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Significance in the play Hamlet
Religion in hamlet critical views
Religion in hamlet critical views
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Revenge is never the Answer Seeking revenge is never the answer to any problem. In Romans 12:19 it states, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, “It is mine to avenge, I will repay,” says the Lord.” In Shakespeare play Hamlet, there are plenty of examples of the domino effect of revenge seeking. The first example is the rage and revenge expressed by Hamlet, which drives him mad. The second is Laertes seeking revenge on Hamlet. Lastly, all characters who played the game of revenge all payed the price in the end. Let us begin the game of revenge dominos… In the beginning of the play, Hamlet’s father is killed. At first it was discovered to be a snake attack, but later by his Father’s ghost, Hamlet …show more content…
Each player had a price to pay, and they all paid up eventually. The final scene of Act five Gertrude drinks poison meant for Hamlet. Claudius is killed by poison and sword. Laertes is killed by the trap he constructed for Hamlet. Hamlet is killed by his own guilt and the weight of Laertes’ revenge. Horatio and Fortinbras are the only surviving characters, because they did not let revenge consume them. 1 Thessalonians 5:15 states, “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other.” The theme of the play Hamlet can unmistakably be determined. Revenge, rage, and tragedy circulate throughout the play. Hamlet’s rage and revenge for his father’s death blinds him from rationality, and it drives him mad. Laertes sought revenge for his father’s death, and his main target was Hamlet. Finally, the dominos come to a standstill when Hamlet, Claudius, Laertes, and Gertrude pay the price of death. On page 151 of Brightest Heaven of Invention, there is a sentence that exudes the theme of Hamlet, “Violent revenge begets further violence.” Therefore, seeking revenge is never the answer to any
Hamlet contains three plots of revenge throughout the five acts of the play. Young Hamlet, after getting a shocking realization from his father’s ghost, wants to enact a plot of revenge against his uncle. Laertes, who was struck twice in quick succession by the death of his father and sister, wants to kill Hamlet. Away in Norway, Fortinbras wants to take revenge on the entire nation of Denmark for taking his father’s land and life. These three sons all want the same thing, vengeance, but they go about it in wildly different ways, but as Lillian wilds points out, “he also sees himself in the mirrors of Fortinbras [and] Laertes.”(153) It becomes clear that the parallels presented throughout the play are there to further illuminate the flaws of
Many characters and people even with very few appearances or interactions with others can leave a lasting effect on someone or can impact the overall mood and message of a body of work. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King Hamlet’s ghost or afterlife form makes a few appearances through the course of the tragedy but leaves a persisting effect that weighs heavily on the decisions and actions of Prince Hamlet that result in further deaths, adds depth and establishes the theme of revenge, and overall assists in the development of Prince Hamlet’s character as a person.
Hamlet was a hero trying to do the right thing, but his tragic flaws turn everything around when everyone including himself dies. Hamlet goes back and forth throughout the play between pondering and procrastination to sudden acts out of anger and passion. Hamlet is extremely philosophical and contemplative which leads to his over thinking side. It's Hamlet's ability to reason that keeps him from killing Claudius at one of the prime opportunities in the play. And yet it is Hamlet's act of wrath that leads to Polonius' death. Which than later leads to Ophelia’s death. I think the play establishes that revenge is a wrongful act and not only should it be delayed, it should be dismissed. Everyone in the play would have lived if revenge wasn’t an issue .
While reading and analyzing the play of Hamlet it is very clear all of the different themes and lessons Shakespeare is trying to develop. Throughout the story many themes stand out but the biggest one is that revengeful actions never have the best outcome. Shakespeare builds and works on that theme for the duration of the play and that makes this play a revenge tragedy. It is a revenge tragedy because revenge is the most established theme in Hamlet and most of the characters are involved with some type of revenge. Shakespeare enforces this idea by having Hamlet deal with three different revenge stories, all having to do with a son avenging his father. First there is hamlet wanting revenge on Claudius, then Laertes wants revenge on hamlet and last Fortinbras wants revenge on all of Denmark. These three stories all develop and produce the major theme of revengeful actions never having the best outcomes.
Both Hamlet and Laertes die because they want to prove they are honorable and their want for revenge. Hamlet killed Polonius, Laertes father. Laertes swore to revenge him and he does by killing Hamlet. To kill off Hamlet, Laertes and Claudius set up a sword fight. Before the sword fight both Hamlet apologizes Laertes for killing his father but they still fight for honor. But Laertes really wants Hamlet dead as does the King. Laertes uses a poisoned sword and slashes Hamlet. Then swords get switched and Laertes is slashed and killed by his own sword. “I am justly kill’d with my own treachery” (Act V Scene ii)
Hamlet completely revolves around revenge. Revenge is getting payback for something that affected oneself. Hamlet wants revenge of Claudius for killing his father, and Laertes wants to seek revenge on hamlet for killing his. Revenge in the story pushes the plot forward as Hamlet tries to kill Claudius throughout the whole novel, which causes many tragedies. Vengeance causes the characters in Hamlet to act blindly through anger and emotion, rather than through reason leading to the massacre of the entire family.
