Love And Revenge In Hamlet

Imagine you come home from college and your father is dead and your mother has married your father's brother. Would you be on the verge of insanity? Would suicide be an option? Throughout Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, The characters discover a sense of excitement and suspense. New discoveries lead to new awakenings and a constant change in consciousness. Shakespeare goes back and forth on the topics of death, love, and revenge. Hamlet is having a difficult time choosing between life or death, not only for himself, but for others as well. Discoveries such as finding out his father's ghost has appeared and new awakenings such as realizing he needs to murder to succeed in honoring his father, are points that are expanded upon throughout the play,

In the beginning of the play it is revealed that Hamlet's father has passed away and shortly after his mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle, King Claudius. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,/ Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! But two months dead—nay, not so much, not two...So excellent a king, that was to this/Hyperion to a satyr.” (1.2.129-41) It is clearly difficult for him to accept the situation and move on. Life has gotten to be a struggle for him in more ways than just his mother marrying his uncle, his father just died less than two months ago and this leads Hamlet to believe his mother never loved his father. The tension between Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet rise from scene to scene. Hamlet then discovers that the ghost of his father has appeared before the guards in which he is excited and wants to speak with him at once. “My Lord, I think I saw him yesternight./ Saw? Who?/ My Lord, the King, your father./ The King my father?... for God’s love let me hear it!” (1.2.189-95) His friend, Horatio proceeds to tell him where to go to speak with him and hamlet follows

Hamlet begins to talk to the skull and tell it to take care of Ophelia and to make her laugh. At this point Horatio would consider Hamlet a mad man. He may even question Hamlet’s consciousness. Then a preparation for Ophelia's burial set up and the funeral begins. Laertes, the brother of Ophelia, and Hamlet begin to argue about who loves Ophelia more. “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum./What wilt thou do for her?”(5.1.247-9) Tension between the two begin to accelerate as the King and Queen try to intervene and discuss the source of the tension. Hamlet goes on about how Laertes would do absolutely nothing for her but he would much more than Laertes ever could. “'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do./Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast?/Woo’t tear thyself?/Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a crocodile?/I’ll do ’t.” (5.1.252-6) The queen believes their points are invalid and Hamlet exits on a calm