Shakespeares Hamlet - The Melancholy Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Melancholy hamlet In Shakespeares tragic drama, juncture, the multi-faceted character of the supporter is so complex that this essay will enlighten the reader on only one aspect of his personality his melancholy dimension. A.C. Bradley in Shakespearian Tragedy presents convincing evidence regarding the true extent and depth of the wedge shapes melancholy sentiment But there is a more formidable difficulty, which seems to have escaped notice. Horatio certainly came from Wittenberg to the funeral. And observe how he and settlement meet (I.ii.160). . . . Is not this passing strange? Hamlet and Horatio are supposed(p) to be fellow-students at Wittenberg, and to have left it for Elsinore less than two months ago. stock-still Hamlet hardly recognizes Horatio at first, and speaks as if he himself lived at Elsinore (I diagnose to his bitter jest, Well teach you to drink deep ere you depart). Who would dream that Hamlet had himself f just come from Wittenberg, if it were not for the previous words active his going back there? How can this be explained on the mutual view? Only, I presume, by supposing that Hamlet is so sunk in melancholy that he really does almost forget himself and forgets everything else, so that he actually is in doubt who Horatio is. (370) It is obvious that from the very outset of this catastrophe there is a melancholic protagonist. And the depressing aspect of the initial imagination of the drama tend to underline and reinforce Hamlets melancholy. Marchette slide in The Story Told in Hamlet describes some of this imagery of the inception scene The story opens in the cold and dark of a overwinter night in Denmark, while the guard is being changed on the battlements of the imperial castle of Elsinore. For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the minute of arc of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlements, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead faggot of Denmark, Hamlets father . (35) Horatio and Marcellus exit the ghost-ridden ramparts of Elsinore intending to enlist the aid of Hamlet. The prince is dejected by the oerhasty marriage of his mother to his uncle less than two months after the funeral of Hamlets father (Gordon 128). There is a post-coronation social gathering of the court, where Claudius insincerely pays tribute to the memory of his deceased brother.