Forgiveness In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

As Imam Ali once said, “Forgiveness is the best revenge”. On the other hand, what if the crime at hand is far too past being excusable? While revenge is driven by a desire for retribution and justice, forgiveness is rooted in empathy, understanding, and willingness to let go of anger and resentment. However, in the spur of the moment, the level of hurt one feels influences their actions that follow next, either revenge or forgiveness. The majority of the time, their decision consists of the former. Especially in literature, forgiving the offender and not plotting revenge is not viable when the crime is too devastating and extreme for the one affected, as seen in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, and the short stories “The Spirit of Franklin

In this tragic play, Hamlet is initially seen resenting his uncle, but an unexpected event that occurred gave Hamlet an even more valid reason to loathe his uncle, Claudius. When his fathers spirit had appeared one night, Hamlet visited the place where he was last seen. Promptly after, he is told to “revenge [his father’s] foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.31). Seeing as Hamlet thought very highly of his father, there is no doubt that he would obey him and take revenge against the person who took his father’s life, especially after hearing that it was a cold-blooded and greedy murder. Hamlet spends the majority of the play feigning madness with not one intention of letting Claudius get away with his sin, as seen in act 3 when Hamlet decides that he will murder his uncle when he is “drunk asleep, or in his rage” (3.3.94) to ensure that he goes to hell, and not heaven. Hamlet notes that only then will his revenge be complete. Needless to say, summing up all of Claudius’s wrongdoingstowards Hamlet, it is evident that there is no possible way he could have forgiven his

The main protagonist, an old woman named Sadie Grimes, seeks to sell her dilapidated house for a costly price, when Waterbury, an interested buyer, comes along. With the house described poorly by Aaron Hacker, the house seller, it is unusual why Waterbury would be willing to spend so much money on it. While in the company of Waterbury, Mrs. Grimes tells us about her son, Michael, and how he had been involved in a crime after moving out of their house and to the city. He had come home after stealing money with a partner, in hopes of keeping it for himself. This compelled his partner to track Michael down, and after figuring out that Michael hid the money, he killed him. Mrs. Grimes never got wind of who the killer was, but she had a plan to find out. To prepare for a meeting with a potential house buyer, she had made lemonade for her guest. Immediately after Waterbury decided that he would buy the house, she went to fetch the drink. Shortly after, it is presented that the main reason why she had put her house up for sale wasn’t because she wanted to get rid of it, but because she knew that “someday, [her] son's killer would return to look for the money. Someday, he would want [her] house at any price. All [she] had to do was wait until [she] found the man willing to pay much too much for an old lady's house” (119). This man being spoken of is