DRJ #1 Hamlet, Act 1

Hamlet acts very much like his age, which is described as being in his late teens. The first person the comes to my mind who is similar to Hamlet is myself. I can understand being frustrated with your parents just like how Hamlet is with his mom during the first act. Hamlet, following the information he is given by the ghost, immediately decides to seek revenge without thinking things through. Another trait that is common for boys at this age. The story of revenge is very common in movies and books these days. One that comes to mind is the last book i the Harry Potter series where Harry is trying to seek revenge on a more powerful figure, Voldemort. A very similar situation to Hamlet seeking revenge on the new king.

Hamlets mother and the current queen of Denmark, Gertrude, is a somewhat difficult character to learn much about at this point. So far the only details given about her are from Hamlet and the one scene where she is having a conversation with her son. We do know that Hamlet does not think very highly of his mother. He is disgusted at the fact that she would marry his uncle, her former husband's brother. He also hates the fact that they got married so quickly, mentioning that the food that was eaten during the funeral of his father was used for the wedding of his mother and uncle. During the dialogue between Hamlet and Gertrude we get a slightly better understanding of Gertrude's character. We learn that she cares a lot about her son and that she wants him to get over his sadness of his father's death. This also gives us an idea that she did not care much about her late husband, as she is telling him to move on from the death and that he needs to grow up. She does not seem very supportive of Hamlet and appears to care more about her new husband. Gertrude is used in the plot to help us better realize how crooked of a man the king is and to help us better understand the unhappiness and rage that Hamlet has.

Love and family seem to play a pretty big role in the theme of the first act. Most of the main characters we are introduced to so far are family member. Claudius the king, Gertrude the queen, and Hamlet the prince and the nephew to Claudius. Hamlet does not consider Claudius to be his father though, as he still remains very loyal to his father. Hamlet also harbors a deep hate for Claudius, even before hearing that he killed his father, because of how he has married his mother. Family matters are often very complicated in a plot-line and the story of Hamlet is no different. Love also comes into question during the first act, centering around Gertrude. We get a clear sense that Gertrude loves Hamlet very much, but we also get a sense that she loves Claudius even more. This is very strange based on the fact that she was in "love" with Hamlets real father just months beforehand. We are left wondering if Gertrude actually loves anyone for real, or if she is faking this love in order to keep her title of queen. We also do not get a clear sense on Hamlet's love. We would assume that Hamlet loves his mother, but he mentions multiple times about how weak she was and how quickly she jumped into bed with his uncle. This suggest that Hamlet's love for her was torn, if not fading away.