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Post by mayurika98 on Mar 20, 2016 9:39:48 GMT
The death of Hamnet Shakespeare, the son of William Shakespeare was said to be the inspiration for the play “Hamlet” . Family is a major theme in this play and Shakespeare establishes a number of unusual relationships between the parents and children . We see characters like Polonius, who is already a conflicted person, trying to give advice to his children and lead them in the right path . Claudius, who is not even completely accepted by Hamlet, tries to form a better connection with his son and find reason behind his sudden change in attitude . Gertrude also challenges Hamlet’s patience by betraying King Hamlet and marrying Claudius. Later on, towards the end of Act 3, Hamlet gets a chance to confront Gertrude and tell her what he really thinks.
How does the character’s parents and their actions influence the decisions made later on in the story?
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Post by lucia on Mar 20, 2016 12:49:14 GMT
I agree that Shakespeare might have wanted us to focus on the father-son relationships or family relationships in general in this play. I think that Gertrude's poor judgment and child-like attitude is one of the factors that causes tragedy in the play and Hamlet to drive himself to insanity. Every time Hamlet rages at her, she keeps on avoiding confrontation with him. The only thing she does is wait for things to be perfect again. Although she is genuinely concerned for his son, her shallowness and ignorance only deepen the problems in the kingdom.
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Post by graceyichen on Mar 20, 2016 12:57:18 GMT
I think being a parent is only one of the many roles adults play. I don't know if Claudius ever seriously wanted to father Hamlet, and perhaps Gertrude's decision to marry Claudius right after Hamlet's death didn't take Hamlet's feelings into account. However they have their reasons for choosing to parent Hamlet like that because they have other responsibilities at hand.
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Post by ETypeRegymon on Mar 20, 2016 13:28:44 GMT
Polonius might as well be there just to give his kids reasons to do something. After his death, Ophelia and Laertes' only motivation is Polonius' death. Ophelia kills herself since she lost the one person that told her where to go in life, and Laertes goes off to avenge his dad the same way Hamlet does. I guess it shows how people can be affected by their parents' deaths when it involves relatively ordinary people (and not a pig-named lunatic brat) to make it more relatable.
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Post by Jessica (Yeeun) Kim on Mar 20, 2016 13:50:49 GMT
I agree that Shakespeare wanted to say about the unusual relationships between the parents and children. He may also want to say about the relationship between brother and sister. Gertrude and Ophelia were very special characters and I believe Shakespeare compressed his arguments into these characters. For example, Ophelia decided to commit suicide herself and her choice might influence by Laertes and Polonius.
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toufiq
Junior Member
Posts: 86 
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Post by toufiq on Mar 20, 2016 14:43:54 GMT
That's actually a really interesting topic to look on. Thinking about it more now it feels kinda too incestuous to me now. Through Hamlet's speech and way of talking as he mentions about incest it feels like he is disgusted to even talk about it. But his actions tell me a different story. So I was really wondering what is actually going on inside his mind.
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Post by juliaj on Mar 21, 2016 5:07:51 GMT
I think that the parents shaped how their children behaved in the play and how they each decided their fates. For example, Hamlet's mother marrying Claudius drove him insane in the end because he was so loyal to his birth father and hated Claudius so much. This causes him to be neurotic and violent. Ophelia's father is overbearing and controlling which makes her weak willed and soft spoken about her opinions and wants and needs. This leads to her suicide towards the end of the play.
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Post by christopher on Mar 22, 2016 13:19:26 GMT
Parents heavily influence their children's behavior. I agree with Julia. Hamlet was very loyal to his father that it drove him to be mad for revenge while Ophelia was too dependent because of Polonius and Laertes. I guess Shakespeare is trying to tell us that parents should be careful of what they do because children learn and be similar like them!
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Post by Tharu on Mar 22, 2016 23:48:58 GMT
We could also connect this to the real world. Us. We get controlled by our parents all the time, even after we become adults, all the time they involve in our day to day activities, and make decisions for us. Which is something that we can't really blame, because they are the one who is responsible for us. Same thing for Ophelia, because her dad was the only one who was responsible for her, so he took decisions for her, which is something that we can't blame.
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