The Hamlet Site: Summary Background

Objective for this Page: To consider the moral impetus behind Hamlet’s actions.

Both Greek and English drama developed from religious origins, so both lead to moral insights about human nature. Hamlet is different from Oedipus in many ways. He has a divine mission, like Oedipus, to deal with a murderer. But he knows the murderer is Claudius when no one else does, and the gods (God) are not playing some cruel cosmic joke on him. Unlike Oedipus, who works in front of the whole town, Hamlet (and Claudius) work in secret against each other.

Royal Users of People

typehand.gif (8738 bytes) Posting Option #16: As you read and watch the play, consider how Claudius and Hamlet each use people for their purposes. Do you think Polonius knows as much about Claudius' actions and plans as Horatio knows about Hamlet's? What power does each have over Gertrude, the queen? Which of the two seems more effective at using people's distrust of someone else (e.g. Claudius using Laertes' distrust of Hamlet)?

These files contain all of the questions for writing from this lesson. Click on one to open your word processor and save the file to your desktop, perhaps to attach to an email to your instructor after you answer the questions--or click on "Generic Text," which will open in your browser so you can copy and paste it to the word processor on the computer you are using (perhaps "NotePad" or "WordPad" in the "Start" -- "Programs" -- "Accessories").

Word 7 (.doc) Rich Text Format (.rtf) Generic Text (.txt)

Hamlet has one main problem: He is given a mission, or quest, by his dead father's ghost to kill Claudius, who has usurped the throne and gotten between Hamlet and his mother. He vows after seeing the ghost that everything else will be secondary; that includes his love for Ophelia. That "everything else" is supposed to include his being upset with his mother for marrying so soon after being widowed, but Hamlet has a hard time keeping silent about this haste.