- INTRODUCTION -- Thematic statement
- BODY (2-3 paragraphs)
- Topic sentence
- Quote
- Commentary
- transition word
- Quote
- Commentary
- transition sentence
- CONCLUSION
- What did you prove? End with a universal statement.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Structure!!
On your Hamlet essays, many of you are lacking definite structure. Here's a rough format to follow:
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Hey Ms. Lightfoot, I completely lost your email, so I s'pose I'll just post it here and hopefully you'll see it?????
ReplyDeleteWilliam Shakespeare’s grim play, Hamlet, delineates a statement of vengeance, misinterpreted as justice, which is shown to corrupt any person’s mind and that once one is set upon a goal, it will only lead to their own demise.
In Hamlet, we see several dynamic events that indulge in violence and irrational decisions that were meant to seek revenge, seen as a misinterpreted justice, but only leading to several deaths including Hamlet’s own death. Such decisions were made only to revisit the issues and grudges, consisting of Hamlet’s father’s death (or the betrayal of King Hamlet), Polonious’ accidental death, and other misery-filled events. In the event of King Hamlet’s ghost appearance, it depicts the betrayal that the king has gone through; Claudius, the King’s brother, killed King Hamlet, for both his crown and his wife. As soon as Hamlet learns of the betrayal, he becomes furious, enraged and begins to make rash decisions such as killing his newly-found ‘father’ and ‘king’ Claudius to seek justice for his forsakenly slain father. After consuming the knowledge, he becomes devoured by rage and is destined to save his family name by destroying Claudius, only leading to his enraged fury with his own mother since she had willingly gone through knowing her husband was slain by the man she married. This rage led to an irrational decision in which Hamlet chooses to “speak daggers” to his mother to hurt her. Unfortunately, during his derogative speech, his mother leaps out of fear of being killed and yells for help, Polonious (the king’s assistant), jumps out to save her, which inevitably leads to a sword through his body. The nonsensical thoughts of revenge led to these absurd decisions which only led to harsh and unforgiving repercussions.
In Hamlet, the reader can also infer that the author purposely depicts that justice, or revenge, is blind. Later in the story, after Polonious’ death, his son Laertes seeks revenge for his father, almost identical to Hamlets own sense of self-righteous rigid revenge. Claudius and Laertes begin to plot against Hamlet and seek to poison him with the tip of a rapier within a duel, along with a poisoned wine. Inescapably, this led to their own demise as well as Hamlet and his mother; out of celebration his mother drinks the poisoned wine not knowing it was poisoned and dies. These unreasonable decisions further led to Laertes lashing out at Hamlet after he has figured out that the wine was poisoned and meant for him. As Laertes strikes, he succeeds in poisoning Hamlet but not before Hamlet stabs him and takes his life. After being slashed, poisoned, and witnessing his own mother succumb to death, he aims his last breathes towards his father’s murderer, Claudius, forcing him to drink the poison meant for Hamlet. This scenario is perfect example of the status quo that was made clear in the intro of this essay, since all the vengeance sought throughout all characters only led to their demises. Again, the absurd and specious choices that were made to seek revenge only lead to a sorrowful and tragic ending, leaving not one person to gain what they sought.
All revenge can be seen as a malignant tumor, spreading a cancerous disease through the mind and soul, disparaging all purity found within oneself. The irrationality of Hamlet and his fellow characters portrays that even with the best set and self-righteous intentions, it will only lead to destruction if willingly used for revenge.