Hamlet Essay

One of the themes that stands out more than any other theme in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is revenge. The instance that is most obvious, is when Hamlet seeks to make wrong things right in the murder of the king, his father. Two other characters, Fortinbras and Laertes, are also out to get revenge. All three sons wanted revenge due to a murdered father. Avenging the murder of your father, in the time of the play, was part of honor and avenging the death needed to be done. All of the sons swore that they would get vengeance, and immediately took action seeking revenge. Shakespeare shows how the rage of the characters comes out in different forms. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet all bring revenge into life, showing us the complexity

Some suggest that “Hamlet’s inward spiral begins before he ever meets the ghost.” (Calshakes 1) This is saying that death itself is what is causing Hamlet to struggle. Hamlet “questions himself and his actions throughout the play in order to make sure that his motives are morally justified.” (Vasquez 76) He then mistook Polonius, Laertes’ father, for Claudius, killing him instead. For all of Hamlet’s thinking about revenge, his paralysis by over-analysis ends up creating a whole new problem...he ends up killing the wrong man! Hamlet ends up killing Polonius, Laertes’ father instead of Claudius. For all of his considerations and pondering about gaining revenge, Hamlet overthinks the solution and ends up compounding his

But he fails to critically think about his method should something go wrong. Indeed, a poison-tipped sword is wonderful as long as it remains in his hands while he’s fighting. He in fact knicks Hamlet enough so the poison can do its work. But what should happen if somehow Hamlet might take it from him? Hamlet continues the fight, gets the poisoned foil, and stabs Laertes before he dies. In his “act first, ask questions later” approach, Laertes’ revenge gets himself killed, making his family all the more embarrassed with both he and his father dead, and him having bungled the honorable act of avenging his father’s