Jennifer Goodman
ENGL 350
Hamlet Essay
The are many characters that Hamlet can be compared and contrasted to in the play.
Hamlet was a student at the time of his father’s death. He seems to be introspective and
pensive in his thinking; so much so that he fails to act in avenging his father’s death until the
very end of the play.
Claudius, the new king, is the opposite of Hamlet. He has almost brought deception to
an art form. Whereas Hamlet detests dishonesty and deception. Claudius is very skilled at
faking things and getting others to believe him, but Hamlet truly values honesty. A major
aspect of being the King of Denmark is politics. Claudius is gifted in this area and excels at
managing people. Again, Hamlet is the direct opposite. Hamlet probably would have made a
very poor king do to how much he has to think things out and his inability to follow through
with important tasks. Claudius is willing to overlook moral cannon and act incisively to get what
he wants. It is quite obvious that Hamlet cannot or is not willing to do this throughout the play.
Horatio is a close friend of Hamlet’s, and they studied together at the university.
Horatio is a devoted and allegiant friend to Hamlet throughout the play. In contrast to this,
Hamlet is capricious and emotional. Horatio is very smart and can follow Hamlet’s wordplay.
However, he does not engage in this behavior with Hamlet. Horatio is very accepting of what is
given and told to him, while Hamlet questions everything he sees and hears. It is clear that
Hamlet would like to be more like Horatio, but his need to think about things from every angle
means that he will never come close to being like his friend. Of course, Hamlet dies at the end
of the play, but Horatio lives to tell the tale of everything he has witnessed.
Laertes, the son of Polonius, and Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway seem to have a great
deal in common with each other and several pieces in contrast to Hamlet. All three characters,
Jennifer Goodman
ENGL 350
Hamlet Essay
Hamlet; Laertes; and Fortinbras, are set on avenging the deaths of their fathers. While Hamlet
spends the entirety of the play trying to figure out how to accomplish this task, the other two
characters are not so slow to action. Fortinbras is willing to start a war with Denmark in order
to accomplish his goal, and Laertes leaves the university in Paris to start a coup. Fortinbras
ultimately does not go to war with Denmark, but it takes some gifted talking to ensure this
doesn’t happen. Laertes is the most successful in avenging his father as he kills Hamlet. Hamlet
does kill Claudius after stalling for as long as he possibly could and it goes horribly wrong.
Almost everyone ends up dying.
The quotational significance of the “To Be or Not To Be” soliloquy is quite possibly the
most important introspection found in the entire play. On the surface, it appears that Hamlet is
talking about killing himself or living with the actions his father has asked him to carry out. The
whole soliloquy is well balanced between life and death taking care to consider both sides of
this particular coin. He seems to be thinking about how a person deals with all the heartache
and blows that life deals a person. Do you suck it up or just give in and end your life. Hamlet
explains that living is a thing a person must endure while death is an action that is taken. In
order to get to death, one has to take the action in life which creates a paradox. Hamlet also
talks about the unknown of death and that maybe more people choose to stay alive because
the fear of the unknown is worse than living. Ultimately, Hamlet is just venting about all the
things that annoy him. He is not really contemplating suicide.
Suicide, as it still is today, was considered a mortal sin in the Catholic church. It was
unforgivable and damned a person to an eternity in hell. This is another reason Hamlet gave
Jennifer Goodman
ENGL 350
Hamlet Essay
for more people choosing to live rather than commit suicide. Towards the end of his soliloquy,
Hamlet says, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all.” This may be the most important
quote in the soliloquy and drives home the point that it is a sin to commit suicide. This added
to the unknown of death makes the fear far worse.
The above quotation can be interpreted in another way as well. Hamlet is on a mission
from his father’s ghost to avenge his death. Hamlet desperately wants to avenge his father’s
death. He spends the majority of the play think about how he is going to carry out this mission
as well as when the proper time will be. With this one quote, we understand what the real
issue has been with Hamlet’s lack of action. Hamlet may be prone to procrastination, but
above all, he appears to be a moral person. He desperately wants to murder Claudius as his
father’s ghost has requested, but is moved to inaction because murder is a sin. This is the core
conflict of the play. To murder Claudius will not only require Hamlet to commit a mortal sin,
but it will also make Hamlet as depraved and duplicitous as Claudius. Hamlet finally decides
that thinking too much will only prevent him from doing what he feels he must do in order to
honor his father's last wishes.