Deeper Meaning Of Hamlet Literary Analysis

The Deeper Meaning of Hamlet’s Revenge Hamlet, by playwright William Shakespeare, revolves around the burden of revenge. It all started from the beginning with the murder of King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father. Hamlet finds out the killer had been his uncle, Claudius, and sets out to avenge his father’s death. Claudius, however, is now the king and he has also married the queen and possesses all of the things he once envied his brother for. Every action Hamlet makes is founded upon the thought of revenge and he makes this evident throughout the play, although it seems there may be a deeper meaning to Hamlet’s revenge than meets the eye. He portrays the straight forward reason of avenging his father’s death for his revenge; however he may just be concealing the deeper anger he
He says, “I’ll have these players play something like the murder of my father before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick. If he do blench, I know my course” (II, ii, 623-627). This is his excuse to proceed on the course of revenge the ghost of his father led him on. In the article, “’His Semblable is His Mirror: Hamlet and the Imitation of Revenge” by David Scott Kastan, he says, “to be Hamlet, to deserve the name, at least as far as the ghost is concerned, is to be a revenger” (Kastan). In other words, the ghost convinces Hamlet that the only way to be worthy of the name he was given is to kill Claudius and avenge his father’s death. The ghost definately played an obvious role behind Hamlet’s actions, however, it was ultimately Hamlet’s decision; he chose to go through with his plan and doing it in such a manner that was highly disrespectful towards his uncle, who was now the king, showed that his hostility was specifically directed at