Free Will And Fate In William’s Shakespeare’s Hamlet

FREE WILL AND FATE IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S

HAMLET

A THESIS

BY :

NAME

: PRISMA U. T. SIANTURI

REG. NO

: 080721020

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA

FACULTY OF LETTERS

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

MEDAN

FREE WILL AND FATE IN WILLIAM’S SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET

A THESIS BY:

PRISMA U. T. SIANTURI REG. NO. 080721020

Supervisor, Co - Supervisor,

Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.hum NIP. 1957 1002 198601 2003 NIP. 1963 0216 198903 1003

Submitted to Faculty of Letters University of North Sumatra in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Sarjana in English Literature.

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH SUMATERA

FACULTY OF LETTERS

ENGLISH LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

MEDAN

Approved by the English Literature Department Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatra Utara ( USU) Medan as thesis for the Sarjana Sastra Examination

Head, Secretary,

Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.hum NIP. 1957 1002 198601 2003 NIP. 1963 0216 198903 1003

Accepted by the Board of Examiners in partial fulfillment of requrement for the degree of Sarjana Sastra from the English Literature Department. Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara Medan.

The Examination is held at the Faculty of Letters, University of Sumatera Utara on June 2010.

Dean the of Faculty of Letters University of Sumatera Utara,

Prof. Syaifuddin. M. A, Ph. D. NIP. 19650909 199403 1004

Board of Examiners

Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum

NIP. 1957 1002 198601 2003 ………..

Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M.hum

NIP. 1963 0216 198903 1003 ………..

Drs. Siamir Marulafau, M. Hum

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION

I, Prisma U. T. Sianturi, declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. Except where reference is made in the text of this thesis, this contains no material published else where or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or awarded another degree.

No other person’s works has been used without due acknowledgements in the main text of this thesis. This thesis has not been submitted for the award of another degree in any tertiary education.

Signed :

COPYRIGHT DECLARATION

Name : PRISMA U. T. SIANTURI

Title of Thesis : FREE WILL AND FATE IN WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET

Qualification : S-1 / Sarjana Sastra

Department : English

I am willing that my thesis should be available for reproduction at the discretion of the Librarian of University of North Sumatra, Faculty of Letters, English Department on the understanding that users are made aware of their obligation under law of the Republic of Indonesia.

Signed :

ABSTRAK

Skripsi yang berjudul FREE WILL AND FATE IN WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET merupakan salah satu karya besar dari William Shakespeare. Adapun tujuan dari analisis ini adalah untuk mengetahui keinginan bebas dan nasib Hamlet sebagai tokoh utama dalam

drama Hamlet. _{Dalam drama ini Hamlet ingin membalas dendam atas}

kematian ayahnya yang telah dibunuh oleh pamannya sendiri lalu menikahi ibunya. Hamlet berusaha untuk membongkar segala kejahatan pamannya, dan selalu mengikuti kehendaknya untuk membalas dendam dengan caranya sendiri, sehingga akhirnya nasib membawanya kepada kematian. Dalam menganalisa drama ini digunakan metode kepustakaan yang memfokuskan penelitiannya pada sumber informasi berupa tulisan dan referensi yang berkaitan dengan penelitian tersebut. Setelah menganalisa data ditemukan bahwa free will dan fate bisa sejalan, dan dalam hal tertentu free will dan fate juga tidak sejalan.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank God so that I could finish this paper to fulfill one of the requrements in finishing my study at the university of North Sumatra.

Making a thesis is not an easy wok. Every one has to work hard to find materials in supporting htheir thesis. I belive the truth of an old proverb “ No Gain Without Pain “. In writing this thesis I admit that I have met many difficulties.

I also admitted that there are some people involved who have patiently guided me during the process of writing this thesis, Drs. Syaifuddin, M.A., Ph. D., the Dean of Faculty of Letters, and Dra. Swesana Mardiah Lubis, M. Hum as the Head of English Department.

I would like to give my best thanks to my supervisor; Dra. Swesana Mardia Lubis, M. Hum, as the first supervisor and Drs. Parlindungan Purba, M. Hum, as the second supervisor, for their advice, guidance, and support in finishing this thesis. And I would like to thank to all my lecturers in Faculty of letters at University of North Sumatra thank you for your spirit and support.

In this occasion, I would like to thank to my beloved parents that always pray for me, guide me, support me and give advices. Thanks for your love mom and dad, and and my beloved brothers and sister thanks for your pray and love

Apart from that, I also say thanks to all of my friends in Faculty of letters, University of North Sumatra thanks for your love, help, support, I’ll never forget you friends.

At last, I admit that this paper has not been perfect yet, so constructive criticism and suggestion are most welcome. And I hope that this thesis will be used for the readers who are interested in studying English.

God Blesses Us

Medan, June 2010

The Writer,

Prisma U. T. Sianturi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AUTHOR’S DECLARATION COPYRIGHT DECLARATION

ABSTRACT ... i

ACKNOWLEDMENTS... ii

TABLE OF CONTENT ... iv

CHAPTER I ... 1

INTRODUCTION... 1

1.1 The Background of The Analysis ... 1

1.2 The Problem of The Analysis ... 4

1.3 The Objective of The Analysis ... 4

1.4 The Scope of The Analysis ... 4

1.5 The Significances of The Analysis ... 5

1.6 The Method of the analysis ... 5

1.7 The Review of The Analysis ... 5

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW ... 7

2.1 Play ... 7

2.1.1. Definition of the Play ... 7

2.1.2. Kinds of Play ... 8

2.2 Free Will And Fate ... 9

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ... 13

3.1 Research Method of the Analysis ... 13

3.2 Data Collecting Method of the Analysis ... 13

CHAPTER IV THE ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY ... 14

5.1. Free Will ... 18

5.2. Fate ... 31

CHAPTER VI CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 41

5.1 Conclusion ... 41

5.2 Suggestion ... 42 BIBLIOGRAPHY

APPENDIXES

Appendix

Hamlet Synopsis

ABSTRAK

Skripsi yang berjudul FREE WILL AND FATE IN WILLIAM

SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET merupakan salah satu karya besar dari William Shakespeare. Adapun tujuan dari analisis ini adalah untuk mengetahui keinginan bebas dan nasib Hamlet sebagai tokoh utama dalam

drama Hamlet. _{Dalam drama ini Hamlet ingin membalas dendam atas}

kematian ayahnya yang telah dibunuh oleh pamannya sendiri lalu menikahi ibunya. Hamlet berusaha untuk membongkar segala kejahatan pamannya, dan selalu mengikuti kehendaknya untuk membalas dendam dengan caranya sendiri, sehingga akhirnya nasib membawanya kepada kematian. Dalam menganalisa drama ini digunakan metode kepustakaan yang memfokuskan penelitiannya pada sumber informasi berupa tulisan dan referensi yang berkaitan dengan penelitian tersebut. Setelah menganalisa data ditemukan bahwa free will dan fate bisa sejalan, dan dalam hal tertentu free will dan fate juga tidak sejalan.

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1The Background of Study

Literature is an expression in art and concern with all aspects of human life, and the whole universe. Through literature we can know all the aspects of human life and about problem of society. Literary works represents a vital record of what one have seen in life, what they have though and left about those aspects which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us, as it the events occur in the plot really come into existence. It the fundamentally and expression of life through the medium of language. According to Sinha ( 1977 : 157 ) literature attempts to influence, flatter and change reader’s mind and studying literature mans to know ourselves in particular and people generally

Besides that Taylor said ( 1981 : 57 )“ literature is said to be the school of life that authors tend to comment on the conduct of the society and of individuals in the society. “ So, Taylor means that literature may become tool of valuing people in their behavior both collectively and individually.

In general, literature is divided into three kinds, they are: poetry, novel and play. Poetry is dominated by the rhythm and melody; novel is a narrative kind of fictitious writing, and play is the combination of dialogue and stage. Play is a work literature or a composition which is designed for performance, purpose and delineates life and human activity by means of presenting various actions

often either monologues or dialogues of a character or a group of character. Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English playwright who wrote over thirty plays. Most of them were written for the immediate needs of his own theatrical company and for immediate performance. Some of them were not printed until ten or twenty years after they were first performed. Although the plays were written years ago, many of them are still read widely as classics in literary world. Shakespeare’s name is the greatest in all literature. There is no man ever came to near him in his creative power of the mind and no man such variety of his imagination. he is considered as belonged to more than one world. He was a man of his time, but he was not limited by it. His plays which draw deeply from a quarry of historical as well as current material, means new things for new generation. He writes many kinds o plays which are read even till today. Long ( 1991 : 87 ) said that he has excellent ability in analyzing human characters.

