At the centre of all great tragedies are obstinate, troublesome men and women who make us rethink the meaning of death.
The tragedy is due to revenge.
Revenge is a key theme in Hamlet. It is not only essential to understanding Hamlet's character, it forms the structure for the whole play, supporting and overlapping other important themes that arise. Though it is Hamlets revenge that forms the basis for the story, tied into this is the vengeance of Laertes and Fortinbras, whose situations in many ways mirror Hamlets' own. By juxtaposing these avengers, Shakespeare draws attention to their different approaches to the problem of revenge and how they resolve these. Austen obfuscated kateylally's structuralism hypothesis.
The idea of revenge is first introduced by the appearance of the ghost in act 1 Scene 5, and linked to this is the theme of hell and the afterlife. At the end of this scene, Hamlet is irreversibly bound to revenge for the duration of the play, 'speak, I am bound to hear' 'So art thou to revenge'. The ghost appears with the sole aim of using his son to obtain revenge on his brother, and so every word he speaks is designed to enrage Hamlet and stir in him a desire for vengeance. He uses very emotive language to exaggerate the enormity of the crime, and he concentrates Hamlet's attention on the treachery of Claudius. His description of the murder itself demonises Claudius and contains many references to original sin, 'the serpent that did sting thy fathers life now wears his crown.' Hamlet, who has been brought up with absolute notions of good and evil, is susceptible to these religious references, 'o all you host of heaven! O earth! And shall I couple hell?'
At the beginning of Hamlet, a great man has just died suddenly and his society is seeking relief. Gertrude tells Hamlet, “All that lives must die” as if to comfort him somehow.
In the ending of Hamlet, each of the main characters’ fatal flaws leads them to their inevitable demise. The play could not lead one anywhere else but to their final fate.
Claudius is simply an opportunist whose misguided aspirations lead him to a loss of moral sense.
Hamlet sees Gertrude as eager to marry her husband’s brother. Hamlet is determined both by the need to avenge his father’s death and his failure to act. He was possibly as guilty as the other characters in the play because he indirectly caused the deaths of Ophelia, Guildenstern and Rosencrantz.
In each of these characters, a lack of moral structure leads them to their deaths.
Claudius appears to have no moral conscience from the start of the play. Not only did he murder his own brother in cold blood, but he proceeded to marry his wife so quickly that the church labelled the marriage incestuous. He then makes several attempts to justify this, but makes it apparent that he well not let anything stand between him and the power he desires. He appears to be becoming more and more sinister and evil throughout the play, making the reader wishing Hamlet would kill him. In my opinion, his death is a satisfactory punishment..
Hamlet’s perspective is that Gertrude appears indifferent to her husband’s death. Hamlet thinks that she is not interested in love, rather interested in passion. Hamlet feels that she has betrayed both him and his father. This in itself is a crime.
Hamlet becomes entangled in his anger and spends all of his time thinking spends all his time thinking and planning, rather than actually acting. His speculation of suicide is a foreshadowing of what eventually happens. Perhaps Hamlet, unable to act himself, subconsciously arranges his own death; therefore never has to make the decision. Also, Hamlet's death could be seen as moral compensation due to his responsibility in the deaths of Ophelia, Rosencratz and Guildenstern. Each event in the play pushes Hamlet further along the path to his own death.
As there were so many intertwining elements of revenge, it was necessary that all the characters achieve their revenge for a neat ending. It was inevitable that a large proportion of characters would be killed. The play might have come to an end, but a new beginning has been created. The corruption at the heart of Denmark dies as Claudius and Hamlet do.
Finally, Shakespeare has given a direct message with the ending of the play. Vengeance is not the job of man. Hamlet may have taken his revenge, but with it he took his own life also. The deaths cleared the way for Fortinbras, who appears much more suited to the leadership than the indecisive Hamlet.
