Critical Analysis of Hamlet: Character Analysis and the Themes of Revenge

Throughout the play of hamlet we see the theme of revenge in use, Revenge which is one of the biggest themes in hamlet as it is the biggest revenge play ever. It shows us Hamlet, a young man whose apart of the royal family of denmark whose father had wrongfully been killed by his uncle, King claudius. Hamlet fatefully finds this out one night when he is with Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus and they reveal to him that his father lives in the castle that they Guard. Hamlet gets a chance to interact with his father's ghost, he gets the truth about what had happen within the maze with Claudius. Young hamlet swears that he will avenge his father's death in someway and even has to act crazily in love or act like he has feelings towards ophelia.

We see Hamlet's first plot of revenge against Claudius in the second act when we see Hamlet, who is sent off to college and is followed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. He thinks that this in many ways is odd that they have been sent after, he is puzzled and wonders why they had been sent after him. Why, anything, but to the' purpose. You were sent for, and there is a kind of confession in your looks which your modesities have not craft enough to color. I know the good king and queen have sent for you He tells the men that he knows the king had sent him to spy on mostly due to how Hamlet had been acting around the king after his father's death, he mostly thought maybe the young man was in love with Ophelia but that's wrong. Hamlet then has the men organize a play to see if Claudius is the true killer of his father, this is a form of revenge in Hamlets eyes as he wants to see if King Claudius had truly done it. He organizes the players to perform a play that he had slightly modified, the play which is the Murder of Gonzago involves Gonzago getting murdered by his son by getting poisoned pour in his ear, he tells Horatio to watch to see if Claudius stands, The reason the play is chosen by Hamlet is mostly because it mirrors what had happened to his father, near the last glimpse of the play we see The queen and wife of Gonzago who promises not to remarry and never to find anyone else but the King while he is dying calls this bluff.

King Claudius while this is all happening stands up in a fit of anger and says give me some light, away! (172) Hamlet and Horatio don't exit from the scene as everyone else does because they were scared by the king. Hamlet finally gets the answers he's wanted the whole time which fuels the young man to get more revenge. Young hamlet plans to kill Claudius after the scene but doesn't due to the fact that he was praying. We don't just see Hamlet take revenge with actions, He also takes revenge with his words throughout the book mostly with his mother, Gertrude who is queen of Denmark and Hamlets mother who is also concerned with him and how he's been acting, he mostly uses his words of revenge against his mother due to the fact that his father had only been dead for 2 months when she married king Claudius. He takes a different approach with his mother mostly because she didn't actually kill his father much more just moving on too soon from his father and marrying his uncle and despite the physical revenge that he lacks towards his mother doesn't mean the verbal abuse his mother receives from him is just as worse as Physical abuse with the words young Hamlet relays to her. A bloody deed - Almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king and marry his brother (171) Gertrude questions when Hamlet says this to her due to the fact she doesn't know the truth yet and what has all conquered. Hamlet truly doesn't mean to spark any revenge move or anything to his mother, he just wants her to understand that King Claudius had killed the man she loved and it conflicts hamlet, we see a more rather sympathetic form of revenge towards his mother than physical as he doesn't want to fully commit revenge on her because she didn't kill his father. Hamlet mistakenly kills polonius as he was hiding behind the Curtain while Hamlet was talking to his mother, it shocks Hamlet and causes more rather a delay in his plans of revenge against Claudius.

Hamlet is a young man stuck with a lot of problems which is why we don't see him kill the king that early on in the book, he feels that he doesn't mean anything anymore and has nothing to lose at all, in the sense of power Laertes and Claudius are the same in the fact of wanting power and feeling bigger than others. This makes Claudius try to manipulate and play Laertes as by now, Hamlet has killed Ophelia and Polonius have been killed by young Hamlet, Claudius uses this to his advantage to try to get Hamlet killed once and for all as his plot of revenge, we see Hamlet find the skull of yorick while they're burying the graves of both royals, the theme of death and revenge also link heavily together as we see about 5 deaths transpire from young hamlet just trying to get revenge; the act of final revenge doesn't fully happen until act 5 scene 2, when we finally see the theme come full circle and we see the plot of revenge take dark a turn no, no, the drink! O my dear Hamlet! The drink.. I'm poisoned (279), this is a form of the devil advocate being played with revenge much rather than the antagonists revenge, give me the cup, lets go!

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