Shakespeare’s play Hamlet consists of many thematic elements: vengeance, sovereignty, earthly and godly justice, suicide and the role of providence. Each of these is presented repeatedly throughout the story. Vengeance is noticed throughout the play. One example has to do with the queen. The ghost tells Hamlet that he can have revenge on anyone except his mother, who he must leave for Heaven.
She dies at the end by drinking poison on accident that was supposed to be for Hamlet to drink, but Hamlet never kills her or wants to kill her even though he is angry at her for marrying his uncle such a short time after his father’s death, a man that she loved so much. The king is viewed as a God’s representative on earth. If the King Hamlet’s ghost was from God, he would not have tried to lead Hamlet into killing Claudius, or getting revenge on anyone. Hamlet believed the ghost was giving him divine instruction when really God would never tell someone to take revenge. Though all these bad things happen, they all happen for a reason.
God has a plan. He allows sin to happen so people will have a need for Him. Not always does one’s sin evolve around the central person. Sometimes it is used only so one can change. There must be a change, so for that change something must happen so the change can play out. Justice is also a big thing in this play. All the characters commit a crime at one point, and the question is if they receive justice or not. This justice cannot be judged by people. Hamlet had many chances to kill his uncle, but he chose to wait because he had to make sure if he actually did kill his father. This clearly is not Hamlet’s place to judge his uncle.
Hamlet should not have taken action of his feelings to kill Claudius, because this idea clearly went wrong when he accidently kills another man and does not even care. Aspects of suicide are present in the play with Ophelia. She drowns while making a flower crown. Some think she fell in by accident, while others believe she fell in on purpose. She may have done this to test Hamlet and her brother Laertes to see if either of them would come to try to save her. She may have been trying to seek revenge toward them. Her revenge for Hamlet would be because he did not love her like she loved him.
Her revenge for her brother would stem from his not being there for her when she needs him. These are all reasons for Ophelia’s want to commit suicide. Providence appears in the play. All of the people in the play die in the end except for the one person that could actually be trusted. Hamlet wanted revenge on Claudius for killing his father. Laertes wanted revenge on Hamlet who killed his father. In the end everyone ends up dead. Sometimes death is a blessing and not such a bad thing that we think it is. Death releases a person from their pain on earth and if they have faith in Jesus Christ then they will go to a better place than earth.
Death is almost a release from all the bad things in life. I think the death of everyone at the end is an earthly justice because there really is no source of a God figure that is present during this time. All the characters thought that they had a good reason to kill each other, but it was their own opinion not one from Christ. This play presents many elements like justice and vengeance that show the audience and readers how sometimes justice is not always correct and vengeance is not always the best thing. Without all these elements in Hamlet, the story would not be one that people can learn from.
