While reading Hamlet, I’ve noticed a trend in all of Shakespeare’s writing. He always includes a mix of three key ideas: tragedy, love, and greed. In Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet, although in love, were not allowed to be together because of the greed of their parents not being able to get over their differences. This eventually left them to the tragedy of their deaths in the end. In Othello you also see these three ideas. Othello had such a strong love for Desdemona that he couldn’t stand thinking of her being with another man, he had to have her all to himself or she couldn’t live at all. This jealousy and greed ultimately led to their tragic death in the end.
You most definitely see this same idea in Hamlet. There are plenty of key points throughout this play that point out tragedy. There is the tragedy of Hamlet’s father being murdered by none other then his own brother. There is also tragedy within Hamlet’s own love life because is not allowed to be with Ophelia. Both of these tragedies are what carry the plot of this play.
Love is also a key idea throughout Hamlet. Not only is there a love connection between Hamlet and Ophelia, but you also see Gertrude falling for the dishonest uncle of Hamlet who ultimately killed her first love. Love also carries us through the plot of the play because love is the main way the uncle manipulated his way to get to the thrown. Without Shakespeare’s love twisted, Hamlet’s uncle would not have been able to get what he wanted, which was to be king.
Last, I think in this play, greed is the most important key idea throughout Hamlet. Greed is the main motive of murder. If it wasn’t for the greed of Hamlet’s uncle wanting the power of being king, there would be no plot at all to this play. Greed is what I would call the “backbone” of this play. It is also the greed of Hamlet’s father of wanting revenge that causes Hamlet to act out for the sake of his father.
I believe Shakespeare points out these three key ideas because these are the three biggest themes of life. They are three points that everyone can relate to because everyone will have felt them at least once in your life. I think by using these ideas Shakespeare has made his plays more relatable to the people reading or watching them. Those are also three themes that are timeless, no matter what greed, love, and tragedy will always be around.
For this particular blog I would appreciate if when you comment on it you could focus more on how I organized the blog under the three key idea of tragedy, love and greed. Also comment on if you disagree or agree with the idea of these being the main points of the play. I'd just like to know if you think I am on the right track or if you see the story from a different point of view.
