamlet where you see Claudius really express any sense of weakness. He
does feel bad for the crime he was committed, but still he wants to reap the
benefits of the murder of his brother, like the queen and his power. Without this
important event, the whole play of Hamlet would be pointless.
Claudius is also a very sneaky character, plotting to kill Hamlet, after Polonius
had been slain by Hamlet’s hand.
He agrees to kill his stepson in this conversation with Laertes:
CLAUDIUS: “Laertes, I must commune with your grief,
Or you deny me right. Go but apart,
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will.
And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me.
If by direct or by collateral hand
They find us touched, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we can ours,}
To you in satisfaction. But if not,
Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we shall jointly labor with your soul
To give it due content.”
(Act 4, Scene 5, lines 163-173)
LAERTES: “Let this be so.
His means of death, his obscure funeral—
No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o’er his bones,
No noble rite nor formal ostentation—
Cry to be heard as ’twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call ’t in question.”
(Act 4, Scene 5, lines 174-178)
CLAUDIUS: “So you shall.
And where the offense is, let the great ax fall.
I pray you, go with me.”
(Act 4, Scene 5, lines 179-180)
Claudius had already known that Hamlet was the one that murdered Laertes’ father,
Polonius. He agrees to kill whoever had murdered Polonius because he knows it
was Hamlet who did so. He agrees because he wants to seek revenge on Hamlet.
He sees Hamlet as a threat because Hamlet knows about what Claudius had done,
and what’s to kill him because of it. Without this major event, the deaths of the
royal families would not have occurred.
With those crimes that Claudius has committed, it is clear to see that Claudius is
one of the three characters that added the most dramatic force to the play
Hamlet.
Polonius was another character that added to the dramatic force of the play
somewhat.
Polonius had introduced the theme of spying to the play by making other
characters befriend his own son.
POLONIUS to REYNALDO:
At “closes in the consequence.” Ay, marry.
He closes thus: “I know the gentleman.
I saw him yesterday”—or “t’ other day,”
Or then, or then, with such or such—“and, as you say,
There was he gaming, there o’ertook in’s rouse,
There falling out at tennis,” or, perchance,
“I saw him enter such a house of sale”—
Videlicet a brothel, or so forth. See you now,
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth.
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not?
(Act 2, Scene 1, lines 54-67)
Polonius sends Reynaldo, his servant, to check up and spy on his son Laertes in
France. He asks Reynaldo to say things about him to get a response out of people.
When he gets those responses, he must report back and tell him about what
Laertes is really doing. Polonius is not very trustworthy, due to the fact that he
sent someone out to spy on his son.
Polonius even uses his own daughter as a decoy to exploit Hamlet in these lines:
“At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him. (to CLAUDIUS) Be you and I behind an arras then, Mark the encounter. If he love her not And be not from his reason fall’n thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state But keep a farm and carters.” (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 154-159)
Polonius and Claudius come to a deal that Polonius will use his daughter, Ophelia,
into his devious plan. He will get her to meet with him and see why Hamlet has
gone insane. He says that he and Claudius will hide behind an arras and spy on
Hamlet from there. It is at that time that Polonius decides to hide behind this
curtain, that he is murdered by Hamlet. Due to the fact that Polonius was two
faced enough to wrong his own children, which proves why he is another character
that adds to the dramatic force of the play the most.
Lastly, Hamlet seeks hard and narrow to make sure that his father is avenged,
after the ghost of his father confronts him about his murder.
He makes due of it in this exerpt:
“O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else?
And shall I couple hell? Oh, fie! Hold, hold, my heart,
And you, my sinews, grow not instant old,
But bear me stiffly up. Remember thee!
Ay, thou poor ghost, whiles memory holds a seat
In this distracted globe. Remember thee!
Yea, from the table of my memory
I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past
That youth and observation copied there,
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmixed with baser matter. Yes, by heaven!
O most pernicious woman!
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables!—Meet it is I set it down
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
At least I’m sure it may be so in Denmark. (writes)
So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word.
It is “Adieu, adieu. Remember me.”
I have sworn ’t.”
(Act 1, Scene 5, lines 92-112)
Hamlet has an interaction with the ghost of his father, who tells him how his
brother, Claudius, had done so. The ghost says that Claudius took his life at the
middle of its prime. The ghost then tells Hamlet that he cannot let an incestuous
man run Denmark, and that he must be stopped. It is from this point that Hamlet
goes crazy, and starts out his plan to kill Claudius.
Hamlet also had committed a murder, the murder of Polonius:
Hamlet: How now, a rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!
(stabs his sword through the arras and kills POLONIUS)
Polonius: (from behind the arras) Oh, I am slain.
(Act 3, Scene 4, lines 24-25)
Hamlet goes to speak to his mother, Gertrude, when from behind the arras,
Polonius yells for help. Hamlet, thinking it was Claudius behind the arras, sought
this as the perfect time to kill “Claudius,” and he stabbed through the arras.
Moments later, he moves it out of the way, only to see it was Polonius he had
slain. It is from this point on in the play, that all of the murders/suicides start to
stem. Without this event, Ophelia, Laertes, Gertrude, considerably Claudius and
Hamlet, would not have died.
Hamlet’s actions throughout the play have been the most significant (hence why
the play is named after him), making him the character adding the most dramatic
force to the play.
In conclusion, it is Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet that have added the most
significant force to the play. With Claudius, and his murderous ways, Polonius and
his spying, and Hamlet and his fight to seek revenge, they have definitely shown
why they are the three characters that have added the most dramatic force to the
play, Hamlet.
