“Now, Hamlet, hear: ‘Tis given out that, sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me so the whole ear of Denmark, Is by a forged process of my death, Rankly abused: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life, Now wears his crown” (Shakespeare 1744). Interestingly, at no point in this initial exchange between father and son does the elder Hamlet ask his son if he might be agreeable to the challenge. At the beginning of the play, Hamlet receives the dictum of action from the ghost of his father, demanding revenge against his treacherous brother, Claudius, with a decidedly passive aggressive manipulative tactic: “List, list, O, list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love – …Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 1744). His case begs particularly close scrutiny when we consider that the elder Hamlet has passed away. Nonetheless, this essay examines the core action Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras share in Hamlet: the absolute subjugation of their own personal ambitions and desires to paternal rule. In the case of Hamlet, he surrenders his own life and future to the will of his father, albeit following significant hesitation, not to mention the passage of an entire play. These boy-men adopt their fathers’ arguments, vendettas, and wars as their own, and seemingly guide their actions entirely by paternal approval.
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