Major Characters

Hamlet

He is the Prince of Denmark; he is son of the late King Hamlet; and nephew of the present King Claudius.

Claudius

She is the King of Denmark, elected to the throne after the death of his brother, King Hamlet. Claudius has married Gertrude, his brother's widow.

Gertrude

She is the Queen of Denmark, and King Hamlet's widow, now married to Claudius, and mother to Hamlet.

Polonius

He is Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes.

Laertes

He is the son of Polonius, and has returned to Elsinore from Paris.

Ophelia

She is the daughter of Polonius, and Laertes's sister, who lives with her father at Elsinore. She is in love with Hamlet.

 

Hamlet

 

To be, or not to be, that is the question; whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer. The slings and arrows of outrageousfortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them?

To die, to sleep, no more; and by a sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks. That flesh is heir to, ‘tis a consummation. Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub. For in that sleep of death what dreams may come. When we have shuffledoff this mortal coil. Must give us pause: there's the respect. That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns. That patient merit of the unworthy takes, when he himself might his quietus make with a bare bodkin?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and moment with this regard their currents turn awry, and lose the name of action.

Questions

1．Do you agree with Hamlet's understanding of death?

2．How do you understand Hamlet's character according to this monologue?

Analysis of Hamlet's Character

He has a complex personality. Firstly, he is smart but indecisive. He has planed a play which showed the reasons of his father's death to the king and his mother, and told Horatio observe the expression of his uncle. He is smart but when he had the chance to kill his uncle, he gave up because he thought if he killed his uncle when his uncle wass praying, his uncle would go to the Heaven after he was dead but his poor father can only stay in the Hell. Finally, his hesitation leads to the deaths of his mother, uncle and Laertes. Secondly, he is kind but sometimes cold-blooded. He is filial. When he heard that his father was murdered by his uncle, he decided to kill his uncle. And even his mother did an incestuous thing, Hamlet is still filial to his mother, he listened to his mother to stay in the Denmark. But Hamlet is also cold-blooded. He ignored the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who were his classmates in University. He killed Polonius by mistake, but he didn't feel regretful and put the dead body in a lobby just anyhow. He even cheated his beloved girl that he was mad and cruel-hearted.

Hamlet has a strong sense of social responsibility. When he found that his father was murdered by his uncle, he decided to avenge his father's death. It is not only because his father was a good king but also because his uncle wasscheming and many officials would sacrifice principle for profit. He thought about not only his misfortune but also the social misfortune. The society was in chaos and confusion. Even Hamlet faced the strong feudal forces; he bravely fought against the feudal forces. But Hamlet fought against the forces alone from the beginning to the end of the play, so it is impossible for him to win. The conflict between Hamlet and Claudiusis the biggest conflict in the play, and it represents the conflict between the humanism and feudalism, the conflict between the humanist ideals and the real gloomy society.

Hamlet's views sometimes are rather extreme. The murder made him think that the societyis so gloomy and he neglected the other good things in the world. He said some bad words to Ophelia, He also told Ophelia to get to a nunnery. Hamlet also abused his mother with some bad words. Even though his mother married his uncle and forgot his father's true love, she loves Hamlet truly. She was really happy when she saw his son won in the battle.

Hamlet is good at thinking but sometimes his views are parochial. Hamlet was thinking from the beginning of the play. He thought about the reasons why his mother was so heartless that she can forget his father so quickly and married his uncle, he thought about why the king sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to him, he even thought about the problem of life. But sometimes his views are parochial. When his fellows stopped him following the ghost because they thought the ghost would do something bad to Hamlet, but Hamlet already didn't care about the life. But as a prince, he should live not because he will avenge his father's death but because he will ascend to the throne and govern the country in the future.

Hamlet has a so complex character. He is smart and indecisive, kind and cold-blooded. He has a strong sense of social responsibility. He represents the humanism and fought against the king who represents the feudalism. And his bad ending also represents the tragic destiny of that age.

中文译文

哈姆雷特

生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题；默然忍受命运的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反抗人世的无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们扫清，这两种行为，哪一种更高贵？

死了，睡着了，什么都完了；要是在这种睡眠之中，我们心头的创痛，以及其他无数血肉之躯所不能避免的打击，都可以从此消失，那正是我们求之不得的结局。死了，睡着了，睡着了也许还会做梦。嗯，阻碍就在这儿：因为当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后，在那死的睡眠里，究竟将要做些什么梦，那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。人们甘心久困于患难之中，也就是为了这个缘故。

谁愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、压迫者的凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、法律的迁延、官吏的横暴和费尽艰辛所换来的小人的鄙视，要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，就可以清算他自己的一生？

这样，重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，决心的炽热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色，伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下，也会逆流而退，失去了行动的意义。

 

References

 

[1]王佐良，等．英国文学选注[C]．北京：商务印书馆，1983.