Dickey 1 Erica Dickey Mr. Knoxx English12 17 October 2013 Revenge How far would someone go to get revenge?

Revenge brings out the worst in people. It changes their beliefs and priorities. There is no denying that revenge is a force for terrible deeds in this world, but at the same time it is a basic human action. Vengeance destroys logic and creates violence and suffering for the innocent throughout William Shakespeares play, Hamlet. Hamlet completely destroys himself by attempting to avenge his fathers death. In the beginning of the play a ghost of Hamlets father visits him. The ghost tells Hamlet to, Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder (1.5.7.). Hamlet quickly became obsessed with finding out who the murderer was. Hamlet swears to himself that not only will he remember the ghost's words, but he will erase former memories and think of nothing else. He says Ay, thou poor Ghost, while memory holds a seat in this distracted globe. Remember thee! Yea, from the table of my memory. I'll wipe away all trivial fond records (1.5.96.). Thus proving his loss of logical thinking and reasoning; his only priority is revenge. Hamlet assumes the murderer was Claudius, his uncle, since he married his mother and became the new king in such a short period of time. He somehow has to get revenge on Claudius, but Hamlet hesitates until hes positive hes the murderer. Hamlet continues to see the ghost of his father throughout the play, and people believe he has gone mad. He even starts to contemplate suicide and is no longer thinking straight when

Dickey 2 he says, To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them? To die, to sleep (3.1.56.). But he cannot commit suicide; he has to kill the new king. After Hamlet has lost all of his logical sensibility, many deaths begin to happen. Hamlet violently and abruptly kills Polonius when he finds him spying on him (3.4.21.). This begins the domino effect of deaths in the play. Laertes and Ophelia, Poloniuss children, react to the news of their fathers death extremely differently. Ophelia begins to go insane after her fathers death and cannot seem to process everyday life any longer. She unfortunately drowns, and is just another innocent life taken by the wrath of vengeance. Then Laertes had to deal with two deaths in his family, and he must seek revenge. He pins it all on the King, Claudius, who immediately tells Laertes this entire mess was Hamlets fault. Claudius and Laertes devise a plan to murder Hamlet, so Laertes can avenge his sisters and fathers deaths. They plan to have a jousting match between Hamlet and Laertes, but secretively the tip of Laertes sword will be poisoned along with a cup Hamlet is offered to drink out of. The plan seemed to be bullet proof. The jousting match begins and all seems to be going as planned. Hamlet begins to win; only upsetting Laertes even more. Claudius offers Hamlet a drink from the poisoned cup, but unexpectedly he denies. Gertrude says she will take a sip of the drink and before Claudius could stop her, she had already poisoned herself. In a short amount of time everything starts to go from bad to worse. Gertrude begins to realize she was poisoned and that Claudius is to blame. She tells Hamlet, The drink. The drink! I am poisoned.(5.2.52.). Laertes sees that the original plan is falling apart, so he scrapes Hamlet with the poisoned sword. Hamlet becomes aggravated, in a scuffle Laertes and Hamlet switch swords. Hamlet stabs Laertes with the poisoned sword,

Dickey 3 without even knowing its deadly powers. Laertes says, I am justly killed with mine own treachery.(5.2.60.). Laertes seeking out revenge on Hamlet caused his own ironic death. Shortly after Gertrude dies from the poison, Laertes dies. But before Laertes dies he says, The king the kings to blame (5.2.65.). Everyone looks towards the king shouting, Treason. Hamlet goes over to Claudius and pours the poison down his throat, finally getting his revenge on him; only after causing the deaths of so many innocent lives for his own selfish needs. Hamlet then dies from being injured with the poisoned sword. Violence and suffering of the innocent occurs when logic is destroyed by vengeance, this constantly occurs in the play, Hamlet. Is getting revenge worth the death and corruption of innocent people? Hamlets thirst for revenge resulted in so many unnecessary deaths and even his death.