Events can cause a person's life to change dramatically and sometimes permanently small developments can change one's course of actions during a day. A fight with a friend can ruin vacation plans, while the change could be as serious as the loss of a parent. A permanent change such as this could alter your perception of life itself. In Shakespear's Hamlet, the main character suffers the devastating loss of his father and he seems to change, alter, and ultimately fall into a deep depression. Seems is the operative word in that sentence. In actuality, Hamlet's character does not alter one bit throughout the course of the play. Possibly, his character is amplified by the events that unfold as Hamlet plots to revenge his father's wrongful death. How outgoing Hamlet is concerning his revenge is, at times, questionable, but his intentions alongside his character remain true.
Growing up as the Prince of Denmark, young Hamlet is a well mannered, highly educated young man on the path to becoming king. His character before his father's death must be assumed because we do not see him prior to the tragedy. Right offhand, we see that Hamlet is intelligent through his eloquent speech and candor. Although sad and slightly depressing, the way Hamlet speaks reveals his level of intelligence. For example, when he is conversing with his mother and Claudius he states "So excellent a king, that was to this, Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven.""(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 139-141) Hamlet is also very sensitive and emotional. He feels his father's death very deeply and his hurt is only amplified by the quick remarriage of his mother to his uncle. Bitterness is evident in regards to his mother's haste wedding when he states, "The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.""(Act 1, Scene 2, 180-181) When Horatio tells Hamlet about the ghost of his father, and Hamlet learns the truth of his father's wrongful death, he immediately becomes vengeful: "O villain, villain, smiling damned villain! My tables-meet it is, I set it down that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.
