Throughout humanity's existence, evolutionary processes have given rise to the innate human nature of seeking acceptance from others. Therefore, an individual's life consists of a persistent tug of war between conformity and individualism, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Conformity encourages us to sacrifice our personal desires in order to achieve acceptance from others, and individualism allows us to pursue our personal desires at the risk of being rejected by society. The play Hamlet presents the analogous journeys of Claudius, Hamlet and Ophelia, which highlight the struggle between the longing for acceptance and individualism. Through the crisis that all of these characters face, William Shakespeare explores the idea of ​​conformity and the choice to pursue one's personal desires, and insinuates that the strict pursuit of a single ideology breeds an extremely powerful conflict that will ultimately lead to the self-destruction of an individual. Throughout the play, Claudius faces a conflict between having dictatorial authority and doing what he wants, and listening to his kingdom in order to maintain his status. Claudius' main goal is to maintain his throne as ruler of Denmark, and he is willing to do anything to achieve his goal. However, due to the questionable circumstances that led Claudius to the throne, he is sometimes forced to temporarily sacrifice his desires in order to enhance his public appeal. At the beginning of the play, Claudius presents a speech to his courtiers, expressing his grief over the death of old Hamlet. Additionally, he shares the news of his marriage to Gertrude, the queen. By the manipulative tone he uses in the middle of the paper......udius. Hamlet wanted to justify Claudius' murder, which resulted in his lack of action for most of the play, even with all the evidence pointing to Claudius. Therefore, he hastily murdered Polonius, leading to his own downfall at the end of the play. Taken together, each character's circumstances and their response to those circumstances vividly illustrate the conflict that exists between conformity and individualism. The events of the play, including Claudius's tangle between asserting his power and listening to his nation, Hamlet's struggle between following his heart and conforming to what others reveal to him, and Ophelia's predicament between the pursuit of love and obedience of one's family all inform the ideology that the conflict between respect for personal desires and conformity can lead to an individual's demise.