Hamlet - The Theme of Revenge

Notably, the ghost tells Hamlet to enact his revenge in the opening scenes of the play; he seems hesitant, as if he questions death for the first time. Hamlet wants to make sure that Claudius did in fact kill his father, so he sets up a play to re-enact the crime scene and to Hamlet’s content, Claudius disp... ... middle of paper ... ...death of him. Hamlet’s obsession and numerous contemplations about death sets himself in the undesired direction of suffering with the deaths of his father, Ophelia and Polonius, all whom he believed were undeserving. His will to continuously get himself into situations that inflict a great deal of emotional stress is astonishing, and his change in attitude about his indecisiveness about murder is not beneficial, rather it kills him in the end. Having a healthy fear of death is normal --one must realize death is unavoidable, while constant thought about death creates unhealthy anxiety.

The conflict between Hamlet and Claudius is delayed by Hamlet but does eventually occur in the last scene. Hamlet's mother has just died, Hamlet has been sliced by Laertes' poison sword, and Hamlet has just struck Laertes with a fatal blow when Laertes says that this was all brought on by Claudius. Hamlet, now realizing that there is no more time for him to delay his revenge, stabs Claudus and kills him. Revenge was the motive for the conflict between Hamlet and Claudius.     Shakespeare uses the revenge plot to create conflict between Laertes and Hamlet by having Laertes avenge his father's and sister's death which Hamlet is responsible for.

Hamlet is showing how eager he is to avenge his fathers death, and he knows to kill Claudius the new king; in the back of Hamlets mind he still wants to avenge his mother for marrying Claudius. But at the same Hamlet has doubts about what he has been told by the ghost, “the spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps, Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I 'll have grounds more relative than this. The play 's the thing wherein I 'll catch the conscience of the King” (II, II, DCXXVII- DCXXXIV). Hamlet is still having doubts on whether or not the ghost of his father is telling the truth or not, or if the ghost leaving him astray.

The first motivation, is Prince Hamlet to King Claudius to revenge his father and to find out if Claudius is guilty of killing late King Hamlet and to prove it Hamlet uses a theater play to testify his theory. The second motivation; King Claudius is against Prince Hamlet. Claudius found out that Hamlet knew he was the cause of his father’s death and is plotting against him to avenge the late King Hamlet, so now Claudius is coming up with plans to end his life without having the people of Denmark questioning Hamlet’s death. Claudius against late King Hamlet, because Claudius became jealous over his own brother and killed him making the late King Hamlet’s ghost appear to Prince Hamlet for revenge. These three motivations contain the same similarities, because they both have the same motivation to kill each other and the same outcome of death.

Therefore, he creates a play where the performers do a scene which resembles the way in which Prince Hamlet believes his father Hamlet was murdered. Claudius jumps up and leaves the room when the play gets to the point of the murder. Horatio and Prince Hamlet both believe this makes Claudius appear guilty. However, when Prince Hamlet goes to kill Claudius, he is prayin... ... middle of paper ... ...nish prince who has an uncle who murders to receive his father’s throne. A ghost of his father reveals the truth which ultimately causes many more deaths through the act of revenge.

He builds up the idea that people do harmful things through anger rather than reasoning. In the play Hamlet, the characters face emotions that lead to revenge because they are unable to cope with the death of love ones. Hamlet’s Uncle Claudius kills his father, but he has no knowledge of this. The ghost says, “I am thy father’s spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk to the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes done in my days of nature are burnt and purged away” (I.v.9-33). The ghost tells Hamlet that he is his father and that a foul crime has been committed.

The Ghost taunts Hamlet, telling him that it is part of every man’s honour to avenge his death. Hamlet then becomes a part of Denmark’s foulness and wretchedness when he agrees to avenge his father’s death. This is the beginning of a vicious cycle of hatred, death and revenge that destroys many lives. Soon after Claudius marries Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, Hamlet feigns madness as a ploy to cover up his attempts to avenge his father’s death and to bring him closer to Claudius. One of the first things Hamlet does in his attempt to prove Claudius’ guilt is to have ‘The Mousetrap’ performed in court.

The start of the unfortunate event is when the king is brutally murder. Cluadius seemed to bring curse a pawn everyone around him. By the murder of Hamlet's father he was determined to avenge his death. Hamlet now had to avenge the death of his father and end the incestuous acts between a twisted uncle and mother. "He kills Polonius by accident, hoping that in a blind thrust through ther arras he might turn out at last to have dispatched the King..."(Murray pg131) Some may think that Hamlet let his emotions take over his actions in avenging his fathers' death , but Ophelia and Laertes also lots a father and they too acted like out of control.

Revenge is defined as the action of causing hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains the central idea of revenge. In this story, the father is murdered, the mother marries the murderer, and the son is left to the duty of revenge (Barzilai 87). It is Hamlet’s duty to follow his father’s commands and get his revenge on his uncle, but multiple problems occur and lead to his death along with many others. In the beginning of the play, Hamlet has returned from Wittenberg to honor the death of his father, King Hamlet, and the ghost of his dead father suddenly confronts him.

When Hamlet encounters the ghost of his father, their conversation raises all kinds of unthinkable questions, for example murder by a brother, unfaithful mother, that triggers Hamlet's obsession. He feels compelled to determine the reliability of the ghost's statements so that he can determine how he must act. Ultimately, it is his obsession with death that leads to Hamlet avenging the death of his father by killing Claudius. In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "To be or not to be: that is the question: / whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles / and, by opposing end them.