Hamlet Group

Question:

linca
linca
Student
High School - 12th Grade

How does the responsibility of being a moral person affects Hamlet in a negative way?

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Posted by linca on Thursday October 30, 2008 at 10:13 AM and tagged with characters, hamlet, plot, theme.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Hamlet wants to be an obedient son and find a way to punish Claudius for poisoning his father. However, in his search for revenge, Hamlet pretends to be mad and ends up hurting many people. He is very unkind to Ophelia, whom he later claims to have loved; he kills Polonius by mistaking Polonius for Claudius, he shows great disrespect towards his mother for marrying his brother's wife and eventually his actions lead to the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Ophelia, Polonius,Rosencranz and Guildenstern and Claudius--not to mention Hamlet's own death. So in trying to be a good moral son, Hamlet becomes a revengeful, angry, obsessed killer who not only kills the object of revenge but those who surround him and ends up dying himself.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/

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    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Thursday October 30, 2008 at 10:34 AM