The Importance Of Redemption In Hamlet

Redemption, is the action, regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing debt. In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, redemption is a common focus for the protagonist Hamlet, followed by Old King Fortinbras’ son, Fortinbras, and Laertes. These ambitious men embark on a quest for truth and redemption because of the loss of their father’s. In spite of the fluctuations in their quest, their journey for truth and redemption is successful because Fortinbras, Laertes and Hamlet all avenge their fathers’ deaths. Through Active Reversal, Fortinbras’ quest was successful, by Laertes’ Fear of Betrayal his quest to kill Hamlet was successful. Finally, by Hamlet controlling his psyche and destroying his core issue of

Laertes is the son of Polonius, who is mistakenly murdered by Hamlet. Laertes goes away to school in France, only to be told that his father was murdered and there was no ceremony. Subsequently, that fueled Laertes’ core issue, the fear of betrayal. He feared that Claudius killed his father because Polonius was close to Claudius; he is the King’s advisor. Laertes’ quest for redemption is to kill Hamlet. To begin, Laertes came back to Denmark to charge Claudius for his father’s death, saying, “How come he dead? I’ll not be juggled with./ To hell allegiance! Vow, to the blackest devil!” (4.5.130-131). This statement demonstrates how betrayed Laertes feel towards Claudius and the whole kingdom as he says, “To hell allegiance! Vow, to the blackest devil!”. For this reason, he is comprehensively denouncing any allegiance his family has ever had with the royal family being, that his fear of betrayal has finally come to pass. With regard to the statement made by Laertes, he goes on and declares, “... I give to negligence,/ Let come what comes - only I’ll be revenged/ most thoroughly for my father” (4.5.134-36). Moreover, Laertes’ motives are known; he is willing to travel to any extent for his father. The fear of betrayal is the troublesome feeling that loved ones and family members cannot be trusted. In Laertes’ case, Claudius and the royal family were loved ones whom they trusted tremendously, notably because his father was

With regards to the loss of his father, Hamlet lost his sense of self-worth/value. He began to question life and whether it was specifically for him as a result of his mother marrying his uncle, Claudius, in a month's time after her husband’s death.Through the visitation of Old King Hamlet’s ghost, Hamlet was able to find purpose in life which, destroy his core issue of an insecure/unstable sense. Likewise, Hamlet had the ability to control his psyche in order for his antic disposition to work; this all lead for his quest to murder Claudius to be successful. After the encounter with the Old King’s ghost, Hamlet says, “The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite,/ That ever I was born to set it right!” (1.5.188-89). As a result of the truth concerning his father’s death, Hamlet feels as though all the gruesome occurrences happened because he only, can fix them. Hamlet receives a new meaning of self-worth. As the play goes on, Claudius realizes that Hamlet has discovered the truth about the Old King and beings to repent. As Claudius repents, Hamlet feels as though it's the best time to kill him until he says: And so ’a goes to Heaven; And so am I revenged. That would be scanned. A villain kills my father; and for that, I, his son, do this same villain send To heaven (3.3.73-78) Essentially, Hamlet wanted to murder Claudius because he was the Old King’s murderer. But, after he realized that Claudius was