Activiy 1.3

Activity 1.3

Reality known:
The play takes place in Denmark.
King Hamlet has died.
The queen, Gertrude has remarried to Claudius, the late King’s brother.
Hamlet discovers that Claudius murdered King Hamlet.
Hamlet is considered by some to be insane.
Hamlet murders Polonius.
Ophelia becomes depressed and goes mad.
Hamlet is sent off to England.


Hamlet- Hamlet mourns the death of his father probably more than anyone. He believes it’s wrong for his mother to have married Claudius so soon after her husband’s death. He shows his anger of this towards both his mother and stepfather. Hamlet begins to act more and more crazy, deceiving people into believing he is—he himself denies that he is mad. When he is sent off to England, Hamlet eventually manages to escape and get back to Denmark.
Because of Hamlet’s knowledge that Claudius killed his brother, he becomes angry, and bent on killing Claudius. This becomes him main focus, and he seems impartial to everything else. This affects him in that his hated for his stepfather isn’t exactly hidden forever. He eventually dies from a plot created by Claudius.

Claudius- Claudius is one of the few people who know the truth about the death of his brother, King Hamlet. Claudius was actually the reason for his death; he poisoned the king. Claudius believes Hamlet to be insane. He does not understand all of the ranting he does, and with all of the traumatic events that had happened to Hamlet, Claudius believes them to have pushed his stepson over the edge. He first says he’ll send Hamlet off to England to be out of the way, and to help him get better from all of the troubles going on. He decides afterwards, once he knows that Hamlet is aware of his murderous acts, that he must kill him, to solve the problem.
Claudius feels guilty for the acts he’s committed, and asks forgiveness for his sins. Hamlet overhears this, and decides to wait to kill him, so that he will not have been forgiven of future sins. Claudius sends Hamlet off to England to be rid of him, as he causes a bit of trouble around the castle, and once the play has been acted, and he realized that Hamlet knew about King Hamlet’s murder, Claudius adds that Hamlet should be killed, and that knowledge die with him. By sending him away, Hamlet was able to come to some realizations, and when he came back to Denmark, he was determined even more to kill the King. He does succeed, probably partially due to the fact that Claudius tried to be rid him.

Gertrude- Gertrude is unaware that Claudius has killed her husband for the throne. She believes that his death was accidental. She chooses to marry her husband’s brother, for whatever her reasons may be, in her eyes, this could be the best thing for her to do. When Claudius tells her that he’s going to send Hamlet to England, in his best interest, Gertrude believes that it truly could help her son. She sees him as delusional, when he sees the ghost in her room, and she cannot. By sending him away, Gertrude feels that it’ll be the best thing to do. By the end of the play, Gertrude’s ignorance disperses and she finally sees the truth, which only happens as she is dying from the poison.

Ophelia- Ophelia loves Hamlet, but when his focus turns onto killing Claudius, and she sees him becoming full of what appears to be madness and rage, she fears him and what she believes he’s becoming. She also hears from people that Hamlet is mad, and that she must find out what the reason for it is. So she beings to see that he is crazy.
Between the torment of losing her lover, and the death of her father, Ophelia becomes very depressed from it all; falling into a state of madness as well, finally ending in death ( not concluded whether it was by accident, or suicide.)

Polonius- Polonius was probably blinded a lot for the love of his children, Laerites and Ophelia. When he sees that Hamlet is acting mad and may be a danger to his daughter, Polonius is willing to go along with Claudius’s plans to discover Hamlet’s cause of personality change. Along with the fact he feels he must follow the king’s orders, Polonius had many a reason to spy on Hamlet, which in the end caused his death.

Laerties- With the death of his father, Laerites thinks that Claudius is to blame, and focuses his anger and sorrow briefly on him. Claudius assures him this is not the case, and blames Hamlet for everything. When Hamlet returns to Denmark, Laerties has accepted the plan to kill him. While Laerites does indeed manage to hit Hamlet with a strike that will kill him, Hamlet also is able to do the same to Laerties.

Journal Reflection.
The family unit in society is so very important. In Hamlet, it’s visible that the royal family, who very little acted like a ‘family unit’ all turned against each other in one way or another. In the end, it ultimately resulted in the whole family dying from each other’s murderous plans. Polonius’s family, which was a more caring and close family, did as well die, however they did because they were trying to avenge, or to protect their family members. Without family units in society, people would not be able to learn the important lessons; society might be more separated.