Theme Of Revenge In Hamlet

    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. After learning of his fathers unnatural death, Hamlet decides that he can no longer trust anyone, except for Horatio. While acting out his madness, he visited Ophelia and cut off his ties with her because of his distrust for everyone. In Act III, when Hamlet talks with his mother, he notices that he is being spied upon. Thinking that it is the king, Hamlet mistakingly kills Polonius who was hiding behind a big rug, which for some medeval reason, was hung on the wall.

Hamlet ‘s initial reaction is to avenge his father, a reaction that is brought on by a sudden shock of the ghost’s confession.To prove that Hamlet has love for his father he is going to avenge his father’s death. “Haste me to know’t, that... ... middle of paper ... ...and wounds the king. Hamlet finds out that the king poisoned the drink that killed his mother. Hamlet is full of rage and runs his uncle through with the poisoned sword. Hamlet states, “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous damned Dane, drink off this potion.

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.

“Hamlet is of the faction that is wronged;/ His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy.” In the William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Hamlet struggles internally throughout. After his father, Hamlet, is killed by his uncle, Claudius, Hamlet looks to seek revenge. Claudius is now king, and married to young Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude and now holds power over the kingdom. In his plot to kill Claudius to avenge his father, Hamlet takes on insanity as part of the act. While pretending his insanity, he mistakenly kills Polonius, councillor to the king, and also drives his lover, Ophelia, to suicide.

The guards inform Prince Hamlet of his fathers ghost and he goes to see for himself the next night. The ghost tells Hamlet, that he was poisoned by his brother, Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, who is the current king and married to Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The first time the concept of revenge is brought up in Hamlet, is when the Ghost says to Hamlet that it is his duty to take revenge: "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” (1.5.7). Hamlet is already not happy with the arrangement of Claudius marrying his mother and becoming king, so this news brings Hamlet to a new state of dismay. He decides that he needs to prove whether or not there was foul play in his fathers death, so he could avenge his father in good conscious.

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.

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.

The retaliation shown by the Prince of Denmark, as well as Laertes led to the downfall of their government. In the play, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle Claudius. Claudius killed Hamlet’s dad and then married his mom to become the leader of Denmark. Later in the play, Hamlet sees his dad’s ghost and is informed of the horrific act committed by his uncle. Hamlets’ dad’s ghost says, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I. V. 25).

Summary of Hamlet Hamlet is the son of the late King Hamlet (of Denmark), who died two months before the start of the play. After King Hamlet's death, his brother, Claudius, becomes king, and marries King Hamlet's widow, Gertrude (Queen of Denmark). Young Hamlet fears that Claudius killed his own brother (Hamlet's father) to become king of Denmark, greatly angering Hamlet. Two officers, Marcellus and Barnardo, summon Hamlet's friend Horatio, and later Hamlet himself to see the late King Hamlet's ghost appear at midnight. The ghost tells Hamlet privately that Claudius had indeed murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ear.

William Shakespeare takes us through the life of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark battling through the death of his father, and seeking revenge on the man who murdered him, in his tragedy that is, Hamlet. Shakespeare creates a world fixated on life versus death that is constantly questioning the possibilities of the afterlife and comparing it to their present circumstances. As death surrounds Denmark, the idea of suicide rises and becomes a significant theme that encourages characterization and plot development throughout the play. Hamlet, distraught by the death of his father and the recent marriage of his mother, Gertrude to his uncle, Claudius, begins contemplating whether suicide is the right choice for him in his situation. Death also takes over the mind of Ophelia, a beautiful young lady who Hamlet is in love with, when her father Polonius is murdered, leading to her madness and eventual suicide.