The most prevalent theme in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the theme of revenge. The Bard seems to have a lot to say on the subject and voicing his opinions in a play seemed the logical solution. Being his longest play, the sheer length can be seen as a sign of his enthusiasm for the topic. By examining the play, one can fairly easily identify three major themes, or warnings, on the subject of revenge. Shakespeare warns of revenge hurting bystanders, causing irrational thought, and being against the nature of the universe. The first warning Shakespeare offers is the most obvious one. Revenge hurts everyone. The death toll is incredible and only one of the dead is the intended target. In the process of his revenge, Hamlet, directly or indirectly, brings about the deaths of six people, other than the king, and even manages to kill himself. Polonius is the first and it just goes downhill from there. Lashing out at the person behind the curtains in hopes that it would be his uncle, Hamlet runs Polonius through and sets events in motion that would lead to the deaths of so many more. The king promptly ships Hamlet off to England to have him executed, and after discovering this plot Hamlet forges documents to have Rosencrantz and Guildenstern done away with. This, presumably, is the way that Hamlet was planning to make the king look guilty, and with a twist of irrational thought, justify the killing of the king (Although the king is innocent of their deaths and the murder of his father wasn’t enough justification). Ophelia is next, as she breaks down from the combined stresses of her lover going insane and the death of her father by Hamlet’s hands. There is a short respite in the deaths until the final scene. Gertrude gets mixed up in it all when she drinks the poisoned cup that is meant for Hamlet. This is part of Laertes and Claudius’ plot to seek revenge for the death of Polonius. In the next short section, Hamlet and Laertes are both injured by the poisoned sword while dueling but in his dying
breath Hamlet stabs the king with the sword and thus carries out the deed around which the whole play is centered. Fortinbras, leader of Norway, walks into the scene to find all who would oppose him dead and comments “The quarry cries on havoc.”(5, 2, 357) This final strange moment in the play adds one more death to the tally: The death of Denmark. Many of these deaths could have been prevented, had revenge not had its second, more dangerous, effect. Revenge causes people to think irrational or illogical thoughts. There are plenty of examples of this in Hamlet. The first example is Hamlet’s decision to feign madness in order to get closer to the king. This doesn’t make sense because rational people realize that people keep things, especially people, that are strange or weird, at bay. Most people try to ignore people with even slight disfigurements or mental disabilities and feel quite uncomfortable around them. Why Hamlet would think that Claudius would be able to let his guard down when met with this mad version of him, shows his lack of reason. Although it can be agued that Hamlet is mad already, it is far more likely that this sudden delegation of revenge is muddling his thoughts and preventing him from checking his ideas against reason. We also see this quality in young Fortinbras of Norway. He too seeks revenge for the death of his father and in his single-minded quest mistakenly views Denmark as being in a state of disarray. Even though he is more aware of his circumstances than Hamlet, Fortinbras quickly raises an army of mercenaries, without giving a second thought to confirming his ungrounded assumptions. It is interesting that only by the quests of revenge of others is he able to take the crown of Denmark. Hamlet’s second bout of irrationality happens when he decides to hold a play to see if the king is guilty. This informed the king that someone knew the details of his sin and the king sees
that as a threat which must be eliminated. Hamlet is overly obvious that he is this person by his involvement in the choice of the play, his modification of the plot and continuous insinuations during the play. He says things like “this is miching mallecho…poison in jest…The Mouse-trap…we that have free souls, it touches/ us not…how the murderer gets the/ love of Gonzago’s wife…frighted with false fire!”(Act 3, Scene 2, lines 134262) All these comments are uttered by Hamlet during the play within the play and easily betray him to the king. This should have been apparent to Hamlet but he is so caught up in how witty he thought his plan for revenge was that he is unable to contain himself. The last area in which revenge blinded him is in his decisions about sin. Revenge justifies the killing of Claudius in the first place and then his numerous other sins throughout the play including lies, forgery and the murders of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
Revenge may muddle the mind and slay spectators but perhaps the worst thing about revenge that Shakespeare was trying to warn us of, is the fact that revenge is against nature and, by extension, God. It was a common theme of plays from the era that the natural order of things should not be meddled with. It was set in place by God and should a human disrupt it, bad things will happen until it is corrected. The play is a message to the masses that revenge is not for humans to carry out and everyone gets their just desserts in the end. For as Jesus once said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”(John 8:7) Since God alone (and perhaps small children) is free from sin, he should be the only one to carry out the work of revenge. This could explain Hamlet’s reluctance to kill Claudius when he had the chance; he realizes that he himself is a sinner and no better in the eyes of God than Claudius.
In a sense, William Shakespeare was the Mahatma Gandhi of 16th century England, trying to end the continuous retaliation of wars, as “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” He stressed the importance of not seeking retribution for others’ deeds and cleverly realized the spiraling chain of violence that erupts from these lapses in judgment and their effects on all of society. His warnings of revenge causing a mutual suffering of all are still relevant in today’s world, where so many people are unable to forgive and forget. Only by forgiving one another can we truly be free of the shackles of revenge which tie us to our violent past.