The Theme of Perseverance in Hamlet essay
In his famous play Hamlet Shakespeare investigates dependence between influence and free will. Hamlet finds himself trapped by life circumstances. He can not forget his mother’s quick marriage after his father’s death. His father’s ghost appears in from of Hamlet eyes appealing: “Do not forget. This visitation is to whet thy almost blunted purpose,” (83-84). In the beginning of the play, Hamlet is eager to revenge. Perseverance to fulfill his revenge determines all his actions. Revenge makes him blind but soon he turns to reflections. Hamlet is an extraordinary personality with a rich controversial inner world. Being an educated person, he can not follow someone’s will blindly. He wants to make his own decisions, “thinking too precisely on the event” (IV, iv, 41). He looses confidence in his revenge as soon as he starts reflecting on the subject. He feels grief, love and a wish to revenge at the same time. He is confused and can not resolve the situation himself. He gets through a number of significant life stages in the play which teach him something all the time. The hatred that lives in Hamlet’s heart, all in all, leads him to his demise and it may seem that he is left with nothing. “Throughout the play Hamlet goes through several different stages of life, constantly being in a tortured mental state, caught between love, grief, and vengeance. His different states of mind are the result of his controversial personality and his ability to objectively analyze any situation” (Hurstfield, 112). His inner stage changes from perseverance to doubts and back. Hamlet is eager to follow the will of his father but his own wishes and desires to not correspond to what his father’s ghost persuades him to do.
Inner conflict becomes so difficult for the protagonist that he even wants to end up his life in order not to make this difficult choice. Shakespeare does not use words such as “death” or “suicide” but chooses a form of narration which can be interpreted by readers in different ways so every person can have his or her own interpretation. Hamlet is disappointed in life but at the same time he is afraid of death. His life experience made him gloomy and pessimistic. He suffers in his life and realizes that sufferings are an inevitable part of life. He can describe his past life experience only with pain: “the slings and arrows, the thousand natural shocks, the sea of troubles, the heart-ache” (IV, 45). However, his thoughts about death are also gloomy. He is afraid of the uncertainty because death is always a mystery for people.
Despite all disappointments in life Hamlet cannot accept death. It can be eternal sleep without any thoughts and problems: “To die, to sleep; No more.” On the other hand, death can be even worse than life. Hamlet feels that it can bring even more sufferings than life. What is more frightening is that there is no way back and if he decides to end his life and meet death he will never be able to change anything. This assumption confuses him:
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover’d country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will (III, 78-80).
These reflections over death and life and sufferings which follow Hamlet everywhere presents his as a confused character. He can not choose any actions at all. He can not revenge, he can not kill himself. Hamlet is so much afraid to loose control over his own life that he finally looses it because of his own reflections. Hamlet is suspicious of everything and everybody. He is afraid to become an object of manipulation and questions everything. At the same time after some time he starts realizing the reasons of his inability to act : “I do not know why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do;’ sith I have cause and will and strength and means to do it” (IV, iv 43-6).
Hamelt is an example of dramatic character who cannot understand life and find his place on the Earth. The image of the main character becomes absolutely clear through this speech. Hamlet is thorn between two extreme points: perseverance and death (Gordon et al, 2004). He hesitates, overthinks everything and cannot make a clear decision:
“Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them”
Two things keep Hamlet from committing a suicide: fear of death and uncertainty that waits for him after it and the wish to revenge for his father’s death. Uncertainty and confusion are two words which can characterize all his life. Even when he decides to revenge for his father’s death and kill Claudius he does not use his chance. He doest not have enough persistence to revenge. He got lost in his eternal thoughts about useless life, sufferings and pain. He is not able to see the world in a new perspective and cannot get out from the web of fear, darkness and pain which he himself created. This life will never satisfy him because he does not want to change his position. If he chooses death, all his sufferings and complains will disappear. He will not have to think about revenge – Claudius and his mother – it will not be necessary to take difficult decision. Nevertheless, he cannot take a decision and end his life. That is, probably, the most difficult one and Hamlet is not ready for it. The question “to be or not to be” and the entire monologue become an attempt of the protagonist to choose between two different system of beliefs and outlooks. It is definitely that Hamlet can not meet difficulties and complications of life face to face. He has not enough courage to struggle. This are the characteristic features of his attitude to life. At the same time his inability to act has another explanations. Revenge is not inner move of Hamlet. This idea was given to him by his father’s ghost. In the beginning Hamlet is eager to revenge but later he thinks over all he has to do and does not find true desire to fulfill this revenge. Internal conflict becomes so tense that it totally blocks Hamlet’s will and actions. Hamlet looses perseverance in his actions and also looses confidence in all people who surround him. His constant reflections do not let him to make any actions. At the same time he is not able to forget about the will of his father. Being not able neither to forget nor to fulfill the last will of his father Hamlet becomes trapped in the situation and finally looses control over his life.
Works Cited
Hurstfield, Joel, and James Sutherland. Shakespeare’s World. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1964
Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. Editor, William Farnham; Penguin Books, 1970.
Gordon D. Faustberg, David Grey, Gigi Bach, Ramita Mano, Hamlet: The 1-hour Guidebook : an Illustrated Guide for Mastering Shakespeare’s Greatest Play, Bermond, 2004