Human Behavior In Hamlet Essay

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William Shakespeare’s tragedies have various storylines and themes but he makes similar statements within many of his plays. It is clear that Shakespeare feels that humans never are truly being themselves. Human behavior is influenced by surroundings. Most people are only ever truly being themselves when they are completely isolated. Shakespeare’s plays Hamlet, The Merchant of Venice, and A Midsummer’s Night Dream have characters that have varying behaviors. Shakespeare is commenting on how humans do not have a true identity, because they can be easily influenced by outside forces. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses Hamlet to show how behavior is determined by situations, and other people’s behavior. Hamlet portrays a different behavior in every …show more content…
Bassanio agrees to never lose the ring, but he does not fully understand what he has agreed to. Portia has positioned herself in a place of power that women in the Elizabethan era are not meant to have. Women are supposed to rely on their husbands to provide for them, and their fathers to find them a suitable husband. Although Portia seems to trust her father’s system for finding her husband, she takes control of Bassanio immediately without his or anyone else’s knowledge. Portia is an extremely cunning and intelligent women. After the wedding Bassanio and Graziano race off to save their friend Antonio. Portia tells Bassanio that she and Nerissa will live like virgins and widows while they are gone, but Portia has other plans. She and Nerissa go to Venice disguised as men. Portia ends up saving Antonio’s live by pretending to be his lawyer and telling Shylock that he can only take a pound of his flesh nothing more nothing less, only skin. Portia is finally able to show her true self, but she is disguised as a man. Portia is always acting. When Portia is with Bassanio she has to act like a clueless woman reliant on men, and when she is finally able to show the world her amazing and cunning mind she is dressed like a man. Society forces Portia to hide her mind as a woman, but when she cross-dresses everyone praises her intelligence.
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