Saturday, April 28, 2012
Act 3 Question: The Role of Parents in Hamlet
The parents play an important role in Hamlet. Throughout the play, the parents are seen as irresponsible and reckless, while the children, Hamlet, Ophelia, and Laertes, are the ones who suffer from these actions. The children are badly influenced by their parents and this affects the whole play. The children are dependent on their parents, corruption is damaging to the children. Without the parents, none of the characters of the play would suffer or have their downfalls.
Hamlet suffers because Claudius (his uncle/stepfather) killed his father and his mother Gertrude married Claudius. This not only confused Hamlet, but threw him into a depression and madness from which he never fully recovered. His mother was selfish and made a decision which affected her whole family. She hadn’t even discussed the issue with Hamlet. Even after the fact, when she thinks Hamlet is going mad, she doesn’t confront him. She and Claudius send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what is wrong. Her lack of care and concern for Hamlet leaves him to fight his depression by himself.
Ophelia suffers because of Polonius, her father, not trusting her. Because of this she is heartbroken and lonely as well as hated by Hamlet. Polonius had no reason to stop Ophelia from seeing Hamlet, but Ophelia, being the responsible and obedient person she is, listens. The worst part is, after Polonius did this, he asks her to get back together with Hamlet. Ophelia later goes into madness over the fact that Hamlet hates her and she ends up committing suicide. Because of her father’s actions, she died.
Laertes suffers because he is lied to by his father. Polonius congratulates his son for going to France to study and tells him how much he trusts him. However, he then sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Polonius had no faith in his son and was only worried about his own reputation. When Polonius dies, Laertes wants revenge on Hamlet, thinking his father was an innocent man and not knowing him for who he truly was.
Overall, the parents are irresponsible and cause the suffering and horrible things that happen in the play. In turn their children are the ones who are directly affected. The actions of the parents shape the future events of the play. The parents influence their children for the worse and ultimately lead to their downfalls.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
That was really good. I did the role of parents too and I missed the impact Polonius had on Laertes. It was really interesting how Laertes never does find out who his father really was. I wonder if Laertes had more knowledge of his fathers actions would he have acted in the same way? And if Laertes had found out would Polonius have changed his ways to help Laertes?
This post really makes me think about how directly the parents actions affect their kids. Laertes essentially killed Ophelia by controlling her her entire life. I can't imagine how he expected her to live once he was gone. I think the problem with all of the parents in the play is that they only think about themselves. Their actions are completely without regard to how they may affect their children.
That was well written and really made me think about how the parents really did cause the downfall of their children. Parents are suppose to turn their children into the best well rounded adults that they can, but in this play they caused them to go insane and lose their sanity. I agree with Roses post the parents put themselves first instead of thinking of their children's needs, which is a definate necessity as a parent.
I agree that parents do cause the collapse of most of the main characters in the novel. Leartes loved and cares for his father and wants nothing but revenge on Hamlet. But, I wonder if Leartes ever knew his father sent a spy a watch his every move. If Leartes did find out how do you think it would effect thier relationship together?
Nice job Dan. I think you did a nice job analyzing the role of the parents. Do you think the high role of status of the characters has anything to do with how they raise their children? Do you think a king and queen (or even a king's advisor for that matter) would have a very hands on relationship of raising their children?
From Kelli: I agree with most of your points Dan. Claudius and Gertrude's absolute disreguard for Hamlet's well-being are ultimately what bring about Hamlet's ire and deluded madness. I wouldn't even consider them parents in any more sense than that Gertrude gave birth to him and Claudius is now her husband. They do not parent Hamlet at all. They set no examples for him. There is no standard for his actions anymore.
Don't even get me started with Polonius. He is a loathsome man in my opinion. He wants power over his children. All he cares about is his reputation. He doesn't want his children to do anything that will reflect poorly on him not taking into account that mistakes are sometimes the best teachers for children. He is just as responsible, just as guilty, for Ophelia's suicide as Hamlet is. He cared absolutely nothing for her feelings.
Post a Comment