Themes in Hamlet Essay Example for Free

Themes in Hamlet Essay To what extent does Shakespeare deal with these themes in Hamlet? As consistent with all Shakespearean tragedies, Shakespeare uses the fatal flaws of the central characters to bring about their downfall which ultimately leads to their death. In Hamlet, deceit and betrayal initiates the failures of the main characters, particularly Prince Hamlet, King Claudius and Ophelia. These themes are pivotal to their actions and are used to expose the flaws of the characters that lead to their downfall and eventually, death. Shakespeare begins the play with the depressed, yet innocent Hamlet, who is in mourning for the recently dead king, his father. He is angry at his mother, for quickly marrying the new King, also his uncle. He feels betrayed by his mother because she was able to forget her previous husband so quickly and easily. He is melancholic because of his father’s death but more because of his mother’s â€Å"speedy marriage†. In his fury, he stereotypes all women as weak, â€Å"Frailty, thy name is woman. † He is uncomfortable with what he feels is an unacceptable situation and he senses, â€Å"It is not, nor can it come to, good. † Despite his negative feelings, his emotions are controlled and he does not even consider the possibility that his father was murdered and he is portrayed as blameless and wide open to deceit. Shakespeare creates the first twist of the play when Hamlet meets the ghost, his â€Å"father’s spirit†. The ghost divulges to a shocked Hamlet that his father was victim of â€Å"murder most foul† and urges the prince to â€Å"revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown,† thus revealing to Hamlet the betrayal and deceit of Claudius. Hamlet is outraged and disgusted by what he learns and promises the ghost, â€Å"Thy commandment all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain. † He will seek nothing but revenge and he entrusts only the loyal Horatio and Marcellus with his sinister findings. Claudius murders his own brother and king to introduce the complex web of deceit and betrayal that make up the play. After Hamlet’s meeting with the ghost, Hamlet is convinced that he has been victim of betrayal and deceit as he refers to the spirit as â€Å"an honest ghost†. His previously controlled emotions reach boiling point and he is furious enough to call his mother a â€Å"most pernicious woman†. He is traumatised by the news and his emotions start to become uncontrolled causing Horatio to say, â€Å"These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. † Slowly, the idea of revenge overcomes all his thoughts and Shakespeare feeds idea of deceit and betrayal into his mind. Hamlet decides that the only way he can see through the deceit and confirm the murder claim is by deception himself. He decides to â€Å"put on an antic disposition† to enable him to spy on his uncle without arousing any suspicion. Ophelia, although innocent, is a character who is in the way of Hamlet without meaning to do any harm. Her father is the Lord Chamberlain who is capable of extracting all scraps of information from her, against her will. He is very loyal to the king and will pass on anything he knows to him. As a consequence, Ophelia cannot be trusted with the truth and is subjected to deceit and betrayal. Hamlet deceives her by deliberately acting mad to confuse her and telling her that he â€Å"loved her not†. This is a downright lie as is obvious towards the end of the play when he is distraught to discover her death and tells an equally distressed Laertes that â€Å"forty thousand brothers with all their quantity of love could not love her more than [he] did†. Hamlet betrays her by being cruel and sarcastic to her and making comments such as, â€Å"Get thee to a nunnery† to keep her away from him. Hamlet is forced to take this path because he knows she must not find out what he knows regarding his father’s death; otherwise he risks endangering his life from Claudius. Shakespeare uses all the deceit and betrayal to create a conflict of loyalty inside Ophelia and she is unsure whether she should stay true to her love Hamlet or obey her father. She betrays Hamlet by choosing to obey her father rather that staying loyal to Hamlet. Despite her feeble attempts to try to defend Hamlet by saying, â€Å"He hath importuned me with love in honourable fashion,† she cannot disobey her father. She is torn between a strong father and a strong lover but being the dutiful daughter she promises her father, â€Å"I shall obey, my lord,† when ordered to stay away from Hamlet and not to â€Å"give words or talk† to him. She deceives Hamlet when she allows Claudius and her father to spy on him by trying to engage him in conversation in the presence of the two men. Her decision to obey her father means she is completely reliant on him. Being a lady of her time, she does not have any independence and needs the support of a man which makes her vulnerable and ultimately a failure. Hamlet’s rudeness towards her and her betrayal of Hamlet makes her believe that he will not care for her again. When her father dies she feels as if she has lost everything and this drives her towards insanity and eventually, death. As is obvious from the beginning of the play, Hamlet’s main failure is that he is very indecisive and thinks about issues too much which lead to his downfall and ultimately, death. He is also quite lonely and throughout the course of the play, only Horatio remains loyal to the prince and Hamlet can talk to and trust only him. All others, including his girlfriend, Ophelia, betray him and he cannot speak freely with them. The lack of people to talk to means that thoughts build up in his mind and he is constantly thinking about issues, such as revenge and suicide, too much without being able to reach an appropriate decision. His main failure and fatal flaw is this inability to make quick decisions and take action before it is too late. Typically, Shakespeare shows Claudius’ main flaw and failure to be his ambition which is what possesses him to perform the evil deed of murdering the king. He confesses, â€Å"I am still possess’d of those effects for which I did the murder, my crown, mine own ambition and my queen. † He tries to convince himself that he cannot turn around and make up for what he has done because he has waded too far into the pool of evil. He offers what is really an empty prayer because his â€Å"words fly up† but â€Å"thoughts remain below† and he says, â€Å"Words without thoughts never to heaven go. † His failure is that he is too ambitious and greedy and he cannot bear to think about life without his throne and queen. He does not make any attempt to make up for what he has done because he does not want to which creates problems because eventually the truth is discovered and this brings about his downfall and death. All the actions of the main characters are shaped by Shakespeare through the themes of deceit, betrayal and failure. He uses the deceit and betrayal of Claudius and Ophelia to cause Hamlet himself to deceive and betray which enables him to discover the truth. Shakespeare uses the deceit and betrayal to bring out the failures of the characters that lead to their downfall and death.

