The Importance Of Revenge In Hamlet

Hamlet has lived through plenty of ups and downs throughout his childhood. He has been lost and confused within himself, but knew he wanted one thing, which was revenge on his fathers killer, Claudius. His passion of hate developed for Claudius as he married Hamlets mother shortly after the king’s death. Hamlet could not decide on the perfect decision for himself, his mother and father as well as the best way to follow through with the best consequence for Claudius that would impress his father. His everyday life, along with his love life, left him with an empty heart, which slowed the process of the revenge down. Hamlet never expected to be captured and kidnapped by pirates, as he was sent overseas as a young man. His inside thoughts were attacking and overwhelming Him, leaving him depressed and anxious. Hamlet’s life has been leading him to negative thoughts that he cannot process or act accordingly to, due to the excessive amount of issues and options involved in his life at a young age, him being overwhelmed lead him to delaying the process of avenging his fathers killer.

Hamlet's rant to persuade her that Claudius is a bad man and the murderer of his father depicts his disrespect to his mother. For instance, he tells her, "You go not till I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you." (III.iv.20-21) He is threatening his own mother! Later, he addresses her as "thou wretched, rash, intruding fool" (III.iv.32) Even though Gertrude's lust for Claudius aggravates him, Hamlet fails to show even the most fundamental respect to his superior. The relationship is full of disloyalty and distrust from Gertrude's part. First, she appeases, "Be thou assured... I have no life to breathe what thou hast said to me." (III.iv.201-203) It is assumed that she will listen to Hamlet and stay away from Claudius. However, in the next act, she displays her true loyalty to her husband, telling him that Hamlet is "in this brainish apprehension kills / The unseen good old man." (IV.I.12-13) This is partially contributed by her observations of her son talking to a ghost that she doesn't see. Polonius' death causes her to think Hamlet is dangerous, further driving the two apart. Her distrust to her son harms him by further solidifying Claudius' plan to execute him in England because the king sees him as a threat to the throne who is capable of killing. In the end, Hamlet and Gertrude's relationship take a bittersweet ending.

In modern society humans stand up and fight for what they think is right and fair. Human beings have the desire to avenge what they think is wrong. The theme of revenge has a major effect in the play Hamlet and is a constant throughout the play, it underlies almost every scene. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge through the erratic thoughts and actions of the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras. The main revenge plots in the play is Hamlet’s aim to avenge his father, Hamlet Sr, Laertes’ aim to avenge the murder of his father, Polonius, and Fortinbras’ aim to avenge the death of his father, Fortinbras. Having lost their fathers, Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras take vengeance on the people that killed them. These plots play a major role in the play presenting the theme of revenge to the audience.

When a parent dies, you need someone to fall back on. This person helps you get through it and make you feel loved. If you do not have someone there to help you through this time, you often turn to other things like acting crazy and wanting to take your own life because you feel as if you are not loved and you want to get rid of the pain. Hamlet loved his father and his death took a big part of his life away from him. His mother, Gertrude, needed to spend time with him, to show him he was loved and someone cared about him. Gertrude was not there for Hamlet the way she should have been, and because of this he began to act like he was crazy. Instead of spending time with her son, Gertrude was busy getting married to the late Kings

Gertrude appears oblivious to the fact that Claudius killed King Hamlet to take over the crown and to have her. Her decision to marry her deceased husband’s brother had a lot of people questioning her sanity also. “The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (Shakespeare 17). Gertrude had gotten married so quick after the funeral of King Hamlet that the food from the funeral catered for the wedding. During the play that Hamlet produced to show people what Claudius had done, she was blind to the fact that it was actually Claudius that he was talking about. Due to Hamlet knowing the truth, Claudius has been trying to kill him.

The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is about a guy named Hamlet going through a hard time in life, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother to his uncle. Throughout the play were are able to get a greater understanding of who Hamlet really is. The actions of Hamlet in Shakespeare's master piece “Hamlet” proves him to a revenge seeker, emotional, and crazy.

Revenge is the great motivator of men and women alike. People are compelled to seek justice for themselves and for the ones they love and many will commit atrocities to achieve their retribution. Revenge, and its role in Hamlet, is established early in the play with the presentation of the character Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway. Fortinbras is introduced as a hot headed, merciless, and revenge obsessed man who is assembling a private army to reclaim the land that his father, the former King of Norway, died for. The theme of revenge is further established in Act I when Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is convinced by the ghost of his father, the former King of Denmark, to avenge his death by killing the man who murdered him, Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the current King of Denmark. Revenge continuously acts as a major motivating force for the actions of Hamlet and Fortinbras, and even affects Laertes, Hamlet’s old friend. When Laertes’ father is killed by Hamlet, he is convinced that he will find justice for his father by killing Hamlet. Love is the uniting force among these men, they all love their fathers and demand justice for their murder. The theme of revenge in Hamlet by Shakespeare shows how human emotion drives: Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes to commit horrendous acts in the name of “justice”.