This thesis deals with play as the main source of analysis. Tillyard ( 1970 : 52 ) said that , Hamlet is powerfully aware of the baffling human predicament between the angels and the beast, between the glory of having been made in God’s image and incrimination of being descended from fallen Adam. That is in Shakespeare’s. Hamlet must be regarded as Shakespeare’s most successful play. It has unceasing theatrical vitally, and the character of Hamlet himself has become a figure a literary mythology by Encyclopedia Britanica (1992 : 625 ).

Hamlet must be regarded as Shakespeare’s most successful play. It has unceasing theatrical vitally, and the character of Hamlet himself has become a figure a literary mythology. Hazlitt ( 1900 : 76 ) says that Hamlet is a little of the hero as a man can well be: but he is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility, the sport of circumstance, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from the natural bias of his disposition by the strangers of his situation. Hamlet presents a view of the world in which man’s intellect is powerless to understand and predict the him of free will and fate. Free will in man, is the power of self-determination; the capacity to choose among alternatives or to act in certain situation independently or natural, social or divine restraints. The concept of fate is sometimes used to denote a person’s path in life, not necessarily determined by any one person or thing but the out come of a combination of the necessary, the accidental, the spontaneous, the conscious in human life. Man is governed by an uncaring and perhaps deranged power. The characters of the play are in no way able to comprehend what may lie in the future. This analysis focuses on free will and fate in the play Hamlet.

Hamlet is the story of Prince of Denmark, returns from his studies abroad to attend the funeral of his father and subsequent wedding of his mother to his uncle. He wants to keep the memory of his father alive and painful. He is truly appalled at how easily his mother seems to forget her first husband. He is quite pertubered by his mother’s second marriage, in view of its haste and incestuous implications. He soon meets with a specter claiming to be the ghost

of his father, ant tells him he was murdered by his own brother, and commands him to seek revenge. He agrees to do so, but conflicted by his own nature, he does not act immediately. He concentrates on eternal fight between free will and destiny. His uncle and the councilor have their suspicious about the young man and keep close watch. Falsehood and Playacting occur on all sides creating mayhem and madness. Revenge is eventually exacted, but at a cost far too dear, all the primary objective characters, with the exception of prince’s friend, suffer a tragic death.

1.2Problem of the Analysis

In analyzing this play, the writer has some problem to be solved. The problems are:

1. How to differentiate free will and fate in free will and fate in

Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

2. What are the relation of free will and fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet?

1.3Objective of the analysis

The objective of the analysis is to reveal free will and fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

1.4 The scope of the analysis

This analysis only focuses on free will and fate Shakespeare’s play Hamlet.

1.5 Significance of analysis

By exploring the case of free will and fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet play, it is expected makes readers know what is the free will and fate in Shakespeare’s Hamlet play and enriching the literary study, and this thesis can be used as one of references for and as the guidance for literature students to study literary works. I hope this thesis can be useful for further analyzing in the future.

1.6Method of the analysis

Method of the analysis plays such an important role in completing an analysis, because without having method, it will be difficult to find the source to support the analysis of the thesis. In this thesis, the information collected from various documents. The primary source will be Shakespeare’s Hamlet play. The play was read and understood. While read it the writer pay attention to the sequence of the events described on the play. After that analyzed the Shakespeare’s Hamlet play. Then the statements about the topic of the analysis were written down. Secondary the writer also read some books and browsing internet to find out some data that related to the thesis. Finally the conclusion and Suggestion are made

1.7Review of Related Literature

In supporting her analysis, the writer reads some related books which are listed as follows:

This books contains about the major genres ( narrative, fiction, drama and poetry ), which are defined and discussed in detail, with anatomy of techniques, devises and conventions. This books help the writer to describe about drama.

2. Teori, Metode dan tekhnik Penelitian Sastra by Nyoman Kutha Ratna ( 2004 )

This book make the writer know how the technique and some approaches of study literature that can be done in analyzed the thesis and to conduct a research particularly in study literature.

3. Theory of literature by Rene Wellek and Austen Warren ( 1977 )

This books give some the definition of literature, the scope of literature and the methods in studying the literary works. It is very helpful to make the writer know about literature and can be a reference for this thesis.

CHAPTER II THEORITICAL REVIEW

2.1 Play

A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed or read. The term "play" can refer to both the written works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.

2.1.1. Definition of the Play

According to Hornby, (1995:351) Drama is the art of writing and performing. Waluyo (2001:3) states that if the stage and the script are compared, the stage is more dominant than the script. This is where the comparative literature takes place. Meanwhile, Reaske (1966:17) states that the process of defining the play is tremendously aided by reference to the kind of play and the conventions of that kind of play. From the statement it can be stated that play is a type of literature that uses a lot of dialogue and is meant to be performed in front of an audience; also called a play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than reading. The term "play" can refer to both the written works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.

Play is often combined with music and dance: the drama in opera is sung throughout; musicals include spoken dialogue and songs; and some forms of drama have regular musical accompaniment . Play has been written to be read rather than performed. In improvisation, the play does not pre-exist the moment of performance; performers devise a dramatic script spontaneously before an audience.

2.1.2 Kinds of Play

In a strict sense, plays are classified as being either tragedies or

comedies. The broad difference between the two is in the ending.

Comedies end happily. Tragedies end on an unhappy note. The tragedy acts as a purge. It arouses our pity for the stricken one and our terror that we ourselves may be struck down. As the play closes we are washed clean of these emotions and we feel better for the experience. A classical tragedy tells of a high and noble person who falls because of a "tragic flaw," a weakness in his own character. A domestic tragedy concerns the lives of ordinary people brought low by circumstances beyond their control. Domestic tragedy may be realistic seemingly true to life or naturalistic realistic and on the seamy side of life. A romantic comedy is a love story. The main characters are lovers; the secondary characters are comic. In the end the lovers are always united. Farce is comedy at its broadest. Much fun and horseplay enliven the action. The comedy of manners, or artificial comedy, is subtle, witty, and often mocking. Sentimental comedy mixes sentimental emotion with its humor. Melodrama has a plot filled with

pathos and menacing threats by a villain, but it does include comic relief and has a happy ending. It depends upon physical action rather than upon character probing. Tragic or comic, the action of the play comes from conflict of characters how the stage people react to each other. These reactions make the play. So, from the description it can be said that:

• Commedy is The lead character overcomes the conflicts and

overall look of the comedy is full of laughter and the issues are handled very lightly.

• Tragedy

Aristotle’s definition of tragedy: A tragedy is the imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear wherewith it effects a catharsis of such emotions. The language used is pleasurable and throughout appropriate to the situation in which it is used. The chief characters are noble personages (“better than ourselves,” says Aristotle) and the actions they perform are noble actions.

2.2 Free Will And Fate

Free will and fate are also at different levels. We could say that because we choose one chart, we choose our fate, and thus put free will on top of fate. We do not and cannot know our fate in terms of ego consciousness. In other words free will and fate are not in conflict because hthey are not on the same level. We

are aware of things being true or false. Based on this we can make judgments and plan action based on those judgments and it is free will. According to Young ( 1991 : 5 ) when we operate from free will, there is something between our awareness and our actions, something that is not determined, something that whether humans exercise control over their actions or are they predetermined.