Population in the world Today :: essays papers

Population in the world Today Probably the most pressing concern of the modern world — both environmentally and socially — is the escalating global population. The geometrical growth in numbers over the last century, when estimated, presents an ominous picture of massive, unsustainable growth and accompanying famines and health crises. Yet, to simply follow the current trend is naive, and informed estimates of population trends are increasingly predicting a less disastrous future. The latest study shows an 85% chance that global population will peak before 2100, and predicts with 60% certainty that this peak will be less than 10 billion, compared with a population of 6 billion today. They even give an outside chance, 15%, that there will be fewer people living at the end of the century than are alive now. Their results are notable not just for the relatively low figures projected, but also for the rigorous analysis that accompanies them. Whereas the United Nation estimates present just four possible outcomes (constant, high, medium and low). The US Census Bureau includes specific chances of a particular scenario occurring on a specific date. This graphically illustrates the confidence (or otherwise) of predictions further into the future. To arrive at their conclusions, the team combined two forecasting techniques — 'time series estimation, a statistical analysis based on known figures, and 'expert judgment', whereby key parameters are estimated taking into account foreseeable events such as disease, war and fertility trends. Apart from the lower total population figure estimated (8.8 billion by 2050, compared to 9.3 for the UN's medium estimate, 2000 revision). Population decline in developed nations is expected to accelerate, with the European part of the former USSR expected to lose 20% of it population by 2050. Such declines lead inevitably to ageing populations, and half of all people living in Japan at the end of the century are predicted to be over 60 years old. With these facts, there is no doubt in our minds that we are in for some trouble. Over the next 50 years, the United States alone faces some population problems. What we need to do is keep the growth rate at stage 4, meaning we need to have birth and death rates low.

