How Hamlet Could Have Changed Essay, Research Paper
In Shakespeare s tragic play Hamlet there are many ways in which the outcomecould have changed. Many of the scenes were highly influential to the outcome of the restof the play. If any one of the numerous influential scenes were to be changed it couldhave made a large difference in the rest of the play. One scene takes place in the queen s private room where Polonius has hid in orderto spy on Hamlet by orders of the king. But, this backfires when Hamlet hears him. Andbecause, he believes that Polonius is Claudius he kills him. Hamlet did this horrible deedonly because he saw this as a way to achieve his revenge quickly, as it was needed. Hamlet does realize that he did kill Polonius and not the king as he thought. But, he isonly disappointed because his job is not done as he thought is was. Hamlet tells his motherof her husband s actions. But, she does not believe a word that he has told her. Later, asHamlet is talking to his mother the queen, the ghost of his father appears, only to him. Old Hamlet is there in order to remind Hamlet of the revenge that he must accomplish. He then shows Hamlet that he has no desire to hurt his once wife in any way while this ishappening because, she did not know the actions of Claudius . This was shown by the factthat the ghost only appeared and spoke to Hamlet, leaving the queen without a secondsource to the information which she does not believe. Old Hamlet felt that she would onlybe hurt by this and he felt the love that he had toward her was too strong to do such athing. This is only one of the many scenes that if it were to be changed it could possiblychange the whole play along with it. The queen cannot see her dead husband when heappears to her son Hamlet. But, if she could, she would learn many things about her newhusband Claudius. She would find out that Claudius was attempting to woo her while shewas still married to Old Hamlet, and he only increased after his death. But, the moreimportant thing that she would be told of is how her new husband killed her once lovingold husband. Also she would find out that the reason that Old Hamlet is struck as a ghostand not in heaven where she thought he would have gone. This is because he died in amost unnatural way and his soul in not at rest. In order for his soul to be at rest someonemust get revenge against his killer. This could occur in any combination so she wouldknow any number of things. After learning of her new husbands actions toward her late husband the queen isextremely hurt. And one of the many ways in which she finds in order to make herself feela little better she informs the rest of the country of his actions. Old Hamlet was a goodking while he was alive so he had many loyal followers and kinsmen. Many of thesefollowers become outraged with the news. It does not take them long to band togetherand then commit treason against the king. Doing so was not hard because they hadHamlet on their side. So within a few days hundreds of people stormed the castle, while
Hamlet and the queen are away so not to be hurt in the chaos. Claudius is killed quickly,and soon after Hamlet is made king as he should have been before. Also Ophelia is nevertreated cruelly by Hamlet because he no longer feels the need to act mad, so she in turnnever turns crazy. In addition, to Hamlet becoming king Ophelia becomes his queen. The queen could have also acted out in other ways. At the time that she receivedthe news of Claudius s horrible actions against her first husband, she may have becamecompletely enraged by the news. She then acts out in a sudden and extremely rash way,she finds the king and kills him herself. Because, Old Hamlet s revenge has now beenacted out he can now rest in peace. Another possibly in which these changes could change the rest of the play, is thatas Hamlet stated previously his mother is very frail. Now that she knows the real reasonthat Old Hamlet died she chooses not to do anything toward her new husband. Hamletsees that his mother is even more frail than he first suspected, and he knows that he mustget his revenge by himself before his mother is sucked in even more than she already is. Hamlet then makes a few failed attempts at the murder that he must accomplish. They are all stopped by the queen or by someone she puts in front of him. Soon the queenhas Hamlet on, what in modern days terms would be, house arrest and always away fromthe king who is continually sent on long trips around the country to keep him out of thecastle. Claudius and Hamlet are kept apart from each other so much that Claudius nolonger sees a reason in which to kill him and Hamlet eventually gives up on his plan forrevenge. This is mainly because it was taking so long for him to get up the nerve to killhim. Hamlet now really has nothing to do around the castle without Ophelia or a revengeto take care of, he decides to go back to school in France as he had plans to do so muchearlier These are just three of the possibilities of ways in which this one scene was to bechanged. In just one relativity simple way, it could have changed the whole outcome ofthe rest of Hamlet. The Queen is extremely hurt by her new husband s actions toward herlate husband. She then proceeds to tell the rest of Denmark of Claudius s actions and alarge angry mob storms the castle and kills the king. Or after hearing the tragic news, thequeen decides that she must take matters into her own hands and kills the man which shethought she loved. This option is much less likely than the other two because of thequeen s nature. The third ending that could have taken place because of a slight change in onescene involving the ghost of old Hamlet. The queen is seen as very frail throughout theplay and her frailty continues with her new findings. She knows that Hamlet wants to getrid of Claudius so she decides to keep the two of them as far apart as possible so that theywill not kill each other. There is no way to be sure if any of these other outcomes wentthrough the head of Shakespeare at the time of writing Hamlet. He could have had manyideas and drafts to the play all with a slightly different outcome than the previous.