Why Death Prevails in Shakespeare's Hamlet
This essay examines Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark through the lens of revenge and its destructive consequences. It argues that while revenge may be presented as morally necessary within the play's social and theological framework, it is never glorious — only bloody. Drawing on key scenes and characters including Hamlet, Laertes, Polonius, Ophelia, and Fortinbras, the essay traces how each act of violence generates further death, ultimately destroying the entire Danish court. The essay also considers the tragedy of innocent characters like Ophelia, who suffer despite bearing no guilt, as evidence that revenge fails to produce justice or a better society.
- Introduction: A Play Defined by Death: Thesis: revenge is necessary but only bloody
- Hamlet's Reluctance and the Nature of Revenge: Hamlet delays killing Claudius, fearing more bloodshed
- Fortinbras and the Futility of Violence: Fortinbras contrasts Hamlet's caution with reckless war
- Rebounding Violence and Circular Justice: Polonius and Rosencrantz die by their own schemes
- Laertes, Hamlet, and Equally Wronged Men: Laertes mirrors Hamlet's grievance without his hesitation
- The Collapse of the Court and Fortinbras' Triumph: Revenge destroys the entire Danish royal court
- Ophelia, Innocence, and the Cosmological Cost of Revenge: Ophelia's death shows revenge punishes the blameless
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What makes this paper effective
- Consistently supports its central argument — that revenge begets more death — with direct textual quotations, grounding claims in the primary source throughout.
- Considers multiple characters (Hamlet, Laertes, Polonius, Ophelia, Fortinbras) to show the argument operates across the full scope of the play, not just through the protagonist.
- Acknowledges complexity and counterargument — noting, for instance, that ignoring the ghost might have spared lives, while still affirming the play's demand for revenge.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective thematic literary analysis by building a single interpretive claim and tracing it through multiple scenes and characters in sequence. Each paragraph introduces a new piece of evidence that compounds the central thesis rather than repeating it, creating a cumulative, layered argument rather than a list of observations.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a thesis establishing the paradox of necessary-yet-destructive revenge. Subsequent body paragraphs move chronologically and thematically through the play — Hamlet's procrastination, Fortinbras as foil, Polonius's circular fate, the Laertes parallel, the court's collapse, and finally Ophelia as the symbol of innocent suffering. The conclusion returns to the thesis and elevates it to a cosmological dimension, closing the argument cleanly.
Introduction: A Play Defined by Death
William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark begins and ends with death. The play opens with the ghost of Hamlet's dead father haunting the battlements and urging his son to avenge his foul murder; it closes with the death of Hamlet himself. The play is also famously driven by a quest for death — namely, Hamlet's desire to avenge his father's murder. Yet as much as Hamlet burns with hatred for his uncle, the play also demonstrates an acute consciousness of the fact that violence merely begets more violence. Even though Hamlet's revenge may be justified, particularly after Claudius secretly poisons Laertes' sword in an attempt to kill Hamlet, the act of murdering anyone — justly or unjustly — will never have a good end. Although the play suggests that revenge may be morally necessary (and even Hamlet doubts this at times), revenge is never something glorious, only bloody.
Hamlet's Reluctance and the Nature of Revenge
Hamlet is aware of the horrible nature of revenge early in the play. While he says that the ghost only confirmed what he had already suspected about Claudius, he also mourns: "The time is out of joint: O, cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!" (I.5). He acknowledges his responsibility to avenge his father's death but simultaneously wishes he had never been born to bear that burden. Rather than immediately attempting to kill Claudius, Hamlet procrastinates — pretending to be mad and then testing the likelihood of Claudius' guilt by staging a play.
Hamlet is even reluctant to kill Claudius when he finds the king at prayer: "Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent: / When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage" (III.3). This self-justification suggests a deep reluctance to engage in physical violence except when he is irate and half-mad himself. Hamlet does eventually strike out in the scene in his mother's closet, but he accidentally kills Polonius rather than the king. Scholars have endlessly debated why Hamlet takes so long to kill Claudius, and one compelling explanation is that he simply does not want to — and is conscious of the fact that killing Claudius will only trigger more deaths. Revenge does not end the cycle of death; it only begins it.
Fortinbras and the Futility of Violence
Hamlet's feelings about the pointlessness of violence are further illustrated when he encounters Fortinbras, the Norwegian leader fighting for a contested piece of territory. In the words of one of Fortinbras' soldiers, "We go to gain a little patch of ground / That hath in it no profit but the name" (IV.4). Unlike Hamlet, who is wary of violence when composed, Fortinbras thinks nothing of sending men to die for a small patch of land. Hamlet tries to use this sight to whip himself into more revengeful thoughts, yet he shows little admiration for Fortinbras, who "Makes mouths at the invisible event, / Exposing what is mortal and unsure . . . for an egg-shell" (IV.4). Hamlet is acutely conscious that violent anger and a desire for power will result in the deaths of many people — even as he still feels bound to avenge his father, despite the fact that Claudius does not appear to be a particularly bad or incompetent king.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Shakespeare Homepage. Web. 14 May 2017.
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