Hamlet Grieving Child Analysis

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet tells the story of Prince Hamlet, as he seeks revenge on his uncle and the new King of Denmark, Claudius, for murdering King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father and Claudius’ brother. After Hamlet accidentally killed Polonius rather than Claudius, he spoke to the ghost of his father. His mother, Gertrude, said “To whom do you speak this?” Hamlet replied “Do you see nothing there?” and Gertrude again spoke saying “Nothing at all, yet all that I say” (3.4) “This the very coinage of your brain. This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in” (3.4.133) Although it can be argued if Ghost King Hamlet was real or not, the ghost was quite possibly a figment of Hamlet’s imagination, much like a child in grief might imagine their deceased loved one. The problem with Hamlet was that the destruction of his traditional home life from his father's death put him in a child like state of coping with his grief. One of the stages of helping a grieving child is to talk about and remember the person who died. Gertrude never
Hamlet already felt betrayed by his mother, but to make matters worst, Ophelia, whom Hamlet loved, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brother could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum” (5.1.255-257), decided to break off her relationship with Hamlet during his time of grievance and madness, “My lord, I have remembrances of your that I have longed to redeliver. I pray you now receive them” (2.1.95-97) Hamlet trusted Ophelia and did not expect to lose her too. In this scene of the 1996 movie version of Hamlet, Kenneth Branagh, Hamlet, portrayed Hamlet as very glad to see Ophelia and hugged her compassionately. Shortly after, Ophelia told Hamlet she wanted to return his things and the couple broke up. Hamlet’s actions in the movie visualized that he wanted Ophelia to be there for