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Hamlet and Play

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Hamlet and Play
Hamlet Essay The act of revenge never fails to accomplish Shakespeare’s goal of keeping the audience in their seats. Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s most well written play carries the theme of revenge or redemption throughout the play. Redemption is defined to be as the desire to undo an injury or a wrongdoing. Many characters felt that they needed to redeem themselves however in doing so, they ended up facing death. For some characters, revenge had sprouted from their urges to redeem themselves. Revenge is defined as the desire to repay an individual for their injury or wrongdoing. A famous American novelist, John Irving has mentioned in work The World According to Garp, that it is a life-redeeming work in which everybody dies. Hamlet, Shakespeare’s most unique play follows in-line with Irving’s idea which is seen through the actions of Hamlet, Laertes and Gertrude. Hamlet, the protagonist of the play was greatly affected by the death of his father, King Hamlet who he sought for revenge throughout the play. During the beginning of the play, Hamlet was very distressed at the fact that his father had died. He was very troubled at the fact that his mother Gertrude had remarried Claudius so quickly. Hamlet felt that his mother had betrayed and abandoned his father for another man. After Hamlet’s altercation with the King Hamlet’s ghost, Hamlet raged in anger against Claudius for killing his father. Hamlet felt that he needed to redeem his father so he sought his path of revenge by planning on killing Claudius. Hamlet also tried to redeem himself with Ophelia. Hamlet has acted very rudely and crazy in front of Ophelia where he said, “Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them” (3.1.139-141). However, by the time Ophelia died, Hamlet poured his heart out saying that: 'Swounds, show me what thou'lt do. Woo’t weep? Woo’t fight? Woo’t fast? Woo’t tear thyself? Woo’t drink up eisel, eat a


Cited: "Hamlet." Enotes.com. Enotes.com, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2012. .
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