Hamlet Revenge Leads To Madness

In the play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare claims that an act of revenge leads to madness and insanity. Shakespeare’s claim holds true today because nowadays there are real life events cases that affected every adults and teenager and even little kids. These tragedies and nightmares are all caused by the single act of revenge. In today society, you are accountable for what you do and responsibility plays are a big role in our environment. In the play, Shakespeare proved his claim by using the character Hamlet, who is destined to take vengeance for his father’s death and eventually turns into an insane person. His actions lead to the insanity of others characters and affect them physically and mentally.

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For poor Ophelia, she fell into a lake by accident and it leads her to death. This scene shows how Hamlet’s action (madness) were very irresponsible that he hurts everyone around him emotionally and physically one way or the other. However, for Laertes, he seeks out revenge towards Hamlet for his father just like Hamlet’s and he goes insane. In the play, Laertes says that ”How came he dead? I 'll not be juggled with..to hell, allegiance..vows,... I dare damnation. To this point I stand, that both the worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes, only I 'll be revenged, most thoroughly for my father”(4.5.132-138). to show the readers that Laertes will do anything to avenge his father’s death. Laertes becomes insane later in the play when he works in collusion with King Claudius to kill Hamlet. It is true that Hamlet is culpable for what he had done, but Laertes’s desperate act of revenge leads him to his own death which could be call as insanity. When Laertes said that ”Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osric. I am justly killed with mine own treachery… here I lie, Never to rise again”(5.2.311-324), Laertes realizes he took the wrong path in search for revenge and it backfires him in the end. These two quotes supports Shakespeare’s claims by saying that revenge can drive you crazy and it

One of the real life events that help proved Shakespeare’s claim is in the article, “Revenge: Will You Feel Better”, Karyn Hall writes that revenge is one of the human natural instinct and these instincts have a meaning behind it. To proved her claim she experimented with college students, who were really close to each other, where they have to invest their equal amount of money into a business firm. However, there are some students who did not invest their money like everyone else so at the end of the day they earned more money than the ones who invested. So as a result, students with less money feel unfair and get their revenge by stealing back from them or filing the lawsuit. The insanity in this experimented is shown when best friends against each other because of the money. Hall explains that when people get revenge, they tend not to think about the consequences that might follow instead they feel satisfied with doing it which create more problems. When Hall said,”Wait until you are calm emotionally and can think rationally before making any decisions”, you can interpret that Hall is trying to warn us not to make rash decision that can affect your life. This article supports Shakespeare’s claim by acknowledging the fact that act of revenge leads to one’s madness and insanity through the experiment where Hall test to a group of friends who turned