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Cruelty In Hamlet

692 Words3 Pages

Revenge comes in all types of cruel, menacing actions. Hamlet’s theme is surrounded by cruelty and the cruelty progresses the play throughout. During the play the main perpetrator is King Claudius and the victim that is affected through most of his actions is Hamlet. Cruelty functions in the work two ways, it causes a chain reaction full of conflict and it helps develop a greater theme inside of the work. Hamlet is a tragic play that combines revenge with cruelty to develop a timeline of barbaric events that result in utter disaster. All events that take place in the play resulted from one single choice made by King Claudius. He chooses to poison his brother, the former king, so he is able to marry the Queen and become a part of royalty. This cruel and despicable action results in six different deaths that could have been avoided if he had not taken action. Not only does he cause this chain reaction of deaths, his cruelty spreads like a rampant disease throughout the kingdom. This causes Hamlet to be fixated upon his uncle's death because of what he did to his father. The cruelty takes over …show more content…

In Hamlet you have themes of madness and revenge. These themes arise because of all the bloodshed and hatred but what causes the bloodshed and hatred? Cruelty. The theme is based on the cruel nature of humans and how selfish a nation has become. A lot of this chaos comes from the family, a group of people who should love each other and take care of each other. In this play the exact opposite takes place. The theme is made greater because of the family environment surrounding Hamlet. This aspect heightens the theme and deepens the meaning revenge. It is not like Claudius killed a monstrous villain at the throne, he killed his own blood. This really speaks about how corrupt our families, nation, and government has become. The theme is not the same without knowing the full details regarding relationships in the

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