Doubts in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Abstract

This research paper revolves around the theme of doubts in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for doubts pervade through the entire play and are a significant yet witty beginning to trigger the action that results in the tragic end of the play. It is not only the doubts of the protagonist Hamlet, concerning the crimes of his uncle Claudius who had already usurped the throne after the death of King Hamlet, his brother, but also Claudius appears to be skeptical about Hamlet as to whether the latter doubts his crimes or not, not to mention the doubts of Polonius, the King’s Chamberlain, about Hamlet's behavior. To add, Polonius also doubts the behavior of Laertes, his son. Even a minor character such as the character Marcellus, one of the royal guards, doubts the political situation of Elsinore when he says to Horatio after seeing the Ghost of the late king Hamlet the following: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (Hamlet, Act I, Scene iv), which shows the character’s belief that the appearance of the Ghost is ominous of something that had gone terribly wrong and that something would affect the moral and political situation of the state. Because of his doubts, Polonius has already employed spies to keep an eye on Hamlet and Laertes. This atmosphere blurred by doubts may point to Shakespeare's skill in handling one of the most important ingredients of the dramatic setting—the psychological and emotional setting. This does not only allow the dramatist to draw the main lines of his drama, but it also gives rise to the spectators’ curiosity to trace and expect whatsoever significant happenings to be contained in the entire action of the play. The presence of doubts means the presence of cloudy awareness of certain situations and the need to trigger the action of the play into a particular course of developments contributing to the dramatic purpose planned by the dramatist, for doubts in drama and otherwise requires verifications. More importantly, doubts significantly contribute to building the canvas of the structure of the play in that they function as linking elements to push the action a step after another towards the resolution designed by the dramatist to serve his purpose in producing a well-knit structure of the tragedy.