Hamlet Final Assignment

Piper McCutcheon

For my Final Assignment I decided to do a mind map. It is different from most mind maps, but how I did mine was I based everything around Hamlet’s brain. I put arrows showing what I think is most likely on his mind. I related the main themes in the play Hamlet with this mind map and put the four main themes and arrows connecting them to his brain.

I chose death for one of the main themes Hamlet thinks about. Death is so significant in the play because Hamlet is a tragedy and death shapes the play into a tragedy. Also I put some characters that died in the play beside the main characters. I know that eventually everyone ends up dieing but the reason I put only certain people is because these were the people that had died or were murdered well Hamlet was still alive. I believe that seeing so many deaths helped his development as a character by accepting fate and that it is inevitable that everyone will die eventually.

Another theme I put on the mind map is love, love is again a main theme in the play Hamlet. On the mind map I put four main people he loves Ophelia, Old Hamlet, Gertrude and Horatio. Each of these characters he loves in a different way, whether it is family love, friendship, or actual love. Every one of these four characters has had an influence on Hamlet’s mind and how he thinks.

The third theme is family. Throughout the whole play he is trying to get revenge on Claudius because of what he did to his father. Hamlet is defending his father’s honor and well doing this ends up killing himself and everyone else in the process.

The fourth theme that is going on in Hamlet’s mind is Deception. Both Laertes and Claudius throughout most of the play have deceived Hamlet. This has caused Hamlet not to trust those two characters because of what they have done to him.

Also, there are words on the mind map one being Confusion, it is on the mind map because I think that in the play and in Hamlets mind at times there is a lot of confusion and inner conflict with himself. Another word is Fate, at first he has a hard time accepting fate but in the end of the play Hamlet he finally has accepted it and has grown as a character.

My mind map shows Hamlet’s mind and what I think he is thinking throughout and at the end of the play.

Word Count: 433