Themes (OCR A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes
Themes
Shakespeare's Hamlet explores several profound and interconnected themes that make it one of the most complex plays ever written. Understanding these themes is essential for analysing the play's meaning and Hamlet's character development.
Thematic analysis is crucial for A-level success. Examiners look for students who can identify how themes interconnect and drive the plot forward, not just list themes in isolation.
The impossibility of certainty
What makes Hamlet unique amongst revenge tragedies is that the expected action is constantly delayed whilst Hamlet seeks greater certainty about his situation. The play raises numerous questions about knowledge and truth that other works might simply assume.
Questions Hamlet faces
Throughout the play, Hamlet grapples with fundamental questions about knowledge:
- Can ghosts be trusted as sources of information?
- Is the Ghost genuinely his father's spirit, or could it be a deceptive demon?
- How can anyone establish the truth about a crime without witnesses?
- Can someone's inner state (like guilt) be determined by observing their behaviour?
- What happens after death?
- Will our actions produce the outcomes we intend?
The play's deeper meaning
Rather than being simply about Hamlet's indecisiveness, the play reveals how much uncertainty underpins human existence. We constantly make decisions and judgements based on incomplete information and assumptions. Shakespeare shows us that life is built upon countless uncertainties that people usually take for granted when acting or evaluating others' actions.
Exam Tip: When discussing this theme, consider how Hamlet's need for certainty drives his use of 'The Mousetrap' (the play-within-a-play) to test Claudius's guilt. This demonstrates his methodical approach to establishing truth before taking action.
The complexity of action
Closely linked to the theme of certainty is the question of how to act effectively and purposefully. Hamlet demonstrates that taking action involves more than just rational calculation.
Factors affecting action
In the play, the ability to act is influenced by:
- Rational considerations - such as the need for proof and certainty
- Emotional factors - grief, anger, love
- Ethical concerns - questions of right and wrong, sin and salvation
- Psychological elements - doubt, fear, inner conflict
Hamlet's approach to action
Hamlet appears deeply sceptical about controlled, purposeful action. When he does act, he often does so impulsively and violently, as when he kills Polonius behind the arras. This suggests he believes deliberate, measured action may be impossible.
Other characters' failures
Interestingly, other characters who think less about action and simply do what feels appropriate also fail:
Example: Claudius's Failed Action
Claudius achieves his goal of becoming king, but his conscience torments him and his authority is constantly threatened. Despite achieving his objective through decisive action, he cannot escape the moral consequences of his deed.
Example: Laertes's Impulsive Revenge
Laertes vows to pursue revenge without distraction, yet is easily manipulated by Claudius, and his poisoned weapon ultimately causes his own death. His direct approach ironically leads to his downfall.
These examples suggest Hamlet may be correct in his doubts about purposeful action.
Notice how Shakespeare presents action as inherently problematic - whether characters deliberate extensively (like Hamlet) or act impulsively (like Laertes), both approaches ultimately fail. This suggests a deeper philosophical point about the limitations of human agency.
The mystery of death
Following his father's murder, Hamlet becomes obsessed with death, examining it from multiple perspectives throughout the play.
Different aspects of death explored
Hamlet considers death in various forms:
- Spiritual aspects - represented by the Ghost of his father
- Physical remains - symbolised by Yorick's skull and the corpses in the graveyard scene
- The afterlife - what happens to the soul after death
Connection to other themes
Death connects to several other themes in the play:
- Uncertainty and truth - Death might provide answers to life's deepest questions, ending the struggle to determine truth in an ambiguous world
- Revenge and justice - King Hamlet's murder initiates the revenge quest; Claudius's death concludes it
- Action - The consequences of death drive the plot's action
Suicide and moral questions
Hamlet repeatedly contemplates suicide as an escape from unbearable suffering. However, he fears committing suicide would condemn him to eternal damnation, as Christianity forbids it.
In the famous 'To be or not to be' soliloquy (Act III, Scene i), Hamlet concludes philosophically that people only endure life's pain because they fear what comes after death. This fear prevents decisive action, as moral complexity interferes with the capacity to act.
Key quote: In his soliloquy, Hamlet suggests that without fear of the afterlife, no one would choose to continue living through suffering.
The nation as a diseased body
Shakespeare presents Denmark as an interconnected system where the royal family's welfare directly affects the state's health.
Political anxiety
The play's opening scenes establish a sense of anxiety surrounding the transfer of power from one ruler to another. Characters repeatedly connect a ruler's moral legitimacy with the nation's wellbeing.
Denmark as a sick body
Throughout the play, Denmark is depicted as a physical body made ill by Claudius and Gertrude's moral corruption. The Ghost's appearance is interpreted as a supernatural warning.
Key quote: 'Something is rotten in the state of Denmark' (Act I, Scene iv, line 67)
This famous line encapsulates the play's central metaphor - political corruption manifesting as physical disease within the body politic.
Contrast between rulers
- King Hamlet - portrayed as a strong, honest ruler under whose leadership Denmark was healthy
- Claudius - depicted as a corrupt politician who has compromised Denmark to satisfy his own desires
- Fortinbras - his rise to power at the play's end suggests Denmark will be restored to health
This theme reflects Elizabethan beliefs about the divine right of kings and the connection between a monarch's virtue and the state's prosperity. Contemporary audiences would have recognised these political anxieties as relevant to their own era's succession concerns.
