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Claudius & hamlet

 

Hamlet's sickness is also shown through his strong relationship, bordering on obsession, with his mother. Throughout the play he constantly worries about her, and becomes angry when thinking of her relationship with Claudius. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet becomes enraged when he thinks about her incestuous sheet, and in frustration he makes the irrational generalization that, Frailty, thy name is woman! (I, ii, 146). In the closet scene, Hamlet treats his mother cruelly, and he accuses her of being involved in the plot to kill his father. Once again, he dwells on her enseam'd bed/ Stew'd in corruption (III, iv, 92-93). In his parting words to Gertrude, Hamlet instructs her to not let the bloat king tempt you again to his bed. (III, iv, 182). He is overly concerned with his mother's relationship with Claudius, and this is just a part of his complex sickness. Wilson Knight also claims that Hamlet is inhumane. This is clearly demonstrated through his relationship with the fair Ophelia. Hamlet originally professes his love for Ophelia during his visitations to her closet, and through the love letter which he writes to her. However, during the nunnery scene, when Ophelia tries to return Hamlet's gifts, he retorts I never gave you aught, (III, i, 97) and he goes on to tell her, I loved you not (III, i, 119). Later in this scene he tells Ophelia that she should go to a nunnery. He viciously insults the women whom he said he loved, and this greatly disturbs her. During The Mousetrap, Hamlet once again has no regard for Ophelia's feelings, and he mocks her by putting his head in her lap and bantering with her. Hamlet is also responsible for the death of Ophelia's father, Polonius. In the closet scene, Hamlet mistook her father for the king, and he fatally stabbed him. Gertrude called this a rash and bloody deed (III, iii, 27). He later shows that he has no remorse for this inhumane actions when he tells Claudius that Polonius is at supper not where he eats, but where he is eaten (IV, ii, 18-20).


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