A Vicious Circle.

Besides everything else, Hamlet is a story about revenge. Since the moment that Hamlet knows that his father was killed by his uncle he plans a way to revenge his father’s death. Looking into other details we find that is not the only revenge situation there is. When Hamlet kills Polonius, Laertes also seeks for revenge. Hamlet even kills Rosencrantz and Guildenstern for betraying him and helping the king. So there is revenge all around. But when the play actually ends the revenge situation that appears at the beginning does not make sense. Yes Claudius dies, Hamlet makes him drink the poisoned cup and cuts him with the poisoned dagger. But Gertrude and Leartes also die and Hamlet dies too. So Hamlet gets his revenge, but why did he die? And why did the others die as well when the only one that “should” have dies was Claudius. Maybe it’s was a way of showing that everyone that kills dies, again showing revenge.

All humans seek revenge when something bad is done to us. I think its natural and we try to cover it up with the excuse that justice is being served. Hamlet’s actions fit this situation perfectly. His uncle killed his father so it seems fairs that he would kill him. But then Hamlet is also killed because of revenge. One may argue that that is unfair but then that goes back to the same point. Revenge is like vicious circle that does not end, because there is always going to be a reason to in this case, kill someone else. If we were to consider this situation now days, Hamlets actions would not be tolerated and he would have committed the crime and suffer the consequences as well as his uncle. It would not be ok just because the person he killed had killed his father.

That is one thing that Shakespeare wanted to prove with the ending of the play or at least that is one thing I understood from it. Revenge is what triggers the play and most of the characters in it, because we believe that revenge is the same as justice when it is not. Even Shakespeare try to prove this when Laertes says “he is justly served”(Act. V S. II. 348) when the king dies. And that is why every one dies in the end. Because revenge does not leave anything good and because Shakespeare had to put an end to the circle that was created at the beginning. Even Gertrude dies and she did not do anything wrong because if she was left alive she could have wanted to seek revenge of Hamlet for killing Claudius or of Claudius for killing her son. The only one that is left alive is Horatio “to tell my (Hamlet’s) story”. We can all learn that revenge is not the answer.