Englisf Literature Essay Sample: Hamlet Seeking Revenge for His Fathers Death

The Tragedy of Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark is a play that was set in the late medieval ages (probably in the 14th or 15th century), and most of the play takes place at the royal palace in Elsinore, Denmark. Hamlet, who is studying in Germany, is forced to come back to Denmark, to attend the funeral of his father, who was the King of Denmark. He is suspicious of his fathers death, which was initially ruled to be death as a result of a bite by a venomous snake because of two factors. His mother, Queen Gertrude has already re-married Claudius, the Kings brother, and Claudius has declared himself the King of Denmark, despite the fact that Prince Hamlet is his fathers heir. Prince Hamlet, vows to investigate and revenge his fathers death. His fathers ghost visits the castle and confirms Hamlets suspicions that his fathers death was a result of foul play that was committed by his uncle, King Claudius. The ghost of his father urges him to seek revenge so that his fathers spirit can be able to go to heaven. In his quest to seek revenge for the death of his father by killing his uncle, Hamlets actions lead to more deaths and revenge plots.

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The revenge themes and plots play a significant role in the play. The revenge theme is used to create a conflict between Hamlet and Claudius. In Act I, after the ghost of his father visits him, and makes him aware of his murder that was conducted by his uncle, Hamlet becomes certain that his father did not die of natural causes. The ghost urges Hamlet to kill his uncle by stating that; Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. In this case, the reader learns that Hamlets plot to avenge his fathers death by killing King Claudius was introduced by the ghost of his father. The ghost of his father further urges him to commit the murder because it is unable to rest in peace, and until the murder is avenged, through blood, it will remain in its purgatory state, and be restricted to roam the earth at night. However, Hamlet delays in executing his revenge plot because he wants the King to admit or confirm that indeed he killed the former King.

He is unsure whether the ghost that he had interacted with was indeed his fathers ghost or a devils agent sent to make him commit a murder that he will regret for the rest of his life, and which will ensure that he spends his afterlife in hell. Hamlet even begins to question whether his inaction (delay in conducting his revenge) is as a result of his cowardice. However, he cannot help himself from thinking about the murder and the source of information (his fathers ghost), and he wonders whether it is morally justifiable to commit the murder that he is not certain that it occurred the way the ghost told him it occurred. He feels that he has to do something, to be able to lift-off the burden that he has (revenge plot towards his uncle for the murder of his father).

Hamlet decides to spy on the King and Queen of Denmark by feigning madness. His erratic actions are a source of concern to both the King and the Queen. They decide to contact Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to come back to Denmark from Germany to keep an eye on Hamlet. The queen insisted on inviting the pair to Denmark because she knew that Hamlet had deep respect and affection for them. However, the King agreed on this notion because; he wanted to keep a close eye on Hamlet and ascertain that he was not suspicious of the way the former king had been killed. Polonius also spies on Hamlet because he believes that he is madly in-love with his daughter. He even informs the King that the reason why Hamlet is experiencing mental issues is that of his daughter.

Hamlet, on the other hand, is conceiving ways in which he will be able to spy on his step-father. Luck is on his side because there is a set of players who will come to the Royal Palace to perform a play titled; The Murder of Gonzaga. He also takes advantage of a play that was to be performed in the Royal Palace and modifies a murder scene to recreate the murder that the ghost of his father had described. Hamlet did this with the intent to watch Claudius reaction when he watched that scene during the play. He had informed one of the night guards, Horatio, who had taken him to see the ghost of his late father that the murder scene will be an actual proof as to whether King Claudius killed his father or not. During the scene of the murder, Claudius immediately leaves the room because he is unable to breathe and also his vision has been affected. Hamlet then confirms that Claudius is indeed guilty of committing the murder of his father by stating the following to Horatio, O good Horatio, Ill take the ghosts word for a thousand pound. He also notes the following; Conscience doth make cowards of us all. He follows Claudius, and he resolves not to kill him because he was praying. In the play, it states that in the prayer, Claudius confessed to killing his brother and therefore, from a religious point of view if one confesses his sins, he is forgiven and cannot be punished for the action that he has confessed. He felt that if he killed him at that point, he would go to heaven, and according to him, that was not revenge. He wanted him to be confined in eternity to hell and suffer for his actions of killing his father, and being involved in what he considered to be an incestuous marriage.

