Levi Weller

Mrs. Jewell

ERWC: Period 1

17 March 2022

Hamlet: Tragedies Unfold

Hamlet lived a regular, prince’s life, going on doing his everyday things up until now.

His father has been murdered, the king, and his Uncle, Claudius, has married his mother and

taken over as king. Claudius’s induction to the throne has caused distress and uneasy nerves

throughout many, especially young Hamlet. This has somewhat altered the trajectory of Hamlet’s

future.

Act 1, Scene 2 illustrates these nerves and distress when King Claudius speaks over

Hamlet about mourning the death of his father and King,

HAMLET: A little more than kin and less than kind.

CLAUDIUS: How is it that the clouds still hang on you? (1.2.67-68). Frankly, Claudius

has little sympathy for Hamlet which causes feelings the two might reveal. How will these two

figure out their relationship? This expands when Claudius shows mixed expressions in this

statement, CLAUDIUS: ‘Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet/ To give these

mourning duties to your father, (1.2.90-91). Then later on in this rant, “Fie! ‘Tis a fault to

heaven,/A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,/To reason most absurd, whose common

theme/Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried” (1.2.104-107). This emphasizes the mind

games and manipulating ways Claudius utilizes on Hamlet. These also exaggerate how Hamlet is

being forced into a paranoid state of mind and plotting against Claudius and his own mother.
Additionally, his behavior has been influenced while at the same time his views shifted and

were manipulated left and right. Hamlet not only is dealing with this but also signifies his

depression from his struggles with Ophelia. Hamlet’s feelings intensify as he hears about his

father, in ghost-like form.

HORATIO: In the dead waste and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered: a figure like your father, (1.2.208-209). With this

information Hamlet is intrigued and later states,

HAMLET: Upon the platform, ‘twist eleven and twelve,

I’ll visit you. (1.2.273-274). This reinforces the mentions of Hamlet’s growing

suspicions between his fathers death and Claudius’s hasty marriage to the queen, his mother.

With these growing suspicions, Hamlet makes an educated guess with his newfound

knowledge. With strong emotion, Hamlet announces,

HAMLET: My father’s spirit - in arms! All is not well.

I doubt some foul play. Would the night were come!

Till then, sit still, my soul. <Foul> deeds will rise, (1.2.277-279). These uneasy

feelings and distress is a direct result from Claudius’s induction. We also see how the revealing

of Hamlet’s thoughts of foul play, Claudius and his father, did he die naturally, or was it a

murder?

We can tie this all back to the induction of Claudius to the throne. Before, all was well,

normal in a sense. Then the King Hamlet dies, and chaos involving Hamlet and his kin breaks

loose. The manipulation and trajectory Claudius has set on Hamlet is one nobody expected.

Hamlet now must solve this riddle and set the throne back to good and Denmark back on track.