2.2.1. Free Will

Acccording to Landau ( 2005 : 283 ) Free Will in man, is the

power of self – determination; the capacity to choose among alternatives or to act in certain situation independently or natural, social, or divine restraint. Free will is denied by those who expose of various forms of determinism. Argument for free will are based on subjective experience of freedom, of responsibility for personal actions that underlines the concept of lows, rewards, punishments and incentives. Free will implies choice and it means that we can act. Leslie said ( 1983 : 36 ) when people believe absolutely in free will, that they are free to create whatever they want, they deny the reality that they can’t do whatever they want. We can choose and then we can act upon that choice. It assumes, therefore, that there is such a thing as cause and effect. Our choice becomes a cause for our effective action. All of this is in contradiction of the idea of fate, which implies that occur. Futhermore, William said ( 1900 : 48 ) free will as the conviction of many men that their voluntary acts are free, or autonomous, rises from variety of sources. They include an institution of unfettered choice, a

Judeo – Christian faith that God created man to be free will and wish to blame evil an man rather than man create himself by choosing freely and the doubt whether mere machines could discover the truth even about mechanism. The principle plea for free will, however is that unless man has a real choice, so that he can act differently in identical circumstances, there can be no moral responsibility, the praise, blame and fatuous.

2.2.2. Fate

Hornby said ( 1975 : 167) fate is the things, especially bad things that will happen or have been happened to somebody. Fate is used in regard to the finality is projected into the future to become the inevitability of events as they will work hthemselves out. Fate happens based on something before. Some people say fate brings us together and kit may also control our lives.

The concept of fate is sometimes used to denote a person’s path in live, not necessarily determined by any one person or thing but the outcome of a combination of the necessary, the accidental, the spontaneous, and the concious in human live. Acoording to Malraux ( www.google.com) by fate we may also mean a certain programmed of behavior determined by heredity, and by the features of temperament and character acquired during life. And according to Petulo (1987 : 16 ) fate is the resultant of the past exercise of people’s free will. By exercising people’s free will in the past, people brought on the resultant fate.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Method of the Analysis

In completing this thesis, I am performing the descriptive qualitative method. The method is applied by describing the data and analyzing them, related to the focus of analysis. According to Bogdan and Biklen in their book entitled Qualitative Research for Education: an Introduction to Theory and Method (1982:2), Qualitative research may be used either as the primary strategy for data collection, or in conjunction with observation, document analysis or other techniques.

There are several steps in applying this method. The first step is collecting the books which relate to the thesis. The second step is reading the collected books, including journals, notes and relevant sources to the thesis. The next step is quoting the data and describing them into the analysis. The analysis will be performed by explaining the free will and fate which can be found in a play entitled Hamlet by William Shakespeare .

3.2 Data Collecting Method of the Analysis

The beginning of thesis procedures is to collect the books related to the title of thesis. The focus of analysis is about free will and fate which can be found in a play entitled Hamlet by William Shakespeare The books are collected from several sources such as library, book store and internet.

The books which are collected contain vast information about analysis. Thus I try to select the relevant books to the analysis only, which is the study of free will and fate. One of the books that I used for data is Hamlet William Shakespeare (William Shakespeare, 1981) and other books and thesis that can be used as source of the data about play, free will and fate.

CHAPTER IV

THE ANALYSIS OF THE PLAY

Hamlet is one of the greatest Williams Shakespeare’s play. The story is about a young man seeking to avenge the murderer of his father by his uncle, killed by his uncle, but he himself and others died on the process. His mourns both his father death and his mother remarriage to his uncle. The ghost of his father appears to him and tells him that his uncle has poisoned him. He swears to revenge, but he does not act immediately because of conflicting by his own nature. He arranges an old play whose story has a parallel to that of his uncle’s. His behavior is considered mad. He kills the eavesdropping, the court chamberlain, by thrusting his sword through a curtain. The court chamberlain’s returns to Denmark to avenge death. The court chamberlain’s daughter loves the prince but his brutal behavior drives her to madness. She dies by drowning. A duel takes place and ends with the death of his mother, his uncle, the court chamberlain’s son, and he himself.

The main character of the play is Hamlet a Prince of Denmark who is about twenty years old. He does not only participate in his life, but astutely observes it as well. He recognizes the decay of the Danish society which is represented by his uncle, but also understands that he can blame no social ills on just one person. He remains aware of the ironies that constitute human Endeavour, and he savors them. As astutely as he observes the world around him, he also

keenly critiques himself. He fears that his uncle killed his own brother that is his father to become king of Denmark, greatly angering him’

His uncertainty and inability to act make him increasingly melancholy, and everyone around him. He makes seems to be going mad. Despite the apparent guilt of his uncle, he still cannot bring himself to avenge his father’s wrongful murder. He nevertheless terrorizes his mother and kills the eavesdropping. Justly fearing for this own life, his uncle sends him to England with the two his childhood friends, who carry orders, however, and alters them which make his two friends the victims instead. He returns to Denmark. There he tears that the court’s chamberlain has killed herself and that her brother seeks to avenge her father’s murder. His uncle is only too eager to arrange the duel. Both he and his girlfriend’s brother are struck by the sword that his uncle has had dipped in poison before the prince dies, he manage to kill his uncle.

The minor character are queen Gertrude, King Claudius, The Ghost, Ophelia, Laertes, Polonius, Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Fortinbras, Francisco, Marecellus, Bernardo, Reynaldo, Voltermand and Cornelius. Queen Gertrude is hamlet’s mother who loves Hamlet deeply, but she is a shallow, weak woman who seeks affection and status more urgently than moral rectitude or truth. She wields some power and suggests that Claudius’ decision to marry her has political implication. She never declares any kind of emotion for Claudius, either positive or negative. King Claudius as an antagonist is Hamlet’s uncle. The villain of the play, Claudius is a calculating, ambitious politician, driven by his sexual

appetites and his lust for power. He occasionally shown signs of guilt and human feeling. For instance, his love for Gertrude seems sincere.

The ghost is the specter of Hamlet’s recently deceased father. The ghost, who claims to have been muredered by Claudius, calls upon Hamlet to avenge him. Hamlet speculates that the ghost might be a devil sent to deceive him and tempt him into mureder . Ophelia is Polonius’ daughter, a beautiful young woman with whom Hamlet has been in love. Ophelia is a sweet and innocent young girl who obeys his father, Laertes. Dependent on men to tell her behave, she gives in to Polonius’s schemes to spy on Hamlet. Even in her lapse into madness and death, she remains maidenly, singing songs about flowers and finally drowning in the river amid the flower garlands she had gathered. Polonius is The Lord chamberlain of Claudius’s court, a pompous, conniving old man. Polonius is the father of Laertes and Ophelia is Polonius’s son and Ophelia’s brother, a young man who spends much of the play in France. Passionate and quick to action, Laertes is clearly a foil for the reflective Hamlet.

Horatio is friend and confidant of Hamlet. Hamlet shares with Horatio all of his experiences and misgivings in the situation involving his father. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is childhood friends of Hamlet. They are recruited by Claudius to first discover the cause of Hamlet’s madness. Eventually, their orders are changed to escort Hamlet to England. They are killed instead when Hamlet discovers hthe death order and changes it to apply to them. Fortinbras is Prince of Norway. His father was conquered by King Hamlet and initially seeks

revenge. Ambassadors sent by Claudius are able pacify him. Upon the death, Prince Hamlet names Fortinbras.

The setting Hamlet takes place in Elsinore castle, eastern Denmark. The time period of the play is not explicit, but I can be viewed as mostly Renaissance, contemporary with Shakespeare’s England, Other settings in Hamlet are a plain in Denmark, near Ellsinore, and a churchyard near Ellsinore Offstage action in the play takes place on a ship bound for England from Denmark on which Hamlet replace instructions to execute him with instruction to execute his traitorous companions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and on a pirate ship that returns him t Denmark.

