Motive Of Revenge In Hamlet

Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).

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”.

A ghost appears and says he is Hamlet’s father. The ghost says he was murdered, and wants Hamlet to get revenge on who is responsible for his death. Hamlet is hesitant because he doesn’t know if the ghost is telling the truth. Hamlet must find out the truth and deal with his actions along the way. The ghost has a very impactful and important role in the play, and is the driving point in the play.

In his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare frequently utilizes the word “revenge” and images associated with this word in order to illustrate the idea that the pursuit of revenge has caused the downfall of many people. He builds up the idea that revenge causes people to act recklessly through anger rather than reason. In Hamlet, Fortinbras, Laertes and Hamlet all seek to avenge the deaths of their fathers. Hamlet and Laertes manage to avenge their father’s deaths and in doing so, both rely more on their emotions rather than their reasoning, which eventually leads to their downfalls at the end of Hamlet.

Revenge. It’s all Hamlet wants when it comes to avenging the death of his father who he knows was brutally murdered by the current king, his uncle, King Claudius. With so much rage built up inside him, it seems to drive him to madness trying to get revenge on his uncle. Throughout the novel this need for vengeance leads Hamlet to do things not so moral as it has led him to insanity hurting others around him in the process. This idea of others getting hurt in the process is also present in today's world as people are always seeking revenge on those who’ve affected them negatively in the past. The need for revenge leads people to madness as the hurt other people in the process while trying to do so.

Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, portrays a recurring theme of revenge. As we know, revenge without a brain can be extremely detrimental, it can turn a person inside out--making them act irrational and do the unthinkable. However, in times of trouble, Hamlet uses his scholarly characteristics of reasoning and logic that he has obtained from Wittenberg University to actively think through situations first, then proceed with his vengeance. Hamlet’s vengeance stems from Claudius for marrying his mother shortly after the death of his father. In Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Hamlet’s twofold mindset of scholar and warrior both contribute to his decisions; one cannot survive without the other to obtain justice.

Shakespeare develops the theme of revenge through Hamlet's progressing urge and action put forward to kill Claudius. Hamlet regards his inability to avenge his father’s death as discomforting, for instance, “Excitements for my reason and my blood, And let all sleep, while to my shame I see” (Shakespeare 4.4.61-62). Hamlet indicates that he is in shame for not being able to act upon his desire to take revenge for his father. The passage is significant as it shows that the death of Hamlet’s father and Hamlet’s lack of action is infuriating to him, remembered as a bad conscience. Furthermore, Hamlet portrays his preparation or readiness for Claudius's murder, for example, "The point envenomed too! Then, venom, to thy work…Thou incestuous {murd'rous,}

In this case, Hamlet is obsessed with yet unable to act out his revenge since he is a man of thought and reflection, not of action and impulsiveness. "Revenge, said Francis Bacon in his essay on the subject, is a kind of wild justice, and something in Hamlet is too civilized for stealthy murder," says Northrop Frye (Frye). While he knows it is his duty to avenge his father's murder, Hamlet's desire to fulfill this obligation constantly wavers. In self-pity he cries, "O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!" (1.5. 188-189), and yet in rage he utters, "Now could I drink hot blood / and do such bitter business as the day / Would quake to loot on," (3.2. 397-399). Hamlet hesitates numerous times to fulfill his duty to avenge his father, and in the end he must actually convince himself to kill Claudius. "... I do not know / Why yet I live to say 'This thing's to do', / Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means / To do't... / ... / O, from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!" (4.4. 43-46, 65-66). This unusual flaw leads to Hamlet's inevitable demise, and is the most convincing evidence that Hamlet is, indeed, a tragedy. The protagonist, however, is not the only character in the play that experiences a want for revenge. Shakespeare uses all three of the sons seeking vengeance to reveal the complexity of the human yearning for

What is Revenge? Is it right? Is it worth sinning? Is revenge the right thing to do? There are too many questions to be asked when planning revenge or thinking about revenge and those were the exact questions that were asked in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet that took place in the 1600s. According to Merriam Webster, Revenge is the act of inflicting hurt on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands, and in Hamlet’s case, revenge was mandatory because of a promise he made to his murdered father’s ghost. Even though Hamlet was honoring his father and doing what the ghost of his father told him to do, revenge, in a biblical sense, would have been a sin. However, seeking revenge out of family code of honor gave Hamlet moral justification in breaking the tradition of the Elizabethan Orthodoxy.

Revenge is shown throughout Shakespeare's play Hamlet, leaving the destruction of human relationships in its wake. The act of vengeance is usually a violent act against someone as a result of something they directly or indirectly did. This can be seen in The Tragedy of Hamlet; Prince of Denmark with Hamlet’s plan to murder Claudius for the death of his father, King Hamlet, and Laertes’ similar plan to murder Hamlet for the death of his father, Polonius. When someone is attempting to seek retribution against someone else, it results in that person deceiving the people they love to further progress their intentions. Because of revenge, ones suffering increases due to the continuous loss of relationships with your love ones. Revenge could even put you in a situation that could risk your own life. Throughout Shakespeare's play, William Shakespeare demonstrated how revenge leads to a path of deceit and despair.

Embark on a journey of revenge, indeed Hamlet did. However, he did not count the number of graves he would need. He began his quest for vengeance in such an enraged manner that he forgot everything about what he held dear. The grieving character was lost in his sadness and the author gives a hint of what Hamlet was feeling in act 1 scene 2 when he is talking to his mother and says, "But I've got more real grief inside me that you could ever see on the surface. These black clothes are only a hint of it." When people grieve they try to make sense of what happened, why did that person have to die? why wasn't I there to see him for the last time? All of these answerless questions were haunting Hamlet and then suddenly a ghost appears and sheds some light on the why's, and so it begins; a quest to satisfy the hunger of revenge and to try to understand death.

“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.

Revenge is one of the most evident themes in The Tragedy of Hamlet. It is actually a fundamental driving forces in the play. Vengeance is necessary to several characters in Hamlet including: Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes. Respectively, they are obliged to seek vengeance in order for a father to go to heaven, to reclaim land lost by a father, and to unhold family honor. Most of the plot in the play revolves around the premise of achieving these goals.

Revenge. Revenge causes one to act blindly through anger, rather than through reason. It is based on the principle of an eye for an eye, but this principle is not always an intelligent theory to live by. Young Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet were all looking to avenge the deaths of their fathers. They all acted on emotion, and this led to the downfall of two, and the rise to power of one. Since the Heads of the three major families were each murdered, the eldest sons of these families swore vengeance, and two of the three sons died while exacting their acts of vengeance. Revenge is a major theme in the Tragedy of Hamlet.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, being one of the biggest themes in the play, at its Hamlet’s biggest goal in the play. From the very start Hamlet was out seeking revenge over his father’s death. He wanted to kill Claudius because Claudius killed his father, in an effort to become king himself. Hamlet then becomes obsessed with seeking vengeance, going so far as to fake madness in order to prove that Claudius is truly guilty for his father’s murder…