Hamlet: Parents Role

                Throughout Hamlet there is an obvious role of the main character’s parents.  There is a common thought that children reflect their parent’s behavior.  In this novel we can see that this assumption is true from the outcome of Hamlet and Ophelia’s lives.  The way that their parents act has caused them to act a certain way or make certain decisions.  These decisions in the novel will either lead to their downfall at the end of the novel or their rise to overcome the corruption in Denmark. 

                When I think of the parents in this novel and how they play a large role the first parents that come to mind are Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and Claudius, his father/uncle.  Their quick marriage/funeral in Act I and Hamlet’s slow decay into madness go hand in hand.  The reason why Hamlet’s father is dead is because of the actions taken by his uncle, Claudius.  For Hamlet to see his mother marry his father’s murder causes him to do whatever he can to seek revenge.

Furthermore, I guess you can think of another saying when you hear this.  ‘The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’  Even though Claudius was not Hamlet’s biological father he is still related to him.  Claudius kills Hamlet’s father and when Hamlet hears of these action he reflects these actions in a way he can interpret it.  We see this when he kills Polonius and shows no emotion towards the fact that he has just killed another human being.

In addition to Hamlet’s parents playing an important role in keeping this play interesting there are two other characters with the same parent that plays an important role in the play.  Ophelia and Laertes’ father, Polonius, plays an important role in Ophelia’s madness and Laertes’ anger when they find out that he is dead.   Ophelia is forced to listen to her father by breaking up with the love of her life and make Hamlet hate her.  Then she is forced to try and make amends with Hamlet and be with him for sole purpose of information that can be supplied to Claudius.  Ophelia has no control over her life because it is being run by her father and when her father dies she is left alone without a father, without Hamlet, and with her brother in France.  This madness is all caused by the actions of her father in the play.

Lastly, if the parents in this play had more of a selfless attitude and cared about their children’s needs maybe neither one of them would have gone mad.  If Gertrude would have thought of her son’s emotions before she married his uncle at his father’s funeral maybe she would still have a relationship with her son.  Polonius could have saved his life and his daughters if he would have cared more about his children then his own image. If he didn’t worry about his image he wouldn’t have been snooping around trying to figure out the reason behind Hamlet’s madness and wouldn’t have died.  But then again you have to think about the parents of the parents. What kind of roles did they play in their children’s lives?