4.1 Free Will

Free Will is the ability to decide freely what one wants to do’

people have power to make decisions. Shakespeare shows free will in the play by presenting Hamlet’s revenge and death are both tied to choices he has made in executing the plan to kill his uncle, all guided by his own free will. He choices to revenge because his father wa killed by his uncle. He chooses to do that after he meets the ghost. Although he knows that it is forbidden according to Christian believe, he chooses to see and calls the ghost that takes face of the late his father:

If it assume my noble father’s person,

I’ll speak to it though hell itself should gape

Hamlet being sorrowful, frustrated, having got physical shock, is burdened by a ghost coming. He has chosen to follow th ghost, and it is being the start to his battling with the two painfully deciding which one to choose; avenged or not. Hamlet’s revenge to his uncle can not be restrained after he knows from the ghost that his father is killed by his own uncle. Moreover, his uncle marries his mother within a month of his father’s death, He says:

O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourn’d longer,-married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules : within a month,

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married; O most wicked speed, to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! (p. 120)

Some people by their free wills choose to believe at the ghost or

the spirit of someone who has died than to their believes according to their believes according to their religion. Hamlet in this play is not sooner disappears, he says just a deception and he is doubtful. He can not put the task into practice to his melancholic state, the mingling want to fulfill the duty, shock feeling hatred for his uncle and love for his father

Shakespeare through Hamlet describes the domination of life pretence. He is poisoned with fear that makes him live in pretending. His fear begins when ( Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus ) are alone and the ghost speaks that he is the late of his father and says that Claudius had cruelly murdered King Hamlet. Claudius wanted both to be King, and marry Gertrude. While King Hamlet is sleeping in the garden one day,

Claudius had crept up and poured poison in his ears. When the ghost had tells Hamlet how his father died, it commands him to revenge. By his own free will Hamlet was determined to forget his own entire affair, and all he has planned to do in the future, and to think of nothing but revenge. He will do as the ghost has ordered.

Shakespeare through the main character shows that the choice between good evil represents ma’s dilemma. For him, the human’s will is indomitable. Hamlet suffers from inability to carry out the task of avenging his father’s death because of his deep depression; besides his attitude towards the world is somewhat pessimistic. This comes and remains and then later grows worst. It turns from bad to worst especially after he knows the betrayal of his beloved mother. But this conscience impulse towards revenge is bound by ethical conscience or religious consideration.

The feeling of nothingness in life troubles him very much. His

mother’s overhasty marriage and his father’s sudden death strike him so much that no happiness of life can repay what he has lost, except the death. After the revelation to avenge upon his father’s death, Hamlet grumbles about the situation which his doom to decide. He declares:

The time is out of joint. O cursed spite That ever I was born to set it right! ( p. 61)

He pretends to be mad in order to carry out his plot to kill Claudius, but his feign madness causes physical defect, mental paralysis or

even stupidity. This is clear when we see him riding on the donkey but sitting backwards. Even ever he imitates a cock crowing and flapping its wings. This supposed madness is intended to deceive the king and his court.

Hamlet’s feign madness, pretending that he has lost memory by

telling other people he receives what he does not receive and tries to trick them by using of his wit. He just does something right if he finds the truth

in something, but he is a hypocrite as well: “………..he is a hypocrite

towards himself.” (p. 74). He pretends to be insane because he is afraid of facing the reality. This is a means of uttering his own heart freely and eases the tension in his heart, in doing so, may be suffering from mental ease, or of slightly psychoneurotic mind.

Hamlet is a living death in the midst of life, since he is alive but cannot do anything to achieve his goal to wit, to take revenge on his father’s murder. His nature is surprising; he has to ponder long and hard no matter of revenge. He delays the action is no use anymore. He has confirmed his confidence in order to carry out his task; but he still troubled by his conscience that makes him a coward: “thus conscience does make cowards of us all. (p. 90).

His feign madness symbolizes a fantastically disordered mind and

it is influence by surroundings. He is “mad”, manages to utter his contempt or hostility perfectly, by combining a veiled form of speech with Polonius. It can be seen conversation between Polonius and himself, as follows:

Polonius : Do you know me, my lord

Hamlet : Excellent well. You are a fishmonger.

Polonius : Not I, my lord

Hamlet : Then I were so honest man (p. 73)

He pretends not to recognize him as saying him to be a ‘fishmonger’. He also, especially, pretends madness when Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are sent by the King to find out the truth of his madness.

Actually Hamlet is a man of rapid decision and action whenever

possible in everything with the exception of the task of vengeance. He receives the ghost’s instruction and promises to carry out of the task. But his heart is occupied by the two things, first of his conscience and secondly, of the cry of his blood. This mingling feeling is growing more and more intensely complicated, until it reaches its peak by the death of the protagonist which derives from an internal conflict of his soul

Revenge is primarily the representation of human feelings. Hamlet

is bound up highly by his conscience of restraint of law. If he wishes to do something he pauses, and the only time he does not do so is when he kills Polonius. Thus he is the victim of vengeance an as an avenger. The burden he receives from his father is the burden of moral and psychology.

Any possibilities he has of regaining a semblance of normalcy and

happiness are gone when the ghost of his father demands Hamlet seek revenge. Although Hamlet himself desires to see Claudius pay for his crime, he realizes the evil in the deed of killing the king, prompted by both

“ heaven and hell” (p. 83). The ghost has placed Hamlet in a most

Claudius for his treachery, nevertheless he would not act on that hatred if he were not choosing by his free will prompted to do so by the ghost. Hamlet is an introspective scholar. He is reflective and pensive, and we see this throughout the play as Hamlet delays the moment of revenge as long as he possibly can. It appears that only a little time has elapsed since Hamlet’s meeting with the ghost, but in fact months have gone by. And the perfect opportunity to kill Claudius as he pray alone in his chamber is passed up by Hamlet, who makes excuses that the timing is not yet perfect.

The reason why he cannot kill or why he does not want to kill is

that he is disturbed by his religion. Hamlet must not kill Claudius in the act of praying. Hamlet, moreover, cannot be utterly free from mental burden, from the ghost, and his own inner conflict, he knows well what he ought to do, but over and over again he hesitates to act. Not only the physical shock that burdens him but grief and frustration as well weight on him. The diseased mind or the psychological conflict within himself makes him stand between two worlds, but he belongs to neither. He is living, but wishes to die; he is dying for he cannot manifest his wish into action.

He is directed by the ghost with the task of avenging but the task

he accepts terrifies him, because he is profoundly terrified by his mother’s adulterous deed. So, there arises a conflict between two different attitudes, whether to follow the ghost’s instruction or whether to wait until he has the good opportunity to kill.

He must not kill the king when he is in prayer and when he is fit and seasoned for his passage he has to wait until the king is again drunk, sleeps or in his rage and do what his father orders. In one of his soliloquies, he accuses himself of ‘a rough peasant slave’, he cannot carry out his task. He utters;

A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,

Like John-a-dreams, impregnate of my cause, (p. 84)

So when the ghost appears for the second time, he accuses Hamlet as being too slow, mistaken, careless and ignorant. He once more insist him not to forget his duty as the ghost orders. Even though Hamlet has a chance, he has no bravery to kill Claudius. As the consequence, he is regretful of himself. At first Hamlet is not like a man who has lost all his ‘mirth’ and has gone so heavily with his ‘disposition’.

Hamlet is a man of thought always sad and frequently carried away

by his feeling. His sadness often sticks in heart like a sickness, thought it is still hopeful. He always feels that he is often tempted by evil not to do things perfectly. He is remarkable for ingenuity, morality and lack of courage produce hesitation becomes his tragic fault. His hesitation can be seen when he has time to act, he is doubtful and confused to make up his mind so the chance is gone. His passion is to think not to act, because his imagination influences him very much. He believes when Claudius is offering his prayer and if he does kill him. The king’s soul is in the state of being gracious and is therefore ready to heaven. It is said:

Now might I do pat, now’s is – praying, And now I’ll do it, and so ‘goes to heaven, And so am I revenged, that would be scanned A villain kills my father, and for that

I his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven (p. 110)

He believes that Claudius has purged his soul and death will dispatch him to heaven. His Christian belief makes his task and consideration more complicated. For this reason he refuses to kill the King when he is at his players, and by a refinement in malice, which is in truth only an excuse for his own want of resolution, defers his revenge to a more fatal opportunity.

When he meets the ghosts, at the time he believes that he has been

in his tension by killing Claudius. But facing him in the act of praying he becomes dormant. He is thoughtful yet doubtful. It leads him to suffer at the last moment.

Hamlet may blame himself for doing nothing as a means of covering and coping with his mental distress. His awareness is torn into revenge as well as Christian belief, having no strength, especially on the task avenging. Hamlet, a lovely noble and most moral hero, will sink beneath a burden of it. He may be slow in spirit in some cases, but strong in action in the other. He does not want to live nor to die, thus he is dualized personality. He is always deep in conflict and struggle with himself especially when he is soliloquy.

