Hamlet Essay (posted to be printed out Mon 8th)

There are many aspects of 'Hamlet' written by William Shakespeare that leads us as an audience to come to the conclusion by the end of the novel that 'Hamlet' is very much a tragic novel.
Throughout the novel there are numerous key tragic events that create a number of effects on us as an audience. Not only are some of the events tragic but many of the characters have a tragic attribute about their personalities. Hamlet himself of course has hosted many tragedies from the death of his father to losing every body around him and then he had to avenge the death of his father and of course there's also the death of his mother who married his dead fathers brother. After Hamlets father is killed by his uncle it is clear to see that Hamlets life is simply one big mess of betrayal and love loss. Hamlet himself is used to state most of the tragedy through not only the events that take place during his life but also the language he uses to describe these tragedies. The quote that always stands out is of course,
'To be or not to be, that is the question'
Personally I think that Hamlet says this to himself rather then anybody else, i think this simply because i think that Hamlet is asking himself whether it is to be that he kills his uncle or whether Hamlet hasn't got the strength within himself to do it. Its tragic because Hamlet is questioning himself and whether he can avenge his father who was murdered. Hamlet is seen here to have a serious lack of confidence within himself as he doubts his ability to pull it off, or simply whether he genuinely wants to do it or not. Hamlet has seen alot of tragic events but i feel like he is also a cause of a large proportion of tragedy himself. Especially in Ophelias case Ophelia is another tragic character who i feel is equally as important as hamlet during the novel although it is questionable whether she is actually needed in the novel and if it would have the same effect on the novel had she not been in the novel. In my opinion i feel that the novel would not have the same effect if Ophelia wasn't in it because she is very much used as a time bomb for other characters in the novel for tragedy to unfold especially Leartes. Also Ophelia is shown at the beginning of the novel to be quite a warm character who loves her life, simply because of this she almost becomes an audience favorite who the audience likes to read about. When Ophelia becomes mentally ill due to the tragic events in the life the audience automatically feels that this is a tragedy because of her persona before it all happened. Then obviously when Ophelia drowns the audience are left with the question of whether Ophelia killed herself of if it was an accident either way i think what the audience would still see it as extremely tragic due to the fact that this is one side of Ophelia that wasn't easily predicted before the tragic events in her life took place.
Leartes obviously is angered by his fathers death at the hands of hamlet but this is emphasized when he sees his sisters state of mind again at the hands of Hamlets doing. The tragedy here is that Hamlet did not mean to do this to Ophelia, he was simply plotting and planning to kill Claudius and he felt that he could not tell Ophelia because it may ruin his plan another reason why this is tragic is because Hamlet has lost his father, his loved one, his friends due to betrayal and his mothers not through death though but he has lost the love and relationship he shared with his mother before his father was murdered which is within itself tragic.
Hamlet due to his planning and plotting could be seen as a similarity between him and his uncle, tragic because Hamlet isn't aware of the fact of just how similar he is to his uncle. The way that Hamlet plans is seen as extremely sly and cunning much like when his uncle plotted and planed the death of the king so much so that nobody was aware that the king was in fact murdered yet they were lead to believe that a snake had stung the king whilst he was sleeping.
Hamlet is seen to be tragic in more then one sense through the language and the events and because of this all we feel many different emotions but the key emotion is sympathy because of course we have to simpithize in order to see the tragedy that occurs in the novel 'Hamlet'.

(work in progress)