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  • Essay / William Shakespeare's Hamlet: The Impact of Parents on Their Children

    James Baldwin once wrote: "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them . “Parents play a very special role in a child’s life. Good or bad, what a child will become one day depends on how their parents decide to raise them. This can be demonstrated in several different ways throughout Shakespeare's Hamlet, one being Hamlet's desire for revenge after the death of his father. Hamlet's close relationship with his mother is another example that led to their own deaths. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayA third example is Hamlet's relationship with Claudius and his hatred towards him after he discovers that he murdered his father. Laertes' close relationship with his father, Polonius, affects who he becomes once he chooses revenge for his father's death rather than his friendship with Hamlet. Ultimately, Ophelia's one-sided relationship with Polonius leads to her own death. A parent's decision affects their child in ways that could surely complicate their rational decision. Hamlet has a deep love and respect for his father. His life and attitude change drastically after the king's death and after discovering that it was a murder rather than a simple accident. “Such an excellent king; that was Hyperion for a satyr: so loving towards my mother. » (Act I, Scene II, l. 139-140) This quote shows the effect that the king had on Hamlet, since he calls him an "excellent king" and compares him to a Hyperion, the sun god of Greek mythology. That being said, Hamlet and the king have a fair and two-way relationship, as shown by what Hamlet had to say and the trust the king has in his son to avenge his death. This dynamic complicated the action of the play in a way that changed Hamlet from a good, innocent man to a man who spends every second of his days seeking revenge for his father's death. If he and his father did not have a close relationship, Hamlet would not spend his time plotting revenge just because his father's ghost told him to. “There has never been and never will be anything as special as the love between a mother and her son. » The author of this quote is unknown, but the fact remains true. Throughout the story, Hamlet gradually becomes angry with his mother and very upset when she marries Claudius, his father's brother, just after a month. Even though he was upset, the love and care he gave his mother was irreplaceable. It wasn't just because of him, Gertrude loved her son very much, so much so that she disobeyed her husband, the king's direct order and drank in honor of her son, poisoning herself and dying. If the bond between the two was not so strong, Gertrude would not have decided to drink the poison that Claudius had prepared to kill Hamlet. Claudius went from being Hamlet's uncle to murdering his own brother and marrying his brother's wife, thus becoming Hamlet's father. Hamlet becomes furious when he learns that Claudius has poisoned his father, as shown in the quote "O wicked, wicked, smiling, cursed villain!" » (Act I, Scene v, l. 106). Hamlet then attempts to stab Claudius when he hears a voice coming from behind the doors of his mother's room. He mistook Polonius' voice for Claudius' and murdered Polonius on the spot. If Hamlet did not have a close relationship with his biological father, he would not have cared about being murdered and would not have mistakenly stabbed Polonius. After feeling threatened by Hamlet, Claudius participated in the plan to poison Hamlet..