He is always miserable and blaming himself for delaying his revenge. He cannot make up his mind whether he has to take bodily action

against the King or just wonders and remains silent and be a coward. It is described with his soliloquy as follows:

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, (p. 89)

So, Hamlet’s mind is torn into action and though whether he has to carry out the duty (act) or be doubtful and keeps on thinking without doing anything.

The King is murdered by his brother, who as result usurps not only

his crown, but his peace in the affection of the Queen. And at the end of the play his mother dies after drinking the poisoned wine which has made by his uncle too. By his own free will Hamlet wants to take tit-for-tat killing committed by Claudius.

Shakespeare puts Hamlet into a situation in which he must deal

with the betrayal and murder of his father by his own family members. Communication of filling is done solely in monologue or though the reports of a third party, or spy, Hamlet must use the player’s performance to observe the reaction of Claudius because the topic of the death of King Hamlet is not acceptable discussion material. Therefore, Hamlet uses the performance to reveal the show that Claudius has been presenting to his subject. Hamlet’s mistake is that he has now alerted Claudius that he knows of the murder. Claudius then can plot to rid himself of Hamlet, and therefore the danger of being found out. Ultimately, the characters of

Shakespeare’s Hamlet become victims of the unwholesome situation of their own creation.

The climax of the play is Hamlet stabs Polonius through the arras.

Polonius hides behind a curtain. Hamlet comes in and the queen yells at him. Hamlet yells back and the queen gets frightened and yells “help!”. Polonius behind the arras yells “Help!”. In the stress of moment, hamlet stabs him to death through the arras. Trying to avenge a murder and set

things to right, Hamlet has just committed another murder. When

Polonius’s body falls out from the behind the arras, Hamlet remarks he thought it was the king. And a talk about how being a busy body is dangerous:

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, Farewell!

I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.

Thou find’s to be too busy is some danger. ( p. 106)

He commits himself to overtly violent action and bring himself into unavoidable conflict with King Claudius.

Claudius afraid of Hamlet will kill him too. He arranges a sword

duel between Laertes and Hamlet. Claudius and Laertes plan to kill Hamlet. In fact, there is treachery behind this suggested fencing game which Hamlet does not know Claudius, however, encourages Laertes in his determination to put an end to Hamlet life by asking him to play a trick on Hamlet in the match.

I will do’t,

An for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it,

Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death That is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point

With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly,

It may be death. (p. 143)

Laertes would use a sword with a sharp point, although this was

not allowed in friendly matches. They would also poison on the sword, so that as soon as Laertes struck Hamlet, he would be killed. The king Claudius poisons the victory cup in case Hamlet wins, Hamlet would be sure to die, either by he poisoned swords or poisoned wine.

At first, Hamlet seemed to be fighting more skillfully. When they

stopped to rest, Claudius urged Hamlet to take a drink of wine, but the prince said he would not drink until he had finished the match became very exciting, and instead is mother, Gertrude drinks it, at the moment Laertes cuts Hamlet with poisoned sword. At once Hamlet seized the Laertes’s sword and wounded Laertes with it. He now knew that Laertes had cheated by using a poisoned sword. Hamlet did not know however, that it was also poisoned, and they would both die. Suddenly the queen fells to the floor and screaming that she has been poisoned :

No, no, the drink! O my dear Hamlet!

The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. ( p. 168 ).

Hamlet realizes that there have been some evil plan, and he sees

doors so that no one can escape. Laertes falls to the floor, but he manages to tell Hamlet what has happened and who responsible is.

It I here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain; No medicine in the world an do thee good. In the there is not half analyze hour’s life

The treacherous instruments in thy hand,

Un bated and envenomed. The foul practice

Hate turned itself on me. Lo, here I lie,

Never to rise again thy mother’s poisoned.

I can more. The King, the king’s to blame (p. 168)

People will do a bad act or something crimes if he became frustrated because of he faced suffer on and on. They will do anything to avenge himself. And sometimes people may do it in a good way, but sometimes in a wrong way. Hamlet’s hatred and revenge make his free will choose way that is killed the King Claudius:

The point envenomed too! Then, venom, to thy work

Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane,

Drink off the poison. Is thy union here?

The quotation above, Hamlet wounds Claudius with the poisoned sword, rush and holding the bowl of poisoned wine to Claudius’s plan to poisoned the sword and wine to kill him by it, but the wine was drank by his mother.

Hamlet’s revenge cannot be restrained after all even which have

made him suffer by Claudius acts. When the queen dies after drinking the poison and Laertes confesses the whole deed, implicating Claudius, Hamlet finally kills king Claudius who killed his father. Hamlet by his free will chooses to avenge in a wrong way. Though he had several he had

several opportunities prior to kills Claudius , he choose to wait for the right moment so that his revenge would be sweet.

4. 2 Fate

Fate is the power believed to control all events in a way that cannot be resisted; destitiny . It also means what will happen or has happened to somebody or something. By exercising people’s free will in the past, people brought on the resultant fate. Shakespeare uses Hamlet who faces his fate after all events happen to him. His uncle, King Claudius kills his own brother who is Hamlet’s father and obtains both crown and the Queen. Revenge is eventually exacted, but at a cost far too dear; Hamlet himself and all the primary objective characters, with the exception Horatio, suffer a tragic fate.

This play offers a bleak vision of life. It concentrates on failure, and conflict and disaster. Form the first moment Shakespeare sets a scene that is tension – filled, watchful, questioning. We know that something horrified will happen, it is described:

FRANCISCO: You come most carefully upon your hour

BERNANDO:’Tis now struck twelve. Get thee to bed, Francisco.

FRANCISCO: For this relief much thanks.’Tis bitter cold,

And I am sick at heart. ( p. 39)

From the dialogue above we know that the caution with which the guards approach one another is unusual and suggest danger both to them

and to the state of Denmark, whose capital is so closely guarded. We are well are chilled in imagining the lonely, rocky promontory above the dark sea, wher the castle of Elsinore stands guard. In the course of the play, the last dialogue above will echo again as Hamlet and, indeed, all of the state Denmark gradually becomes aware that they have reason to be “sick at heart”.

There are many things happened in Hamlet life before the play

starts. The obvious thing is that Hamlet’s father the King of Denmark is dead. His mother has remarried his uncle Claudius with seemingly indecent haste. These caused Hamlet a great deal of anguish at the beginning of the play. There is no question of murering Claudius at this stage. Hamlet just dislikes and distrusts him.the first impression of Hamlet sets the tone for whole play. Even without providing and elaborate description lof hamlet features, we can envisionhis pale face, toushed hair, and intense, brooding eyes. Dressed totally in black, Hamlet displays all the forms of moods and shapes of grief. His mother cannot help but notice Hamlet’s outward appearance of mourning, but Hamlet makes it clear that overt signs of grief do not come close to conveying how much sorrow he feels inside, it is said:

For they are the actions that a man might play;

But I have that within which passes show:

Hamlet cannot forget his father, even when all those around him have resumed their merry lifes, content to affair the occasional conciliatory words of wisdom. The queen, concidering sha has lost a husband, but she must face the true of life:

Thou know’st tis common, all that lives must die,

Passing through nature eternity. (Shakespeare 46)

And Claudius adds, amongst other things,

We pray you throw to earth

This unprevailing woe, and thing of us

As of a father, ( p. 47)

Hamlet’s tremendous grief is intensified by his lack of feeling by those around him, and more significantly, by the cold-hearted actions of his mother, who married her brother-in-law within a month of her husband’s death. This act of treachery by Gertrude, whom Hamlet obviously loved greatly at one time, rips the very fabric of Hamlet’s being, and he tortures himself with memories of the late father’s tenderness towards his mother, it is explained as follows:

So excellent a King, that was to this

Hyperion to satyr: so loving to my mother

That he might not beteem the winds of heaven

Visits her face too roughly. Heaven and earth

Must I remember? (p. 48)

Hamlet meets the ghost of his father who claims to have been

murdered by Claudius. Only from the ghost’s story Hamlet knows what really happened to his father. It is being the start to Hamlet to do a wrong act. He at once tells Hamlet that he is his father’s spirit and relates how he is killed by Claudius and that Queen has commited adultery, and therefore Claudius has succeded in winning her love. It is quoted as follows:

Sleeping with my orchard

My customs always of the afternoon

Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole

With juice of cursed hebona in vial

And in the porchesof my ears did pour

The leperous distilment; whose effect

Hold such an enmity with blood of man

Thus was I sleeping, by a brother’s hand

Of life, of crown,of queen at once dispatch’d

Cut off even in the blossoms of my ksin

Unhouseled, dissapointed, unaneled

No reck’ning made, but sent to my account

With all my imperfections on my head (p. 56)

Hamlet’s immediate reaction is to revenge his father. His problem

begin after the ghost has gone and he begins to realize the implications of his vow of revenge. He wonders whether the Ghost is a good spirit or the Devil in disguise and thus whether Claudius really a murderer. In other words of famous cannot make up his mind.

