Trust and Betrayal. The Motive of Friendship in Hamlet PDF Download

Author: Paulina Pietsch
Publisher: GRIN Verlag
ISBN: 3668873674
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 20

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Book Description
Pre-University Paper from the year 2018 in the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 14, , language: English, abstract: A son revenges the murder of his father. This is the briefest description of the plot of Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s best-known plays. However, the tragedy explores many more ideas than just revenge, including death, love, family, politics, deception, the meaning of life, the impossibility of certainty, the complexity of action, the abilities of drama, misogyny, madness, religion, competing worldviews, loyalty, sex, gender and friendship. Even though friendship is one of the most important parts of everyone’s life, it is often forgotten about when summing up one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. The theme of friendship, with the exception of Timon of Athens, often seems to be secondary. The first associations with Romeo and Juliet are forbidden love and tragic death, with Macbeth they are madness and ambition, with Othello they are love and prejudices, and with Hamlet they are revenge, madness and lies. However, the theme of friendship must have been somehow essential to William Shakespeare, since he completely invented a friend not only for dramatic purposes but also for moral support for his tragic hero. The origin of the characters Horatio, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and their roles in the play Hamlet will be examined later. Furthermore, this paper aims to put the often-forgotten motive of friendship in Hamlet, Shakespeare’s longest play and one of the most powerful and influential works of world literature, in the spotlight. It will give an overview of the Elizabethan understanding of friendship, portray Horatio’s and Hamlet’s friendship, examine the possible reasons for Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s betrayal – both are former friends of Hamlet - and answer the question how similar these friendships are to modern ones.