Hamlet Theme Analysis

A majority of people will say that in the play “Hamlet”, by William Shakespeare, the main theme is revenge. A majority of people will say this until they have read Hamlet’s soliloquy/speech in Act four Scene four. When readers are finished reading through the speech, they realize that the real theme of the play was about how Hamlet was going to get over his inner struggle to take action about his father’s death. When looking back at the play with this new theme, you can understand why this does make sense to be the theme. A theme like this made great sense to have for an Elizabethan audience. The Elizabethan audience really enjoyed more realistic plays as to ones that could never happen. They could have understood Hamlet’s inner struggle

In this scene, Claudius is alone, defenseless, kneeling at prayer, and unaware of Hamlet 's presence. Hamlet states that this is the perfect time, and he probably won’t get much of a better chance than that. With that in mind, he drew out his sword. But characteristically, he has second thoughts. He thought about it, and realized that he was probably kneeling in prayer to confess his sins. Hamlet 's Catholic beliefs state that if King Claudius was to die, but he confessed for his sins, he would be forgiven of all of his sins and would be granted access to go to heaven. Hamlet thinks about this and says, “A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (III.III.77-79). Hamlet knows that the best time to kill him is after he has sinned. He says that he will finish the task, "When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, / Or in th ' incestuous pleasure of his bed; / At gaming, a-swearing, or about some act / That has no relish of salvation in 't" (III.III. 88-92). This sets Hamlet in a crazed state of mind when leaving to go see his mother. In the conversion with her, Hamlet finds out that there is another man in the room, hiding behind the tapestry. Immediately he kills the man, only to find out that the man behind the tapestry was Polonius, the father of the women he

Hamlet knows that he is not God, and that taking a life is a mortal sin. He knew that killing his uncle didn’t mean much good for himself, in both the present life and afterlife. In the present life he most likely would have been given a strict punishment for murder. Another thing to consider is that, Hamlet would be killing a king. Regicide was considered the worst crime someone in Elizabethan era could have committed. No one back then would have looked at Hamlet with respect anymore. Having a murder under his record also wouldn’t have sat when going to your after-life. Even if it was only revenge for killing his father dying, Elizabethans considered revenge to be a sin. Hamlet has clearly never killed anyone in the past and so is trying to do it in the smartest way possible. Hamlet takes so long to deal with Claudius because he wants to avoid blood on his hands; he doesn 't want to directly kill his uncle. This is why he creates the play-within-a-play, hoping that Claudius will confess to the killing of King Hamlet so he won 't have to deal with Claudius