Describe Conflicts Illustarted By Shakespear In His Book Hamlet (Essay Sample)

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Internal Conflicts in Hamlet
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the internal conflicts within the major characters are a key element of the play. Ambivalence is a defining trait for the character of Hamlet. The internal conflicts between reason and emotion, between duty and freedom, and between a desire for action and the need for patience are not just integral to the character of Hamlet but an essential part of what drives all the main characters. Centuries before the term psychology was invented, Shakespeare created a work that explored and exposed the inner workings of the mind. This essay will explore the role of inner conflict within the characters of Hamlet and show how Shakespeare used the characters internal state of mind as a critical part of the story.
In Ambivalence in the Player's Speech in Hamlet by Joseph Westlund, the author explores Hamlet’s ambivalence as a defining element of the character. As an example, during Act 3 Scene 2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Westlund notes that “The Player’s speech and Hamlet's response to it convey an extraordinary sense of the difficulties involved in moving from thought to deed” [Westlund 245]. He presents many examples of ambivalence from the scene and explores Hamlet’s internal contradictions. Besides, he also provides historical context for writings referenced in the play such as Virgil’s Aeneas, Pyrrhus, Prium, and Hercuba from Greek mythology. In addition, the author looks at Shakespeare’s use of analogy and color such “inky cloak “and “customary suits of solemn black” [250] to show how Shakespeare set a tone and a mood that supported the speech. He clearly portrays the entire speech as a study in ambivalence with Hamlet both crying out for revenge yet unwilling to act on his desire.
In the Problematic Relation Between Reason and Emotion in Hamlet, author Eric Levy explores the conflicts between reason and emotion that are central to Hamlet the character and also to Hamlet the play. Levy takes steps to look at the conflicts not just as plot points in the play but places them in the broader context of Christian humanism with an emphasis on the writings and philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Early in the writing, Levy explains: “the concept of the sovereignty of reason over emotion derives from the classical definition, adopted by medieval Scholasticism, of man as the rational animal whose reason has the ethical task of rationally ordering the passions or emotional disturbances of what is formally termed the sensitive appetite” [83]. Levy notes that other critics have addressed the subject and gives several examples, as background, before going on with his own examination of the subject. Except that, he also looks at the concept of inward pain, particularly grief and sorrow, referencing Claudius advising Hamlet “that his unmanly grief derives from a mind impatient. /An understanding simple and unschooled regarding the inevitability of death” [Act I Scene 2]. This internal struggle between reason and emotion is given voice in soliloquies and shown in Hamlet's desire for revenge contrasted with his unwillingness to act.
Additional internal conflicts arise from the roles that Hamlet has in life. He cannot be who he wants to be or say what he wants to say. He has responsibilities and duties to king and country and to his mother and the memory of his father that limit him. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, David Smith notes that Hamlet uses opposing verbal styles which can be termed the vulgar and the polite, or the official and the carnival. ...