Hamlet has been disputed for centuries. Scholars and literature enthusiast have argued over its true intent and what Shakespeare’s deeper meaning really was. Some people have viewed Hamlet with approaches such as a traditional revenge tragedy, philosophical, romantic, and more trying to understand the work. Hamlet is filled to the brim with all sorts of literary devices and abstract meanings. Throughout the play we see Hamlets heart break as he finds out that the death of his father is from the hands of his uncle who only two months later married Hamlet’s mother and took his father's throne. The reader sees how Hamlet reacts to this and how he avenges his fathers death. Under the many layers that intertwine the story of Hamlet there are deeper meanings.

Gertrude evidently becomes aware of why Hamlet is upset fairly quickly, slightly dispelling the earlier notion of cluelessness. (“I doubt it is no other but the main, his father’s is death and our o’erhasty marriage” 2.2.56-7) The disappointment and defeated tone of this line is palpable.

Hamlet is disgusted by Queen Gertrude’s marriage to King Claudius and views it as adulterous and incestuous, both being mortal sins. Although King Hamlet is dead, Hamlet sees it as if Gertrude is being unfaithful to her now deceased husband and acts like she never loved him at all. He demands that she confess her sins to save herself from, as he sees it, inevitable damnation. This is more than just being a grieving son, upset that his mother has moved on. He wants to somehow maintain a control over his own mother’s sexual purity.

“While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself”, as is what happens to those who take revenge, buried in their own unforgiveness. Francis Bacon’s idea of revenge attempts to bypass this problem of unforgiveness, with the forgiveness of the perpetrator. But not all revenge can be simply forgiven, which is the case in Hamlet; Francis Bacon also knows about this problem, but describes it in his own words with “The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then let a man take heed the revenge be such as there is no law to punish”(Francis Bacon 15). Sir Francis Bacon’s idea of revenge relates to Hamlet in how revenge is handled, the repercussions of acting in revenge, and its ability to change a person's thought process.

Hamlet and the Issue of Revenge in William Shakespeare's Play The question of why Hamlet does not immediately avenge his father's death is perhaps one of the most perplexing problems faced by an audience. Each generation of viewers has come up with it's own explanation, and it has now become the most widely known critical problem in Shakespearean studies. A rather simplistic, yet valid standpoint to take on this problem is that it was essential to the tragedy's narrative progression. As Hanmer said "had he gone naturally to work, there would have been an end to our play!".

Gertrude’s agency as a woman affects Hamlet in such an internal way, he believes it would be easier to suffer death, than to “suffer” in the mind: “To be, or not to be, that is the question: / Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The sling and arrows of outrageous fortune / Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep” (3.1.55-59). This “outrageous fortune” that Hamlet internalizes is not only the death of Old King Hamlet, or the ascension of Claudius as king, but the realization that Gertrude could have any desire for a man that isn’t Old King Hamlet. Consequently, this culmination of events leads Hamlet to the belief that is full of calamity: “and by a sleep to say we end / The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks / That flesh is heir to; ‘tis a consummation / Devoutly to be wish’d” (3.1.60-62). Furthermore, because of the consummation between Gertrude and Claudius, Hamlet responds that his desire is to consummate with

Both Gertrude and Claudius encourage Hamlet to move past his grief, as Gertrude says, “Good Hamlet, cast they color off... Do not forever with thy vailed lids seek for thy noble father in the dust” (Shakespeare, 1.2.70-73). Claudius reminds Hamlet the cycle of life dictates death, saying “But you must know that your father lost a father, that father lost, lost his. and the survivor bound in filial obligation for some term to do obsequious sorrow” (Shakespeare, 1.2.94-94). In his following soliloquy, Hamlet bemoans his mother’s marriage to Claudius, describing her actions as, “O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets” (Shakespeare, 1.2.161-162). The theme of Hamlet’s struggle between action versus inaction first arises in this scene, when he laments his inability to commit suicide, “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the Everlasting had not fixed his canon ‘gainst self-slaughter” (Shakespeare, 1.2.133-135). He would sooner die than watch his mother cavort with his uncle, but Hamlet’s religion prevents him from taking his

A forest fire starts and gradually grows uncontrollably. It consumes everything in its path. Revenge is similar to this devastation. Revenge is an act based on anger with no reasoning, and it’s not over until the act is completed. William Shakespeare, in Hamlet, built his play on this idea of an eye for an eye, which is revenge. Hamlet and Laertes are both out to avenge their fathers’ deaths. They go about it differently, but their motivation is the same. Shakespeare uses the characters Hamlet and Laertes, in their acts of revenge, show how the theme is developed throughout the play.