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Hamlet Character Analysis · Acedra
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Hamlet Character Analysis
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0:01
welcome to this video on Shakespeare's hamlet in the next few minutes I'll use just 10 quotes to help you get an understanding of Hamlet's character and how he changes during the play now these are the first words Hamlet says in the play and there's spoken to his uncle Claudius who has just much to Hamlet's disgust married Hamlet's mother mainly disgusted because his father had died only 2 months earlier the quote tells us that Claudius may be family or kin but
0:33
in Hamlet's opinion he's a not like his real family kind and B in another sense possibly unkind incidentally the triangle number and red circle up on the right there give you a visual reference so that you know roughly where in the play each quote occurs and the bottom left uh you can see a quote here 1. 1263 tell you this quote is from act one scene two line 63 um now our second quote is spoken towards the end of the same scene this one tells you that Hamlet wishes his
1:10
body would dissolve at this point he's Melancholy some would say very depressed and the only thing that seems to stop him killing himself at this point is that he believes in God and that God has forbidden suicide now in act one scen 4 and 5 Hamlet will see the ghost of his dead father and he will discover that his uncle Claudius actually murdered his father that's how Claudius has become king and so quote three concerns what Hamlet does next and it's quite surprising he doesn't immediately take
1:48
revenge as most characters would do but he asks some visiting actors to act out the murder of his father he wants to see for himself whether Claudius looks guilty when he sees the murder reenacted in what is called the play Within the play which happens in act three before he stages the play Within the play Hamlet speaks possibly the most famous Soliloquy uh in the play and perhaps the most famous ever written to be or not to be this essentially maintains Hamlet's
2:21
focus on death and asks whether it's nobler to face the problems or of life or to kill himself and he concludes that he should stay alive and his main reason actually is because he doesn't know what comes after death it may be worse than the painful life he thinks he's leading quote five tells us how important the performance of the actors will be here Hamlet is briefing them to be as natural and realistic as possible that's why he tells them to speak the words trippingly so that the words trip
2:59
off their tongue it's important that Claudius sees his crimes acted out in front of him because Hamlet thinks this will make him reveal his guilt now quote six shows us a hamlet ready to kill he knows his uncle is guilty because he's seen the play and he now wants to murder him and I use this quote uh if anyone tells you that Hamlet is indecisive a common misconception he is prepared to take action now that he has evidence of his uncle's guilt and in this quote you
3:30
can see he takes action uh he sees Claudius praying and says I'll kill him now now might I do it Pat or immediately but he then realizes that Claudius is praying and by killing him while he's praying he thinks claudius's Soul might go to heaven and he wants claudius's soul to go to hell now some people say this is in decision but remember Hamlet believes in life after death I think this is quite reasonable and in the next scene he actually murders somebody thinking it's the
4:05
King quote number eight possibly one of the most famous in literary history along with to be or not to be it's important in this play because it brings Hamlet face to face literally with the skull of the Court Jester yorck a man he knew when he was a child this quote tells us quite a lot about Hamlet's youth that yoro was an important part of Hamlet's infancy and it reminds us actually that carrying a child around in play is often the role of a father and this quote somehow suggests that Hamlet
4:37
didn't share many fun times with his father quote nine this is based on a quote from the Bible in the Book of Matthew 10: 29 and it's one that suggests that God oversees the very smallest things even the death of a sparrow and that humans need to trust in God will all die at some point and importantly we can't control when we die or how long we live Hamlet has shaken off The Melancholy of the early part of the play and accepts life now for what it is I think this is an important moment in the
5:14
play and lastly quote 10 we heard Hamlet's first words and these are his last but do we think that statement's true is there an afterlife will it all be silent I mean Hamlet seemed to think there was an afterlife earlier does he now believe there isn't and it will be just silent and if there is where is Hamlet going Heaven or Hell after all he kills three people in this play ponus Claudius and Lees and indirectly causes the death of another three ailia Rosen CR and Gilden
5:51
Stone now this video just offers a brief insight into Hamlet's character and into the story and so I'll explore the play further in another video give a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video And subscribe now so that you never miss any of my future posts
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