Prompt #6 - Hamlet In the Shakespeare play, Hamlet, the main character, Hamlet, decides to get justice for his father’s murder. However, his view of justice may be a little distorted from most people’s idea. Though he does succeed in getting this justice in the end. He takes it upon himself to be judge, jury, and executioner in his quest for justice. Hamlet’s quest for justice begins when the ghost of his father comes and tells him how he truly died. Originally, everyone thought he was bitten by a snake, but the truth of the matter is that he was murdered by his brother. Hamlet’s father’s ghost told him to kill his brother, Claudius, and so he listened. Once Hamlet is told this by the ghost, he decides he must first find out for himself. So Hamlet pretends to be crazy for quite a while, until he can get the justice he seeks. However, the justice he desires is more like revenge. In most cases, justice is seen more as getting the person who committed the crime sent to prison, but Hamlet views the whole situation differently. He’s decided that the crime committed by Claudius is worthy of death, and he wishes to be the one who kills Claudius himself. To Hamlet, that is justice. …show more content…
His plan for achieving his justice added many, many additions to the play that may not have been there had he not chose to go about it the way he had. For example, Hamlet’s main point of his plan was to pretend to be insane. Doing this, he cut off ties to the one he loved, Ophelia, and caused the King’s aid, Polonius, to become very curious. Polonius’ curiosity and overall nosiness gets him killed by Hamlet. Polonius was also Ophelia’s father, so his death drove her mad. Unlike Hamlet, however, she was actually crazy, and ended up drowning due to her cluelessness. Many things were effected by Hamlet’s search for justice, and the play would have been entirely different had he gone about it in any other