Hamlet Revenge Essay

Revenge is defined as the action of causing hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains the central idea of revenge. In this story, the father is murdered, the mother marries the murderer, and the son is left to the duty of revenge (Barzilai 87). It is Hamlet’s duty to follow his father’s commands and get his revenge on his uncle, but multiple problems occur and lead to his death along with many others.

In the beginning of the play, Hamlet has returned from Wittenberg to honor the death of his father, King Hamlet, and the ghost of his dead father suddenly confronts him. The ghost of King Hamlet has returned to inform his son about the murder that his brother has committed. While King Hamlet was asleep, his brother, Claudius, placed poison in his ear and left him suffering to die. The ghost of King Hamlet sets the main conflict of the play into motion and puts the idea of revenge into Hamlet’s mind. He says to Hamlet:

If though hast nature in thee, bear it not,

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be

A couch for luxury and damned incest. (I.v.81-83)

This quote causes Hamlet to question his own nature, and he begins to wonder if and how he will try to get his revenge (Goldstein 73). King Hamlet’s ghost wants Hamlet to get rid of Claudius but asks differently for the revenge of Hamlet’s mother:

Taint not thy mind, nor thy soul contrive

Against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven

And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge

To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once. (I.v.85-88)

Shortly after King Hamlet was murdered, Hamlet’s mother remarried to Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, and soon Claudius became the new king. Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude’s, actions did not make K...

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...ent, Gertrude, Laertes, and Hamlet are all dying. Suddenly, Laertes announces that Claudius was behind the plan, and Hamlet grabs the poisoned sword to stab Claudius and forces Claudius to drink the wine to kill him.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is full of revenge between multiple characters in the play. After seeing the ghost of his father, Hamlet was determined to get his revenge on his uncle, Claudius, for murdering his father and marrying his mother. Hamlet had multiple chances for revenge but was not willing to let his uncle go to Heaven after the crimes he committed. He used schemes and was able to avoid being killed by Claudius. Hamlet’s revenge did not go as planned, seeing that he killed more people than intended and was also killed himself. After the duel between Hamlet and Laertes, Hamlet was finally able to kill his uncle for the wrong actions that he committed.