Revenge has caused the downfall of many a person. Its consuming nature causes one to act recklessly through anger rather than reason. Revenge is an emotion easily rationalized; one turn deserves another. However, this is a very dangerous theory to live by. Throughout Hamlet, revenge is a dominant theme. Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet all seek to avenge the deaths of their fathers. But in so doing, all three rely more on emotion than thought, and take a very big gamble, a gamble which eventually leads to the downfall and death of all but one of them. King Fortinbras was slain by King Hamlet in a sword battle. This entitled King Hamlet to the land that was possessed by Fortinbras because it was written in a seal'd compact. "…our valiant Hamlet-for so this side of our known world esteem'd him-did slay this Fortinbras." Young Fortinbras was enraged by his father’s murder and sought revenge against Denmark. He wanted to reclaim the land that had been lost to Denmark when his father was killed. "…Now sir, young Fortinbras…as it doth well appear unto our state-but to recover of us, by strong hand and terms compulsative, those foresaid lands so by his father lost…" Claudius becomes aware of Fortinbras’ plans, and in an evasive move, sends a message to the new King of Norway, Fortinbras’ uncle.
Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).
Hamlet can be explored from a Traditional Revenge Tragedy approach, as the whole play revolves around Hamlet seeking revenge for his father’s death. Traditional Revenge Tragedy is whenever a crime is committed against someone, but the character cannot get revenge in a lawful way, so they have to take it upon themselves to punish the other character even if it is a involves a personal risk (Taofiki.) Whenever Hamlet’s father first dies, everyone assumes it is just a natural death, but soon a ghost comes to make Hamlet think otherwise. The ghost reveals to Hamlet that his own brother, Hamlet’s uncle who now is married to his mother, murdered his father by pouring snake venom into his ear. Hamlet is then faced with a predicament because his father
He gets a chance to kill the crown, and thinks ‘’Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven/ And that his soul my be as damnes and black/ As hell, whereto it goes’’ (3.4.98-99). But he hesitates, Claudius prays so he might go to heaven if Hamlet kills him now; he wants Claudius to burn in hell and wants himself to go to heaven. He looses his temper and kills the person behind the curtain, ‘’ How now, a rat? Dead for ducat, dead’’ (3.4.25-30). He assumed that was Claudius who sneaked into his mother’s closet and now he goes back to being a sinner so he can kill the crown now, but the one behind the curtain turns out to be Polonius. Hamlet does not care about him although Ophelia loves Polonius. Hamlet decides to take action after he sees Fortinbrass and his army ‘’O, from this time forth/ My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth’’ (4.4.68-69). He sees that they go to death willingly and he does not stand up against Claudius, with this he sets his mind to killing Claudius. Sadness comes with the loss of Ophelia and he goes in a duel with Laertes. Horatio tries to change his decision, but Hamlet says ‘’Not a whit, we defy augury. There is a/ Special providence in the fall of a sparrow’’ (5.2.233-234). Hamlet decides to do the duel and he thinks that he cannot run from his destiny. He gets into a duel full of cheats, Hamlet looses his mother to
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, revenge intertwines to bring about the deaths of most of the main characters. Hamlet’s course of revenge initiates the first fatality when Polonius gets caught spying on him and Gertrude (III. iv. 24-25). By pursuing revenge, Hamlet killing Polonius paves the way for more lives to be lost. Claudius sees the murder as an opportunity to eliminate Hamlet, because Laertes’s obsession with revenge leaves him vulnerable. Laertes’s and Hamlet’s revenge lead to the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and finally Hamlet (V. ii. 287-357). The revenge of each character ironically ended their own life. By acting upon revenge and having inimical intentions, the individuals brought fatalities that were unnecessary.
A ghost came into Hamlets life and claimed he know what had happened to his father. At first Hamlet did not believe the ghost. The ghost said, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (1.5.25). The ghost was telling Hamlet he needs to get revenge on the person who had killed his father. Hamlet character progressed
Hamlet was a perfectionist in revenge. He wanted everything to be perfect, and this caused him to take unusual steps to gain his revenge on Claudius. Hamlet’s play within a play caught the conscience of the king. Hamlet did not only want to kill his father’s murderer; he wanted to send him to an eternal punishment of damnation.
In a typical revenge tragedy, a hero is called upon by the ghost of a family member to avenge his death ("Revenge Tragedy"). Hamlet is the main protagonist and hero called upon by the spirit of his father to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder" (1.5.31). When Hamlet first hears that his father was murdered, he exclaims, "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift...may sweep to my revenge" (1.5.35-37). He is hungry to avenge his father; however, Hamlet does nothing and at the end of Act II he scolds himself that "this player...could force his soul so to his own conceit...all for nothing...yet, [he]...can say nothing for a king upon whose property and most dear life a damned defeat was made" (2.2.578-598). Hamlet is upset that he cannot act to avenge his father, but this mere actor can build up so much emotion for nothing. Shakespeare complicates the plot because revenge plots are supposed to have an aggressive protagonist with courage to carry out his deed of revenge; instead, Shakespeare modifies the hero and portrays Hamlet as an indecisive and contemplative man.
The first death to make these scenes fall into place is the death of Hamlet’s father. In the opening scene we learn that the King, Hamlet’s father,