“Hamlet” is one of the most crucial plays of William Shakespeare and it has an important place in the literature. “Hamlet” is a play that tells us the drama of Hamlet who is the Prince of Denmark and his opportunist and greedy uncle, Claudius. In the play, we can see the struggle between Hamlet and his uncle because of the fight for throne that ends up with the death of Hamlet`s father. Claudius is a cruel man and he kills his own brother for the throne and marries with the wife of his own brother. In this play, Hamlet is a man who has a mental breakdown because of the death of his father and reign of his uncle. In the light of these, Hamlet has lots of both mental and physical problems that affect his life and sanity. Time is a relative term and it depends on person`s perspective and we can see that time turns a torture instrument for Hamlet in this play because Hamlet must wait in order to take his revenge from his uncle. So, this paper aims to analysis relativity or relativism in this play and show some terms that relates to relativity.
First of all, Hamlet is the heir of the throne of Denmark, but his father was killed by Claudius and he loses his right for the throne. Unlike most of greedy people, Hamlet do not care the throne and he always think the death of his father. In the beginning of the play Hamlet learns the truth that about his father`s death thanks to a ghost and he understands that this ghost is his own father. The ghost says the truths to Hamlet, and he wants a revenge. All of these events affect Hamlet and he enters a period of deep consideration and becomes a machine which has a one important goal, revenge. In this process, time and place became two important rivals of Hamlet and we can see lots of evidences of relativity in conversations of Hamlet with other characters. For instance, Hamlet speaks with his old friends, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz and he says that “Denmark is a prison” . This quotation is one of the most important evidence of relativity because it explain that for most people, Denmark is a great place to live and also Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark but events that affect Hamlet changed Hamlet`s perspective for Denmark.
On the other hand, other characters do not know why Hamlet behaves like this and they try to find the real reason behind the mental breakdown of Hamlet so Rosencrantz tries to relax to Hamlet and he says that “Then is the world one” Rosencrantz tries to relax to Hamlet with this simile, but it does not work because Hamlet says that “A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o` the worst. They say that we do not think so, but Hamlet says that “Why, then, ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison and ends up this conversation. After this conversation, we can understand relativity in Hamlet and this truth; some experiences can change our perspectives for time, places, people. Once upon a time, Hamlet is a happy man and he has some dreams that he tries to make true them but with the death of his father and his fate, he turns another man.
Furthermore, Hamlet is in love with Ophelia and they have a discreet relationship, so they always have a conversation with each other. In still another day, Hamlet establishes a theater play in order to understand his uncle`s attitude about the death of his father, when the play is acting by actors, Hamlet speaks with Ophelia about his mother`s marriage with his uncle. Hamlet looks his mother and says that “O God, your only jig-maker. What should a man dobut be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours.” and he emphasizes that his mother`s situation and his pain that related to the death of his father because Hamlet thinks that the death of his father is still hot, and his mother does not respect his death. However, Ophelia says that “Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord.” in fact, this quotation sums up the core of relativity in “Hamlet” because both Hamlet and Ophelia speak and think about the same situation, but they have different perspectives to the same event.
To sum up, we can see lots of elements of relativism in conversation of Hamlet with other characters in the play and these are good examples of relativity. “Hamlet” is a great work of William Shakespeare that includes huge moral lessons and it shows us humankind`s greedy and consequences of greedy. Claudius` greedy and unethical actions led with the death of many people at the end of the play. Just like every Shakespeare`s play, “Hamlet” ends up with a great sadness and it engraves by giving us lots of lessons.
