Vengeance Shall Be Mine

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Recommended: Refelection on the play hamlet

Change can truly be a scary concept for some people to grasp. Some people change for the best or some change for the worst. Hamlet is an individual constantly watched because of his change of behavior, speech and thinking. Many of his peers realize that Hamlet has changed for the worst and even gone mad. It is noticeable to many that Hamlet has the biggest character development in the text. Hamlet’s character undergoes many behavioral changes when he is told by his father to avenge his wrongful murder by killing Claudius. I believe Hamlets transformation by revenge is a three stage process in which he evolves to a being consumed by revenge and vengeance.
The first stage of Hamlet’s metamorphosis of turning to a being fuelled by revenge is that he begins to believe he has a divine right to engage his vengeance on Claudius. In the text Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost from purgatory, a spiritual place of unsaved souls, “ If thou didst ever thy dear father love- revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” (Shakespeare I.v. 23-25). This line gains interest to the act of revenge by Hamlet. He is already willing to execute his act of vengeance on his father’s murderer by stating “Haste me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge.” (Shakespeare I.v. 29-31). Hamlet basically reveals that he is indeed ready to carry out revenge as soon as the ghost reveals the murderer’s identity. The ghost tells Hamlet his murderer was his uncle, Claudius. The ghost informs Hamlet “But thou howsoever thou purest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let 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.” (Shakes...

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...y what he deserved. Hamlet at this state is more paranoid, instinctive, merciless, unremorseful, and violent as he completes his final transformation.

Hamlet’s metamorphosis is a cycle full of revenge and vengeance composed in three stages. In the first stage is the divine right to achieve revenge, the second stage is his thirst for revenge challenges his mercy, and the third stage is that he lets go his mercy to exact his vengeance. Hamlet’s transformation is a slow but steady process that changes Hamlet, his family and his kingdom forever.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” The Norton Introduction to Literature 11th ed. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. New York: w.w. Norton and Company, 2013. 543-555. Print.

Kastan, David Scott “His semblable in his mirror: Hamlet And The Imitation of Revenge”. Shakespeare studies 19. (1987): 111. masterFILE. Web 22 Nov. 2013.

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