Horatio's Filial Love In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

Love is one of the most prevailing themes in Hamlet; the characters involved demonstrate a number of intricate emotions as the play progresses. We see Hamlet's filial love for his mother, esoteric love for Ophelia and Hamlet's platonic companionship with Horatio. However, Hamlet’s filial love for his father is foremost which causes conflicting thoughts to overwhelm him once an apparition in his father’s figure returns.
The play opens when two guards, Marcellus and Barnardo, apprise Horatio about the appearance of an impression in the king’s image. Although Horatio is sceptical he agrees to join the guards on their watch and is received by the ghost. Horatio exemplifies unyielding faithfulness to Hamlet, ‘Let us impart what we have seen tonight unto young Hamlet’. In doing so, Horatio demonstrations loyalty towards
He begins by conveying his distress and how he will be missed by stating ‘…that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe’. By this King Claudius expresses how the kingdom should mourn for they have lost a good King; this is ironic giving that he is the reason for King Hamlet’s death but takes advantage of the people by getting them to rally behind a common cause. Additionally, there is further irony as Claudius is shown to contradict himself when talking to Hamlet ‘How is it that the clouds still hang on you’. Claudius expresses his true feelings towards his brother as well as total disregard for Hamlets feelings by showing a complete absence in empathy. Hamlets response ‘Not so, my lord; I am too much in the sun’. The lexical choice ‘sun’ can also be interpreted as ‘son’ which shows that neither are comfortable, particularly Hamlet, with his new father-in-law. The quote ‘too much in the son’ can also be shown to strongly implying that Claudius and Gertrude’s relationship is on the verge of