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Vengeance In Hamlet

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There are a few major themes shown throughout the script in the play Hamlet. These themes build off of each other and have a good representation of how the actions of others have consequences that affect everyone. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the characters develop and grow with a craving for revenge, love, hatred, sin, and moral corruption. If there are two main lessons to be taught in Hamlet, it would be that vengeance creates tension that leads to self destruction and sinning destroys all innocence within us.
The story of Hamlet revolves around revenge and how obsession with revenge corrupts the royal family. There are multiple instances where revenge has negative long term effects on the characters. One example of this is when the ghost told …show more content…

The original plan of Claudius sending Hamlet to England to get beheaded backfired on Claudius and caused Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to die instead. The quote in act 4 scene 7, “then I’ll trick him into an undertaking, which I’m working out now, that’s sure to kill him. When he dies, no one will be blamed, even his mother will call it an accident.” proves Hamlet’s intentions. Revenge in this story causes each negative event to happen, and the conflicts continue to get worse each time another character seeks …show more content…

Hamlet talks about how much he loved Ophelia, but it could potentially be inferred that she killed herself to prevent Hamlet from loving her any longer. The quote in act 5 scene 1 conveys sincere feelings from both Hamlet and Laertes towards Ophelia. The quote “Damn it, show me what you’re going to do for her. Will you cry? Fight? Stop eating? Cut yourself? Drink vinegar? Eat a crocodile? I’ll do all that. Did you come here to whine? To outdo me by jumping into her grave so theatrically? To be buried alive with her? So will I.” proves Hamlets aggression towards Laertes. Hamlets aggression may stem from his passion and feelings towards Ophelia. This can cause Ophelia to feel extremely pressured by both these important people in her life. Since Hamlet is so incredibly against sin and continues to gain hostility against Laertes, and Ophelia was pressured by all the men in her life, she could have used suicide as an escape from them all, choosing sin over life and love. If Ophelia truly loved Hamlet, it can be confusing why she would kill herself, but perhaps it was revenge on Hamlet for murdering her

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520 Words | 3 Pages

Laertes complains to the priests to perform a full service for his sister. Suddenly Laertes jumps into Ophelia’s grave and exclaims that he wants to be buried next to her. Hamlet jumps in too and insults Laertes saying that he doesn’t love her as much as he does. They fight each other and are pulled apart. At the end of this scene, Claudius reminds Laertes about their plan to murder Hamlet.

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798 Words | 4 Pages

Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being.

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1906 Words | 8 Pages

Hamlet could have caused Ophelia emotional agony due to their relationship ending or from killing her beloved father, which leads her to the action of killing Ledford 4 herself. Hamlet seems to be very complex and he may not be as deranged as Shakespeare makes everyone in the play to think he is. When readers think into detail about the way he could have possibly “mentally killed,” Ophelia or directed her to this spot in her life, we realize he is actually quite smart if it is part of his use of violence to seek revenge. Shakespeare constructs Hamlet to be a character that everyone can love and feel sorry for at times because we as readers can relate to him in some aspects.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

Laertes believes Hamlet is to blame not only for his father’s death, but also for Ophelia’s death because the death of her father is ultimately what drove her to killing herself. Once Laertes returns, he asks King Claudius who is responsible for the death of his father and is informed that Hamlet is the one to blame. Ophelia enters and reveals to everyone that she has gone crazy and ends up killing herself. Hamlet returns to Denmark and is surprised to find out that Ophelia has died. Laertes and Hamlet start fighting at her burial service and Hamlet says he wants to be

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1361 Words | 6 Pages

As Shakespearean scholar A. C. Bradley (2010) explained, this course would foreseeably raise the question of the defendant’s own behavior at the play. Though this may have been advantageous for the king, it was the opposite for Ophelia. With her brother Laertes at college, her father dead, and her companion across the sea, Ophelia had nobody to support her amid such immense suffering. Moreover, Ophelia could not ask Hamlet about his alleged involvement in the murder. This grueling uncertainty served the final blow that drove her to take her own life.

