Agony of a Sensitive Man
Shakespeare is arguably the greatest playwright that ever lived. His plays are the most studied works in the literary world. The classics like Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and Othello are loved so much for the characters that they present. Shakespeare makes his characters very complex. His character development is as widely studied as are his plays. Who can forget the love of Romeo, the jealously of Othello, the treachery of Brutus, and the torment of Hamlet. In Shakespeare's masterpiece Hamlet, Hamlet is overcome by a physiological downfall. Hamlet was a sensitive man who was destroyed by a corrupt environment. Hamlet's dead father, the deeds of his uncle and mother, and the amount of death caused the corruption of Hamlet.
First of all, the loss of any close family member is very traumatic. Hamlet is not immune to such effects. In the first of Hamlet's soliloquies, Hamlet cries 'How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on't! ah fie!'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely' (III.
David Garrick in Hamlet, I, 4
Book signing and Hamlet Au's interview with Julian...
Hamletii. 134-137). It is obvious that this is a window to Hamlet's tortured soul. This is only the beginning of the end for Hamlet. In Act I. Scene iv. Hamlet confronts the spirit of his dead father. This is also disturbing to Hamlet. John S. Wilks writes in J. Leeds Barroll's Shakespeare Studies how meeting the ghost of his father '...throws his conscience into doubt and error, must naturally begin with the malign source of that confusion, the Ghost' (119). Hamlet is also incensed when he learns the reason for his father's torture. Old Hamlet was murdered by his brother when he was sleeping. This leaves Old Hamlet walking in limbo...