Character Analysis in Hamlet

Character Analysis in Hamlet
IntroductionCharacter traits in play are the values identifiable in person through the roles they play in the book. Hamlet has several characters, but the main one is Prince Hamlet. Throughout the plot, he exhibits different characters traits including melancholy, revenge, failure and villain. This analytical work looks into the characters traits of Prince Hamlet as depicted in Hamlet and other character traits that also reflects his characters.
Hamlet and Revenge
Revenge is a situation where one character is bent on ensuring that a person who has wronged him get to pay the price for the wrong. The need to have people pay for the wrongs they committed in Hamlet defines the plot, theme and character traits of the people in the play. For instance, Prince Hamlet wants to kill his uncle, King Claudius after the spirit told him Claudius killed his father. Though he was initially doubtful, Prince Hamlet confirms the message through the play performed by the group of actors who came to Elsinore (Tweg 102-5). When he was sure that Claudius was responsible for the murdering of his father through poison, he plots to kill the new king to make him pay for the price of killing his father. He, therefore, acts mad and looks out for an opportunity to kill Claudius. When he finds Claudius praying, he avoids killing him believing that may take him to heaven (Gottschalk 161-4). According to Prince Hamlet, Claudius crime is so grave that he needs to be killed and go to hell straight away.

Other places in the play also show instances of the need to revenge on the opponents. When Laertes, who was in France learned that Prince Hamlet stabbed and killed his father, Polonius, he travels all the way home to Denmark to avenge the death of his father on Prince Hamlet. Laertes plots to kill Hamlet to pay the price of killing his father, a death that triggered off the death of his sister Ophelia.
According to Gottschalk, King Hamlet’s spirits that prayed that the gods avenge on his wife, Queen Gertrude, the spirits surely executes the wish by letting her take the poison from the honey goblet that Claudius prepared to kill Prince Hamlet in case he won the fencing competition with Laertes (167).
Hamlet and Melancholy
Melancholy is a situation where one feels deep sadness resulting from the death of another person who is very dear to them (Klein 125). It is a state of mourning that comprises of very heavy emotions and expression of the loss of the loved one. The play has several cases of melancholy expressed by different actors who lost their loved family members. Initially, Prince Hamlet feels deep sadness for the death of his father, King Hamlet, who was murdered by the new King Claudius. His sadness increases when he realizes that Claudius was responsible for killing his father to inheriting his mother, Queen Gertrude. Prince Hamlet becomes sadder when he realizes that Claudius had inherited his kinship when he was the direct heir in line to inherit the kingdom from his father, King Hamlet (Crawford 59). Hamlet’s sadness is understandable and deeply influences his actions throughout the play. The loss of his father was so hard to bear, and so he was even ready to take action on the villain responsible for killing his father. Prince Hamlet, having learned of the death of Ophelia whom he loved, he become very sad for the loss. He just returned from the botched trip to England where he was to be killed to find the burial process taking place for Ophelia. According to Crawford, his sadness’s was expressed in his exchange with Ophelia’s brother Laertes (38), telling him that he loved Ophelia all the same and would not want to kill her.
Laertes also feels deep sadness on learning of the death of his father Polonius, stabbed mistakenly by Hamlet. He also feels melancholy on learning about the death of his sister Ophelia who drawn in the river after learning of her father’s death. Ophelia feels deep sadness on learning of the death of her father.
Hamlet as a Villain
A villain is a person who deliberately commits a crime on other members of the society. A villain breaks the moral, social and natural laws by plotting to commit a crime knowing that it would be wrong to carry out such activity (Kelman and Lee 71). Normally, villains have control over their thoughts and behavior but decide to commit crime all the same. Prince Hamlet plots and kills King Claudius thus becoming one of the villains in the Kingdom. Though he was acting on the directions of his father through the spirit, Prince Hamlet knew that killing King Claudius was wrong and could not bring his father back to life. He committed the crime all the same by stabbing King Claudius with the poisoned sword. Also, Prince Hamlet feels range and attacks Laertes at Ophelia’s funeral, declaring that he always loved Ophelia and that he feels the same pain that Laertes may be feeling towards the loss of Ophelia (Crawford 59-61). Even if he did not mean to kill Polonius, Prince Hamlet killed him all the same and was not sorry for it.
Other villains in the kingdom included King Claudius who deliberately killed King Hamlet. As the story later unfolded, Claudius killed King Hamlet through poisoning him so that he could inherit his kingdom and his wife (Hadfield 572-5). King Claudius also plotted to kill Prince Hamlet. He organized for him to be taken away to England to be killed there, though he returned home through good luck. King Claudius then organized for him to be killed by Laertes in a sword fencing concert after poisoning Laertes’s sword. Also, Laertes deliberately plotted to kill Prince Hamlet for killing his father and sister.
Hamlet as a Failure
Failure is the inability to achieve the desired goals. In the play, Prince Hamlet could not act on his father’s spirit’s orders straight away, doubting if it was a true spirit until he tested. Before he tested the truth in the spirits command, he was a failure. Hamlet failed to avenge on his father’s killer alone but killed several people in the process. Similarly, Prince Hamlet failed to protect Ophelia from dying despite his love for her. His actions caused her death after she learned that it was Prince Hamlet who stabbed her father in Queen Gertrude bedroom. Finally, Prince Hamlet failed to love his mother after learning her plot to kill the father and be inherited by Claudius
Conclusion
The play, Hamlet, brings different characters on board. One of the characters is Prince Hamlet whose father was killed by King Claudius so that he could inherit the kingdom and the queen. This act exposes different character traits in Prince Hamlet shared with some other characters in the play. Prince Hamlet displays Melancholy, revenge, failure, and Villain characters at different stages of the story development and on different people.

Works Cited
Crawford, Alexander Wellington. Hamlet, an Ideal Prince: And Other Essays in Shakespearean Interpretation: Hamlet; Merchant of Venice; Othello; King Lear. Boston: RG Badger; Toronto: Copp Clark, 1916.
Gottschalk, Paul. “Hamlet and the Scanning of Revenge.” Shakespeare Quarterly 24.2 (1973): 155-170.
Hadfield, Andrew. “The Power and Rights of the Crown in Hamlet and King Lear: ‘The King—The King’s to Blame’.” The Review of English Studies54.217 (2003): 566-586.
Kelman, Herbert C., and V. Lee Hamilton. Crimes of Obedience: Toward a social psychology of authority and responsibility. Yale University Press, 1989.
Klein, Melanie. “Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states.” The International journal of psycho-analysis 21 (1940): 125.
Tweg, Sue. Hamlet. Insight Publications, 2011.