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Jack Tragert AP English Hamlet Revenge Essay What does revenge accomplish for one’s self? What is the purpose behind revenge? In the play Hamlet, we see the answers to these questions. In William Shakespeare’s play, the main character Hamlet loses himself and his loved ones to revenge. He is the beloved prince of Denmark, and has everything His is loved by all of his people, but that all changes when he returns home to find that his father was murdered. Like many who lose a loved one, Hamlet seeks revenge A ghost, that is supposedly his father tells him that Hamlet’s uncle has killed his father. After Hamlet’s uncle Claudius kills the king, he then marries Hamlet’s mother. The ghost then proceeds to tell Hamlet the last thing Hamlet needed to hear, and that was seek revenge on Claudius. When Hamlet hears this news, it consumes him It is all he thinks about, all he wants, and in the end it causes him to lose his mother, his lover, his best friend, and his family loses control

of Denmark. He is not a vengeful person, he is a person that no one would expect to kill someone. The revenge that he seeks is something that not the real Hamlet would want, but in his grief he has convinced himself that he is a person who would seek vengeance. Hamlet convinces himself to be vengeful against his true personality, and it causes him to lose everything he loves. Hamlet learns that his father’s death was not an accident, and once this occurs Hamlet does not want revenge, he needs it. Throughout the book, that main objective of Hamlet it to get his revenge on Cladius. He fakes madness, he may have even gone mad at some points due to his grief and his anger. When he tells the ghost that he will kill Cladius, he does not know who the murderer of his father is. When he discovers that it was his uncle and new stepfather, he becomes even vengeful. “Ghost- Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Hamlet-Murder! Ghost-Murder most foul, as in the best it is;But this most

foul, strange and unnatural. Hamlet-Haste me to knowt, that I, with wings as swift, As meditation or the thoughts of love, May sweep to my revenge” (Shakespeare 57). Here the ghost is telling Hamlet about his father’s unnatural death, and one can see how Hamlet changes once he hears this news. The first reaction Hamlet has, is revenge. He states that he will do it quickly, and he desires to do so However, Hamlet’s true character stops him from doing so several times, even though he may disguise this with reason or with madness. At one point in the play, Hamlet even compares himself to a traveling actor, and how he must act as well to avenge his father’s death. When Hamlet does this, we see that he not really being himself, and even he is aware of this. Once Hamlet was determined for revenge, that is all that was in his vision. Not only did Hamlet lose himself in his revenge, but he lost the ones he loved the most. When he was scolding his mother, the father of his lover was

hiding behind a tapestry. Upon discovering Polonius behind the tapestry, Hamlet put his sword through the tapestry and Polonius. This was the start of the chain of events that led to Hamlet’s demise. In his blind rage, he killed the father of the person he loved the most Revenge was not only given to Hamlet in this play, and that is why Hamlet lost of his beloved people. “ Laertes- To cut his throat i the church King- No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds” (231). A small part of a conversation between Laertes and the King show us how much they want revenge. It is very ironic because the King says that revenge has no bounds, because revenge it was kills everyone else in the play including himself. That is one of the most meaningful lines in this play. Revenge is the center point of Shakespeare’s play, without it, there would be no plot or events. Hamlet convinces himself to be vengeful against himself because the revenge defines him, and

it also causes him to lose all those that he holds dear. After the ghost told him to gain revenge, he would stop at nothing. On this quest he pondered suicide, killed the wrong person, and faked madness. If the ghost had never told him that his father’s death was a murder, he would have just mourned. However, in his grief he needed someone to blame and someway to make the pain go away. If Hamlet did not seek revenge, he wouldn’t have lost anyone more than his father. His actions while seeking revenge caused him to lose his lover, and cost him his own life. Revenge was the main theme in this play, and it showed people how powerful and dangerous it can be