The fact that Hamlet not only feels upset for losing his father but he also feels betrayed by his mother. Before hamlet escapes into madness he’s in a difficult spot. He’s heir to a throne that should be his already, son to a mother he no longer trusts, nephew to the guy who killed his dad. But not only Hamlet is going through something, Ophelia is in a pretty tight spot too. Ophelia’s father has been murdered by hamlet who used to be in love with her, and who is now shouting at her about nunneries and then going off to sea. In act 2, Polonius says of Hamlet “though this be yet there is method in’t” As well as in the end of Act 4, we can see Ophelia’s madness. She hands out flowers she has collected to Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes. These flowers each have their own meanings ”There’s fennel for you, and columbines” says Ophelia, presumably to Gertrude as Fennel signified flattery and Columbine’s marital infidelity. She also hands out rue, which signifies repentance, and mentions that the violets -associated with faithfulness – “withered all when my father died”.
This is Ophelia in the lowest point of her life, delivering her own form of judgment, speaking out against corruption, and injustice and doing it behind the mask of seeming madness. While Hamlet is thinking, trying to make up his mind, not knowing exactly what to do, Ophelia is asserting her own beliefs about right or wrong and life or death. She tragically decides to inflict this judgement on her own body, viewing her death as the only way to free herself from depression. Ophelia’s suicide is an assertive choice, the only choice she really can make but in fact, the flowers show that she can also make other choices. While Hamlet is stuck between to be or not to be, Ophelia actively chooses NOT to be. She makes her peace with death.
On the other hand, Gertrude’s quick marriage to Claudius forces Hamlet to think a lot more than he would want to about his mother’s sexuality. Hamlet sees Gertrude’s hookup with Claudius as a betrayal of his father but also of Hamlet himself, because it deprives him of the throne. Gertrude has power since she has the one vote in the election for who becomes king, questioning if that makes her a traitor. Is she complicit in her husband’s murder or is she just another victim of Claudius’s poisonous lies? It leaves the reader wonder, Is her ultimate loyalty to Hamlet or to Claudius? Shakespeare presses this idea in the duel scene when Gertrude – either accidentally or on purpose – saves Hamlet’s life. She reaches for Hamlet’s poisoned cup, and Claudius orders her not to drink, but her only response is “I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me” In her final moments she is showing Hamlet where her allegiance lies saying “O my dear Hamlet!” Not Claudius.
127 our experts are availableright now
In the beginning of Act 5, there seems to be a new Hamlet, one who has undergone a “sea change” and now he feels less conflicted about his own morality. Hamlet tells Horatio “There’s a special Providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ‘tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now.” When Hamlet does act its at the last moment. Killing Claudius only because he has learned that Claudius was planning to kill him, Gertrude, and Laertes. Hamlet stand Claudius with the poison sword and forces him to drink from the poison cup as he insults Claudius calling him “thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,” But taking action it doesn’t really resolve or integrate Hamlet’s character.
It’s Hamlet’s inaction rather than his action that makes an impact. Both Gertrude and Ophelia’s defiance of authority results in their suicide, yet suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. The soliloquies in which Hamlet weighs his options and tries to decide whether he will direct the course of his life or let fate determine it teaches us something about what it means to be human, to have conscience, to make difficult decisions in our own lives. Or not to make them. Inaction, as Hamlet shows us, is it’s own kind of action.
