hamlet activity 1.2

There are two main family units in the Shakespearean play Hamlet, those being Hamlet’s family and Polonius’s family.

Hamlets family consists of Old Hamlet (deceased), Gertrude (Hamlets mother) and Claudius (Hamlet’s Uncle). Within the Hamlet family there is the crisis that exists within the family which is the murder of Old Hamlet. After the death of Old Hamlet, Claudius marries Gertrude, which causes Hamlet to feel a lack of love between his deceased father and Gertrude. Hamlet then seeks revenge and plots the murder of his uncle, Claudius. And he succeeds by poisoning Claudius with the very drink Claudius tried to poison Hamlet with.

From the point of view of Claudius, he sees Hamlet as the only thing standing in his way of being king. So he tries to get Hamlet killed. He doesn’t succeed with his plan of poisoning him, but Hamlet does die in the end.

In Polonius’s family, there exists the crisis that involves Hamlet being in love with Ophelia. Both Polonius and Laertes do not want Ophelia with Hamlet, so, Polonius informs Ophelia that she cannot see Hamlet any more. Hamlet kills Polonius which causes Laertes to seek revenge. Hamlet gets sent away, Ophelia goes insane, and Laertes plots revenge with Claudius to kill Hamlet.

In the end, they are all dead. They all got their revenge I suppose.

A stereotypical nuclear family is one that consists of a mother, a father and children. Hamlets family is a nuclear family before Old Hamlet’s murder and Claudius takes the throne. Polonius’s family could be considered a nuclear family if there was a mother described in the play. Because of a lack of mother/wife in Polonius’s family they cannot be considered a nuclear family although they are close.