hamlet Essays (2009 words) - Characters In Hamlet, Prince Hamlet

Irony is seen throughout this whole play and can be recognized by many in many different ways. We come across dramatic, which is very hard to determine in ?Hamlet?, we also see situational, and verbal, or sarcasm, as well. Below are some examples of each and some possible interpretations of how I viewed them to be. Let?s first look at some dramatic irony throughout the play. There is very little in the play where only the audience is aware of something that one of the characters does not already know. One that comes to mind is in the very last scene when the audience is aware of the poisoned swords and Hamlet is not. Up to that point the audience, because of the peculiar intimacy, which Shakespeare builds into Hamlet?s character, knows exactly what Hamlet, knows as he knows himself! The audience becomes an accomplice to Hamlet's confusion; his despair and his deception of others and he communes with the audience directly, using it as a sounding board for his own deliberations. Dramatic irony results when the audience knows something that the characters do not. In Act I, scene ii, Hamlet is in Claudius's court mooning over the death of his father; however, from scene i the audience knows that the ghost of Hamlet's father has been seen on the castle ramparts. Therefore, much of Hamlet's idealizing and grieving is misplaced; the situation is more dynamic than he thinks it is. The dramatic irony is that Hamlet's feelings would be intensified--and he already thinks that they are intense--is more appropriate than he at that point knows. Later on, when he says, "O my prophetic soul," he does know. By act II, the audience knows that Claudius killed Hamlet; Sr. the ghost has told him so, sending Hamlet into frenzy. However, Claudius and the others, apart from Horatio, a special case, do not. Therefore, when Hamlet puts his antic disposition on and Polonius, Claudius, Opehlia, et. al. believe that he is mad; their misunderstanding is an instance of dramatic irony: the audience knows he is not mad in the way they believe him to be. However, there's an additional edge of dramatic irony here because in one sense Hamlet is mad, even as he thinks he is merely pretending to be so. In other words he believes he is pretending to be that which he is not, but in fact he is pretending to be that which he is. Later on, he tells the traveling player that people don't leap and cavort about, yet so he has done at the end of Act I--and--depending on how the actor playing the part comports himself--at the end of Act II as well. Hamlet cannot share his strong feelings and emotions with his mother or his girlfriend and while his mother is literally sleeping with the enemy, Ophelia has chosen the side of Claudius because of her father Polonius. It is especially difficult for Hamlet to talk to Ophelia. The only other woman in his life, Gertrude, has betrayed his father by marrying Claudius. Hamlet may be obsessed with the idea that all women are evil, yet he really does love Ophelia because when he finds out Ophelia has died he cries out, I loved Ophelia; forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum.(Act V, Scene 1) The ghost provides Hamlet with a dilemma. In Shakespeare's plays supernatural characters are not always to be trusted (think of the three witches in Mac Beth who are instrumental in his downfall). Hamlet does not know whether the ghost is telling the truth or not. If Hamlet had killed Claudius solely on the ghost's advice then he would certainly been tried and p ut to death himself and there would probably have been a war to choose a new king. Being the humanitarian that he is, and taking into account his responsibilities as a prince and future king, Hamlet most likely would want to avoid a civil war because even though Claudius is a murderer and probably not as noble a king as Hamlet's father was yet he is still the king, bringing order to Denmark. Hamlet does not wish to plunge his country into chaos