The Hero of Hamlet Essay -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

The Hero of Hamlet  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   Hamlet, the hero of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, stands head and shoulders above all the other characters in the play – he is that noble in thought and action. This essay will portray the true and complete Hamlet.    As the future king of Denmark, the hero is expected to maintain a good working relationship with the present king, Claudius. But this is not so. Even before the apparition of the ghost, Hamlet has a very sour relationship with his uncle and stepfather, Claudius. Marchette Chute in â€Å"The Story Told in Hamlet† describes this attitude on the part of the protagonist:    Hamlet is still wearing black in mourning for his father’s death, and his uncle chides him gently for what he feels is an undue show of grief. But the king can get no answer from Hamlet, who throws him one brief sentence and then addresses all his remarks to his mother; and it is his mother, the queen, who persuades him not to go back to the university again but to stay at Elsinore (35-36).    Chute describes the opening scene of the drama: â€Å"For two nights in succession, just as the bell strikes the hour of one, a ghost has appeared on the battlements, a figure dressed in complete armor and with a face like that of the dead king of Denmark, Hamlet’s father. [. . .] The hour comes, and the ghost walks† (35). Horatio and Marcellus exit the ramparts of Elsinore intending to enlist the aid of Hamlet. There is a social gathering of the court, where Claudius pays tribute to the memory of his deceased brother, the former king, and then conducts some items of business. Hamlet is there dressed in black, the color of mourning, for his deceased father. His first words say that Claudius is "A little more than kin ... ...World of Hamlet.† Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Shakespeare: Modern Essays in Criticism. Rev. ed. Ed. Leonard F. Dean. New York: Oxford University P., 1967.    Rosenberg, Marvin. â€Å"Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: Univ. of Delaware P., 1992.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.    Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. â€Å"Hamlet: A Man Who Thinks Before He Acts.† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. N. p.: Pocket Books, 1958.