Revenge in Hamlet

Hamlet- Revenge Shakespeare’s Hamlet, quite possibly the greatest and most popular play in the history of the English language, contains a plethora of themes, the most famous of which is revenge. Shakespeare weaves the concept of revenge into every act of the famous drama; from the demand of revenge by Old Hamlet in Act I to the death of Claudius at the hands of Hamlet in the final act. The tragedy reveals the story of three young men, Fortinbras, Laertes, and, of course, Hamlet, and their respective quests to avenge the deaths of their fathers. Not only is revenge a key idea in the play, it is the primary fuel that makes the drama tick. The use of the concept of revenge is what elevates Hamlet from ordinary to extraordinary. Hamlet, the title character, is the most obvious and perceptible example of a character fueled by a desire revenge. His pursuit of Claudius over the murder of his father, Claudius’s brother, guides the plot from the first to the last act. This act of fratricide enrages Hamlet and eventually causes him to go insane. The theme of revenge was first introduced into the drama at the end of Act I. The ghost of Old Hamlet demands that his son avenge his death and “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder (I:5:25)” Hamlets journey to settle the scores then goes through many different stages on his way to resolution. At first, Hamlet puts on a tremendous performance, acting crazy in order to fool his family and acquaintances. Unfortunately for him, this acting eventually becomes reality as he actually becomes a little insane. After much internal struggle over whether or not to kill his uncle, Hamlet eventually realizes that he must venture over to the wild side to murder Claudius. By the end of the fourth act Hamlet grasps exactly what he has to do. After witnessing the Norwegian army marching through the country to fight for essentially nothing, Hamlet begins to believe that, “rightly to be great is not to stir without great argument, But greatly to find quarrel in a straw When honor’s at the stake (IV:4:52-55).” In other words he is saying that you don’t need a good reason to fight, your honor is reason enough. Hamlet finishes the scene with the statement, “Oh, from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth (IV:4:64)!” This statement, foreshadowing the bloody events to come, showed just how far Hamlet was willing to go to avenge his father. Alerts and Fortinbras have much smaller rolls in the novel, yet they play large symbolic rolls. Fortinbras is mad at the country of Denmark in general for the death of his father almost three decades earlier. After Hamlet accidentally murdered Polonius, Alerts also began trying to avenge his father. All of these conflicts come to a head in the final scene of the fifth act. Alerts kills Hamlet with the poisonous tip of his sword (the same sword accidentally poked him, killing him), but not before Hamlet can finally kill Claudius. With everyone dead, Alerts strolls in and becomes the new king of Denmark. It is hard to say what Hamlet’s view on revenge is, but in my opinion he would agree with Francis Bacon that “revenge is a kind of wild justice (Bacon 1),” that should have no part in the country. He makes his opinion known by killing off two of the three characters avenging the death of their fathers. He believes that the act of revenge is a selfish deed and shows this by punishing those who tried to seek revenge for their loved ones. The success of Fortinbras however, could make the fates of the other characters void. In the end, Shakespeare’s use of revenge in the tragedy, Hamlet, is what has made the play what it is today.