William Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, is a play about revenge and how the characters handle their various situations. Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all seek revenge and have pent up anger they do not understand or know how to handle. Within the play, revenge is an overarching theme that extends to every corner of the play. Every character in the play is somehow pulled into the different plots that are carried out by the three men, along with other characters seeking revenge. The beginning of the play is the revelation of a crime committed by Hamlet’s uncle through a conversation with King Hamlet’s ghost. Following that conversation, Prince Hamlet continues to seek revenge against the very person who had taken his father’s life. Since the protagonist’s final goal in the play is to find Claudius guilty and kill him, it effects the plot and purpose of the entirety of Shakespeare’s tragedy. When Shakespeare wrote this drama, revenge plays were considered the “horror movies” of that time (Boyce). They were extremely popular because of their dramatic theatrical scenes, unlike any other dramas of that time period. Revenge plays typically had murders, insanity, physical altercations, and supernatural visitations. Many of these events “enacted in a bravura style colored by extravagant imagery and bold rhetoric” (Boyce). The audience during this time period …show more content…
With the help of King Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, Laertes devises a plan to kill Hamlet. The difference between Laertes and Hamlet is that at the end Laertes feels guilt for trying to kill Hamlet. Laertes, though he plotted his revenge against Hamlet, who had killed Laertes’ father, in the end, he felt remorse. When he was fighting Hamlet, Laertes realized that his plan was ridiculous and King Claudius was ruthless. Laertes ended up telling Hamlet that King Claudius was the one at fault for the poisoning of the cup that Gertrude drank, and the sword’s poisoned and sharpened tip