Guilt In Hamlet

An Examination of Guilt: One’s Own Deadly Poison

Guilt, like a disease of the mind, has the power to consume one's sanity, govern one's emotions and demolish one's life. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and in the novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies, guilt dominates the lives of multiple characters by negatively impacting their fate. This can be seen through how guilt arises from a flaw in the character's personality, induces a burden on the lives of a loved one and leads to their inevitable death.

In both Hamlet and Fifth Business, guilt emerges from a flaw in the character's persona leading to their tragic ending. In Hamlet, the two main characters that exhibit this emotion is Claudius and Hamlet. The incident
In different ways, these characters put the lives of their significant others in jeopardy and eventually both their life ends. In Hamlet, Hamlet is greatly affected by his guilt. His happiness is depleted and his clouded thoughts cause ruthless intentions. Due to his overwhelming remorse, Hamlet speaks to Ophelia with words like daggers when he tells her, “Get thee to a nunnery, farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them”(3.1.138-40, Shakespeare). In turn, this has an immediate effect on Ophelia as her mind descends into a whirlpool of madness. As a result, Hamlet who cannot cope with his guilt, indirectly kills whom he truly loved, Ophelia. On the contrary, King Claudius utilizes a different approach in dealing with his guilty conscience. He anticipates that his power of manipulation will insure his position and alleviate his guilt. By the time Hamlet discovers Claudius is the murderer during the play, “The Murder of Gonzago”, it becomes apparent to Claudius that Hamlet is convicting him of murder. Since Hamlet is the living personification of Claudius’s impeding guilt, he urgently acts to send Hamlet to England. Claudius, knowing his crown and his life is at stake, plots a plan to eliminate and in the process Claudius exploits other characters such as Rosencrantz,
The final scene between Laertes and Hamlet determines the fate of many characters. Despite Claudius’s attempts to abolish his sins by praying for forgiveness, his guilt is still evident through his malicious plans. Guilt turns Claudius into a ferocious villain because he indulges in murderous actions instead of retaining his guilt and atoning for his selfless actions. Foremost, King Claudius creates a formula for his own destruction, when he sets up the fencing duel between Hamlet and Laertes. He manipulates Laertes to injure Hamlet with the tip of his deadly sword as well he prepares a poisonous drink. However, his fate takes a turn for the worst when Laertes is fatally poisoned by his own sword. Laertes admits, “The foul practice, health turn'd itself on me. Lo, here I lie, never to rise again. Thy mother’s poison'd. I can no more. The king. The king's to blame”(5.2.319-22, Shakespeare). This motivates Hamlet to murder the King by using the deadly sword and Claudius’s own poison drink which brings him to death. By this time, Hamlet also meets his downfall as a result of his guilt. Hamlet spends the majority of his time contemplating about life and death, therefore he holds back his responsibility to avenge his father. Hamlet, carrying his overwhelming guilt explains to Horatio, “Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting that would not let me sleep...Rashly- and priced to