Hamlet is a depressed and confused young man. He has recently lost his father, and his father's ghost has revealed that his uncle and mother are both traitors. He is clearly very clever. We see this from his cunning in using the play to confirm his uncle's guilt, and in his skills in avoiding his uncle's trap to kill him by supposedly sending him off to study. His eloquent soliloquies also demonstrate intelligence and complex...
Hamlet is a depressed and confused young man. He has recently lost his father, and his father's ghost has revealed that his uncle and mother are both traitors. He is clearly very clever. We see this from his cunning in using the play to confirm his uncle's guilt, and in his skills in avoiding his uncle's trap to kill him by supposedly sending him off to study. His eloquent soliloquies also demonstrate intelligence and complex thinking.
His intelligence is also something of a curse, however. He endlessly contemplates everything, from how and when to avenge his father to the basic meaning of life. He gets trapped in circles of reasoning that paralyze him from taking the actions that he knows he must. He questions the ghost's story and must confirm it, then he questions whether it is proper to kill his uncle during prayer, and he even questions whether life is worth living at all.
He has difficulty controlling his thoughts and emotions. We see this through his soliloquies, but also with his relationship with Ophelia. First he is perhaps too open and forward with his love, then he is aggressive and cruel when he feels that his privacy has been violated.
Hamlet is one of the most complex and intelligent characters in all of literature. These are just a few examples of such complexity.
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