Free Hamlet Essays: Teaching Deception and Selfishness in Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Teaching Deception and Selfishness in crossroads The Tragedy of hamlet, by William Shakespeare, illustrates the disintegration ofnot only a family but a society. In a play riddled with greed, manipulation and dishonesty,the end result is the demise of all the main characters. ?It is solve that the theme ofvengeance is merely a vehicle used by Shakespeare in order to articulate...themes centralto humanity relationships between father and son, receive and son, and Hamlet and hisfriends...youth and age? (Introduction to Hamlet). The children are not at fault for theirparents? mistakes. Since youth learn often through observation of the adults around them,society today is hyper-aware of the ?example? that it sets for the afterlife generation inDenmark during Hamlet?s time period, there was little consideration for the moralstructure of the future leaders of the country. Through the conceit of the adults in Hamlet,there are moral repercussions for themselves and the youth of Elsinore , who are unable tobear the burden of the adults? mistakes.The adults at the forefront of the play are Claudius, Hamlet?s uncle/stepfatherGertrude, his mother and Claudius? new wife and Polonius, counsel to the King and fatherof Ophelia and Laertes. Claudius is smug at the onset of the play because he appears to have gotten awaywith killing King Hamlet, Gertrude?s late husband and Hamlet?s father, in order toascertain the King?s title and woo Gertrude. He has committed selfish and homicidal actsthat, in the belief of the time, would damn his soul. In fact, in one soliloquy in Act III,scene III, he admits to himself that he feels no remorse for what he has done, saying, ?But,O, what form of prayer can serve my turn...I am still possessed of those effects for which Idid the murder _ my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen? (lines 54-58). Thedeception that Claudius has commited puts the right of avenging his father?s deathon young Hamlet, something that he proves unable to accompli sh until the very end of theplay, despite several attempts to muster the courage. Claudius also turns Hamlet?s ownfriends against him by attempting to utilize Guildenstern and Rosencrantz as spies. Polonius, counsel to the King, is a manipulative character intent on winning theKing?s approval. His solutions to the problems environ the royal family involve spyingand lying as means to achieve an end. This is evident in Act III, scene I, lines 49-51, whenPolonius instructs Ophelia on how to behave while he and the King are spying on Hamlet.