Does Hamlet change throughout the play? If so, how? Why?
I believe Hamlet changes at the very beginning off the play. Hamlet changed as soon as he saw the ghost of his father. This event could make anyone change their perspective on life. Not only that, but then finding out that it was his uncle who killed him, and his mom helped him. This change Hamlet, he started focusing on revenge, and all he could think about was death. This led him to kill someone and not feel bad. Hamlet probably questioned everyone around him and didn’t trust anyone.
I agree with you. Throughout the play, Hamlet changes from a peaceful to an angry man. Hamlet starts off feeling frustrated, defeated, depressed and angry towards all of the new changes that happened within only a month. Once he knows his uncle killed his father, he starts to create a plan to revenge his father’s death. His depression becomes far worse than it had already been. At the end of the play, Hamlet wants to commit suicide just to be free of the depression. He does not want to continue the suffering.
I feel like Hamlet becomes progressively more callous as the play goes on. In the beginning, he is angry but thoughtful and tentative. He hesitates to kill Claudius because he believes that Claudius is praying, but later on he is quite remorseless about killing Polonius by mistake. Soon is practically giddy with the story of how he got Rosencranz and Gildenstern killed. In the end, he watches his own mother die with only a contemptuous, “Wretched queen, adieu!” (that’s practically a medieval version of “Bye, Felicia”). My impression is that Hamlet started out melancholy and romantic, but at the end he just did not care about anything anymore, let the world go to pieces, to hell with everyone. Only his affection towards Horatio shows the remnants of his humane side at the end of the play.
It is quite evident that readers can sense the shift between Hamlet in the beginning of the play, and experience the domino affect of his character throughout the duration of the play. The death of Hamlet’s father took a toll on him, and his character drastically changes after seeing the ghost of his father who then reveals to him that his death was premature. Once Hamlet learned that his father was killed by ambitious usurpers, he takes it upon himself to avenge his fathers death. Taking such a role as avenging ones death can have a significant impact on a persons personality and character. Throughout the play, Hamlet is heard to grow cold towards everyone whom he once loved, all except Horatio.