Seeking Revenge In Hamlet

In this play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, one of the main themes that are important is revenge. It was a motive not only for our main protagonist, Hamlet but also for other characters such as Laertes and Fortinbras. All three characters, in their own ways, have attempted to seek revenge for their own cause against another. Having lost their fathers, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras take vengeance on those who killed them by using extreme measures of violence and belligerence. For instance, Hamlet had lost his father because he was murdered by the hands of his uncle, Claudius through poisoning in order to marry his mother, Gertrude. Due to this, he attempts to seek revenge. In Laertes’ case, his father was killed by the hands of Hamlet,
Fortinbras has a great deal of revenge as well. Because of his father’s death, Fortinbras wanted to take back the land that was lost to him and his people. Fortinbras’ uncle then took the throne and told him that he shouldn’t try to get back the land that was lost or exact revenge over the death of his father. Due to the loss, Fortinbras decides to go and take action to get the land take back as his own. So he and his soldiers travel into Denmark to discuss about the land he wished to gain back. Fortinbras tells the captain of his soldiers what to say to Hamlet when they encounter him, “Tell him that by his license Fortinbras craves the conveyance of a promis’d march over his kingdom. You know the rendezvous,” (4. 4. 2-4). Fortinbras believed that it was his right to take back the land, and he could so that by taking it from Hamlet because his father was the one who killed his father. This, therefore, shows how much vengeance has affected him as he is driven by that goal because of the loss of his own father. The captain then informs Hamlet of the reason for their visit “We go to gain a little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name,” (4. 4. 18-19). This tells us that Fortinbras did not wish to take the land to benefit himself and his people. He did it to gain back the land that once belonged to his father. He was completely focused on obtaining revenge and drove him so far so to forcefully try to
However, out of the three characters, the one who had really been affected was Hamlet. Hamlet had to deal with the most pressure, causing him to change his character in general. Hamlet had to go through the death of his own father, which he later figured out that his uncle killed him. He also had to cope with the idea that his uncle, Claudius, would marry Gertrude and felt disgusted for his mother, as he viewed the whole matter as incestuous. After finding out the truth behind his father’s death, he had crossed many lines for himself like acting insane and rejecting love from Ophelia all for the purpose of killing Claudius. Everyone around him, except for those Hamlet spoke to of his plan, felt suspicious about him and were concerned about why he was acting such way. After having gone through his planning, he finally found his revenge by killing Claudius. In an attempt at killing Hamlet, Claudius decided to poison a drink for Hamlet to drink during the duel between him and Laertes. He did this in hopes that Hamlet would drink from the glass within the duel as a method of recovery or rejoice. However, Gertrude decides to drink from the glass instead, with Claudius being unable to stop her from drinking. As Gertrude dies of poisoning, she then tells Hamlet that the drink was poisoned, revealing to Hamlet that Claudius attempted to murder him. In rage, he stabbed his uncle with his