Monday, February 15, 2016

Please list and explain the main themes of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Shakespeare's Hamlet contains numerous themes.  The play treats the issue of good vs. evil and the nature of evil.  Regicide contributes to this theme.  The justness of tyrannicide, Claudius's short-term guilt, the far-reaching effects of an evil act all contribute to this idea.


Death, of course, is everywhere in Hamlet.  Corpse-eating worms, skulls, suicide, death by sword, death by execution, death by poisoning all appear. 


Connected to death is rottenness, literal and figurative.  Rotten bodies are described, and something is rotten in the state of Denmark.


The theme of seeming, the difference between appearance and reality, is also present.  Is the ghost a ghost or a deceiving demon?  Hamlet seems sad over his father's death, says Gertrude, and Hamlet retorts that he doesn't seem sad, he is. 


Melancholy and madness, revenge, chance and happenstance, of course, are also some of the themes present in Hamlet.

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