Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, is a timeless classic that is used to convey emotions that are important to the human psyche. Two of the biggest themes that we see in this tale are friendship and loyalty. One of the biggest characters to portray those select emotions would be Hamlet. Although he is the biggest character, he is not the only one who has constant friendships going on throughout the play and loyal people by his side.
A shaky friendship we see in the play is between Polonius and Laertes. In Act 1 Scene 3, Polonius says to Laertes that, “Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.” This quote here shows that Polonius has some compassion for Laertes but later al
...l his compassion turns out to be just a way to use Laertes. Eventually this friendship turned into just a one way partnership, where Laertes had to be loyal to Polonius or pay the consequences for his actions. Polonius never truly accepted Laertes until he needed to use him for his own personal gain. Eventually, even the loyalty may not be able to hold this “friendship” together any longer.
As we learn more about the play, we learn of a man named Horatio. We don’t know much about him yet, but we do know he is loyalty to his friend Hamlet. As we move along, we see that the friendship between Horatio and Hamlet is strong. For example, in Act 3 Scene 2, Hamlet says to Horatio, “Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice and could of men distinguish her
election, sh'ath sealed thee for herself.” This quote here shows us that Hamlet had much faith in Horatio and he knew that he could confide with Horatio on any topic without fear repercussions. Other good examples can be found throughout the play, such as when Hamlet tells Horatio to carry on his story because he is going to kill himself, but most, if not all, the other examples are embedded in the actual story itself.
While looking at loyalties, one could say that some were created. In this case, we can look at the alliance between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, King Claudius, and Queen Gertrude. Although this alliance was not made to harm Hamlet, it was created to help Claudius keep a watchful eye on Hamlet. For example, during Hamlets big play in Act 3, Claudius tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to watch Hamlet no matter what happens. By this point in time, Hamlet has already caught wind of his former friends’ deceit and plans to evade them by giving them work. This shows the growing loyalty between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and the King. At the same time, it also shows how strong the friendship between Hamlet and Horatio is because Horatio helps to keep an eye on Claudius while Hamlet takes care of his formers.
The theme of friendship and loyalty is strong in this piece of literature and it holds many real world applications. Still, where does the lines between friendship and loyalty lie? The friendships created in this play were important to each character at the times that they needed them most, but most ended up being more of a major problem
than a major solution. Maybe if certain people had not gotten involved or certain alliance hadn’t been made, then maybe the whole situation would have ended differently.
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