As defined by the Oxford dictionary, revenge is “the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands”. It is based on the principle of an eye for an eye, but it also causes one to act blindly through rage, rather than through reason. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes all seek to avenge the deaths of their fathers, leading to the deaths of two of them because they were so clouded by emotion. Hamlet seeks to kill the newly crowned King Claudius because he murdered King Hamlet, his brother and Hamlet’s father, by poison: "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown". Prince Fortinbras of Norway wants to conquer Denmark for his father, King Fortinbras, died by the sword of King Hamlet, "…our valiant Hamlet-for so this side of our known world esteem'd him-did slay this Fortinbras", who then acquired the dead king’s land. Finally, Laertes wants Hamlet’s head for killing his father, Polonius, while he was spying on a conversation between Hamlet and his mother:"How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!". Revenge is the driving theme of the play, and these three characters’ bloodlust is what allows for the play to further develop …show more content…
In this show, the players enact a scene in which the king is poisoned in his sleep and dies, the exact same thing that the ghost of his father said happened to him. Upon seeing this, the king is seething with rage, and storms out of the room, now aware that Hamlet knows what he did. This thickens the plot because now not only has Hamlet confirmed that his uncle killed his father but now Claudius wants Hamlet dead because he