People who have pronlems, sadness or revenge in his life usually

face a trial which derives him into dilemma to choose one of good or wrong way. The trial will come not only once, it will occur when people feel weak in life. And it occurs in Hamlet’s life. He is a man of thought always sad and frequenty carried away by his feeling. His sadness often sticks in heart like a sickness, though it is still hopeful. He always feels that he is often tempted by evil not to do things perfectly.

Shakespeare personifies fate through the character, Ghost, who appears to Hamlet and directs him to punish Claudius. Hamlet can choose to obey his fate or ignore it and hthen face the consequences. Hamlet consistenly avoids making a choice by refusing to act. However, his need

for self-determination,driven by his psychological conflicts, finally forces him to take vengeance into his own hands. He finds that the forces of the primal world which value” an eye for an eye” and the enlightened world equally compel him. The ghost has ordered hamlet to act against his conscience.

In this play we find the soliloquy and it contrasts to Hamlet’s

action. The Ghost orders hamlet to avenge on the foul crime which is done by Claudius. In the presence of the ghost, he promises to act, he talks to himself of the duty of vengeanc, and blames himself. How easily he forgets it by saying :

But I am pigeon-livered and lack gall

To make oppession bitter, or ere this

I should ha’ fatted all the region kites

With this slave’s offal, bloody,bawdy billain!

Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain!

O, vengeance!

Why, what an ass am I! This is most brave

That I, the son of dear father murdered

Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell

Must like a whore, unpack my heart with words,( p. 86).

Hamlet’s struggle is both with the world and with he himself as he

discovers the evil instincs in his own nature. After the killing of Polonius, Hamlet is shipped to England, where King Claudius has arranges for him to be murdered. Laertes returns from France because his father died and his sister, Ophelia, will have drowned. Hamlet, having escaped assassination in England, returns to Denmark where Claudius arrange a duel, Laertes and Hamlet will fight and Laertes using a poisoned sword. We could look at any of these details, interpreting them in the light of what

we have established so far, but the central focus of interest is so much hamlet himself that we have decided to look at a further extract from one of his soliloquies:

What a man,

If his chief good and marked of his time

Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more!

Sure he that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capacity and godlike reason

To fust in us unus’d. Now, whether it be

Bestial onlivion, or some craven scruple

Of thinking too precisely on th’ event

A thought which, quarter’d, hafth but one part wisdom

And ever three parts coward – I do not know

Why yet I live to say ‘This thing’s to do’

Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means

To do’t. Examples goes as earth exhorth me..(p. 117).

He is wondering why he cannot simply take revenge. He does not know why himself, yet his speech does to some extend reveal why. He ends by saying that it should not be difficult to act, as the world is full of gross example.

Hamlet remains painfully aware of himself, his shortcomings, and

his powerlessness to right what he perceives to be great wrongs. Poetic, thoughtful, and philosophical, he seeks to thwart his fate through intellectual manuevering. Hamlet sees all too clearly the varying shades of gray that muddy his vission and hthe blur his choices. No one force determines the outcome for Hamlet. God asks of him one thing, and man demands another.

Finally, the play comes to the fall of the hero. Hamlet as a hero has killed by his own choices,. Laertes wounds Hamlet in a fencing game which planned by Claudius. It is described:

I am dead, Horatio. Wretched Queen, adieu!

You that look pale and tremble at this chance,

That are but mutes or audience to his act,

Had I but time, as this fell sergeant death

Is strict in his arrest, O, I could tell you-

But let it be. Horatio, I am death; (p. 150).

Hamlet’s choices direct and ultimately destroy him. He makes decisions in moments of great passion and emotional upsurge. Perhaps this is why he ends the play as murderer. He certainly kills far more people than Claudius ever killed. He personally kills three and is directly responsible for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as well. He’s probably indirectly responsible for the death of Ophelia, as she would not have died if Hamlet had not killed her father. His mother would have survived if she had not drunk the poisoned wine intended for her son. Hamlet is an intellectual. He rationalizas his life and all its events and accepts nothing without careful analysis. Hamlet can blame neither God nor fate. No unseen hand directs Hamlet’s life and death; his own free will determines the results. Hamlet illustrates the christians’ fervent belief that man’s mind is the master of self and chooses to follow God.

Hamlet’s perpetual introspection does finally help him to overcome his great anxiety. When he returns from exile, we see a very different Hamlet. He is calm, rational, and less afraid of death than merely

indifferent. He has come to the realization that destiny is ultimately controlling all of our lives, it is said:

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting

That would not let me sleep. Methought I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes, Rashly,

And praised be rashness for it: let us know

Our indiscretion sometime serves us well

When our deep plots do pall, and that should learn us

There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.(p. 140)

Hamlet is ready to confront the paradoxical truth that to avenge his father’s death he must commit the very same act for which he seeks revenge. Using fate as the scapegoat, Hamlet cat distance himself from the act of killing Claudius. He can now admit that he knows nothing of the world. He says:

Since no

Man, of aught he leaves, knows: what is’t to leave

Betimes?Let be.( p. 146)

From the quotation above we can see that Hamlet has reached the climax of his philosophizing, and he has prepared himself for death.

Having completed his mission, he is able to die in peace knowing

that his vengeance has been taken and Claudius will burn as a sinful man. Using his God’s given freewill, Hamlet made choices that resulted in the loss of many lives, Polonius, Rosencrentsz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius and himself.

The end of the play is reflection of the beginning. William Shakespeare begins the play with unsusual situation that is the ghost

appearance which followed by Hamlet and ordered to avenge. In the end of the play he presents fatal thing that is murderer and death. It is being hamlet’s fate which will happen even in a different way.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION

5.1 Conclusion

The play Hamlet shows how people battled with their free will and fate.

Although fate is truly present in real world, and what will happen, it will happen even in a different way. Free will also has a role to bring people into their fate. Hamlet as the central character represents people who choose wrong ways which bring them into tragic fate that cannot be avoided.

People have free will to choose between right or wrong. God the Giver, has honored man with this great gift. God wants us to be able to able to make our own choices. When a person makes a choice, God, by his Divine will, creates the actions and circumstances that allow the person’s intention to be carried ou.

Frustation also brings people into free will in a wrong way. It is caused by non-physical factors such as fear, anxiety, hatred, revenge, the dead of someone loved, loneliness and insecurty. Their hatred agains someone causes them to do revenge. Their free will is choosing to avenge which bring them into tragic fate. They become murderers or destroyers for other people and also for themselves, because they are unable to comprehend what may lie in the future that is their fate.

Evil becomes the only one way to give vent to their vengeful feelings toward people who has made them suffer. The reason for their evil is clear, they realize that they cannot let people who have made them suffer on and on. They commit murder in the belief that they will get peace. By making murder.

Shakespeare wants to portray the tragedy of human beings who have free will but choose wrong way which drives them to their lust fate, death.

In conclution, Shakespeare through Hamlet vividly portrays free will and fate in human life. People must face their fate because of their free will, and their choice has created situations which bring them into their fate. Besides, trial is uncle to influence people and drives into their fate. Besides, trial is used to influence people and derives into dilemma to choose one of good or wrong ways.

5. 2 Suggestions

This thesis is not a perfect one, but if someone reads this paper, he or she will understand about free will and fate, especially the free will and fate in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Actually this analyzing is not one of Literary cases only, there are many more literary cases. Thus I suggest the readers to search and study another literary case so that the readers can enrich their knowledge.

