Prince Hamlet's Turmoil

Hamlet is but a mere distraught son of murdered king and the queen of Denmark whom has been filled with the turmoil brought upon him by the appearance of his late father’s ghost in the Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. His obsession and continued disturbance by the thoughts of his mother having entered a hasty marriage with his father’s own murderer leaves him in a state of pure agony and distress in which he, throughout the play, let’s lead him to his final destiny, his own dramatic and, by no better definition than that used to describe his mother’s marriage, hasty death.

In the passage during Act III in scene iv, we finally hear, in Hamlet’s own pained words, what sins he feels his mother has committed. “Such an act/ that blurs the grace and blush of modesty”, Hamlet begins his thoughts (Riverside, pp 1215). It is clear that by just the first three words that Hamlet feels that his mother Gertrude has done something deceitful. The “act” in which Hamlet describes is never truly spelled out to the audience/reader. Yet, we can decipher, just from the first three words, that he feels disgusted by this act. Hamlet’s anger and disgust is so intense

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Gertrude deceived God and his teachings. Gertrude made a fool of God’s religious words and she turned her back on her belief in her religion. Gertrude is blind to what is happening about her- she is strictly being used by Claudius so that he can gain power and reign to the throne of Denmark. King and queen are to be under God in power and for a queen to betray God by breaking one of his laws “is thought-sick” of an act (Riverside, Act III. It is a doom that she entered into when she denied that the vows taken during her first marriage.

In the tragedy of Hamlet, Hamlet wants to question his mother.

Shakespeare also may be playing a trick on words when he says, “as from the body of contraction plucks the very soul, and sweet religion makes a rhapsody of words” in lines 46-48 in The Riverside. The Oxford English Dictionary describes cozened to mean “beguile or cheat into, up, etc; to induce by deception to do a thing” in its’ third definition. Hamlet is as if saying to his mother, “What has Claudius given you for you so that has caused you to so hastily marry him and make him the king of our Denmark? How could you have entered such a marriage? This is against the law of God, whose laws we are supposed to abide by! Are you so blinded by Claudius and his evil plans to become ruler of Denmark to the point that you cannot see the destruction that you are causing to our family, our reputation and our people?”

This is obvious when Hamlet asks his mother in act III, scene iv “What devil was’t/ That thus hath cozened you at hoodman-blind” (lines 77-78). Gertrude broke those sacred vows and by doing this she “plucks” the very laws that God gave to that marriage.

Finally, when “union” is mentioned in act V, scene ii, union is representing I feel that it is representative of the definition that states “the action of uniting, or the state or fact of being united, into one political body; esp. formation or incorporation into a single state, kingdom or political entity” as said by definition 4. Hamlet says that the blister, or shame, that his mother, the queen of Denmark, has brought upon the family and their land “makes marriage vows as false as dicers’ oaths” (Riverside, Act III. By dicers’ oaths, I am compelled to believe that what is being spoken of (the marriage vows that were made between Hamlet’s parents) is just as a gamblers’ oaths.

Approximate Word count = 1310
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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