Hamlet is burdened with ensuring punishment on behalf of his murdered father by the king of Denmark, Claudius. In attempting to kill Claudius, Hamlet risks alienation occurring within multiple psychological parallels. The variants of indifference that jeopardize Hamlet's psychological sense of identity are his religion, his morals, his compatriots, his mother, and alienation from women. Hamlet feels self-fulfilled by following the religious principles of life. This is seen in Hamlet's refusal to commit murder, thus preventing him from committing suicide. At that moment, he felt like doing it to avenge his father's death. Both murder and suicide are considered sins (Cahn, 1996, p. 97). To be or not to be: that is the question: whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slingshots and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of troubles, and resist to put an end to them. (3. 1. 1749-52)Hamlet wonders whether it is worth living in such misery or not because he is forced to try every day to avenge his father's death. In this context, Hamlet is self-destructive and risks alienation from his religion when he begins to think about suicide. If he killed Claudius, he would be violating a fundamental religious principle against killing another human being. While it is easy to hate King Claudius for his actions, we wait and hope for him to confess to his crimes, but he never does (Stockton & Shakespeare, 2000, p. 09). Both suicide and murder would make Hamlet feel guilty by violating his religious quota, thus representing alienation at the level of his religious consciousness (Knights, 1966, p. 14). Hamlet has the duty to avenge his father by killing the murderer, the king, risking being alienated on a religious level. Hamlet……middle of paper……with women in general. This boredom of women intimidates his sense of self because it is challenging. Hamlet, a heterosexual male, feels that he is unable to carry on an ordinary sexual life if he feels alienated from women (Cahn, 1996, p.91). In trying to eliminate Claudius, Hamlet risks emotional alienation. He would probably experience it on multiple levels. He would feel alienated from his bond of motherly love, female love, friendships, professional allies, compatriots, bond with his religion and normative principles. The multiple and diverse modes of alienation that emerge simultaneously put his intellectual sense of identity at risk. With this knowledge, he faces an immense burden that shapes his bizarre behavior, as well as wrestling with the gravity of his duty to remove Claudius. All of this outweighs his fundamental concern that he will be executed if he attempts to assassinate Claudius.
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