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

Teaching Deception and Selfishness in Hamlet 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 dish mavinsty,the end result is the demise of all the main characters. ?It is clear that the theme ofvengeance is merely a vehicle employ by Shakespeare in request to articulate...themes centralto humanity relationships between father and son, mother and son, and Hamlet and hisfriends... juvenility 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 future generation inDenmark during Hamlet?s time period, in that respect 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 you th of Elsinore, who are inefficient 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, propose to the King and fatherof Ophelia and Laertes. Claudius is self-complacent 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 murderous 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 however 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 responsibility of avenging his father?s deathon young Hamlet, something that he proves unable to accomplish 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 surrounding the royal family involve spyingand lying as kernel 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.