Performance
The play is deeply concerned with performance - both theatrical performance and the way people perform roles in daily life.
Appearance versus reality
In his first appearance, Hamlet distinguishes between outward behaviour ('actions that a man might play') and genuine feelings ('that within which passeth show') (Act I, Scene ii). However, as the play progresses, this distinction becomes increasingly blurred.
Hamlet's performed madness
Hamlet announces in Act I, Scene v that he will 'put an antic disposition on' - deliberately pretend to be mad. Initially, this seems like a calculated strategy. In Act II, Scene i, Ophelia describes his mad behaviour as resembling a theatrical performance.
Yet when Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 'I have lost all my mirth', he appears genuinely depressed. By the end of the play, even Hamlet seems unsure where performance ends and reality begins.
Critical debate: Scholars have long debated whether Hamlet is truly mad or merely acting. The text deliberately makes this impossible to determine with certainty - a deliberate artistic choice that reinforces the play's central theme of uncertainty.
The play-within-a-play
The performance of 'The Mousetrap' provides opportunities for Shakespeare to comment on theatre's nature. When Polonius mentions he once 'enacted Julius Caesar' (Act III, Scene ii), contemporary audiences would have recognised a reference to Shakespeare's own play, possibly performed by the same actor.
This meta-theatrical moment demonstrates Shakespeare's playful self-awareness. He reminds the audience they are watching a performance, yet simultaneously draws them deeper into the dramatic world.
Theatre as mirror to nature
Hamlet himself explains that acting is powerful because it becomes indistinguishable from reality:
Key quote: 'The purpose of playing [...] is to hold as 'twere the mirror up to Nature' (Act III, Scene ii)
This is why he believes the Players can 'catch the conscience of the King' (Act II, Scene ii). By showing that performance can feel real, Shakespeare makes us question what 'reality' actually means.
Madness
One of the play's central questions is whether Hamlet has genuinely lost his mind or is merely pretending.
Evidence for performed madness
Initially, Hamlet seems to be performing madness deliberately:
- He announces his plan to 'put an antic disposition on'
- He tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern he is only mad when the wind blows 'north-north-west', suggesting he can control it
Evidence for genuine madness
However, other evidence suggests real madness:
- His behaviour could be a logical response to the 'mad' situation he faces - his uncle murdered his father and married his mother
- By the end, Hamlet seems to doubt his own sanity
- He refers to himself in the third person: 'And when he's not himself does harm Laertes'
- He claims 'His madness' killed Polonius, as though madness is an external force
Ambiguity
The play deliberately leaves this unresolved. Hamlet's excuse of madness could absolve him of murder, which might also indicate cunning sanity. Shakespeare refuses to provide a definitive answer, maintaining the theme of uncertainty throughout.
This ambiguity is not a weakness in the play's construction - it's a deliberate artistic choice. By refusing to clarify whether Hamlet is mad or sane, Shakespeare keeps the audience in the same state of uncertainty that Hamlet himself experiences.
Doubt
Hamlet's doubt creates a world where very little can be known with certainty, affecting both the protagonist and the audience.
Hamlet's pervasive doubt
Hamlet doubts almost everything:
- Whether his uncle killed his father (though he suspects it)
- Whether to trust the Ghost's testimony
- What happens after death
- His own feelings
Key quote: Regarding the Ghost, Hamlet says 'I'll have grounds / More relative than this', showing his need for more concrete evidence.
Spreading doubt to others
Hamlet actively infects other characters with uncertainty. He tells Ophelia 'you should not have believed me' when he said he loved her, making both Ophelia and the audience doubt his true feelings.
Audience doubt
Shakespeare extends this uncertainty to the audience. We are left questioning:
- Whether Gertrude had an affair with Claudius before King Hamlet's death
- Whether Hamlet is sane or mad
- What Hamlet truly feels for Ophelia
- Whether Hamlet is a reliable protagonist
By making the audience share Hamlet's uncertainty, Shakespeare creates a powerful dramatic experience. We don't just watch Hamlet struggle with doubt - we experience it ourselves, unable to answer fundamental questions about the play's events and characters.
This theme reinforces the play's exploration of the impossibility of certainty and the ambiguous nature of truth.
Exam Tip: When analysing doubt in your essays, consider how Shakespeare uses it to engage the audience and create dramatic tension. The unresolved questions aren't plot holes - they're deliberate choices that make the play more intellectually engaging.
Key Themes to Remember:
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Uncertainty is central - Hamlet delays revenge whilst seeking certainty about knowledge, truth, and the Ghost's reliability
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Action is complex - Taking effective action requires balancing rational, emotional, ethical, and psychological factors; all characters' actions ultimately fail
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Death pervades the play - Hamlet obsesses over death's physical, spiritual, and philosophical aspects, particularly regarding suicide and the afterlife
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Performance blurs reality - The distinction between genuine feelings and performed behaviour becomes increasingly unclear, especially regarding Hamlet's madness
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Doubt creates ambiguity - Shakespeare deliberately leaves key questions unanswered, making the audience question truth alongside Hamlet