Hamlet essay plans
PROPOSITIONS-
In the world of Hamlet, trust is a rare commodity
From the first line- “Who’s there?”- the play is suffused with a sense of distrust and dubiousness. AO5
Linda Charles- “No one in this play understands anyone else.”
YES-
- Theme of surveillance (Claudius/Polonius on Ophelia/Hamlet, Polonius on
Gertrude/Hamlet, Rosencrantz/Guildenstern on Hamlet, Hamlet on Claudius)
- Polonius does not trust either of his children
- Can the ghost be trusted?
- Betrayal of Ophelia and Getrude- women not to be trusted
- Hamlet’s intentions with O not to be trusted
- Hamlet’s madness not to be trusted
- Claudius killed a brother- not to be trusted.
Thematic surveillance- Claudius and Polonius
AO5- David Tennant version- some scenes are shown to be through CCTV- highlights the constant
surveillance of Elsinore and induces the audience to become observers of Hamlet too.
AO5- Richard Vardy “In this state characterised by surveillance, Hamlet cannot trust anybody.”
- “Denmark is a prison” - atmosphere of distrust and monitoring, confinement that presents
Elsinore as a microcosm of human villainy and duplicitousness.
- “Will so bestow ourselves that seeing unseen”- spying on Hamlet using Ophelia (“loose my
daughter on him”), to find the cause of madness. Impossible to tell if this is out of genuine
affection for him, or a desire to restrain his threat to the throne- further emphasises lack of
trust.
- R/G used to spy on Hamlet “the need we have to use you did provoke our hasty spending”
“gather as much occasion as you may glean” (Claudius)
- “The play’s the thing in which I’ll catch the conscience of the King” “I’ll observe his looks” - C
and H both spying on each other- nobody is free from espionage in this surveillance state.
- “Withdraw, I see him coming” P hides behind the arras “I’ll be placed in the ear of all their
conference”
- Even during Hamlet’s soliloquies, his existential and contemplative moments, he is being
observed.
Polonius
Does not trust either of his children
- “Enquire me first…what company do keep my son?” “and there put on him what forgeries you
please” - Defined Polonius as a scheming figure, duplicitously trying to discern what his son
has been up to in Paris. Foreshadows his death- attempt to observe without being seen (gets
Reynaldo to do it)
- “Green girl” “out of the shot and danger of desire”- he does not trust Ophelia to harbour the
maturity and judgement to avoid the seduction of Hamlet and fleeting nature of their romance.
Claudius
Betrayed a brother by killing him
- Old H was in a state of intense vulnerability- “sleeping” in his “orchard
- “Into the porches of my ears”
- “Cursed hand…steeped in brother’s blood”
- “Primal eldest curse”
, - “With one auspicious and one drooping eye”Appearance vs Reality in how he mourns.
Claudius has corrupted Denmark- made it a state of surveillance. C and P spy.
Claudius dispatches the spies- constructs him as the author of Elsinor’s decay and corruption.
Hamlet’s madness not to be trusted
- “I am mad north west”
- “Antic disposition”
- “I essentially am not in madness but mad in craft”
AO5- Salkled: “Madness is part of the complex game Hamlet plays.”
Gertrude/Ophelia's betrayal- women are untrustworthy
Hamlet feels his mother has been duplicitous
Her marriage was a corruption of marital duty, a betrayal of love and of morality and of Old Hamlet.
Warps Hamlet’s perception of, and reliance on love. Spurs inside him asn absence of trust in the
world around him.
- “Unrighteous tears” “Niobe” “Beast would have mourned longer”
- “Makes marriage vows as false as dicers oaths” - she has betrayed her late husband by
marrying Claudius, undermined the sanctity of marital vows.
- “Frailty, thy name is woman!”
- “She married, oh such wicked speed…with such dexterity to incestuous sheets”(ghost)-
highlights G’s betrayal, moral corruption.
- “Make your wantonness your ignorance”
- “Such an act that blurs the grace and blush of modesty, calls virtue hypocrite”- breaking her
marriage vows to old H. Hamlet charges her with inconstancy, immoderated sexual desire
and lack of any sense of value in exchanging Old Hamlet (“Hyperion”) for Claudius (“Satyr”)
Ophelia’s betrayal
- “Loose my daughter on him”- passively acts as a lure to catch out Hamlet and determine if he
is lovesick. Betrayal of Hamlet which is furiously condemned by him- “Get thee to a nunnery”
- Link to Gertrude in that women are morally untrustworthy and corrupt. Hamlet taints all
women as betrayers and sexually incontinent beings
-
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Again sent by Claudius and Gertrude to try and decipher the cause of Hamlet’s madness.
- “Were you not sent for? Is it a free visitation?” - Hamlet’s intense anxiety about being watched
all the time, with even his closest friends recruited as spies to observe him. Intense sense of
pathos in this questioning as we gauge a sense of the emotional weight of this betrayal.
- “Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will,
though you fret me you cannot play upon me.”- in his world, characterised by self-interest and
social status, people will not stop at sacrificing their love, friendship, or family in order to
better their own image in the polis.
Cannot trust the nature of the ghost
Part of Hamlet’s turmoil arises from his inability to fully trust the nature and message of the ghost.
Manipulates Hamlet into carrying out revenge on its behalf? The presence of the ghost introduces a
questioning, distrustful uncertainty and mistrust which pervades the play and its words, 'Remember
me', haunt Hamlet and are central to his tragic descent from physical collapse to mental turmoil in his
'distracted globe'.
