Hamlet and Structural Functionalism Essay

In the famous play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, family takes an enormous part in the failure in the main character, Hamlet. What is interesting about his family dynamic and the way his family affects Hamlet’s actions, is that it directly correlates to Emile Durkheim’s theory on structural functionalism. It is a theory that studies our social structure and culture, and how they work together and affect us. Durkheim suggests that our social system is made up of a bunch of different parts and when one of these components gets taken away, we suffer and go into normlessness- which Durkheim refers to as anomie. Anomie is an indication of a loss of our sense of values and rules of conduct, creating problems. In relation to the play Hamlet, we can establish a connection between structural functionalism and Hamlet’s family through the losses he encounters throughout the book. While dealing with the death and re-appearance of his father, his uncle’s deceit and his mother’s betrayal, he finds himself falling into anomie while overthinking, and becoming mad in result of his loneliness. In the beginning of the play Hamlet, we are promptly made aware of Hamlet’s family situation and what has recently happened with his father, Old Hamlet. When a child is born, the parent of the same sex as the child will usually be the one they feel the biggest connection with. There’s a feeling of common understanding, and when one gets that individual taken away it truly is devastating. That is how it was for Hamlet. We get to see the gravity of his father’s death destroying his optimism, when he’s talking to Claudius and tells him that people can act sad, but he has real grief beneath the clothes that he wears. â€Å"Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed â€Å"seem,† For they are actions that a man might play. But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.† (1, 2, 83). Two scenes later, we are showed how the death of his father affects his mental state. When Horatio and Hamlet lay eyes on the ghost in scene 4, Horatio begs Hamlet not to follow him. â€Å"What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff That beetles o’er his base into the sea, †¦Ã¢â‚¬  (1, 4, 72). Hamlet answers him with a shocking comeback and follows the mysterious figure into the mist. â€Å"Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life in a pin’s fee, And for my soul—what can it do to that, Being a thing immortal as itself? It waves me forth again. I’ll follow it.† (1, 4, 67) This quote reveals Hamlet’s opinion on his self-worth. He explains to Horatio that he does not value his life. If Hamlet’s father had not died, and he had not been so fragile and in such grief, there would have been a significant difference in the way that he handled the situation. His father’s death, r ight from the beginning of the play, started affecting his sense of values and rules of conduct- leaving him in a state of normlessness. This is what spun the chaos of Hamlet into action, starting Hamlet out on his path to self-destruction, eventually to the point where his death is the result of his own medalling. In the words of a man who lived long ago, â€Å"what we fear, we create.† After the death of his father Hamlet continues to mourn the loss, as one would usually do if their parent were to decease. Oddly enough, his own mother and lest we forget; the recent wife of his father, says to him: â€Å"Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know’st ’tis common; all that lives must die,   Passing through nature to eternity.† (1.2.2) This is shocking because normally, if one’s spouse has passed away they would experience some sort of great grief, however Gertrude takes little discomfort in the matter and in the quote above, tells him not to fret, for everybody must die at some point. To this, Hamlet says to himself, â€Å"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: [†¦]† (1.2.151). Clearly her insensitiveness and incentive to quickly re-marry angers Hamlet. How could she not mourn the death of her own husband, and re-marry his brother almost right after? Hamlet demonstrates great disgust for his mother and accuses her of incest. â€Å"She [Gertrude] married. O, most wicked speed, to post. With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not nor it cannot come to good: But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.† (1.2.158). With the loss of his own mother, Hamlet (as would any child) starts to act out and feel a loss of control. We see this in his quote in act 1 scene 2: â€Å"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable, Seem to me all the uses of this world! (128) Here, Hamlet talks about how he wishes God had not declared suicide a sin, and how pointless life is to him now. This is huge because we get to see how the loss of his mother is affecting his sanity. He needs his mother to support and protect him, yet she is nowhere to be found. Rather, she is with the man that he needs to be protected from. This affects his sense of values and rules of conduct- leaving him in a state of normlessness. This is just another push from Gertrude to Hamlet towards his death (failure) in the end of the play. Meanwhile, Hamlet’s uncle and new step father Claudius is being a â€Å"villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!† (107) as Hamlet describes him in act 1 scene 5, because he feels that Claudius has been deceitful and betrayed his own brother. Which he in fact has. In act 3 scene 3, Claudius says he feels guilty for murdering Old Hamlet, yet he states, â€Å"That cannot be [Claudius cannot ask God to accept his apology), since I am still possessed Of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.† (56) Revealing that he knows that he cannot as for forgiveness when he is still in possession of his brother’s belongings and is not ready to let them go. This whole affair leaves Hamlet very clearly bitter and upset with him. In act 3 scene 4, Hamlet’s mother says to him, â€Å"Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.† (9) And he replies with a snarky remark claiming that Claudius is not his father at all, and that the one doing the real offending is her (Gertrude) to his father (Old Hamlet). â€Å"Mother, you have my father much offended.† (3.4.10) This quote proves to us how betrayed he feels by his uncle. Three scenes before these quotes, Hamlet presents his â€Å"to be, or not to be† soliloquy about suicide. â€Å"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.† (3.1.57) He, again, is debating whether or not he should kill himself. This validates the theory that he is losing his mind due to his uncle’s actions, and essentially the robbing of his uncle entirely as a person that he once put his trust into. It affects Hamlet’s sense of values and rules of conduct- leaving him in a state of normlessness, pushing him even more off of the edge towards failure. Hamlet’s inability to remain mentally stable throughout the play is in the fault of the unfortunate death of one parental figure, the betrayal of the other, and the people that he invested into emotionally whom ultimately took advantage of his trust. When a kid is faced with such instability it becomes ridiculously difficult for them to continue on as fully functioning, emotionally stable human beings. When the most important people in Hamlet’s life disappeared, he started to go into normlessness, like we would if we were to lose a vital component in our society, such as the government. He fell into anomie, losing his sense of values and rules of conduct, creating multiple problems within himself. We see this as he overthinks throughout the entire play. He cannot make conscious decisions, think, or function properly. In conclusion, Emile Durkheim’s theory on structural functionalism does in fact directly correlate to Hamlet’s family and their part in his f ailure.