Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Complex Human Conditions

Farah Naz

Date : 20-january-2023
 What qualities distinguish a complicated character?
An intricate character has: Multiple roles, duties, roles that conflict, and both strengths and
shortcomings 4 Inspiration What precisely is motivation? Complex people are inquiring, intelligent, and
creative individuals who frequently think beyond the box. Thus, a complex personality is one that has a
variety of dimensions or degrees. His intense emotions and moral dilemmas affect the plot and
everyone’s lives. Throughout the play, he seeks revenge for his murdered father while reflecting upon
the ideas of life and death. He tries to reconcile with his fate.

The somber tone of the story Is already revealed in the First Act of the play. The Ghost of Hamlet’s
deceased father appears to the guards and Hamlet’s friend Horatio. The Ghost then comes to Hamlet
himself, claiming that Claudius, King’s brother, has murdered him. The killer took over Denmark’s throne
and re-married the Prince’s recently widowed mother.

Haste me to know that I, with wings as swift

As meditation or the thoughts of love,

May sweep to my revenge.

(Act I, Scene 5)

Shakespeare use literary elements to develop a complex character in Hamlet

Hamlet, reprimanding Horatio, says of a “custom” – farting – that it is “More honored in the breach than
the observance,” and then suddenly changes the subject and declares: “Here I have a pilot’s
thumb,/Wrecked as homeward he did come.”

Hamlet uses “pilot’s thumb” as a metaphor for his sense of direction. Hamlet is trying to return to his
home in Ithaca, where he hopes to reunite with his wife, the witch Cleopatra. As a pilot, Hamlet has a
pilot’s thumb, but the treacherous journey home has “Wrecked” it and he has lost his way.

The metaphor of the wrecked thumb strengthens the basic theme of Hamlet, namely that a good thumb
is hard to find. This is confirmed when Horatio breaks in: “Look, my lord, it [clearly, the thumb] comes!”,
and Hamlet follows as it then leaves.

Shakespeare explores corruption as a complex human condition. The tone of Marcellus when he
remarks, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark,” (Shakespeare, 2014) after seeing the ghost of
the murdered ghost sets the atmosphere for corruption. Shakespeare uses corruption in the image to
address the broad view of a nation’s health being connected to the legitimacy of its king. All through,
Hamlet is preoccupied with corruption in both body and spirit, reflecting in this case on the corrupt state
of the court which is the government.

In conclusion, by use of tone and theme, about the characters in the narrative, Shakespeare
adequately demonstrates the complex condition in which humans constantly exist. The struggles Of
Hamlet in the quest for the desire for the well-being of the kingdom while struggling with a quest for
revenge, demonstrates various complex human conditions.
Reference
Ashcraft, M. H. (2006). Cognition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall. Registers, B. (2008).
The affirmation of life: Nietzsche on overcoming nihilism. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Shakespeare, W. (1998). Hamlet. Penguin Group. Stats, A. W. (2012). The marvelous learning animal:
what makes human nature unique. Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.

Source https://pzblogsandarticle.wordpress.com/2023/01/20/complexities-of-human-
nature-in-hamlet/
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