- “Questionable shape”
- “Spirit of health or goblin damned”
- “Airs from heaven or blasts from hell?”
- Is it horrific? (“graves stood tenantless” “canonised bones”)
, - Manipulates Hamlet by playing on his anger at his mother’s marriage and sadness at his
father’s death- poison poured “into the porches of thine ear” “gates and alleys”
Encouraged not to trust the ghost’s contradictory message- he implores H to kill C, yet warns him not
to hurt his mother, as she will face punishment in heaven through “thorns” in her bosom that will “prick
and sting” her.
AO5- Clinton- “diabolical manifestation on a mission to trick Hamlet into forfeiting his soul”
Suggestion that Ophelia cannot trust Hamlet’s intentions?
- “Vows, for they are brokers”
- “Tender yourself”
- “Blood burns” “Giving more light than heat”
- “Unholy suits”
- During her madness she perhaps confirms this? “Before you tumbled me you promised me
wed.”
- “I loved you not” - betrayal of Ophelia by renouncing his love for her, making her believe it
was never real. Suggests that the illusion of love in Elsinore is not to be trusted.
NO-
Gertrude as a loving mother to be trusted to do what is best for her son.
Restoration of trust
Upon his return from England, Hamlet is restored to a sense of trust and assertiveness
- Hamlet is restored to a trust and belief in his own integrity and identity on his return from
England; he confidently asserts 'This is I, Hamlet the Dane' and his anagnorisis is achieved in
his acceptance and trust in the will of God and his Providence.
- Fortinbras' arrival and death of corruption offers a hope for restoration of trust in Elsinore.
Horatio and Hamlet
AO5- Katy Limmer- “Horatio by contrast demonstrates his virtue and loyalty”
- “Here sweet Lord at your service”
- “Observe my uncle”-Hamlet deeply trusts Horatio to be in on his plan, trusts Horatio’s
judgement as a second pair of eyes.
Ghost can be trusted
Force for good, the true spirit of the old King? Come to Elsinore as the antidote to the atmosphere of
mistrust, to correct the corruption and decay through divine retribution.
AO5- Zefirelli’s version presents the ghost as someone to trust- a force for good in the world. Ghost is
a vulnerable and frail figure that attempts to hug his son.
AO5- Branaugh version- shot of ghost is against the statue of old Hamlet- presents the ghost as a
trustworthy King
- Ghost takes on royal characteristics- “martial stalk” “fair and warlike form” “armour”
- “Whole ear of Denmark” has been deceived by Claudius- can be interpreted as the ghost
having pure intentions- his message is endowed with morality- presents revenge as an issue
of national importance. AO5- AC Bradley- the ghost is “majestic…messenger of divine justice”
HAMLET’S PROBLEMS - all essays
Hamlet’s principle flaw is that he refuses personal responsibility/Hamlet’s problem is that he sees too
clearly /Hamlet’s problem is that he rationalises and reflects endlessly/ Hamlet’s flaw is that he thinks
rather than acts /Hamlet is a weak prince and privileged scholar who cannot rise to the challenges of
combat, justice and honour
, Refuses personal responsibility
- Blames the ghost for his inaction
- Inability to carry out his filial duty of revenge
- Universalising his flaws as human flaws
- Treatment of Ophelia
Act 2 Scene 2- despite his tone of self loathing, Hamlet does refuse sole blame for his moral
paralysis- blames it on the ambiguous, and possibly devilish nature and presence of the ghost.
- “The spirit I have seen…very potent with such spirits, abuses me to damn me.” - his failure to
act is, in his eyes, rooted in his lingering doubt as to the veracity of the ghost. Lexical field of
religion- his failure to act is chalked up to fear of religious consequences.
- “Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell” - again hints at the ambiguous nature of
the ghost as the source of his inaction AO5- BUT this may be a legitimate justification for his
inaction- he is intelligent in contemplating murder and its consequences thoroughly- does not
want to be rash.
Treatment of Ophelia
Hamlet’s inability to take personal responsibility for his emotions leads to his mistreatment and
castigation of Ophelia. He allows his anger at his mother’s betrayal to cloud his judgement of all
women.
- “Get thee to a nunnery”
- “Lie between maidens legs”
Inability to act
- “The time is out of joint. O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!" - Hamlet laments
his fate and feels burdened by the responsibility of avenging his father's murder. Instead of
taking immediate action, he expresses resentment towards his role in rectifying the situation
- “Pigeon livered and lack gall to make oppression bitter”
- “Rogue and peasant slave am I”
- “And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought” “lose the
name of action”
= refusal to enact revenge, carry out his filial duty, out of fear, religious contemplations or moral
objections, constructs H as a character who refuses personal responsibility. He has been recruited for
the task of carrying out Divine justice, correcting the corruption and decay of Denmark, and yet his
inability to act exemplifies his refusal of this responsibility.
- “I have cause and will and strength to do’t”- Here he (laughably) suggests that the cause of
his delay is not his lack of courage or willpower, but the fact that he has not had an
opportunity to do it. Refuses the idea that he is simply too cowardly- we know that even when
he has an opportunity to “do it pat” , like when Claudius is praying, he simply finds another
excuse (hire and salary murder, not true revenge).
- “How all occasions do inform against me” again placing the blame on external factors rather
than his own moral and mental paralysis and cowardice.
-
Universalisation of his flaws
- “Conscience makes cowards of us all”- H does not mean conscience in a moral sense, but
rather awareness- consciousness and awareness comes with a fear of guilt, a fear of
consequence that renders humans cowards. Characterises cowardice and weakness as a
