Hamlet Is Upset for Two Reasons What Are They: Explained

Shakespeare’s Hamlet opens with a prince who has every reason to be miserable — but audiences and students often ask: Hamlet is upset for two reasons, what are they? The quick answer is that he is grieving two losses at once. First, his father, King Hamlet, has just died. Second, his mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle Claudius — the dead king’s brother — only about a month after the funeral. These two facts are stated plainly in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, before he ever learns the ghost’s secret.

The First Reason: His Father’s Death

The most obvious source of Hamlet’s pain is bereavement. King Hamlet died suddenly, and Hamlet is still deep in mourning when the play begins. In his first soliloquy (Act 1, Scene 2), he wishes his “too too solid flesh would melt” rather than endure a world without his father, showing grief so heavy it becomes a death wish.

What makes it worse is the contrast between the father and the uncle who replaces him politically. Hamlet idolizes his father, comparing him to Hyperion — the sun god — while calling Claudius a “satyr,” a lustful goat-man. The Folger Shakespeare Library’s edition of the play notes that Hamlet’s grief is intensified by how quickly everyone else has moved on, leaving him isolated in his mourning.

Hamlet’s black clothing and visible sadness in the royal court scene aren’t mere performance. He tells his mother bluntly that the mourning clothes are just the outward sign — the real grief is inside and cannot be faked. That private, unshareable suffering is the foundation of everything that follows.

The Second Reason: His Mother’s Remarriage

If the death were the only wound, Hamlet might eventually heal. Instead, Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius transforms grief into something more corrosive: betrayal and disgust.

Hamlet measures the time precisely, noting that barely two months — he says “a little month” — passed between his father’s funeral and his mother’s wedding to her dead husband’s brother. In Shakespeare’s Denmark, that speed violates both mourning custom and religious law: marriage to a brother-in-law was considered incestuous by the Church of England.

This second loss poisons more than his relationship with his mother. In the same soliloquy, Hamlet generalizes: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” That bitter line isn’t a throwaway. It explains why he later turns on Ophelia, telling her to go to a nunnery and denying he ever loved her. His mother’s choice has convinced him that women are fickle and that love is fragile — a prejudice he punishes Ophelia for holding.

Hamlet’s combined grievance can be summarized tightly:

• Loss 1: His father is dead, and he alone still grieves sincerely.
• Loss 2: His mother married his uncle within roughly a month, dissolving the family he knew.
• The result: Grief curdles into melancholy, distrust, and disgust long before the ghost reveals murder.

Why These Two Reasons Matter More Than the Murder

The ghost’s revelation in Act 1, Scene 5 — that Claudius murdered King Hamlet — adds a trigger for revenge, but it doesn’t create Hamlet’s sadness. The melancholy, paralysis, and bitterness are already fully present in Act 1, Scene 2. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust describes Hamlet as one of literature’s most complex tragic figures, and much of that complexity comes from how ordinary his initial pain is: a son who lost his dad and watched his mother start a new life with someone he can’t stand.

That’s also why Hamlet is so often called a play about grief and delayed action rather than simple revenge. The two early losses explain why he hesitates, doubts, and spirals. They are the emotional fuel; the ghost is just the spark that gives his misery a target.

A Quick Worked Example

Suppose a modern equivalent: a college student’s father dies in February. By early April, the student’s mother has married the father’s brother. Before any family secret surfaces — any will, any hidden affair — the student would already feel abandoned, angry, and unable to trust either adult. Now add the later information that the uncle caused the father’s death. That layered sequence is exactly how Hamlet builds its tragedy.

Key Takeaways

• Direct answer: Hamlet is upset first because his father, King Hamlet, has died, and second because his mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle, Claudius, just about a month later.
• Both reasons appear in Hamlet’s first soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2 — before he knows about the murder.
• The quick remarriage violates mourning custom and was considered incestuous by the era’s religious standards.
• These two losses explain Hamlet’s disgust toward women, his distrust of love, and his famous hesitation later in the play.
• The ghost’s confession adds a motive for revenge, but it is not the cause of Hamlet’s core misery — the grief and betrayal come first.