Hamlet Question Please?

Question

I have to write an essay about Hamlet as a morally ambiguous character, that is you can never tell if he is purely evil or purely good.

I have the examples of him killing Polonius, and him waiting to kill Claudius.

Any other examples of moral ambiguity would be extremely helpful.

In addition, why is his moral ambiguity significant to the work as a whole.

Answer 1

To have the "be" attitude or not to be, that is the question. Whether tis nobler to patiently observe or take action.

Answer 2

He asks why God has "fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter" - I'm quoting from memory here so I may be getting some words wrong.

Anyway, in this case he's bemoaning and questioning God's commandment against suicide. This questioning is elementary to Hamlet's character.

I think you need to read Hamlet, the work, as a tragedy of its time. The usual shape of a tragedy is a work that celebrates what's good in people even in the face of death. What's good in people varies according to who writes the play and in what society they live.

Shakespeare wrote Hamlet during a period of great philosophical searching and the struggle of the play involves not so much figuring out what happened - that's obvious early on - but working out what it means and what to do. If you compare that to Greek tragedies, where often a lot of the time is spent in either working out what happened or simple exposition of the same, you see that tragedies are a good way to gauge the attitude of the author towards what's good and important.

The question for you is not so much, how can you tell that Hamlet is morally ambiguous, but why does Shakespeare make him morally ambiguous. In some ways Hamlet is the first modern tragic hero. He doesn't just go and do what he's taught is right, he has to work it out for himself.

Answer 3

On the flip side of killing people, Hamlet is morally ambiguous because he's killing for the sake of avenging his father's ghost. He's good because he ultimately loves his mother and tries to protect her, but he's bad because he's willing to do what it takes and kill who he must to get his ends.
The death of Ophelia also shows Hamlet's good side because it proves his human emotions are still in tact. Most evil people feel very few emotions other than rage or hatred. However, Hamlet's tendency to think for himself could make him morally ambiguous because he doesn't always think about the consequences of his actions for other people.

Hope this helps you!