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" HOW HE AS A LEADER? " ( APA format
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" HOW HE AS A LEADER? " ( MLA format
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Hamlet "How was he as a leader?"
[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Hamlet "How was he as a leader?"
What
characteristics appear in mind when you reflect
on qualities of a leader, or any ruler for that
matter? A leader’s requirements are to
be very dependable, truthful, hard working,
fair, just, merciful and bright. Particularly
where there is a king, as in the play Hamlet,
by William Shakespeare, because a king is in
charge of the entire society. He has to keep
in mind all of his subjects as he makes tons
of judgments every day.
Hamlet demonstrated to a better leader because
throughout the play he established how smart
he was, how he considered things out before
acting, how he questions things to find the
truth and how he is a superior person than Claudius.
Hamlet possessed many qualities that would have
made him a appropriate king. First of all, his
father was the king, so he was royalty and perceptibly
had some information of what a king needed to
do. Second, he was a smart person. He considers
every action, practices for the reaction, and
also weighs the results. Hamlet questions things
from the very commencement when he asks Horatio
why he has come. Horatio replies that he has
come for Hamlet’s father’s funeral,
but Hamlet says in reply “I pray thee,
do not mock me, fellow-student; I think it was
to see my mother’s wedding”1. Horatio
then tells us that Hamlet is correct. This series
of events shows how Hamlet has a capability
to find the truth and how he questions things
to make sure they are the reality, an example
of a good leader.
This play also shows us another side of Hamlet’s
intelligence, his evenhandedness and his realization
of his bias and want for vengeance. Hamlet himself
would perhaps take any little movement by Claudius
as a admission of guilt simply because he is
angry with his father’s death and wants
reprisal so very badly. Hamlet needs to avenge
his father’s death by killing Claudius.
But Hamlet is aware of his feelings and that
is why he tells Horatio, “I prithee, when
thou sees that act a-foot, even with the very
comment of thy soul observe my uncle: if his
occulted guilt do not itself unkennel in one
speech it is a damned ghost that we have seen,
and my imaginations are as foul as Vulcan’s
stithy” 2. This is a great example of
Hamlet knowing his boundaries, he has asked
the just and open-minded. “Hamlet baffles
the dealing of the justice of Fate, and also
the death plotted for him by his uncle. His
weapon, in both cases, is his justice, his precise
scrupulousness of mind, the niceness of mental
balance which gives to all that he says the
double-edge of wisdom. It is the faculty, translated
into the finer terms of thought, which the ghost
seeks to make real with bloodshed. Justice,
in her grosser as in her finer form, is concerned
with the finding of the truth.”3
Even when Hamlet talks to the ghost and finds
out that his father was assassinated by the
one that now holds the crown, Claudius, he questions
that to be sure that it wasn’t a deception
or that the ghost wasn’t lying. Hamlet
says later in the play, “The spirit that
I have seen may be the devil; and the devil
hath power to assume a pleasing shape; yea,
and perhaps out of my weakness and my melancholy,
as he is very potent with such spirits, abuses
me to damn me”4. Hamlet is really saying
I cannot totally consider this ghost even though
it may look like my father, I must find out
for myself. This absolutely questioning approach,
which may seem stupid but is actually a very
good thing, demonstrates distinction of a good
leader.
In Hamlet’s situation, the fact that he
had a opportunity to murder Claudius but didn’t,
could be envisioned as a colossal mistake and
the climax of the play. If Hamlet had been able
to decide about the murder of his uncle there,
instead of delaying until later on in the play
in which eventually everybody that is most of
the main characters would have died, the entire
play would have concluded before it really had
started. Therefore, that would have been the
climax of the play and no one else would have
died. “Now might I do it pat, now he is
praying: and now I’ll do’t. And
so ‘a goes to heaven; and so am I reveng’d.
That would be scann’d: a villain kills
my father; and for that, I, his sole son, do
this same villain send to heave. Why, this is
hire and salary, not revenge.” 5
But Hamlet, true to his character, was incapable
to make that decision worrying his Uncle passing
away to Heaven instead of Hell where he believed
he ought to be. “While Hamlet is continuously
conflicted about the issues of death and the
afterlife, morality, and violent retribution
throughout the play, the ghost of his father
sees the situation as nothing more than a case
of crime deserving punishment, a concept so
simple yet effective that the constantly philosophical
Hamlet cannot fully grasp it and is ultimately
destroyed by it.”6 The occasion where
Hamlet is making up his mind between murdering
his uncle/father or not murdering him is not
the only time he was indecisive. Even, in the
final scene of the first act, Hamlet demonstrates
his deathly imperfection. “Angels and
ministers of grace defend us! Be thou a spirit
of health or goblin damm’d, bring with
thee airs from heave or blasts from hell, be
thy intents wicked or charitable, thou com’st
in such a questionable shape that I will speak
to thee: I’ll call thee Hamlet, King,
Father, royal Dane: O, answer me!” 7
Endnotes
1.
Shakespeare, William: Hamlet: Oxford Univ. Press.
First published: London, 1603 (first quarto)
and 1623 (firstfolio). Act I, Scene 2
2. Shakespeare, William: Hamlet: Oxford Univ.
Press. First published: London, 1603 (first
quarto) and 1623 (firstfolio). Act III, Scene
2)
3. Masefield, John. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Shakespeare. New York: Holt, 1911
4. Shakespeare, William: Hamlet: Oxford Univ.
Press. First published: London, 1603 (first
quarto) and 1623 (firstfolio) Act II, Scene
2
5. Shakespeare, William: Hamlet: Oxford Univ.
Press. First published: London, 1603 (first
quarto) and 1623 (firstfolio) Act III, Scene
IV, 73-79
6. Stevenson, Tommy: Haunted: Hamlet's Relationship
With His Dead Father. March 24, 2002
7. Shakespeare, William: Hamlet: Oxford Univ.
Press. First published: London, 1603 (first
quarto) and 1623 (firstfolio) Act I, Scene IV)
