Private Passions and Moral Responsibilities: Hamlet

Many great works of literature often focus on personal tragedy and ways of overcoming it. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, however, the inability of the main characters to confront their problems properly leads to the destruction of all. The antagonist of the play, Claudius, allows his personal ambition for power to overshadow the will of his conscience. Hamlet opens at the royal castle of Elsinore where a ghost bearing the visage of the recently deceased King Hamlet …

…nephew and has sealed his fate in the eyes of God. Shakespeare's Hamlet pivots on the theme of mastering passionbefore it is too late. Although Claudius confronts his sins committed in search of title and authority, he never takes the steps needed to achieve absolution. Instead, the King opts to use violence to solve his dilemma which results in both the downfall of his royal family and the turning of his "envenomed"(144) blade upon him.