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Appendix 1

Hamlet Synopsis

Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet (of Denmark), who died two months before the start of the play. After King Hamlet's death, his brother, Claudius, becomes king, and marries King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude (Queen of Denmark). Young Hamlet fears that Claudius killed his own brother (Hamlet's father) to become king of Denmark, greatly angering Hamlet. Two officers, Marcellus and Barnardo, summon Hamlet's friend Horatio, and later Hamlet himself to see the late King Hamlet's ghost appear at midnight. The ghost tells Hamlet privately that Claudius had indeed murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear. Hamlet is further enraged and plots of how to revenge his father's death.

In his anger, Hamlet seems to act like a madman, prompting King Claudius, his wife Gertrude, and his advisor Polonius to send Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet and figure out why he is acting mad. Hamlet even treats Polonius' daughter Ophelia rudely, prompting Polonius to believe Hamlet is madly in love with her, though Claudius expects otherwise. Polonius, a man who talks too long- windedly, had allowed his son Laertes to go to France (then sent Reynaldo to spy on Laertes) and had ordered Ophelia not to associate with Hamlet. Claudius, fearing Hamlet may try to kill him, sends Hamlet to England. Before leaving, however, Hamlet convinces an acting company to reenact King

Hamlet's death before Claudius, in the hopes of causing Claudius to break down and admit to murdering King Hamlet. Though Claudius is enraged, he does not admit to murder. Hamlet's mother tries to reason with Hamlet after the play, while Polonius spied on them from behind a curtain. Hamlet hears Polonius, and kills him through the curtain, thinking the person is Claudius. When finding out the truth, Hamlet regrets the death, yet Claudius still sends him to England, accompanied by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with orders from Claudius that the English kill Hamlet as soon as her arrives. After Hamlet leaves, Laertes returns from France, enraged over Polonius' death. Ophelia reacts to her father's death with utter madness and eventually falls in a stream and drowns, further angering Laertes. En route to England, Hamlet finds the orders and changes them to order Rosencrantz and Guildenstern killed, as does occur, though Hamlet is kidnapped by pirates one day later. The pirates return Hamlet to Claudius (for a ransom), and Claudius tries one last attempt to eliminate Hamlet: he arranges a sword duel between Laertes and Hamlet. The trick, however, is that the tip of Laertes' sword is poisoned. As a backup precaution, Claudius poisons the victory cup in case Hamlet wins. During the fight, the poisoned drink is offered to Hamlet, he declines, and instead his mother, Gertrude, drinks it (to the objection of Claudius). Laertes, losing to Hamlet, illegally scratches him with the poisoned sword to ensure Hamlet's death. Hamlet (unknowingly), then switches swords with Laertes, and cuts and poisons him. The queen dies, screaming that she has been poisoned and Laertes, dying, admits of Claudius' treachery. Weakening, Hamlet fatally stabs Claudius, Laertes dies, and

Hamlet begins his death speech. Though Horatio wants to commit suicide out of sorrow, Hamlet entreats him to tell the story of King Hamlet's death and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's deaths to all. Fortinbras, the prince of Norway, arrives from conquest of England, and Hamlet's last dying wish is that Fortinbras become the new King of Denmark, as happens.

Appendix 2

BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth,

considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. William Shakespeare was the son of John Shakespeare, a successful glover and alderman originally from Snitterfield, and Mary Arden, the daughter of an affluent landowning farmer. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptised on 26 April 1564. His actual birthdate is unknown, but is traditionally observed on 23 April, St George's Day. This date, which can be traced back to an eighteenth-century scholar's mistake, has proved appealing because Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616. He was the third child of eight and the eldest surviving son.

Stratford, a free school chartered in 1553, about a quarter of a mile from his home. Grammar schools varied in quality during the Elizabethan era, but the curriculum was dictated by law throughout England, and the school would have provided an intensive education in Latin grammar and the classics. John Shakespeare's house, believed to be Shakespeare's birthplace, in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, Shakespeare married the 26-year-old Anne Hathaway. The consistory court of the Diocese of Worcester issued a marriage licence on 27 November 1582. Two of Hathaway's neighbours posted bonds the next day as surety that there were no impediments to the marriage. The couple may have arranged the ceremony in some haste, since the Worcester chancellor allowed the marriage banns to be read once instead of the usual three times. Anne's pregnancy could have been the reason for this. Six months after the marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Susanna, who was baptised on 26 May 1583. Twins, son Hamnet and daughter Judith, followed almost two years later and were baptised on 2 February 1585. Hamnet died of unknown causes at the age of 11 and was buried on 11 August 1596. After the birth of the twins, there are few historical traces of Shakespeare until he is mentioned as part of the London theatre scene in 1592. Because of this gap, scholars refer to the years between 1585 and 1592 as Shakespeare's "lost years". Biographers attempting to account for this period have reported many apocryphal stories. Nicholas Rowe, Shakespeare’s first biographer, recounted a Stratford legend that Shakespeare fled the town for London to escape prosecution for deer poaching. Another eighteenth-century story has Shakespeare starting his theatrical career minding the horses of theatre patrons in London. John Aubrey

reported that Shakespeare had been a country schoolmaster. Some twentieth-century scholars have suggested that Shakespeare may have been employed as a schoolmaster by Alexander Hoghton of Lancashire, a Catholic landowner who named a certain "William Shakeshafte" in his will. No evidence substantiates such stories other than hearsay collected after his death and the name Shakeshafte was common in the Lancashire area. It is not known exactly when Shakespeare began writing, but contemporary allusions and records of performances show that several of his plays were on the London stage by 1592. He was well enough known in London by then to be attacked in print by the playwright Robert Greene: ...there is an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers, that with his Tiger's heart

wrapped in a Player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank

verse as the best of you: and being an absolute Johannes factotum, is in his own conceit the only Shake-scene in a country.

Scholars differ on the exact meaning of these words, but most agree that Greene is accusing Shakespeare of reaching above his rank in trying to match university-educated writers, such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe and Greene himself. The italicised phrase parodying the line "Oh, tiger's heart wrapped in a woman's hide" from Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 3, along with the pun "Shake-scene", identifies Shakespeare as Greene’s target. Greene’s attack is the first recorded mention of Shakespeare’s career in the theatre. Biographers suggest that his career may have begun any time from the mid-1580s to just before Greene’s remarks. From 1594, Shakespeare's plays were performed only by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, a company owned by a group of players,

including Shakespeare, that soon became the leading playing company in London. After the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603, the company was awarded a royal patent by the new king, James I, and changed its name to the King's Men.

In 1599, a partnership of company members built their own theatre on the south bank of the Thames, which they called the Globe. In 1608, the partnership also took over the Blackfriars indoor theatre. Records of Shakespeare's property purchases and investments indicate that the company made him a wealthy man. In 1597, he bought the second-largest house in Stratford, New Place, and in 1605, he invested in a share of the parish tithes in Stratford. Some of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions from 1594. By 1598, his name had become a selling point and began to appear on the title pages. Shakespeare continued to act in his own and other plays after his success as a playwright. The 1616 edition of

Ben Jonson's Works names him on the cast lists for Every Man in His Humour

(1598) and Sejanus, His Fall (1603). The absence of his name from the 1605 cast list for Jonson’s Volpone is taken by some scholars as a sign that his acting career was nearing its end. The First Folio of 1623, however, lists Shakespeare as one of "the Principal Actors in all these Plays", some of which were first staged after

Volpone, although we cannot know for certain which roles he played. In 1610,

John Davies of Hereford wrote that "good Will" played "kingly" roles. In 1709, Rowe passed down a tradition that Shakespeare played the ghost of Hamlet's father. Later traditions maintain that he also played Adam in As You Like It and the Chorus in Henry V, though scholars doubt the sources of the information.

Appendix 3

William Shakespeare’s - Writting

Henry VI, Part I 1588–1592 First published in the First Folio Philip Henslowe's diary records a performance of a Henry VI on March 3, 1592, by the Lord Strange's Men. Thomas Nashe refers in 1592 to a popular play about Lord Talbot, seen by "ten thousand spectators at least" at separate times.

