C&A Podcast

The CNA podcast discusses the literary elements of Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The main theme is action versus inaction, represented by Hamlet's struggle to avenge his father's murder. Other characters, like Laertes, also reflect this theme. The major conflict is Hamlet's need for revenge, which takes a toll on him emotionally. He starts to see his mother differently and suspects her involvement in the murder. The protagonists related to King Hamlet's death are Hamlet himself, while the antagonists are King Claudius and Queen Gertrude. For Polonius' death, Claudius is the antagonist and Hamlet is involved as well. The podcast concludes with the devastating impact of betrayal by loved ones. How would you feel if your father was viciously murdered by your uncle, only to find out that your mother then married him? Welcome to the CNA podcast with your hosts Carly and Amy. In this podcast we indulge in numerous topics and situations. Today we will deep dive into the literary elements of the famous Shakespeare play Hamlet. In the play Hamlet, a young prince returns home from university to find out that his father has been murdered. Then he realizes that it was his own uncle who murdered his father. Even further, his mother then marries his uncle less than two months after his father's death. Throughout the play, Hamlet battles with the decision of whether or not he should get revenge for his father's tragic murder. Okay, so we'll be moving on to talk about the literary elements. So the first literary element of Hamlet that we'll be covering is the theme. There are several different themes that emerge from this play, but however, one major one that we decided to choose was action versus inaction. So describe to me how the character Hamlet represented this theme of action and inaction. Hamlet has his moments of both action and inaction throughout the play. One example of his action is when he decided to execute a play which would reveal the truth about his father's murder. Meanwhile, an example of his inaction would be when he couldn't decide whether or not he should avenge his father's murder. Hamlet was not the only character in the play who portrayed this theme. Another question for you is what other characters do you feel represent this common theme of action versus inaction? So to answer your question, I personally think that one specific character that portrayed action versus inaction was Laertes. He was the brother of Ophelia and their dad was Polonius. However, Hamlet was in love with Ophelia, so it was kind of a problem there. Laertes portrayed inaction when he learned of Hamlet's aggressive behavior towards his sister but did nothing about it. The only thing he really said was like, be careful and watch out, but he really didn't do anything. However, he did go right into action when he decided to stab Hamlet because he blamed him for the death of his dad and his sister. Action versus inaction was definitely a huge theme in the play Hamlet. Moving on to our next literary element, we will be discussing the major conflict. While there are several smaller conflicts within the play, most people would agree that the most major conflict in Hamlet is Hamlet's feeling that he must get revenge for the murder of his father. Can you describe how this conflict affected Hamlet? So the conflict of trying to decide whether or not he should avenge his father's death took a huge toll on Hamlet. When he received the news of his father's death, that had already sent him to a stage of grief, betrayal, he felt hurt by everybody. However, I think Hamlet was truly sent into a state of shock when he found out that his uncle, who is now married to his mother, probably was the person who killed his father. He was emotionally and mentally unstable and even his peers began to notice a difference in his behavior. However, I do want to touch base on that the internal battle in Hamlet's mind will not only affect how he now saw his uncle, but the question for you is who else might he have seen differently now? Because I know that this murder has caused Hamlet to view many people in his life differently. This situation led Hamlet to truly see his mother differently than he once did. Once he found out that his uncle killed his dad, everything changed for Hamlet. He began to believe that his mother might have had something to do with his dad's murder. She married her husband's brother only around a month after her husband's death. In Hamlet's eyes, that does not look right. Hamlet began to wonder if his mother ever loved his father because her main concern was getting married as soon as possible and that threw Hamlet for a loop. In my eyes, it doesn't make any sense why you would marry someone that killed your husband. Okay, so that sums up the major conflict and we'll be now moving on to the last literary element from our play. That will be protagonists and antagonists. Since there are various conflicts throughout the play, this means that there are protagonists and antagonists that are constantly occurring throughout the play. So my question is, who do you think the protagonists and antagonists are related to King Hamlet's death and why? The protagonists related to King Hamlet's death would consist of Hamlet, while the antagonists would be King Claudius and Queen Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. The reasoning is because King Claudius was the one that killed King Hamlet. Hamlet's mother also plays a part because she had to have known about the murder and she didn't do anything about it. Instead, she married a murderer. She also acted like she did nothing wrong when talking to Hamlet. She was not being helpful to Hamlet while he was trying to get over his father's death. Hamlet was the protagonist because he was the only one who was trying to do the right thing and get revenge for the murder of his father, while everyone else was just trying to cover it up. This was not the only situation in which there were protagonists and antagonists. So, who do you think are the protagonists and antagonists related to Polonius' death? The antagonist related to Polonius' death is Claudius because he was the one who came up with the plan for Polonius to spy on Hamlet while he talked with his mother. Polonius hid behind a curtain and Hamlet thought that that was King Claudius, so he stabbed him, but turns out it was actually Polonius. I wish you could say that Hamlet was also an antagonist in the situation because he is the one that technically killed Polonius, but King Claudius was behind it all. And for the protagonist side, there really wasn't a protagonist in the situation because nobody else was really involved in the situation. To wrap things up, that was our deep dive into Hamlet by Shakespeare. To answer the original question that I asked in the beginning, how would you feel if your father was viciously murdered by an uncle only to find out that your mother then married him? I would be so devastated about what just occurred. I would be shocked and betrayed by everyone. It really is the closest people in your life that you think you can trust that really end up betraying you. So, this is the end of the podcast. Thanks for checking in and listening to the CNA Podcast. See you next time.