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One of the most unique elements of the Hamlet character is that he is so human. Many types of readers can identify with him. Hamlet is imperfect, and he is fretful. Hamlet has human properties, and it is his humanity that I intend to explore. Indeed it is these human qualities and imperfections that make his story so tragic. Another tragic part of the play is the plays irony. Irony is an important tool in the hands of the playwright to achieve both comical and/or dramatic effect. There is usually little reason for a tragedy to be funny, so Shakespeare has used this tool to add more tragedy to the play. I will investigate the nature of this irony. Also, I will investigate the types of conflict that play a major part in the play and the relationships between Hamlet and the two people who have been closest to him; Ophelia and the Ghost. Hamlet cannot share his strong feelings and emotions with his mother or his girlfriend. 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 lov'd 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 MacBeth, 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, he would certainly have been tried and put to death himself. There would probably have been a war to choose the new king. Being the humanitarian that he is, and taking account of his responsibilities as a prince and future king, Hamlet most likely would want to avoid civil war. Even though Claudius is a murderer, and probably not as noble a king as Hamlet's father was, he is still a king. He brings order to Denmark. Hamlet does not wish to plunge his country into chaos. He realizes that this will happen when he kills Claudius. Hamlet is unable to combine the spiritual world (in the form of his father's ghost) with the tangible, every-day world that surrounds him.
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