Theme Of Vengeance In Hamlet

In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, one of the major themes is revenge/vengeance. Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, has an internal conflict with summoning the courage to kill his uncle, King Claudius, in order to avenge his father’s, Old Hamlet’s, death. Hamlet understands that he needs to avenge his father’s unjustified death, but throughout the play, he struggles with actually taking action instead of constantly thinking about revenge. Through the thoughts and actions of Hamlet, Shakespeare presents to the reader the idea that revenge is hard to achieve or come to terms with, even though it seems like the right thing to do. Hamlet’s quest for vengeance begins in Act 1 Scene 5, in which he is told by Old Hamlet’s ghost that he needs to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The ghost describes how Old Hamlet was killed by King Claudius, who poured poison into his ear in order to claim the throne, and that because of this,
Hamlet sees the ghost and exclaims “Do you not come your tardy son to chide, that, lapsed in time and passion, lets go by the important acting of your dread command? O, say!” The ghost responds by saying “Do not forget. This visitation is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.” Hamlet is reminded of his inability to take action, and his father’s ghost is also irritated by this. The ghost seems as though he is tired of waiting on Hamlet to complete his task, which is why he comes to visit him and let him know that he needs to hurry up and decide how he is going to finish getting revenge. The arrival of the ghost at this moment is arguably the moment in which Hamlet understands that he does not have much time left, and that he has been setting the topic of revenge to the side throughout the entirety of the play up to this point. After this meeting, Hamlet turns into the ambitious and vengeful individual he was supposed to be at the very