Hamlet Outline

Hamlet Outline

Thesis: Hamlet sees it fit to assume multiple roles of divine justice through his punishment of several characters but punished himself for his hubris. 

1. Although Hamlet is angry about Ophelia acting falsely in order to please the King and her father, Hamlet acts as a minister for God when he attempts to lead Ophelia down a virtuous path. 

a. Hamlet hints that Ophelia should stray from the corruption of Claudius and her father when he says, "Get thee to a nunnery" (III.i.123)

b. Angry with Ophelia, Hamlet uses his fake insanity to publically embarrass the young woman through inappropriate and crude comments: "Lady, shall I lie in you lap? [...] I mean, my head upon your lap? [...] Do you think I meant country matters? [...] That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs" (III.ii.103-108).

c. Although Hamlet did not intend to lead Ophelia to her death, Ophelia becomes insane after Polonius is murdered and commits suicide: "[She] fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,/And mermaid-like a while they bore her up [...] But long it could not be/Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,/Pull the poor wretch [...] to muddy death" (IV.vii.174-182).

i. Ophelia is not able to receive a traditional religious funeral because she committed suicide. Laertes asks the priest if he can perform traditional ceremonies of a religious funeral but the priest responds, "No more be done./We should profane the service of the dead/To sing a requiem and such rest to her/As to peace-parted souls" (V.i.218-221)

ii. Hamlet is punished for his hubris through Ophelia's death because he loved her: "I loved Ophelia" (V.i.255).

2. Hamlet views murdering Claudius as morally sound, but Hamlet will not settle for anything less than eternal damnation for the murderous King and acts as a scourge for God in his quest to take down his uncle. 

a. When presented with the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius, Hamlet chooses not to act because Claudius is praying and Hamlet wants to guarantee an afterlife in the depths of hell for his uncle: "Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. [...] No./Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent./When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,/Or in th' incestuous pleasure of his bed,/At game a-swearing, or about some act/That has no relish of salvation in't–/Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,/And that his soul may be as damned and black" (III.iii.74-95)

b. After Laertes confesses his plotting with Claudius, Hamlet finally murders the murderer and sends the King to hell. Hamlet forces Claudius to drink his poisonous brew and says, "Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,/Drink off this potion. Is thy union here?/ Follow my mother" (V.ii.326-328).

c. Hamlet is briefly successful in his original mission to kill Claudius but he his punished for his additional and uncalled for inflicted punishments when he dies moments after killing Claudius: "Horatio, I am dead" (V.ii.339)

3. Hamlet boldly assumes that his form of punishment for Polonius is in line with what God would see fit.

a. Hamlet insults Polonius after he has just murdered him with little justification: "Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell./I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune./Thou find'st to be too busy in some danger" (III.iv.32-34).

b. "For this same lord,/I do repent. But heaven hath please it so" (III.iv.175-176). The crime does not fit the punishment, and it is unlikely that heaven would approve of Hamlet's hasty murder of an undeserving victim.

c. Maybe use Hamlet losing Ophelia as punishment her?