ACT 1:

Initial Reaction:

I have seen some of the various movies of Hamlet and tried to comprehend them when I was younger. I got the idea of what was going on however I’m not sure that I understood some of the smaller details. Hamlet kind of reminded me of one of my brothers David. When my grandmother passed he acted almost in the same manor Hamlet does to his fathers death. 

Character Analysis:

The main character Hamlet is a very sensitive guy who is not afraid of showing his feelings. Whether it is his mourning of his father or his affection for Ophelia he makes his feelings known. This is his fatal flaw because his feelings keep him from immediately acting on his father’s request for revenge. I believe from what we know in act one that he fits Aristotle’s concept of the tragic hero because he is in a high position of power and it is clear that he has flaws. 

Theme Analysis:

Shakespeare used atmosphere to give the reader/viewer the feeling that someone is being deceiving. The fact it started with the perceived ghost of a king wandering around at night set the tone for something devious to be told of later on. When Claudius says:

 “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death

The memory be green, and that it us befitted

To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom

 To be contracted in one brow of woe,

Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature

That we with wisest sorrow think him

Together with remembrance of ourselves…” (1.2.1-8)

 It is made clear that something is going on with Claudius. He is not mourning his brother’s death but trying to benefit from it, is a clear signal of deceit and adds to the atmosphere of something devious waiting to be told. Later when we find out that he is the one who in fact murdered the king the suspicion of deceit is laid to rest because we know the king was deceived. When the ghost of the King was telling Hamlet to seek revenge for his death Shakespeare was telling the audience that if you are deceitful eventually the truth will come out.