Henry VI, Part II 1590–1591 A version was published in 1594, and again in 1600 (Q2) and 1619 (Q3); the last as part of William Jaggrd's False Folio.

Henry VI, Part II 1590–1591 A version was published in 1594, and again in 1600 (Q2) and 1619 (Q3); the last as part of William Jaggrd's False Folio.

The Comedy of Errors 1592–1594, Egeon, First published in the First Folio about to be executed for unlawfully entering Ephesus, tells the sad tale of his search for his twin sons and wife. The Duke agrees to spare him if his family is found. Meanwhile, his twin sons, both of whom are named Antipholus, are actually in Ephesus, each unaware that he even has a twin. After a series of hilarious events involving mistaken identity almost ending in catastrophe, the twins are reunited with their mother and father, and realize their relation to each other.

Romeo and Juliet 1595–1596, with a possible early draft written in 1591. First published in 1597 in Q1. First performed sometime between 1591 and March 1597. In Verona, Italy, two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, are in the midst of a bloody feud. Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love and struggle to maintain their relationship in the face of familial hatred. After Romeo

kills Juliet's cousin Tybalt in a fit of passion, things fall apart. Both lovers eventually commit suicide within minutes of each other, and the feuding families make peace over their recent grief.

Julius Caesar 1599, First published in the First Folio, Thomas Patter, a Swiss traveller, saw a tragedy about Julius Caesar at a Bankside theatre on September 21, 1599. This was most likely Shakespeare's play. There is no immediately obvious alternative candidate. (While the story of Julius Caesar was dramatized repeatedly in the Elizabethan/Jacobean period, none of the other plays known are as good a match with Patter's description as Shakespeare's play.). Cassius persuades his friend Brutus to join a conspiracy to kill Julius Caesar, whose power seems to be growing too great for Rome's good. After killing Caesar, however, Brutus fails to convince the people that his cause was just. He and Cassius eventually commit suicide as their hope for Rome becomes a lost cause.

Hamlet Likely early 1600s, First published in the so-called "bad" First Quarto, 1603 Earliest recorded performance of Hamlet was in June 1602, with Richard Burbage in the title role. Prince Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost and ordered to avenge his father's murder by killing King Claudius, his uncle. After struggling with several questions, including whether what the ghost said is true and whether it is right for him to take revenge, Hamlet, along with almost all the other major characters, is killed.

Antony and Cleopatra 1601–1608 First published in the First Folio Believed to have been between 1606 and 1608. In a setting soon after Julius Caesar, Marc Antony is in love with Cleopatra, an Egyptian queen. What used to be a friendship

between Emperor Octavius and Antony develops into a hatred as Antony rejects the Emperor's sister, his wife, in favor of Cleopatra. Antony attempts to take the throne from Octavius and fails, while Cleopatra commits suicide.

All's Well That Ends Well 1601–1608 First published in the First Folio Believed to have been between 1606 and 1608. No recorded performances before The Restoration. The earliest recorded performance was in 1741 at Goodman's Fields, with another the following year at Drury Lane. Helena, a ward of the Countess of Rousillion, falls in love with the Countess's son, Bertram. Daughter of a famous doctor, and a skilled physician in her own right, Helena cures the King of France - who feared he was dying - and he grants her Bertram's hand as a reward. Bertram, however, offended by the inequality of the marriage, sets off for war, swearing he will not live with his wife until she can present him with a son, and with his own ring - two tasks which he believes impossible. However with the aid of a bed trick, Helena fulfils his tasks, Bertram realises the error of his ways, and they are reconciled.

Coriolanus First published in the First Folio No recorded performances prior to the Restoration; the first recorded performance involved Nahum Tate's bloody 1682 adaptation at Drury Lane. The Roman military leader Caius Martius, after leading Rome to several victories against the Volscans, returns home as a war hero with a new last name, Coriolanus, given for the city of Corioles which he conquered. However, after an attempt at political office turns sour, he is banished from Rome as a traitor. Hungry for revenge, Coriolanus becomes leader of the Volscan army and marches to the gates of Rome. His mother, his wife, and his

son, however, beg him to stop his attack. He agrees and makes peace between Romans and Volscans, but is assassinated by enemy Volscans.

King Lear 1603–1606. First recorded performance: December 26, 1606. An aged king divides his kingdom among two of his daughters, Regan and Goneril, and casts the youngest, Cordelia, out of his Kingdom for disloyalty. Eventually he comes to understand that it is Regan and Goneril who are disloyal, but he has already given them the kingdom. He wanders the countryside as a poor man until Cordelia comes with her husband, the King of France, to reclaim her father's lands. Regan and Goneril are defeated, but only after Cordelia has been captured and murdered. King Lear then dies of grief.

Macbeth 1603–1606. First published in the First Folio There are "fairly clear allusions to the play in 1607." The earliest account of a performance of the play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing it at the Globe Theatre. The text of Macbeth which survives has plainly been altered by later hands. Most notable is the inclusion of two songs from Thomas Middleton's play The Witch (1615), Macbeth, a Scottish noble, is urged by his wife to kill King Duncan in order to take the throne for himself. He covers the king's guards in blood to frame them for the deed, and is appointed King of Scotland. However, people suspect his sudden power, and he finds it necessary to commit more and more murders to maintain power, believing himself invincible so long as he is bloody. Finally, the old king's son Malcolm besieges Macbeth's castle, and Macduff slays Macbeth in armed combat.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre Either 1607–1608, or written at an earlier date and revised at that time 1609 quarto. The Venetian ambassador to England, Zorzi Giustinian, saw a play titled Pericles during his time in London, which ran from Jan. 5, 1606 to Nov. 23, 1608. As far as is known, there was no other play with the same title that was acted in this era; the logical assumption is that this must have been Shakespeare's play. Shakespeare is thought to be responsible for the main portion of the play after scene 9. The first two acts were likely written by a relatively untalented reviser or collaborator, possibly George Wilkins.

Cymbeline This play is hard to date, though a relationship with a tragicomedy that Beaumont and Fletcher wrote ca. 1609-10 tends to support this dating around 1609; though it is not clear which play preceded the other. First published in the First Folio Only one early performance is recorded with certainty, which occurred on Wednesday night of Jan. 1, 1634, at Court. Possible collaboration. The princess Imogen loves the commoner Posthumus, and marries him, but her father, king Cymbeline, disapproves of the match and exiles Posthumus. In exile, he meets the rogue Jachimo - who, to win a wager, persuades Posthumus, wrongly, that he (Jachimo) has slept with Imogen. Enraged, Posthumus orders a servant, Pisanio, to murder Imogen, but he cannot go through with his orders, and instead she finds herself befriended by the wild-living Polydore and Cadwal - who turn out to be her own brothers: Cymbeline's princes who had been stolen from his palace in their infancy. The repentant Posthumus fights alongside Polydore and Cadwal in a battle against the Romans, and following the intervention of the god Jupiter, the various truths are revealed, and everyone is reconciled.

The Two Noble Kinsmen 1613–1614. Published as a quarto in 1635. Thought to be a collaboration with John Fletcher. Shakespeare is thought to have written the following parts of this play: Act I, scenes 1-3; Act II, scene 1; Act III, scene 1; Act V, scene 1, lines 34-173, and scenes 3 and 4. Two close friends, Palamon and Arcite, are divided by their love of the same woman: Duke Theseus' sister-in-law Emelia. They are eventually forced to compete publicly for her hand, but once the bout is over, the victor dies tragically and the other marries their love.

The Winter's Tale Estimates vary widely, from 1594–1611. First published in the First Folio. In Sicilia, King Leontes becomes convinced that his wife, Hermione, is having an affair with his friend Polixenes, King of Bohemia. He has her imprisoned and sends delegates to ask an oracle if his suspicions are true. While in prison, Hermione gives birth to a girl and Leontes has it sent to Bohemia to be placed alone in the wild. When the delegates return and state that the oracle has exonerated Hermione, Leontes remains stubborn and his wife and son die. Sixteen years later, a repentant Leontes is reunited with his daughter, who is in love with the Prince of Bohemia. His wife is also later reunited with him by extraordinary means.