The Nature of Motivations in the Play “Hamlet”

Hamlet became one of the most beloved images of world literature. Moreover, he ceased to be just a character of an ancient tragedy and is perceived as a living person, well known to many readers. This hero has many mysterious features in his character, as well as the whole play in general. On the one hand, Hamlet is a weak-willed person; while on the other hand, he is a courageous fighter. Thus, the main aim of the assignment is to discuss the ideas about the nature of motivations that direct an individual’s course of action in the play Hamlet.

To begin, it is important to note that Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, became a vivid and unsurpassed image of a humanist who found himself in an environment that was hostile to humanistic ideas. Critically observing the events of the play, it can be said that the insidious murder of the father opens the eyes to the prince, demonstrating that the evil is everywhere and it has taken possession of the country. Hamlet considers his primary duty, not an ordinary, but a blood feud, a search for those responsible for the death of his father. This desire eventually grows in his public debt and raises him to the struggle for justice and humanism, for a just cause, which at that time was the most important historical task.

Exploring the nature of motivation that directs Hamlet’s actions, it becomes obvious that with this struggle, Hamlet lingers and all the time constantly reproaches himself for his inactivity. Sometimes the creator of the play expresses the opinion that Hamlet is not capable of decisive actions and is only an observer and thinker, a man who is nervous by nature. However, it is not a truth in a full degree. The main hero of the tragedy has a powerful force of feelings, which was inherent in people of the Renaissance. He is very hard going through the death of his father and does not accept his mother’s shameful marriage. As a result, Hamlet’s motivation undergoes some changes.

Hamlet is a man of philosophical thought. He can comprehend certain facts as an expression of important general civil phenomena. It is obvious that it is not at all an inclination to think delays him on the way to a real struggle, but the conclusions to which he eventually comes, and sad thoughts about the world around him. The events that take place at the court allow the protagonist of the tragedy to come to conclusions about individuals and the world. If the world allows the existence of such an evil that occurs around Hamlet, if such eternal human values as love, friendship, honesty and dignity are perished in it, then he really went insane.

The hero represents the world around him in different ways, starting from the garden overgrown with weeds, or an orderly prison with chambers, casemates and dungeons, and ending with a lush garden, which produces only evil and bad seeds. In such a way, in Hamlet’s tragedy, the main thing is not in external events and exceptional incidents of grandeur and bloodiness. The main thing explains inner feelings and thoughts in the mind of the hero. Hamlet’s inner dramas are no less painful and terrible than those that occur in the life of other characters in the play.

In conclusion, the artistic image of Hamlet is the image of a living, subtly feeling person, more inclined to reflections than to ill-considered active actions. Throughout the play, he tries to gather with the soul forces to make a just retribution, but each time something stops Hamlet: at the beginning, the lack of faith in the words of the ghost (Hamlet, like any Christian, realizes that the Devil can push him into revenge) , then unwillingness to send the murderer of his father to Heaven. In such a way, throughout the whole play, Hamlet experiences the contradiction between his own extreme confusion and the acute sense of human possibilities.  Thus, Hamlet is one of the eternal images of world culture. The notion of “hamletism”, which includes internal contradictions, tormenting a person before making a difficult decision, is connected with it. In his tragedy, Shakespeare showed the struggle between evil and good, darkness and light within a person. This tragedy is about many of us, and taking a difficult decision, people must remember the fate of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, W. Hamlet, edited by George Richard Hibbard, Oxford UP, 2008.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 29, 2024]
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