The Cost Of Revenge In Hamlet

The Cost of Revenge

Humanity’s most motivational instinct is revenge. It is this inclination that is the catalyst which has brought about pivotal historical events forever shaping society today. Revenge is a defining characteristic of humans, intent on inflicting harm upon another who has wronged them in some way. It is this internal lust for reprisal which William Shakespeare explores in the play Hamlet to create the ultimate ambition of the protagonist. Each of Hamlet’s actions brings him closer to enacting his retaliation against his father’s killer. The repercussions of his actions, however, dramatically alter the storyline as other characters suffer and change, such as Ophelia, due to his actions. Hamlet’s carelessness in turn, creates

Laertes’ father, Polonius, is stabbed and killed through the arras by the Prince after spying upon the royal mother and son. Once Laertes gets word of his father’s murder, he storms back to Elsinore bent on balancing out the injustice done to his father. The good son proclaims, “...That both the worlds I give to negligence,/ Let come what comes; only I’ll be revenged/ Most thoroughly for my father.” (4:5.140-142). Laertes foreshadows later events by saying that he will have his revenge in this world, even if it means he has to die in the process, damning his soul in the afterlife. Like the protagonist, the son takes on his father’s revenge as an act of honor in expressing, “That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,…” (4:5.120-121). Declaring only a bastard child would have a drop of calm blood in him after learning that his father was murdered. Saying such creates the second revenge plot that soon takes shape and blossoms at the conclusion of the story. Soon after proclaiming his intent, another radical incentive presented itself in the form of a moonstruck Ophelia. An enraged older brother admits at the sight of his sister that, “Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, / It could not move thus.” (4:5.179-180). Proclaiming, no words could have motivated him to seek revenge more than the sight of his deranged younger sibling. This drive is what brought about the poisoned blade that eventually killed both Hamlet and Laertes in the process. Both revenge plots, in the end, are fulfilled-but at the cost of eight people’s lives and a country changing monarchies in the execution of the Denmark royal