Hamlet Essay

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet, we see a deadly chain of events pass on from one character to another. As children, most people are taught to forgive and forget mistakes. We must not let pettiness overbear rational thoughts and to not hold grudges against one another. The necessity for revenge was the main cause of most of the fatalities among the characters in the play. Shakespeare uses the theme of revenge to showcase the inability to grant forgiveness and move on. It seems the only solution to get revenge on other characters is through a vicious cycle of murders. People such as Hamlet try to take matters into their own hands instead of turning to law enforcement to serve justice. In order for these characters to forgive each

Our main character, young Hamlet is given a task to avenge his father’s death by getting revenge on his murderer, Uncle Claudius. Hamlet’s father cannot rest in his grave and escape purgatory until Claudius is killed. Claudius wants to kill Hamlet for finding out the truth about his father’s death by conspiring with Laertes to kill him as well as hiring Rosencratz and Gilderstern to spy on him. Laertes wants to get revenge on Hamlet for killing his father Polonius therefore, he devises a plan with Claudius to kill him with a poisoned point of his sword during a scheduled fight. Hamlet appears to be the prime target behind each act of revenge and instead of forgiving them, he eradicates them from his life. In response to these attacks, Hamlet retaliated with his own acts of revenge instead of simply forgiving them. Along with avenging his father, Hamlet also murders Claudius for attempting to kill him as well. In addition to that, he also sends his good friends Rosencratz and Gilderstern to their death in England after he finds out they were paid by Claudius to spy on him. Once betrayed Hamlet realized his friend Laertes had scratched him with the poisoned tip of his sword, he became enraged and grazed his arm as well with that same sword. A majority of these deaths could have been prevented if Hamlet accepted the mistakes of others and moved on with his