Irony in HamletThis essay will discuss the issue of irony in Hamlet by addressing the problems that arise as a result of Hamlet's attempt to avenge his father's death. One of the central problems is the clash between Hamlet's overbearing need to believe in the ghost of his father, who is the authoritative figure in his life, and the awareness of not having empirical knowledge of the truth. In an attempt to achieve this knowledge, Hamlet embarks on a mixed mission of accusation, revenge and search for the truth, ultimately causing the original revenge plan to be upset when it bounces off Polonius' corpse and strikes Hamlet in the name of Laertes. Being a tragedy, Hamlet deals very heavily with anguish and frustration that does not necessarily have the means to be resolved or dissipated. Marvin Rosenberg notes in his essay "The Subtext in Shakespeare" that in tragedies there are greater uncertainties and "the mystery of the character deepens, and the subtext is more subtle, more open to varying interpretations" (82). Thus, unlike Viola, Hamlet's actions overlap motivations of greater ambiguity and these actions, as the play progresses, seemed not to be prepared to close the circle of the situation. Instead of a balance, therefore, we find a form of usurpation in which the crown of Denmark, represented by both Claudius and Hamlet, is removed and taken by a foreign prince, Fortinbras. Hamlet's desire for revenge is born as a result of the action of the ghostly apparition and his accusatory speech in which he extorts his son to "avenge his foul and unnatural murder" (1.5.25). Hamlet immediately wonders whether he should believe that the ghost is really his father's and... middle of paper... 1998.Kreiger, Elliot. "Malvolio and class ideology". Bloom (19-26).Leverenz, David. "The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View." Schwartz, Murray M. and Coppelia Kahn, eds. Representing Shakespeare: new psychoanalytic essays. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1980. Nevo, Ruth. Comic transformations in Shakespeare. London: Methuen & Co., 1980. Rosenberg, Marvin. "Subtext in Shakespeare". Thompson, Marvin and Ruth Thompson, eds. Shakespeare and the meaning of performance. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1989. (79-90). Shakespeare, William. The new Cambridge Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Filippo Edwards. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1985. Thatcher, David. Begging to differ: Modes of discrepancy in Shakespeare. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. Vickers, Brian. Appropriating Shakespeare: contemporary critical arguments. New Haven: Yale UP, 1993