In Williams Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, there are many themes. Revenge is the biggest theme in this play. The idea of Revenge plagues Hamlet and causes many tragic deaths in its wake. Hamlet who consumed by the need of revenge is the cause of all of the deaths in the play. The deaths that are directly caused by the sense of revenge is in order, Polonius, Ophellia, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet himself. Revenge is the downfall of all of the characters in the play. While there are many themes to this play, revenge is the key to what makes this play a tragedy.
The first death to make these scenes fall into place is the death of Hamlet’s father. In the opening scene we learn that the King, Hamlet’s father,
Horatio has come to the funeral of Hamlet’s father, but Hamlet states that he will be here for a wedding, “I prithee, do not mock me, fellow student./ I think it was to (see) my mother’s wedding” (Act 1.2.184-185). Hamlet is not exactly thrilled with his mother Gertrude marrying the new King, his Uncle. The scene then shifts to the scene four and five. This scene is the pentacle of the revenge theme. Hamlet sees his dead father’s ghost and learns that his father was murdered by his brother Hamlets uncle, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder./ Murder?/ Murder Most foul, as in the best it is,/ But this most foul, strange, and unnatural” (Act 1.5.31-34). After this scene between Hamlet and his dead father, the death toll will begin to
Hamlet has been pretending to be mad, and goes to his mother chambers. Hamlets mother Gertrude is upset with him for offending his stepfather/uncle. Hamlet begins to get angry and hostile towards his mother. The two of them begin to argue and out of grief and revenge the first death of the play happens. Polonius has a knack for spying on people. Polonius is hiding behind the curtain spying on Hamlet and his mother. Polonius is determined to suggest that Hamlet is mad because he is deeply in love with Ophellia. Unfortunately when Hamlets mother yells out in distress is get Polonius attention, “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?/ Help, ho!/ What ho! Help!” (Act 3.4.26-28), this alerts Hamlet that there is someone behind the curtain. Hamlet in is fit of revenge thinks that it is the King, and stabs the man through the curtain. Hamlet finds out that it was not the King, but Polonius. This death was directly involved by Hamlets mind being clouded by revenge. Hamlet is overrun in his mind with the idea of revenge for his father’s murder, his uncle, that he lashes out without knowledge and kills an innocent Polonius. This murder is the first, but it will not be the last for
In the beginning of the play, Hamlet's father comes to him as a ghost from the grave. He tells Hamlet of his uncle's betrayal of him and tells Hamlet that he must kill Claudius to set things right. Through this event, 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).
Firstly, Shakespeare demonstrates the theme of revenge in the play’s soliloquies. The first soliloquy where Hamlet seeks for revenge occurs when he discovers from his father’s ghost that Claudius murdered his father. This information triggers Hamlet to determine a plan to get vengeance. In one part of this soliloquy Hamlet declares, “With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! / Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain! / O vengeance! --” (II.ii.576-579). He wants Claudius
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
sons of these families all swore vengeance. But unfortunately, due to lack of intelligence and acting while angered and clueless, two of the three sons died. As a theme, revenge was present in all parts of the play. It is ironic that Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet all died of the same sword. Revenge was the driving force behind three of the main characters of the play, for two it led to downfall, and for the other it led to greatness. Hamlet is a great example in reminding us not to intent revenge, because it will only hurt us in the end. Instead, the best revenge is to strive for one’s personal best and reach success.
Let’s start with King Hamlet’s murder. In the beginning of the play we learn about King Hamlet’s death. Now everyone thought he was killed by a snake while he was sleeping in his garden. So
Hamlet is first tormented by the death of his father, the king of Denmark. Then he is cast into utter agony when Gertrude, the mother he loves dearly is hastily married to his uncle, Claudius. Through a ghostly revelation, Hamlet learns that his suspicions that Claudius murdered his father are true. He becomes incensed and wants to enact revenge upon the guilty party. From this point on, Hamlet struggles with his plan for revenge that conflicts with his opposite contemplative nature.
In retrospect, the concept of revenge in “Hamlet” is quite the eye-opener for those in the dark of what revenge can and will do to one's self and those around him. It is plain to see the agonizing and degenerate condition that it brings upon the body and soul. Moreover, can the disease revenge inflicts rest easily upon the mind? I think not. By no effort can a man avoid the pain and suffering associated with engaging in a personal vendetta. For a man is a flawed being, without any form of perfection within him, save the perfect condition of imperfection present in all mankind. May all the world forget its vengeful spirit as to avoid the cataclysm of such distasteful undoing.
Hamlet is still mourning his father’s, the King of Denmark, death when we meet him in the beginning of the play. A ghost visits Hamlet and reveals to him that his uncle is the one that has killed his father (Act 1 Scene 5). Hamlet then begins to act mad to confuse those among him as he
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around Hamlet’s quest to avenge his father’s murder. Claudius’ first speech as King at the beginning of Scene 2, Act 1 introduces the themes of hierarchy, incest and appearance versus reality and plays the crucial role of revealing Claudius’ character as part of the exposition. The audience is left skeptical after Horatio’s questioning of King Hamlet’s ghost in the first scene of the play. By placing Claudius’ pompous speech immediately after the frightening appearance of Hamlet’s ghost, Shakespeare contrasts the mournful atmosphere in Denmark to the fanfare at the palace and makes a statement about Claudius’ hypocrisy. Through diction, doubling and figurative language, Shakespeare reveals Claudius to be a self centered, hypocritical, manipulative and commanding politician.
The plot of Hamlet is full of twists and turns that enthrall the reader and leave audiences on the edge of their seat. Betrayal, murder, revenge, love, death, suicide, and the threat of war all culminate in this story. Each aspect would be the central theme of most tales, yet in Hamlet these topics are fleshed out in only five acts. Shakespeare’s balance of these themes is impressive, and the intermingle very well. They connect with each other, Polonius’s betrayal and murder begin the story’s revenge plot and the threat of war. Ophelia and Hamlet’s romance relates to unrequited love and suicide. Death is a constant throughout the story, from the murder of King Hamlet in the beginning to the bloody ending. Death and revenge are the prime themes
Revenge almost always has the makings of an intriguing and tragic story. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of how revenge unfolds and what it unveils. The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother soon after his father’s death. Hamlet greatly disapproves of the hasty marriage and suspects foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and tells him that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet’s father asks him to take revenge upon Claudius, and soon everything takes a drastic change. The courses of revenge throughout Hamlet surround each character with corruption, obsession, and fatality.
Revenge is a major theme throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. This theme provides motivation for characters to murder each other throughout the play, whether or not characters seek revenge for themselves. Because Laertes and Hamlet are so absorbed with wanting to exact revenge upon certain people, they ultimately cause the deaths of all of the main characters in the play. Revenge is the main root of evil in this play.
Old Hamlet is killed by his brother Claudius. Only two months after her husband’s death a vulnerable Gertrude marries her husband’s brother Claudius. Gertrude’s weakness opens the door for Claudius to take the throne as the king of Denmark. Hamlet is outraged by this, he loses respect for his mother as he feels that she has rejected him and has taken no time to mourn her own husband’s death. One night old Hamlets ghost appears to prince Hamlet and tells him how he was poisoned by his own brother. Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
Like all Shakespearean tragedies, Hamlet’s ending is no different in end-result. Hamlet’s separation from society and his self-imposed confusion caused by over-thinking results in the unnecessary deaths of most of the major characters. In turn, Hamlet’s pre-occupation with factors inessential to his mission of revenge slows down his action. It is this internal struggle that illustrates the intensity and complexity of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy, something that is often looked at from a psychological perspective.