Vengence
The definition of the word vengeance means to act or instance of
infliction injury in return for an injury or harm done. Vengeance causes one to act blindly through anger, rather than through reason. This act plays a very important part in Hamlet. Many people have
their own reasons to have vengeance on another character in this classic tragedy written by William Shakespeare. In this film the three main characters that demonstrate vengeance include King Hamlet,
Laertes, and Hamlet. All of their vengeance centers on another because one of their love for their family members that died. Many examples of vengeance still occur in our daily lives today. For instance
the Palestinians and the Israelis. They have had much vengeance against each other for many years.
First off King Hamlet wants vengeance against Claudius. He
wants to get back at him because Claudius killed him to get to the throne. He also wanted to marry his wife. To get his vengeance he comes back as a ghost. He asks Hamlet to kill King Claudius. At first
Hamlet becomes very skeptical of where this ghost comes from. He soon talks to the ghost; he then realizes that the ghost comes from Heaven. Then he comes up with his own plot to kill King Claudius. King
Hamlet finally gets his vengeance at the end when Hamlet kills the newly crowned king.
Laertes also has his own vengeance; he wants to get his
vengeance on Hamlet. He wants to kill him because Hamlet killed his father Polonius. Hamlet killed him while he talked to his mother in her room. Then he heard a person behind the curtain. He then
stabbed the man through the curtain. Hamlet believed the person to be the King but it was Polonius. Soon Laertes found out about his father’s death he immediately returned home to confront the King about
his father’s death. Claudius told Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father’s death. He then decides to kill Hamlet to avenge the death of his father. He and Claudius come up with a plot to kill
Hamlet. They decide to have Hamlet to duke it out with Laertes in a sword fight. Hamlet dies of wounds from the poisoned tipped sword Laertes used. But before Hamlet dies the swords are switched. He ends
up wounding Laertes with the poisoned tipped sword, which ends up killing Laertes.
Hamlet has vengeance against the newly crowned King
Claudius. Claudius his uncle, now his father, killed King Hamlet by pouring poison into his ear while he slept in a field. At first they believed that the King died of snakebite. Hamlet was deeply
sorrowed by his father’s death. He spoke to his father’s ghost; the ghost said that Claudius murdered him. Claudius murdered King Hamlet to become King. He also married Hamlets mother after he killed
King Hamlet. The two have had an affair for quite a while. Hamlet astonished by this swore vengeance for his father’s death. He then proceeded to try and prove his uncle’s guilt. He tries many times to
prove his uncle’s guiltiness. One of which where Hamlet wrote a play, in that play the King got murdered in his sleep by his brother. During the play Claudius started to get very upset, then he ran off.
That helped to prove Claudius’ guilt. Hamlet had many chances to kill his uncle, but his rage outweighed his intelligence: he then chose to wait until the lord could see no good in Claudius, then he
would strike him down into a world of eternal damnation. Hamlet waits until he can kill his uncle while the king performs a sin, unfortunately for Hamlet; the sin involves the poisoning of his own
son-in-law, he also accidentally poisons his wife. This happens when she takes a drink that was meant by the King for Hamlet to drink. Hamlet kills Claudius with the poisoned sword. He then pours the
poisoned drink down his throat, while he does this he tells him to drink it, so he can join his mother. Then his vengeance including his father’s are both avenged.
Vengeance still plays a big roll in
the lives of people today. A prime example involves the Palestinians against the Israelis. They have had battles for many years. Now it has escaladed to an outright war. They continuously fight over who
has control over the land. The Palestinians fight against armed Israeli soldiers. The battles began on September 28 when Palestinians rioted after a visit by a right winged Israeli opposition leader
Ariel Sharon to a Jerusalem site considered holy by both Muslims and Jews. The fighting has gone on for six weeks. The death toll rises every day; currently it’s at 176 people. Many of which include
young Palestinians who try to battle with the armed Israeli soldiers. The US constantly tries to get peace in the Middle East, but the Palestinians will not agree to anything because they believe that
the Israeli’s will not keep up with their end of the deal. There’s much history of these wars in the Middle East in the past years. Both Muslims and Jews have much vengeance against one another. Each
religion believes that they should have control over their holly land.
If Hamlet would have killed the king the first chance he
got then none of these other characters would have had to die. But without that then there would be no story in this play. In conclusion the same theme in a story written hundreds of years ago can still
apply to today’s life. Vengeance occurs in everyone’s life at one point in time, maybe not to the extent of the characters in Hamlet. But people still want to get back at someone who has done them wrong.
When someone has vengeance against another the way they go about it may not always be the correct way to solve the problem.
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