At the core of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, challenging ideas concerning love and rivalry ensure that the

text remains valued and enduring because of the universality of these notions. These ideas are
explored in the themes of loyalty, family and the oppositions between characters, chiefly Hamlet
and Claudius. Through avenues such as madness, the audience can clearly discern the love - or hate
– in characters’ relationships and the way this shapes the text.

The principal rivalry in Hamlet is between Claudius and Hamlet. Hamlet’s attitude is exposed in Act 1
“A little more than kin and less than kind” which uses the pun on kin to flippantly establish an
embryonic rivalry between the two characters. This progresses through the play, spurred on by the
agent of the ghost “heaven will instinct it”, which sanctions the rivalry with a divine purpose. This
rivalry is exacerbated by the ghost and by the emotions of Hamlet, “th’church.” The idea of ‘kind’ is
reintroduced in Act 3; “lecherous, treacherous, kindles villain” Hamlet describes Claudius as.

This is a mutual rivalry for the throne and for justice respectively. However, there are many sub-
rivalries within this. There is a struggle between the honour code and the religious code in Hamlet.
Clearly, the ghost spurs Hamlet to exact his revenge but his intellect causes this rivalry to be
questioned - “how occasions do inform me and spur my dull revenge”. Furthermore, this rivalry
prompts characters to question their persona “am I a coward”. Rhetorical questions serve to explore
the nature of the characters, but Hamlet concludes “But I am pigeon livered and lack gall.” Animal
imagery is used to ironically indicate that Hamlet’s over intellectualizing is in fact necessary to
evaluate the rivalry.

The opposition between Gertrude and Hamlet is a by-product of this chief rivalry encapsulated by
“frailty thy name is woman” but refuted by Gertrude’s “love” for Hamlet, understanding that her
marriage may have seemed “overhasty” to her son. Juxtaposition encapsulates how Claudius views
his wife – “my virtue or my plague” and thus his rivalry with Hamlet is seen to infiltrate his love for
his wife and other aspects of his life.

However, there is a clear sense of love between Gertrude and Hamlet, when he rejects Claudius and
bows to his mother’s wishes in Act 1 “I shall do as you wish” and the maternal bond is evident
although affected by other rivalries throughout the play as she is driven to insanity, singing of death
in rhyming couples in order to grieve the death of her father at the hands of Hamlet. “She is
drowned, drowned” spoken by Gertrude has various meanings. Duality is seen in that Ophelia has
committed suicide and the repetition of drowned could refer to Hamlet’s suffocating sense of love
convoluted emotions imposed upon her.

Hamlet also deals extensively between the rivalry concerning the divine right of kings, the great
chain of being, and the idea of disrupting this chain, a humanist notion. “I see a cherub that sees
them” not only places Hamlet on the level of a divine being greater in the chain – but also suggests
liquidity between the levels. If this liquidity can be transferred to disrupting the king’s level, then
Hamlet’s rivalry will be concluded – “your worm is your only emperor for diet, your lean beggar and
your fat kind is but variable service.” This symbolises ideological rivalry between the rigid structure
of the Great chain and more progressive notions of choice.

There is a great internal rivalry in hamlet between the ideas of fate versus determinism, reflecting
Shakespeare’s context. At first, Hamlet claims “my fate cries out” and then later laments that “O
cursed spite that I was born to set it right”. However, these are both contradicted by the resolve “my
thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth” which suggests choice plays a part in fate. His intellectual
deliberation upon the rivalry with Claudius “thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the
pale cast of thought.” This conveys the role of the mind in dealing with worldly rivalries and also
induces the notion of determinism as central to this rivalry.

The love between Polonius and Laertes clearly shows a paternalistic relationship that involves value
teacher – “be true to thyself, therefore thy cannot be false to any other man.” However, the irony
that Polonius does not practise his preachings and his subsequent death is Shakespeare’s comment
on how the human condition convolutes the purity of even a paternal love.

A distinction is made between loyalty and love in Hamlet as, R&G regard Hamlet as a loyal friend,
but not as an object of pure platonic love. Their betrayal of him to the king clearly shows how
perceived love can be portrayed –”R&G my old friends” and then Hamlet juxtaposes this with “do
you think me so easily played as a fiddle?”

Another rivalry is seen between the supernatural and protestant (and Catholic ideas in regard
thereof). This is encapsulated in “a spirit of the health or goblin damned”. The contextual rivalry of
religious views on ghosts informs the play and a responder comprehends how uncertainty is caused
through this rivalry, causing other oppositions to flare, such as between Hamlet, Claudius and
Horatio.

Hamlet is clearly valued due to its perpetually enduring themes of love and rivalry which manifest in
the relationships but also in ideological rivalries and convictions that add dimension to the play and
driving the plot’s advancement regarding the human condition’s comprisal of love and rivalry.