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Professor Bayer
English 1202 AO
25 April 2011

Revenge and Forgiveness

Revenge and forgiveness are the two underlying factors that are present throughout the entirety of William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet: Prince of Denmark. The play is begun with the death of Hamlet’s father, which Hamlet finds to be unsettling from the start. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius then takes over the throne while Hamlet’s mother then marries his uncle. It is then that the ghost of his father, tells Hamlet that the very man who had become king murdered him in cold blood; the ghost brings the idea of revenge to Hamlet’s mind (Shakespeare 1547). While revenge is constantly on his mind throughout the play, there is also the idea that Hamlet must forgive those who have done wrongs to him or his family; this is shown through his dedication to religion. But in the end, Hamlet’s internal need to seek revenge for his father’s death is so great that he is ultimately unable to forgive his uncle. The play begins with the sudden death of Hamlet’s father, and his uncle Claudius, his father’s brother, taking the throne (Shakespeare 1550). Hamlet’s mother chooses to marry Claudius just days after the death of Hamlet’s father, and Prince Hamlet expresses his disgust through his soliloquies, where he exclaims, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Shakespeare 1553). After some time, Hamlet is brought out to a forest by two guards who have claimed to see the ghost of his father. After some deliberation, the ghost of Hamlet’s father does indeed appear and tells Hamlet that Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, the current king of Denmark, murdered him. Hamlet’s father tells him that he must avenge his death, but Prince Hamlet can only inflict violence on his uncle, not his mother (Shakespeare 1581). There are a series of events that occur that convince Hamlet that the ghost of his father was indeed real and that Claudius did in fact kill his father. “He tells the young Hamlet that he was poisoned and murdered by his brother, Claudius, the new King of Denmark, and asks the prince to avenge his death. He also expresses disgust at his wife, Gertrude, for marrying Claudius, but warns Hamlet not to confront her, but to leave that to Heaven” (Shakepeare 1581-1582). Later in the play, Hamlet has a chance to kill Claudius while he is at his weakest point, but after much deliberation, Hamlet decides not to because Claudius was in the act of prayer (Shakespeare 1601). Hamlet did not want to kill Claudius then because he believed that Claudius’ sins would be forgiven if he were murdered during the act of prayer. In a later scene, Hamlet’s need for full revenge is shown when he hesitates to kill Claudius since he is in the act of prayer. Hamlet, being a religious person, believes that if Claudius is murdered while he is praying it will send him to Heaven with the forgiveness of the sins that Claudius had committed in the past (Shakespeare 1601-1603). Hamlet wants the soul of Claudius to be forever damned in Hell, so he may suffer more after his death. This shows the utter hatred that Hamlet has for Claudius. Some may speculate that this was actually a sign of spite and forgiveness but in reality it is the exact opposite. At the end of the play, Hamlet’s desire and need to avenge his father’s death finally comes to its climax (Shakespeare 1641). Hamlet and Claudius fight until they are both dead, although their deaths came from different ways. Claudius poisons the tip of Laertes’ sword, whereas, Hamlet actually wins the duel, but dies by being poisoned by Laertes. (Shakespeare 1647). Hamlet’s need for revenge is introduced in the scene where his father’s ghost appears to him. Old King Hamlet gives intimate and exact details of how he was murdered and how he wants Hamlet to avenge him. Although Hamlet believes the words that he hears are actually coming from his father, there is still a sense of doubt that is present until later in the play. This scene, however, is extremely significant to the play because it is where Hamlet is given the guidelines of how he can carry out his plan for revenge. Although it is a plan that is filled with revenge and hatred, there is forgiveness mentioned in it (Shakespeare 1591). “Hamlet is told that he must not harm his mother in any physical way, but rely on his tongue (or words) to hurt her” (Shakespeare 1592). This shows the amount of mercy and forgiveness that is possessed by Hamlet and the ghost of his father. Grace Tiffany writes of the similarities that are present between Hamlet’s father and Claudius, and the anger that is present in Hamlet’s heart after his father is murdered. She also explores the presence (or lack thereof) of morals and sins within the play. "Revenge implies not a salutary humiliation which may prompt the criminal's repentance, but spectacular bloodshed and death” (Tiffany 114). She writes that Hamlet is trying to create a bond between violence and public justice for the murder of his father. Therefore, Hamlet sees nothing wrong with his acts in his mind’s eye, since it is the duty of the people to bring upon justice for the death of their King. Tiffany also writes of the belief that Claudius has of Hamlet, a belief that Hamlet will, in the end, be too timid and merciful to fully act on his revengeful feelings. Claudius’ belief was that Hamlet was too vain to carry out his plan, and, in turn, lead to his own death: “Hamlet's personal vanity will draw him impulsively into the final deadly combat” (Tiffany 124). Claudius is proven wrong when Hamlet kills Laertes, and is told that he has been poisoned. After this happens, Hamlet kills Claudius without mercy, and he, carries out his revengeful plan. Michael Cameron Andrews focuses on the moral judgments that Hamlet made and how some of them, although he believed them to be moral in his critical mirror, were not morally correct. Andrews, explains that Shakespeare wanted the theatre to respond sympathetically to revenge figures, and to withhold moral judgment of Hamlet’s actions. This is why the reader can be seen sympathizing with Hamlet, even though some of his actions were morally incorrect. He also gives several examples from Eleanor Prosser’s book titled Hamlet and Revenge. Eleanor Prosser’s argument in her book is that Hamlet is fighting for the reader’s emotional approval of his immoral judgments, Andrews believes, “When we are immersed in a tragedy, we feel toward dispositions, actions, and persons such emotions as attraction and repulsion, pity, wonder, fear, horror, perhaps hatred; but we do not judge” (Andrews 9). This gives further proof that the audience will not judge Hamlet for his immoral actions throughout the play. This revenge tragedy shows that a man can go so far, even to his death, to seek revenge on someone. Hamlet did exactly that. Hamlet did, however, forgive along the way. In his final moments, Hamlet reconciles with Laertes, who had previously worked with Claudius to bring Hamlet’s demise but decided against the plan. Laertes also was a man who was seeking revenge for the death of his father; his revenge would have come by fighting Hamlet. This showed the goodness that Hamlet still had, by forgiving Laertes, and his dedication to the teachings within his religion. Hamlet did avenge the death of his father by killing the man that killed him, Claudius. However, along the way Hamlet did forgive people who had been involved in the plot. Although Hamlet had a strong ability to forgive others, he was not able to do so with the man who killed his father; therefore, the need for revenge in Hamlet’s heart outdid his need to forgive.

Works Cited

Alexander, Nigel. Poison, Play, and Duel; a Study in Hamlet. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1971. Print.
Andrews, Michael Cameron. “Hamlet: Revenge and the Critical Mirror.” English Literary Renaissance 8, no. 1 (winter 1978): 9-23.
Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.”Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, Drama. 5th ed. Ed. Robert Diyanni. New York: McGraw, 2002. 1545- 1648. Print.
Tiffany, Grace. "Hamlet, Reconciliation, and the Just State." Web. 9 Apr. 2011. http://www2.bc.cc.ca.us/gdumler/English%205A/Articles%20for%205a/Hamlet/Hamlet%20-%20Reconciliation.pdf.