What Hamlet Loses and Gains in the Tragedy

The Tragic Loss of Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic hero, who is overwhelmed by the circumstances of his father’s death and his mother’s new marriage. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark and is engaged to Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, who serves as counsel to the new king, Hamlet’s uncle and now step-father, Claudius. Hamlet’s tragedy is really one of loss, as he experiences a great deal of it in the play: first, he loses his father; then he loses his mother to an “incestuous” marriage, as he calls it (1.2.162). Next, he loses Ophelia to her father, who orders her to break off relations with Hamlet. Then he loses his privacy, as the castle halls are haunted by spies—Polonius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern. He loses his ability to act, even as the ghost of his father appears to urge the prince to take revenge for his killing. Finally he loses his reason, as he spirals into madness, at first play-acting as though he were crazy but then truly losing his mind and slaying Polonius unthinkingly in a fit of mad rage (3.4.32). After this, he loses his freedom, as the king sends him off to England where the plan is to have Hamlet executed. Hamlet uncovers the plot and maneuvers his way out of it with a little luck and cunning. It is also at this point that he begins to return to his true, noble self. But the damage has already been done. With her father dead and no one to tell her what to do, Ophelia loses her mind and drowns. Laertes, her brother, is fueled to take revenge against Hamlet by Claudius, and so Hamlet loses a friend. Upon his return, he discovers Ophelia’s death and Laertes’ rage, accepts a challenge to a duel, and then ends up losing everyone and everything, including his own life as the duel is fatally rigged. Before he dies, however, Hamlet stays the hand of Horatio, who seeks to follow Hamlet into death. Hamlet orders Horatio to live and tell his story. Thus, Hamlet’s death is our gain, as it provides proper catharsis for the audience, filling us with pity and fear. Indeed, Hamlet’s loss of so much is crucial to the delivery of catharsis so that our emotions can be purged by experiencing Hamlet’s tragic loss.

Hamlet begins the play in possession of much: he is next in line for the crown; he has received an education at Wittenberg (although the allusion to Wittenberg is meaningful since it is here that the initial challenge against authority was made by Luther—it suggests that Hamlet is already unbalanced as a result of this training). He has a good friend in Horatio—but now he is mourning the loss of his father and the expediency with which his mother has remarried. He sees her marriage to Claudius as a betrayal of his father’s memory. He views Claudius with suspicion. The ghost of his father appears to spur Hamlet in the direction of vengeance. He finds no support from Ophelia, who betrays his love by rejecting it as her father orders her to do. The only one loyal to Hamlet is Horatio, and he has a Roman notion of virtue rather than a Christian one. Hamlet himself is wrestling with Christian ideas throughout the play, for example, in his great “To be or not to be speech,” in which he argues that the only reason the mass of men do not kill themselves is that they fear a worse punishment on the other side of the grave (3.1.64). There is no such conception in the Roman tradition, but in the Christian belief system one is not permitted to take one’s own life—and this is why Hamlet says, “O… that the Everlasting had not fixed / His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God, God” (1.2.135-6). Hamlet here is lamenting the fact that God has commanded men to suffer their circumstances and situations. Hamlet does not have enough faith or strength to get him through this trial at this point. It could be suggested that Hamlet’s lack of substantial faith is the loss that precedes all the others.

However, if Hamlet had received a little support from Ophelia he might have endured these losses better. She is the first one to whom he goes as his afflictions mount. She relates the affair to her father, telling how she obeyed his command to deny Hamlet his suit. But the description of how Hamlet looks at her reveals that he is looking for help: “He took me by the wrist and held me hard…At last…he raised a sigh so piteous and profound / As it did seem to shatter all his bulk / And end his being” (2.1.99-108). She is describing a man who is being torn apart like a ship at sea; he has no anchor to prevent him from being tossed about. She might have helped provide such an anchor, but in rejecting his suit she has tossed him to the waves. She withholds her love when he needs it most. That is why she ends her report by saying, “That done, he lets me go, / And, with his head over his shoulder turned, / He seemed to find his way without his eyes, / For out o’ doors he went without their helps / And to the last bended their light on me” (2.1.108-12). Up to now, she has been a source of light for him—but by denying him her love, she effectively blinds him, sending him out into the darkness of his own situation. At a moment when he most needs sympathy, she has none to give.

His friends from school, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, are brought in as spies and they, with Polonius, keep tabs on Hamlet as though he were a prisoner. That is why he describes Denmark as a prison to them and urges them to admit that they were sent for, that they did not come on their impulse (2.2.262). Because of their constant watching, he loses his privacy, and he feigns madness in order to keep them at bay. But because he cannot reconcile his great suffering with the gift of life, he struggles to make any sense of all he has experienced thus far. He believes Claudius is guilty and even when he has an opportunity to act he refrains because he does not want to send Claudius to Heaven. This is a spiteful moment for Hamlet and it shows that a bad spirit has overtaken him: “A villain kills my father, and for that, / I, his sole son, do this same villain send / To heaven. / Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge… / And am I then revenged / To take him in the purging of his soul, / When he is fit and seasoned for his passage? / No. / Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent” (3.3.81-92). Hamlet here has made a conscious decision to abandon mercy and it signifies a loss of grace in his soul.