Hamlet A Revenge Tragedy Analysis

I choose to analyze William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Hamlet which is a classic revenge tragedy. The Tragedy of Hamlet which is often shortened to Hamlet was originally published in 1603. Although being one of Shakespeare longest plays, it has been influential to English Tragic literature throughout the century. This play revolves around the revenge of the late King Hamlet who was murdered by his brother Claudius.

A revenge tragedy has a basic plot, and a thirst or quest for vengeance and will typically feature numerous scenes or acts of murder and mutilation. As the drama unfolds, Shakespeare presents the ghost of King Hamlet, instructing his son, Prince Hamlet to avenge his death: “If thou didst ever thy dear father love ... Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Act 1 Scene 5). As the only son of the King, this should be an

expected request, but young Hamlet is man at odds with himself and he wants to do as his Father asks, but he is also aware of the moral implications and associated complications that murder can entail. Therefore, Hamlet is not so hasty to make a decision.
He at first appears eager to get his father's requested revenge when he tells the ghost “Haste me to know ’t, that I, with wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love, / May sweep to my revenge” (Act 1 Scene 5). Hamlet is skeptic and seems to be a procrastinator about this because he wants and needs proof that his father was murdered by Claudius. Hamlet is also not keen on killing anyone and even thinks about killing himself so he does not have to commit murder in his speech: “To be, or not to be- that is the question Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer”(Act 3 Scene 1).
In an endeavor to roust out his Father's killer, Hamlet gets more than he bargained for. Through the staging of the play within the play, which Hamlet presents as entertainment, but that is really his perception of the reenactment of his father's murder. Hamlet states “I’ll have these players. Play something like the murder of my father/ Before my uncle: I'll observe his looks; I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench, I know my course (Act 2 Scene 2). He quickly loses control of the contrived situation, and as is expected in a revenge tragedy, more murders occur, including the tragic death of his own mother, Gertrude. As the bodies pile up, it seems that Hamlet is in a bad place, both mentally and physically and he is not the only character seeking revenge.
Hamlet inadvertently killed Polonius who was the father of Laertes and Ophelia, believing it was Claudius hiding in Gertrude's closet eavesdropping on their conversation. Laertes wants to avenge his father's death as well as get revenge for his sister Ophelia, who has been hurt by the rejection of Hamlet. Unlike Hamlet who seems to ponder a bit too much on the why's and how's of exacting revenge, Laertes has no such barriers to committing murder. He is more of an act now, ask questions later kind of guy, literally storming the castle and demanding retribution. Ironically, he teams up with Claudius to finalize the plan for getting rid of Hamlet. Claudius convinces Laertes to do his dirty work by telling him: “Now must your conscience my acquaintance seal, and you must put me in your heart for friend, Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life” (Act 4 Scene 7).
Claudius and Laertes join forces and plan to use Claudius's go-to murder method – poison, as well as to entice Hamlet to duel with Laertes ; the two men have an ongoing rivalry, but Laertes plans to use a sharpened sword as opposed to a dull blade for the proposed duel which will literally become a duel-to-the-death.

This in which leads to the climax of the tragedy play in which Hamlet and Laertes are coming face to face in Act V. The burial of Ophelia who has perhaps killed herself by drowning after the rejection of love and marriage by Hamlet and the unintentional death of her father Polonius at the hands of Hamlet. Laertes is overcome and overwrought, throwing himself into his sister's grave, screaming “O, treble woe. Fall ten times treble on that cursed head. Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense.” Depriv'd thee of! Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms” while Hamlet speaks and asks: “What is he whose grief Bears such an emphasis? Whose phrase of sorrow conjures the wand ‘ring stars, and makes them stand like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane “(Act 5 Scene

1).
Hamlet goes on to tell Horatio that “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends” (Act 5 Scene 2), almost as if he has a premonition of his own death. The deaths of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are easily explained away by Hamlet as their traitorous acts came to light when he tells Horatio “Why, man, they did make love to this employment! They are not near my conscience; their defeat. Does by their own insinuation grow” (Act 5 Scene 2), more or less meaning that the two men got what they deserved by betraying Hamlet.
The carnage of the revenge tragedy hearkens to an end as Scene V continues and the deaths of Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes all occur. All of them die by poison which ironically is death by the same means as King Hamlet. It reads pretty much like a comedy of errors, Gertrude unknowingly drinks the poisoned wine meant for her son Hamlet, even though Claudius cautions her not to drink; Laertes and Hamlet duel with the foils, one sharpened and tinged with poison, exchanging swords: “Laertes wounds Hamlet; then in scuffling, they change rapiers, and Hamlet wounds Laertes. Both men have been mortally wounded. Laertes cries out “Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric I am justly killed with mine own treachery” where Gertrude screams “No, no! The drink, the drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poisoned (Act 5 Scene 2). As poor Laertes who was used by Claudius to further his control of the kingdom and rid the country of Hamlet, falls, dying, he informs Hamlet, that he too shall die. The blame was mostly on the shoulders of Claudius. Hamlet finally fulfills his promise to King Hamlet to seek revenge for his death by forcing Claudius to drink the poison. “Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned Dane,/ Drink off this potion! Is thy union here? / Follow my mother. King dies” (Act 5 Scene 2).
In conclusion, revenge is not the way to settle disputes as the cast of Hamlet learned. It brings dishonor and death to those who avenge and to their loved ones, both living and dead. Fortinbras, Prince of Norway as Hamlet was Prince of Denmark sees beyond Hamlets discord and the promise to his father as well as his own. After the ill-fated deaths, Fortinbras prepares the court and the men to give Hamlet a hero's procession and armed salute for his fallen comrade and friend.
As Hamlet once stated to Fortinbras, “To be great, is not to stir without great argument but greatly to find quarrel in a straw / when honor's at the stake" (Act 4 Scene 4). Family honor is the driving force that negated the acts of revenge that led to the tragedies that befell Shakespeare's characters in Hamlet. When a man has honor he will face his own mortality willingly and will not fear death. Hamlet knew that Laertes would get the better of him, yet he fought knowingly and accepted the hand that fate dealt. Overall he did King Hamlet and the family name proud.