The Nature Of Vengeance In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s greatest works and is certainly his longest at four thousand lines and four hours long. After four hundred years, it is still an incredibly popular and acclaimed work. In the play, Prince Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost, who tells him that his uncle killed him to usurp the throne, and exhorts him to seek revenge. Over the course of the play, most of the main characters are killed, and the best laid plans of Hamlet and his uncle, King Claudius, are fulfilled or ruined. The story has had a profound impact on many since, and many other works are based off of it or reference it. The classic story of vengeance is still relevant today due to its profound exploration of the nature of death and human attitudes

In addition to the fact that the entire production is centered around the death in the family, Hamlet and Claudius both have lengthy monologues regarding the nature of death and dying. Hamlet’s famous line “To be or not to be, that is a question,” in Act 3, Scene 1 is in fact a pondering on the purpose of life and living. Hamlet wonders on whether or not there is any real reason to continue living, and eventually arrives at the conclusion that the only reason that anyone does is their fear of punishment and damnation in the afterlife. His Christian upbringing leads him to believe that there will be punishment for taking one’s own life.

Claudius speaks in Act 3, Scene 3 of regretting his scheming and killing his brother, and says that he wants forgiveness. However, it is clear that he is only repentant because of his fear of God’s wrath. Hamlet even decides not to send him to his death yet due to his penitence, and the ramifications on his treatment in the

The prospect of death is terrifying to many people, since, not only can the action of dying come with pain, no one can be entirely sure of what will happen to them after they are dead. The fear of death, necrophobia, is the second most common fear, experienced by sixty-eight percent of the U.S. population. Like the characters in the play, many people use the framework of religion to gain peace surrounding death. In Hamlet and in many of Shakespeare’s other plays, the motivation and actions of characters are driven by the Christian religion that was so dominant in Europe during Shakespeare’s life. Likewise, the play’s characters’ views on death and dying follow the teachings of the Bible and the surrounding Catholic system. Their religion strongly influences their actions and attitudes, and most of the time, it is due to death’s potential