Choong 1

Thomas Choong

British Literature

Mr. Maite

18 May 2001

Human Behavior: Now And Then

            Television shows such as “Survivor” show Americans and others how much greed and dishonesty there is in the world. The contestants plot against each other, and the goal is to kick everyone else off the game in order to win money. Comparisons can be made between the television shows and Hamlet: Gertrude disregarded Hamlet in her plot with Claudius to kill King Hamlet, which was outright greed. The characters in both examples sacrificed relationships for their own personal gain.

Richard from the original “Survivor” series could be related to Hamlet, because of his constant plotting against others, in order to reach his objective. Hamlet was able to avoid death when pirates took over the ship he was on that was heading for England. Richard was able to avoid getting voted off when Kelly voted off Rudy in the season finale. Richard was able to win the million dollar prize by sticking to his objective and not getting off course. Hamlet eventually does “win” by killing Claudius, but he didn’t keep his mother out of it, and didn’t keep his head that well.

            The 2000 presidential election also relates to Hamlet. Ralph Nader was Claudius, Al Gore was Hamlet, an George W. Bush was Laertes. Gore and Bush dueled for 36 days after the election, to see who would win the presidency. Bush ended up winning, but he lost the popular vote. Nader and Bush were working together in a way, because Nader was taking away votes from Gore, giving Bush an advantage. Nader was blamed for having too much of an ego and for not backing down as he promised earlier in case the election was looking to be too close to call, and many people despise him for that.

            Modern society proves that there is still the backstabbing, insanity, and greed that was portrayed in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, much of which can be seen on “reality” television shows. Obnoxious behavior existed during the Renaissance, and still exists today.