Love and Action in Hamlet Essay

The Love and Action Evident in Hamlet

The famous play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a piece of literature that will forever be remembered for its vivid examples of human behavior. Though not unlike many of Shakespeares other tragedies, Hamlet seems to capture the decisions and reactions of many of the characters involved, and many readers argue over how to categorize this tale. The best way to define Hamlet is as a love story and as an action adventure.

Hamlets love for a young lady, Ophelia, really made the play a tragic love story. Hamlet loved Ophelia very much, and yet her father, Polonius, and her brother, Laertes, forbid her to continue their relationship. Ophelia internally struggles and says,I do not know my lord, what I should think. (1.3) She tries to defend her and Hamlets love by saying, He hat, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me. My lord, he hath importuned me with love in honorable fashion. (1.3) Polonius says that Hamlet is not really in love with Ophelia, and that his words and love are only a trap. Aye, springes to catch woodcocks. Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers. (1.3) Ophelia does not know what to do, so she does what many young girls would do in her situation, she gives up. She tells her father, I shall obey, my lord, and the classic Shakespeare love story is made. Ophelias decision to obey her father and end things with Hamlet leads to Hamlet turning mad.

When Hamlet is unable to love Ophelia as he once did, he becomes very upset, and he even begins to go crazy. It is understandable for him to do this. Imagine having to give up love and not being able to continue a relationship because of external influences. Soon Ophelia begins to think Hamlet has gone mad. She tells her Lord Hamlet doublet all unbracedas if he had been loosed out of hell to speak horrors he comes before me. (2.1father of an encounter she and Hamlet have, Lord Hamlet doublet all unbracedas if he had been loosed out of hell to speak horrors he comes before me. He took me by the wrist and held me hard long stayed he so that done, he lets me go (2.1) Hamlet begins to wonder whether or not life is worth living, and provides the world with the very famous and appropriate quote, to be or not to be, that is the question. (3.1) Love has given Hamlet a real purpose in life, and without that love he questions his life. I completely do not see how Hamlet is mad. After his fathers death, the last thing he needed was having Ophelia leave him. In this circumstance, many people would be asking themselves if their life is really worth living. Fortunately for the plot of the story, Hamlets strong Christian beliefs restrain him from committing suicide (3.1), but he is left in a state of withdrawal and angst. Hamlet is a great definition of a love story, because it shows how outside characters can affect two peoples love, and it shows how those in love are affected. When Ophelia later dies by committing suicide after she has gone mentally ill, Hamlet begins to feel the affects of this withdrawal, and the love story becomes an adventurous tale.