Revenge often follows traitorous events. Time and again the story of friend’ betrayal presents itself in various forms. The man’s friend steals his love, and more often, this is seen as a lust-filled event. Since the friend is in obvious wrong, the man seeks revenge on his head by any means he can, but he feels that for the woman, the pain of regret is vengeance fulfilled. Shakespeare portrays yet another of these tales in Hamlet. He uses poetic language and symbolism to portray a ghost’s request for revenge. First, Shakespeare introduces the traitor. The traitor, in this case, is the dead king’s brother. He holds in his hands all the keys for betrayal: friendship for his brother and lust for his brother’s wife. In describing the “…seeming-virtuous …show more content…
As many poets do, Shakespeare uses much symbolism in this monologue. For instance, the king was poisoned by his brother with a poison “That swift as quicksilver it courses through/ The natural gates and alleys of the body/ And with a sudden vigor doth posset/ And curd, like eager droppings into milk,/ The thin and wholesome blood” (25-29). This is likened unto the same way Claudius poisoned the King’s once virtuous marriage with the queen by replacing it with lust; thus, he spoils the once wholesome marriage and debunks the virtuous queen. Shakespeare shows that the marriage is as much the livelihood of the king as his own blood by likening the two. The ghost even describes himself as being “Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched,” (34). All at once all of his life is gone. Anything that ever was his life belongs to someone else. By showing that the marriage was as important to the ghost as his own blood, Shakespeare shows how important he believes the union to be. He also shows his beliefs about lust and traitorous acts when he refers to them as the poison that kills the once beautiful flower of virtuous love. However, he also shows that he believes that the union is not invincible, and that virtue is often turned toward lust in the world. He reminds readers that although virtuous love may exist, many times it is corrupted