Revenge is an important theme in William Shakespeares Hamlet. When someone wants revenge they are retaliating in a violent manor to injure another individual. The person who is retaliating cannot control there feelings, so they act out to rid themselves of pressure, or in Hamlets case they are acting out because of the loss of someone close.
Throughout the play Prince Hamlet has to deal with the death of his father, who was killed by his uncle. Hamlet cannot deal with his death and wants to kill his uncle in revenge for the death of his father. He struggles to find the right way to deal with it. His father who is a ghost, told him to act in revenge because of the way he was killed. Hamlet wants to kill him, but only at the right time. He does not want to go to hell and knows that revenge can lead to it. After all, how you treat others is the way you will be treated back. Throughout the play, Hamlet is alone in making these very hard decisions. Most of the people in his country did not believe that his uncle killed his father. This made Hamlet very upset inside. He needed a release to help himself relieve the pain.
Hamlet is first told of the ghost by his friend Horatio. He tells Hamlet and Hamlet asks if he can see him? Later, Hamlet sees the ghost and communicates with it for the first time. The ghost tells him so art thou to revenge(I.IV.II.8) because he is in purgatory and suffering. He was asking Hamlet to murder his uncle. Hamlet cannot believe that he is seeing his father, and even more he is asking him to murder the king. Upon realizing that he is not seeing things, Hamlet kept in his mind till the end that he had to finish out the act of revenge.
The ghost goes deeper in to the conversation and says that sleeping by a brothers hand of life, of crown, of queen, at one dispatched, cat off even in blossoms of my sin (IV.II.74-76). He was saying that his uncle sleeping with his mother was incest, and that had to be stopped because it was a sin. Hamlet vowed now to my world; it is adieu, adieu! Remember me, I have swornt (I.V.II.110-112), meaning that he has sworn to follow his fathers word of revenge and release him from purgatory and send his uncle to hell. You can hear the pain in both Hamlet and his father the ghost.
His father knows that his mother had something to do with his death, but wants her to go to heaven because he says nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught: leave her to heaven (I.V.II.85-86). Hamlet swears to do this and follow his words. The ghost then leaves. The ghost is a mole working, secretly, in the darkness of the earth to bring out the forgotten blood in Hamlet (Sitwell 91).
Hamlet wants to confront the king, but not directly. So he sets up a play to reenact the killing of his father and to make the king feel guilty and confess his crime. After the play, the king is obviously distraught and runs off to his chapel to pray. Hamlet follows hoping to kill him, but the king kneels down and begins to pray mumbling the words Forgive me, my foul murder? That cannot be: since I am still possessd of those effects for which I did the murder (III.IV.II.52-54).
The king was asking God for forgiveness, for killing his own brother. When Hamlet sees this, he has second thoughts about killing his uncle because if he kills him, he is more likely to go to heaven and also he wishes to damn him as well as kill him (Auchincloss 31). Hamlet does not want his uncle to go to heaven because his father is in purgatory, and it would not be fair. Then he begins thinking about whether he should kill him when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage, or in th incestuous pleasure of his bed (III.IV.II.89-90) because at such time, he would not be at fault and his uncle would go to hell. Throughout the story, these are the constant thoughts in Hamlets mind. He is confused at times, but very aware of his surroundings other times.
At the end of the play, Hamlet, his uncle, his mother and Laretes all die by the same weapons and poisons because they were all alike, committing the same crimes. They were all trying to kill each other at one point in the story. Destiny had caught up with each because they could only commit so many crimes before dying. The only difference among the four is that Laretes and Hamlet will end up in Heaven because the king and Hamlets mother had conspired to kill his father and himself. Hamlet and Laretes had not committed premeditated murder, but acted out in pure frustration. They had both lost someone they cared about deeply and will suffer deeply in purgatory, but they will eventually end up in Heaven.
In Hamlets mind revenge was the right thing to do because he was told by his father. Some agree the point that Hamlet was crazy. In reality, he was not. He was going by his heart. Revenge is on all peoples mind when something bad happens to them, but it does not have to escalate to violence. There are other ways to deal with it, like talking it out or as they say sit and watch because what comes around goes around. Hamlet got his revenge and probably sent his uncle to hell, but he did lose three friends. You should keep your heart from ruling over your mind because if it does, you will do a lot of unthinkable things. Everybody only lives once and let it be a happy, joyful life, without revenge because you could always be at the other end.
