Violence In Hamlet Analysis

In William Shakespeare’s well known play Hamlet , there are several acts of violence that often keep the readers on their toes constantly wondering what will happen next. It all begins with the death of King Hamlet and comes to an end with no royal family in control of the castle,

Elsinore, in Denmark. Each character has their own unique motive for self gain throughout the play, but Hamlet has a strong drive for the dangerous game of revenge. Hamlet wants to earn justice for his father who had his kingdom, wife, and crown all stolen out from underneath him when his life is innocently taken by his greedy uncle. “To be or not to be?” is the question

Hamlet often asks himself along his great journey of revenge, where many emotional encounters

Hamlet could have caused Ophelia emotional agony due to their relationship ending or from killing her beloved father, which leads her to the action of killing

Ledford 4 herself. Hamlet seems to be very complex and he may not be as deranged as Shakespeare makes everyone in the play to think he is. When readers think into detail about the way he could have possibly “mentally killed,” Ophelia or directed her to this spot in her life, we realize he is actually quite smart if it is part of his use of violence to seek revenge.

Shakespeare constructs Hamlet to be a character that everyone can love and feel sorry for at times because we as readers can relate to him in some aspects. Obviously, Hamlet is one of the readers favorite characters and someone the readers can root for throughout the play. We want Hamlet to get the revenge he desires, however, Claudius does not feel the same way the readers do. Thus, Claudius is conversing with Laertes to produce a plan to end our protagonist

Hamlet once and for all. (4.7.107-139) Laertes has agreed to this plan because he wants payback for the death of his father Polonius and sister Ophelia. Meanwhile, Hamlet and Laertes

Each act of violence contributes to this literary tragedy by helping the readers understand the risks each person is willing to take just to get the revenge they seek. Shakespeare allows each revenge thirsty character to have personal reasons as to why they want another dead.

Without these acts of violence, understanding the true meaning of the play would be difficult for the readers because they would never know how far the characters will go to uphold the morality they feel they deserve. This play has many layers beyond just the text and Shakespeare uses the violent actions to help his readers dig deeper into the storyline. One violent event is used to lead to the next, they are similar to a chain reaction. Additionally, these violent acts are also known to make the play much more compelling to read by providing some conflict to spice up the plot and also, to build up the climax. Without the violent scenes where people die, the play would be dull and there would be no “victories,” for the characters who want revenge. The violent

Ledford 6 segments are the way Shakespeare lets the readers know revenge is coming soon or has