In actual sense, his delay to kill Claudius results to more deaths that could have been avoided had he been decisive in his revenge plot. Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, the father of Ophelia and Laertes, mistaking him to be the King hiding in the Queens chamber. Based on his actions, King Claudius, exiles him to England, accompanied by his childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who had been given strict instructions to deliver him to the King of England for execution. However, Hamlet becomes aware of the plot and orders his two childhood friends to be hanged. Ophelia who is depressed both by the sudden death of his father and Hamlets erratic behavior (she was in love with him, but Hamlet behaved like he did not love her), goes to the river to sing sad love songs and accidentally drowns in the river. His brother, Laertes comes back from France to avenge the deaths of his father and sister. King Claudius sees it as an opportunity to get rid of his nephew and arranges for a duel between Laertes and Hamlet. He hatches a plan with Laertes that will result in the death of Hamlet, and the two people (Claudius and Laertes) will benefit from his death. For Claudius, he felt that Hamlet will always be a thorn in his Kingdom, a threat to his validity as a King, and he felt that he knew that he had killed the King. On the other hand, Laertes blamed him for the death of both his father and sister and to avenge their deaths; he needed to kill Hamlet. The King laced Laertes sword with poison that is meant to kill Hamlet. To ensure that Hamlet will die in the duel, he also places poison in a goblet that he will offer Hamlet in case he wins the duel. During that period, the prince of Norway had assembled an army and tricked the King into believing that the army was passing through Denmark. In actual sense, the prince of Norway had planned to attack Denmark to reclaim a part of their kingdom that had been seized by the former king of Denmark. Norway had devised a revenge plan to attack Denmark to reclaim their kingdom.

During the fight, Hamlet marks Laertes, and when the King offers him the drink from the goblet, he declines the drink. However, the Queen assuming that her son is winning drinks from the cup and she dies from the poison. During the duel, Hamlet can take Laertes sword, and after he has fatally wounded him, he is informed that he too will die because the sword has been laced with poison. He is also informed that the King is to blame for the Queens death. He is angered by this revelation, and he stabs the King and then forces him to drink the poison. Before he dies, he declares that the Kingdom should be passed to Prince Fortinbras of Norway, and he tells Horatio, who was his true friend to explain the events of the gothic scene to Prince Fortinbras. Before he dies he confesses that; The rest is silence. It seems that Prince Hamlet was aware of the atrocities that had been committed to Denmark by his father. Therefore, to correct a wrong and help them rest in peace by making the right moral decision, he returned the kingdom to their rightful owners (Norway). It shows that even though his revenge plot was selfish and resulted in the death of six people, it saved the army of Denmark from being killed in an ambush attack by the Norwegian army which was ready for war. As the play ends, Prince Fortinbras as the King of Denmark orders that Prince Hamlet is buried with the full military honors.

In conclusion, it is evident that the main focus of the play was revenge. Hamlets plot to revenge his fathers death results in another revenge plot and multiple deaths of the characters in the play. Shakespeare uses the different characters in the play to show how the human nature dictates revenge when one is wronged without taking into consideration the consequences of the revenge action. While in most cases, people assume revenge is a sign of honor, it can also lead to catastrophic results as were witnessed in the play. Shakespeare is trying to show the readers that revenge is a chain reaction that can lead to different results than a person had anticipated. For instance, Hamlet felt that avenging his fathers death will ensure that his father can rest in peace, and justice will have been conducted. However, it leads to the death of Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Hamlet. In the end, neither King Claudius nor Prince Hamlet rules over Denmark for an extended period. In fact, the Kingdom is inherited or taken by Norway.