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1124 Words | 5 Pages

In the play, “Hamlet”, revenge is shown as the device that moves the plot along and revenge is what helps develop the plot. Near the beginning of the story, Hamlet meets the

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287 Words | 2 Pages

I believe that Ophelia’s act was that of despair. Ophelia suffered a great deal of emotional trauma throughout the course of the play. The man she loves viciously rejects her before leaving Denmark, which leaves her feeling betrayed and heavy-hearted. Not only this but, Hamlet is believed to have gone insane and was the one who took her father’s life. With all of this going on, her brother and confidant, Laertes is off in England.

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

While some might think that Hamlet felt violence and bitterness throughout the entire play, Hamlet develops emotionally and mentally as a character, allowing him to become a better person than who he was at the start. Throughout Hamlet’s journey, emotions such as violence, fear, and anger drive his motives; he keeps portraying his actions as just, when in reality, it is pure revenge. Young people often let their emotions blind their true sense of justice and revenge. Hamlet develops as a character throughout the play and eventually becomes a good man. Act 1, scene 5 in Hamlet describes how the Ghost of King Hamlet states a mysterious command to his son which states, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder”(pg23).

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937 Words | 4 Pages

Her death was doubtful” (5.1.234). Queen Gertrude says this to Laertes to let him know of the news about Ophelia. Ophelia ends up going insane and committing suicide from the way Hamlet uses her and the harmful love he provides

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766 Words | 4 Pages

Like in Lickerman’s article, Ophelia committed suicide to run away from what she was going through. She lost her father and was grieving. That grieving over took her life and she decided that it was better off not to live. Although hamlet did seem depressed some people may argue that he was psychotic due to the ghost he apparently saw. The ghost of his father and was told by him to get revenge on the one person he .

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873 Words | 4 Pages

When Hamlet meets with the ghost King Hamlet in the opening scene, he realizes that his father is murdered by Claudius. From Act I scene 5, the ghost King Hamlet is asking Hamlet to seek for revenge, “So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear” (1.5.12). By knowing this, Hamlet starts the revenge for his father and sets the tone of the entire play where death, revenge, murder, and suicide become the symbols of the whole play, and leads to the deaths of almost all the characters, including Claudius, Laertes, Polonius, Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Hamlet himself. Also, because of his father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage with Claudius, Hamlet has the idea of committing suicide. From Act I scene 2, "O, that this too sullied flesh would melt,Thaw, and resolve itself to dew" (1.2.133-134).

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745 Words | 3 Pages

Ophelia’s death results from Hamlet's madness, his telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, and Polonius's death. Hamlet telling Ophelia to go to a nunnery made Ophelia feel insecure. Especially when Hamlet told Ophelia that he would marry her just so she would sleep with him. Then, Hamlet comes back to Ophelia telling her that she needs to go to a nunnery. Which is basically calling Ophelia a whore, because a nunnery is like a whorehouse. Ophelia at this point felt very insecure about herself and she questioned her relationship with Hamlet.

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518 Words | 3 Pages

By doing this she leaves Laertes all alone in the world. When Hamlet returns from England to hear this news he is petrified. He becomes angry with Laertes for grieving too much and in return Laertes is angry at Hamlet because he thinks this is all his fault. The two gramble at each other. This leading to the last act of cruelty.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

Revenge is the desire to inflict harm on one who has wronged someone else. In many cases, revenge is motivated by a desire to make a person receive payback for their wrongdoings. A person can either forget and carry on with their life or allow sin to fill themselves with anger and a thirst for revenge. In the tragedy, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet has a strong suspicion that his father’s death was a murder by his uncle, Claudius because a ghost had told him so. Hamlet’s depression transitions into an intense desire to avenge his great father, Hamlet becomes consumed with the past as everyone around him moves on into the future.

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1305 Words | 6 Pages

In Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, revenge plays a major role in how the characters act. They base their actions off of getting revenge. Hamlet, Laertes, and Young Fortinbras all are trying to get revenge for their fathers. All three of the characters use different methods for getting revenge and they all get different results. Shakespeare uses these three characters to show that revenge can consume you and that is all that you want and he shows how harmful it can be.

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