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Hamlet, hate & revenge

            Hate and revenge are an ongoing theme in the play Hamlet. All of the main characters show some type of hate in the play. Hamlet's hate for Claudius is the main focus during the entire play. There are lots of other characters that hate each other in the play, like Laertes hate for Hamlet at the end and the hate shared between Claudius and Hamlet. The main cause that triggered all of this hate and the wanting of revenge came when the ghost of the dead king tolled Hamlet about his murderer. Once Hamlet discovers that Claudius is the one responsible for the death of his father, thoughts of revenge and feelings of hate overwhelm his mind. From then on the only care that he has is to avenge his father's death. This then triggers a chain reaction of lies, betrayal, and deceit. .
             The thought of revenge on Claudius drives Hamlet crazy. He pushes people around him away and becomes a loner. Claudius notices the change in Hamlets behavior and immediately becomes suspicious of him. Claudius is then forced to become sneaky to try to uncover what it is that is making him act so weird. Claudius then goes around manipulating people around him to gain information and also to keep the truth hidden from Hamlet. He uses Polonius as a puppet to find out things about Hamlet. He tells Polonious comforting things such as, "thou still hast been the father of good news," (97) to give him a sense of companionship so that he will continue to talk of Hamlet's madness. He lies to Polonius to make him think that he is important so that he will do what he tells him to. Claudius calls Polonius, "a man faithful and honorable" giving Polonius a false feeling of acceptance. He also turns Hamlet's friends against him. He asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to try to find out if Hamlet knows about what he did to his father. By going and talking to Hamlet for Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are betraying their friendship with Hamlet.


Essays Related to Hamlet, hate & revenge

1. Revenge in shakespears Hamlet

... Claudius while he's at prayer because he wants him to go to hell and not to purgatory." (P87 Fry, Northrop, the Anatomy of Criticism) Hamlet never really hated Claudius before the murder, but what set of his hate towards him was not only the fact that he murdered his father, but the fact that he married his mother afterwards. He was disgusted ... by this incestual marriage between Claudius and his mother. Again his hate was brought to the surface by the ghost. He was told that he was to focus on Claudius and stop brooding on Gertrude. Hamlet's revenge comes with great cost to all. His p...

  • Word Count: 1162
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Hamlet and His Father

... realizes the evil in the deed of killing the king. The ghost has placed Hamlet in a most unnatural position by asking him to commit murder. Hamlet hates the king for his treachery, but he would not act on that hate if he were not prompted to do so by the ghost. But the relation with ... and his people, to whom he has an obligation of protecting them, by killing the king. But the Ghost influenced him a lot and all the hate accumulated in his soul push him to respect his father wish so he can also receive God's permission to go to Heaven or to be thrown in ... father except by killing Cl...

  • Word Count: 1164
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

3. Hamlet Paradigm

... that the audience sees, one that seems bizarre and incomprehensible. The Nature of Hamlet's Obsession The reasons for Hamlet's obsession with exacting revenge against Claudius are fairly straightforward. The ghost of Hamlet Sr. informed Hamlet that Claudius killed Hamlet Sr. and thus usurped him from his throne. In doing so, he emasculated Hamlet by robbing him of his central role model of masculinity, namely his father. He ... . Also, however, such rejection, by eliminating love from his consciousness, may harden his personality to the point where he is better able to hate Claudius and ...

  • Word Count: 4590
  • Approx Pages: 18
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Hamlet & Revenge

... obliged to avenge his father's murder: "if thou didst ever thy dear father love revenge his foul and most unnatural murder-. Using guilt to lure Hamlet into killing Claudius, the Ghost describes Old Hamlet's murder in detail, therefore influencing Hamlet to hate Claudius passionately as the true horror of the murder is revealed: "And in the porches of my ears did pour The leperous distilment ... we are as an audience, would also have found it successful for other reasons, such as the way the play fulfills all the conventions of a revenge play. Also if Hamlet had killed Claudius at this ...

  • Word Count: 2372
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Shakespeare and the Tragedy: Hamlet and Othello

... is undoubtedly gory too, it is greatly refined in that it is poetic and full of emotions like love, hate, honesty, betrayal and revenge, not to mention thought-provoking themes dealing with the meaning of life, death, as well as the existence of God. Hamlet as a tragedy is about as far from the classical Greek tragedy as Shakespeare gets, and may be more ... hand seems to be more multi-dimensional and appears to be based on a more contemporary format involving the revenge tragedy. Several differences can also be seen when comparing the two heroes Hamlet and Othello, as well as the two v...

  • Word Count: 3419
  • Approx Pages: 14
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Summary of Hamlet Act 1

... negative mindsets serve to reveal the main characters' antagonistic intentions and excessively prideful personalities which largely contribute to the central theme of "Hamlet." The beginning of act one introduces the theme of revenge, already giving purpose and conflicts among the characters living in Denmark. The play begins with three characters guarding Elsinore. A scholar named Horatio ... to heaven" (1.2.101). Claudius's true purpose for scorning Hamlet is to have Hamlet forget about his father so that he may be superior to King Hamlet. Perceiving Claudius's intentions as egotistic...

  • Word Count: 834
  • Approx Pages: 3

7. Macbeth Hamlet Comprison

... characters that are victimized themselves by a series of murders and plots against them that are a direct result of revenge. The guilt and remorse Hamlet and MacBeth fell as a result of these events eventually leads to their own destruction. In the beginning of the play Hamlet, the main character's father has been killed. His father's ghost appears to him and tells him that is ... in so many unintended deaths. The play gives no indication that the characters are learning from this, that killing caused by revenge leads into more revenge and death. It is an unending cycle. Before the end ...

  • Word Count: 1279
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Hamlet And McBeth, A Comparative Essay

... characters that are victimized themselves by a series of murders and plots against them that are a direct result of revenge. The guilt and remorse Hamlet and MacBeth fell as a result of these events eventually leads to their own destruction. In the beginning of the play Hamlet, the main character's father has been killed. His father's ghost appears to him and tells him that is ... in so many unintended deaths. The play gives no indication that the characters are learning from this, that killing caused by revenge leads into more revenge and death. It is an unending cycle. Before the end ...

  • Word Count: 1279
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Hamlet

... "Up sword, and know thou a more horrid hent. When he his drunk, asleep, or in his rage" (Act 3, Sc 3, Ln 92-3). Hamlet himself even questions the fact why he delays his revenge. "I do not know why yet I live to say, this thing's to do, Sitch I have cause, and will, and strength, and means ... to do't"(Act 4, Sc 4, Ln 46-8). This revenge really impacts Hamlets love for Ophelia. It is only after Ophelia's death that Hamlet expresses his true love for her. Hamlet declares his love for Ophelia as she is lying in her grave. "I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers ... woman he loved (Opheli...

  • Word Count: 779
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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