What Is The Theme Of Revenge In Hamlet

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William Shakespeare, author of Hamlet and many other famous plays, is the most famous English poet, playwright, and actor. His most talked about play, Hamlet, is a revenge tragedy driven by a protagonist unable to commit to the act of revenge. In the story, it is Hamlet’s inability to avenge the murder of his father that drives the plot forward and the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern all result from Hamlet’s delay. (Jamieson) The play is not ultimately concerning Hamlet’s successful vengeance for his father’s murder; instead, most of the play is concerned with Hamlet’s inner struggle to take action. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet demonstrates the main theme of revenge which is portrayed throughout the play with, soliloquies, the use of irony, and symbolism.

Shakespeare, with his use of soliloquies, makes his characters come to life and lets the audience know what is going on. He uses soliloquies to portray …show more content…

One of the biggest moment of irony that occurs in the play is when Hamlet tells actors to act out the scene of Claudius pouring poison in to King Hamlet’s ear and murdering him. We know here that Claudius is guilty of his crime because he gets up and leaves during the act. It is also ironic that everyone else thinks the play is just for entertainment, when in actuality, this was a reenactment of a scene that had occurred earlier in the actual play. An example of situational irony that occurs is in Act V, when the poisoned sword intended for Hamlet to die gets switched and Laertes dies first. Another example is in the beginning of Act I in scene ii. “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death/ The memory be green, and that it is us befitted/ To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom/ To be contracted in one brow of woe, / Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature/ That we with wisest sorrow think on him /Together with remembrance of ourselves.”

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