Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, begins as an admired and noble young man. However, fate and the turn of events lead the tragic hero the depths of his fortunes. The tragedy starts with the death of the heroic King Hamlet. His brother, Claudius is the successor as King of Denmark and married the protagonist’s mother. When a ghost of the late King Hamlet appears, Hamlet’s downfall begins. The ghost explains to Hamlet that Claudius killed his father “upon my secure hour thy uncle stole with juice of cursed hebona in a vial, and in the porches of my ears did pour the leperous distilment, whose effect holds such an enmity with blood of man” (1001). Hamlet then feels like he must get revenge against Claudius and sets out to plot how it will happen. King Claudius senses something suspicious about Hamlet and sends for Hamlet’s two
Hamlet is as much a story of emotional conflict, paranoia, and self-doubt as it is one of revenge and tragedy. The protagonist, Prince Hamlet of Denmark, is instructed by his slain father’s ghost to enact vengeance upon his uncle Claudius, whose treacherous murder of Hamlet’s father gave way to his rise to power. Overcome by anguish and obligation to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet ultimately commits a number of killings throughout the story. However, we are not to view the character Hamlet as a sick individual, but rather one who has been victimized by his own circumstances.
This all sets the stage for Hamlet’s mental state prior to learning that he was killed by somebody in his family. These themes of death and betrayal lead into the end of the first act when Hamlet is tasked by the ghost of his father to seek revenge against Claudius for what he did. Hamlet believes that he was “born to set it right” (1.5.190). The extremes of this line reveal that Hamlet believes that the whole reason for his existence is to avenge his father. This need for revenge drives Hamlet for the rest of the play. He wants justice for his father, but he also wants to punish Claudius for his murder and marrying his mother. He gives in to human nature when he starts striving to avenge his father’s death.
When King Hamlet passes away everyone seemed to want to just forget about him and act like he never existed, including Queen Gertrude. That would explain why Hamlet really wants to get revenge on Claudius so bad. He wants his father to still have some sort of legacy and not just be thrown away like a piece of trash. Since Claudius became king he just shows his true self more and more which makes Hamlet angrier and his sense for revenge stronger.
Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare's most famous play. The play is about Prince Hamlet and his struggles with the new marriage of his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle and now stepfather, King Claudius about only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet has an encounter with his father, Old King Hamlet, in ghost form. His father accuses Claudius of killing him and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is infuriated by this news and then begins his thoughts on what to do to get revenge. Hamlet and Claudius are contrasting characters. They do share similarities, however, their profound differences are what divides them.Hamlet was portrayed as troubled, inactive, and impulsive at times. Hamlet is troubled by many things, but the main source of his problems come from the the death of his father. “Oh, 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” (Act 1, Scene 2). In this scene, Hamlet is contemplating suicide, which is caused by the death of his father and the new marriage of Gertrude and King Claudius. This scene shows the extent of how troubled Hamlet is. Even though Hamlet’s father asked him to avenge his death, Hamlet is very slow to act on this throughout the play. “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act 3, Scene 3). This scene shows King Claudius praying, while Hamlet is behind him drawing his sword but decides not to kill
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 is undeniably an epic among all plays. Shakespeare’s command of storytelling and the meticulously sculpted layers of the play add to the sheer grandeur of the life of Hamlet and the multitude of forces acting against him. The complex dialogue, the magnificent story arches, and the archetypal themes are
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
William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet relays Hamlet’s quest to avenge the murder of his father, the king of Denmark. The late King Hamlet was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who took the throne and Hamlet’s mother Gertrude for himself. Hamlet is beseeched by the ghost of his father to take vengeance upon Claudius; while he swears to do so, the prince inexplicably delays killing Claudius for months on end. Hamlet’s feeble attempt to first confirm his uncle’s guilt with a play that recounts the murder and his botched excuses for not killing Claudius when the opportunity arises serve as testimony to Hamlet’s true self. Hamlet is riddled with doubt towards the validity of the ghost and his own ability to carry out the act necessary to
The play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, surrounds the central idea of revenge and betrayal. Revenge drives the characters and determines their actions throughout the play, which results in several instances of betrayal. With revenge, the friendship and loyalty of characters are tested and conflicts are established between characters. Hamlet’s father, the king of Denmark, was helplessly poisoned by his own brother, Claudius. Hamlet, the protagonist, becomes aware of his father’s death and finds himself seeking revenge and starting a cycle of hatred. Hamlet embarks on his journey for revenge by displaying an act of craziness. Throughout the play, there were several moments where Hamlet’s actions caused confusion and made it difficult for
When Hamlet’s father, the late king of Denmark, comes to him as a ghost and reveals he died at the hands of his brother, Claudius, he demands Hamlet “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.4.23-25). Without hesitation, Hamlet agrees to avenge his father’s death, saying, “Haste me to know’t, that I with wings as swift / as meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge” (1.5.29-31). He decides the proper form of justice is to kill Claudius, just as the king killed his own brother, though he has his own motives. Hamlet loathes Claudius for marrying his mother, and learning King Hamlet died at the hands of Claudius only provokes Hamlet more. As the play continues, Hamlet plots his revenge, and he deceives everyone with his apparent insanity. Hamlet eventually succeeds in his search for vengeance and justice, though it kills him as well. He
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…
Travis Webb English-113 12:30 Mrs. Miniel 6 August 2015 A Tragedy full of Revenge The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, also known as Hamlet, is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare somewhere between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play stages the revenge Prince Hamlet is instructed to enact on his uncle Claudius. Claudius had murdered his own brother King Hamlet and later seized the throne, marrying Hamlet’s widowed mother, Gertrude. Hamlet is Shakespeare 's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in English literature, with a story capable of "endless productions and dramatizations." The play has arguably been one of Shakespeare 's most popular works during his lifetime. It is based on the principle of an eye for an eye; this principal is not always the best reaction for most situations. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras were all looking to avenge the death of their fathers. All of which acted on principal of emotion driven by the desire for revenge for their father 's deaths, and this led to the collapse of two, and the upcoming to power of one. Since the leaders of the three major clans were each offed, the eldest of these three families felt that they needed to take some kind of reaction to avenge their father 's deaths; this need to bring honor to the respective families of whom they belong, was what ultimately lead to the “death” of Laertes and Hamlet.
Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, is faced with the emotional trauma of the realization that his father, King Hamlet Sr., was brutally murdered by his beloved Uncle, Claudius. With Hamlet acknowledging the sin of his Uncle, he must decided to avenge his father’s death or to justify his uncle’s past actions. While doing so, he undergoes a shift from his original state of reluctance to act. Shakespeare utilizes internal conflict through various literary techniques to establish a shift in Hamlet’s character motive.
Traditional revenge tragedy is when a “protagonist is seeking revenge”. In this case the protagonist is Hamlet and he is seeking to get revenge on his Uncle/ stepfather Claudius who took the life of the king ( Hamlet's father) and married his mother to take over