The position of all women in the USA had improved by the end of the 1920’s

I believe that the following statement the position of all women in the USA had improved by the end of the 1920's is not true because only a small percentage of women's lives changed, these were usually the upper or middle class and those who lived in the cities. I intend to prove my beliefs in the following paragraphs by evaluating the different aspects of their life's, work, home, society and clothing. Work During the First world war a number of women worked for the first time, some of these jobs had previously been done by men. Even though women proved that they could do these jobs just as well as the men, many lost their jobs when the men returned from war. Two million more women were employed in 1930 than in 1920, this was however an increase of only 1 per cent. Women achieved almost a third of all degrees by 1930, but only 4% of the professors were women. Women still tended to work in the least skilled and lowest paid jobs and men were still paid more than women for doing the same job. Women did not get much help from the government or police either. The Supreme Court banned laws that set a minimum wage for women workers. Men were still the managers and had the jobs with the best prospects, there were however new jobs for women but they tended to be so called women's jobs such as librarian's teachers and nurses. Most women workers still had low paying jobs. In the new radio Industry women were the preferred employees because of their small nimble hands but one of the main reasons why employees were willing to employ women was that they could pay women lower wages than men for performing the same job. Home On the whole these large middle classes do their own housework with few of the mechanical aids, among 10,000 farm houses only 32% had any running water at all, only 57% used washing machines and only 47% had a carpet sweeper. Women who live on farms and they form the largest group in the USA did a great deal of work besides their labour of caring for their children, washing the clothes, caring for the home and cooking, thousands of women still laboured in the fields. Men remained the main breadwinners and women cooked cleaned and raised their children, whereas boys continued to play with guns and grew up to head their families, girls played with dolls and looked forward to careers as wives and mothers. Society After the war and during the 1920's much changed, at least for middle and upper class women. Many taboos disappeared, women started to smoke in public: sales of cigarettes doubled during the decade. It became acceptable for women to drive, and take part in strenuous sport. Women also socialised with men more easily. Chaperons were abandoned and the pre war waltz gave way to a more daring dance the Charleston. By the mid 1920's women's fashions had been transformed. Hemlines shot up. It would have been considered scandalous for a man and unmarried women to meet alone, for whatever reason. It was also socially unacceptable for women to smoke in public before the war, it was illegal in New York. Attitudes towards sex and marriage seemed to be changing a survey in 1920 found that only 31% of the college students questioned had not had sex before marriage compared to 74% of the college students questioned in 1900. New laws made it easier for women to divorce their husbands in 1900 only 81 out of every 1000 marriages ended in divorce but by 1928 the number of marriages ending in divorce had risen to 166 out of every 1000. It now became acceptable for women to see the new superstars such as â€Å"Babe Ruth† at baseball games. There was exciting entertainment at the new cinemas built nationwide where rich and poor, men and women flocked to see Hollywood films featuring stars like Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino. In the 1920's middle class women had more free time, partly due to the new domestic labour saving products like vacuum cleaners. If they had a car (as many did ) they were no longer so bound to the home. For thousands of American women in rural areas, the 1920's did not bring many changes. They continued to play traditional roles within the family . The most significant sign that the roles of women was changing was when in 1920 women had been given the vote entitling them to more political power, this change affected all women nationwide every women had the right to vote despite her status in society. Clothing Clothes had changed, the tight waisted, ankle length, voluminous dresses of pre war days had been replaced by waistless knee length, lightweight dresses. These gave greater freedom of movement as well as being more daring. Before the war women had been expected to have long hair. After the war short hair became a sign of liberation. Make up became popular and sales boomed, led by advertisements. Flapper was a name given to a liberated urban woman. Few women would have regarded themselves as flappers but the flapper represented an extreme example of the changes that were affecting many women. They were identified by their short skirts, bobbed hair, powdered knees, bright clothes and lots of make up. Flappers were mainly upper and middle class women from the Northern states. After carefully evaluating the evidence available concerning the way women's life's changed in Society, work, clothing and home I believe that it is evident that only a small percentage of women's lives changed. These were usually the upper or middle class because they were the only ones who could afford the new mod cons e. g. vacuum cleaner resulting in them having more free time in which they could go and see the new entertainment. Also nearly all upper and middle class women possessed a car compared to a mere 40% working class families meaning that only the upper and middle class were not bound to the home. The position of all women did not improve in the 1920's because women in rural areas who formed the largest group in the USA did not notice many changes. The only significant change that improved the roles of all women within society was them gaining the vote in 1920, but this led to women losing their unifying cause. A vast majority of women's life's stayed the same.

Architecture of the New York Stock Exchange Building