Free Hamlet Essays: Not Murder, Self Defense in Hamlet :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Not Murder, Self Defense in Hamlet It is said that fall of the Royal family of Denmark, was Prince Hamlets fault. But in truth, Hamlet wasn't responsible for all the deaths. He was simply just avenging his fathers murder, an of Gertrude, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Ophelia. If you don't know who you are killing, are you held fully responsible for the murder? In Hamlets case, he promised his father, he would avenge his fathers murder. After the play, Hamlet was called into Gertrudes room to have a talk with his mother. That evening, Hamlet had performed badley and embarrassed King Claudius by implying that he had killed King Hamlet. At this point in the play, Hamlet was aware that almost everyone was spying on him. So he had reason to be suspicious when he heard a noise from behind a curtain. It was of course Hamlets fault that he had stabbed Polonius, but Hamlet wasn't aware that it was Polonius. He thought that it was Claudius getting ready to pull a knife on him, so as self-defense, Hamlet killed him. Polonius was just mistaken for the King. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Therefore Because Hamlet wasn't aware he was killing the wrong person, he can't be fully responsible for Polonius's death. After Hamlet realized that he had murd ered the Kings advisor, not the king, he felt sorry for Polonius and sort of apologized. "thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find'st to be too busy in some danger." ( Act 3 scene 4, line 38) Everyone deals with death differently. Hamlet mourns, promising to get even. Gertrude starts new with a new husband to replace the old one. When Ophelia hears about her fathers death, she goes mad. That is how Ophelia deals with death. She turned crazy; acting insane like a mad woman. Soon she got to the point where she couldn't control her actions. As a result, she herself decided to end her life, to end the madness and pain. Ophelia's death was caused because of her fathers death. Because Hamlet was not fully responsible for the death of Polonius, he couldn't be responsible for the death of Ophelia. Hamlet loved Ophelia; he wouldn't deliberately hurt her like that. "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum.