Hamlet Archetypal Victim Lens Essay

If we want to be able to understand the archetypal implications in Shakespeare Hamlet, there is no better character to observe than Prince Hamlet. The archetypal criticism lens plays a big role in Hamlet. Archetypes are primordial images or repeated types of experiences in the lives of our ancestors yet expressed as myths, religion, dreams, and private fantasies. Many archetypes are shown as simple things such as a moon, sun, water, desserts, wizards, etc., but they all have a meaning behind them. For example, when a character submerges in water we just see it as it is but little do we know that it symbolizes baptism. There are many types of archetypes, but I will be focusing on the archetypal victim lens. The archetypal victim lens focuses on the disadvantaged and weakest character. Since the beginning Prince Hamlet comes off as the victim when he is first introduced. When Prince Hamlet comes …show more content…
He hints out that he wants to commit suicide but never actually says that he will. As he says in his famous “to be or not to be” speech “to be or not to be-that is the question: Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles and, by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep- No more-and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks” (3.1.66-68). Hamlet contemplates suicide. He thinks that being dead wouldn’t be so bad. If he was dead he wouldn’t have to deal with love or his mother’s betrayal. Hamlet is grieving and feels betrayed and alone. Claudius, Gertrude, and Polonius have the decency to tell him to get over it and to stop being such a woman when they aren’t the ones that lost a father to a murderer. Gertrude and Claudius enjoy life in the castle Hamlet seems to find himself alone. Gertrude is in no way whatsoever being a mother to Hamlet. She never tried to console Hamlet when he came back for his father’s