In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a common theme and focal point of the tragic story is the concept of revenge and how each character seeks to avenge one another through various plots of vengeance. Shakespeare highlighting the theme of revenge emphasizes how a fixated goal strictly set on revenge can demoralize an individual and generate their own self-destruction. The four revenge plots that Shakespeare exemplifies is Hamlet seeking to avenge his uncle who killed his father, Hamlet accidently killing Polonius out of suspicion, Laertes and Claudius’s goal to kill Hamlet for murdering Polonius, and Prince Fortinbras’ pursuing revenge on Denmark to reclaim his father’s territory. The overwhelming thoughts and actions of revenge are addressed in many scenes, therefore contributing to the story’s dramatic effect. Shakespeare’s strategic depiction of revenge kindles the force of human temper that grants an impulse to seek vengeance and how these individual impulse responses thus construct a chain reaction of events leading all of the characters to reach an acme of madness and insanity.
The first introduction of revenge to the audience is Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost of his father informing Hamlet of his father’s murder executed by Claudius. The ghost advises Hamlet to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” and implement a plan to seek revenge against Claudius. Through Hamlet’s plan of creating a play to affirm Claudius’s guilt, he discloses his suspicions of the killer to Horatio consequently stimulating Hamlet to further advance his revenge plot. The distraught Hamlet suffering with grief is quite determined and persistent to avenge his father’s death even though he is unsuccessful. However, this failure is what propels the plot onward leading to the deaths of many others such as Ophelia, Polonius, Gertrude, Laertes etc. Hamlet’s reaction to the death of his father through the influence of the ghost epitomizes how this obligates Hamlet to pursue revenge on his father even though he knows it is not the morally correct thing to do. Hamlet’s struggle with doubt, pity, and rage intensifies his situation, reinforces the universal theme of revenge, and initiates his loss of sanity.
During the play that mimics the murder of his father, Hamlet full of rage, accidently perceives that the killer, Claudius, is behind a curtain and he stabs through the curtain. Unfortunately, Hamlet kills Polonius, the father of Laertes, and is trapped in another tragic event further building Hamlet’s insanity and guilt. This insanity is demonstrated right after he comprehends what he has done, but Hamlet feels no regret or empathy for his response. Hamlet exclaims after his dreadful action, “How now? A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!” This reaction to the death of Polonius enhances Hamlet’s senseless mentality and additionally evolves the revenge plot. After this mistaken death, Hamlet embodies a reckless killing machine which is quite different from his desire in the beginning to only kill Claudius. Hamlet is now consumed with thirst and desire for more revenge and this accidental murder expended his sense of morality thus, influencing him to act on impulse. Revenge begins to transform Hamlet’s humanity which then becomes the root of his insanity.
Upon Laertes hearing about his father’s death executed by Hamlet, he responds “Only I’ll be revenged. Most thoroughly for my father.” Laertes’s reaction is founded upon grief and uncontrollable anger and justifies his actions of revenge to provide him with closure. However, King Claudius and Laertes’s plan to kill Hamlet consequently prophesized their deaths moreover, strengthening the theme of revenge. King Claudius is persistent to kill Hamlet, but he takes advantages of Laertes’s grief allowing him to indirectly fulfill his desire for revenge. Claudius is another character that embodies the obligation to fulfill the human desire to aspire goals of revenge because of his morally weak mentality. These characters such as Claudius and Laertes who cannot refrain from satisfying their selfish passions of vengeance create the principal model of vengeance and tragedy in this story.
In contrast to Hamlet’s foolishness and Laertes’ urgency, Prince Fortinbras remains subtle and responds rationally to the death of his own father. Fortinbras is absorbed with the ambition for revenge, but he executes his plan for several days leading him to successfully triumphing Denmark furthering the plot of Hamlet. Fortinbras’s only motive is to retrieve the lost territory belonging to his father however, this form of revenge is influenced by respect and confidence that this reclamation of land will provide Norway with the pride it had prior to the war. Fortinbras’s elaborate and unimpulsive actions highlight the more prosperous results instead of the previous events generating heavy havoc. Fortinbras’s choice of executing his revenge plan carefully and calmly is rewarded due to the fact that he is one of the only characters that survives.
Shakespeare’s theme of revenge is explicitly implicated throughout Hamlet by four revenge plots that are dependent on the reactions of characters such as Hamlet, Laertes, Claudius, and Fortinbras. Hamlet acts leisurely with too much deliberation, Laertes reacts recklessly expressing wrath, Claudius utilizing another person to achieve his goal, and Fortinbras who is the most successful by executing his plans sensibly. Despite the dissimilar responses to seek revenge, they share a common motif in formulating confidential plans to seduce their enemies. The characters’ various forms of anger simultaneously expose the diverse human tempers that Shakespeare aims to manifest in order to deliver the subject of revenge.