College Essay Examples: 'Hamlet is preoccupied with the ethics of revenge.' Discuss

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As an integral component of Hamlet, revenge provides the impetus for much of the play's action and the foundation for the play's philosophical debate. Yet to argue that the ethics of revenge are the play's preoccupation is to dismiss the myriad of philosophical and psychological questions posed by Hamlet and those that surround him. Hamlet, like all tragedies, is a play of opposites. Contrasting the ideal of an ordered life with the complexities of life tainted by human weaknesses, it presents what is best and worst in humanity. Life and death, love and sexuality, salvation and damnation, justice and revenge, reality and performance each theme is considered and contrasted during the course of Hamlet, creating a fascinating and disturbing account of the nature of humanity. This essay attempts to identify how the mechanisms of revenge influence the overall theme of life that preoccupies Hamlet the character and permeates Hamlet the play.

"The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy" (A Shakespeare Reader P.1). Francis Bacon's words naturally draw us to the infamous 'untouchables' of Elizabethan drama; those characters whose rank or position raise them above the law and legal justice. Kings such as Macbeth or Claudius embody the very laws they have defiled, whilst nobles such as Brutus or Lorenzo, son of the Duke of Castile (The Spanish Tragedy) feel safe in their social positions above the proletariat. Just as the natures and motives of these murderers differ (Brutus, dubbed by his own avenger as "the noblest Roman of them all," (Julius Caesar V.5.67), acted "in a general honest thought" (ibid, l.70)) so do the natures of their avengers.

Hamlet is no Mark Anthony or Macduff, secure in his right to avenge and able to act without delay, "gentle heavens / …Front to front / Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself," (Macbeth V.1.-5). Hamlet's introspection, "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I" (II..57), doubt, "The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil…[who] / Abuses me to damn me" (III.1.575-80) and constant need to evaluate, "That would be scanned" (III..75), point to a character for whom the justification for revenge is as important as the act itself.

Shakespeare uses the characters of Hamlet and Laertes to present two wholly different revenge philosophies. Greeting the news of his father's murder with "Vows to the blackest devil!" (IV.5.17), Laertes may be described as a typical protagonist from a revenge tragedy. Hot blooded and single minded, he is disdainful of the laws of this world and the next, "both the worlds I give to negligence, / …Only I'll be revenged" (IV.5.1-0). Only once does he ask for the facts of his father's murder, "How came he dead?" (16), allowing himself to be manipulated by Claudius' protestations of innocence. Ophelia's appearance only serves to intensify Laertes' need for revenge. "thy madness shall be paid by weight / Till our scale turns the beam" (155-6). The conversation that follows "I pray you go with me" (14) is closed to us but its effects are quickly seen in Act IV Scene 7. Laertes, convinced of Hamlet's guilt, welcomes the opportunity to "tell him to his teeth, / 'Thus diddest thou'" (IV.7.54-5).

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Claudius' manipulative tricks draw Laertes into the king's web of deception, transforming him from a just avenger into a murderer via a series of half-truths and withheld facts about his father's death. This manipulation may be compared with the ghost's manipulation of Hamlet. By echoing Hamlet's own anger towards the "most seeming-virtuous queen" (I.5.46), the ghost is able to set the Prince against his uncle, securing his vow of vengeance against Claudius. Both Hamlet and Laertes become tools for killing, blind to their own damnation. Yet, at the end, Laertes performs a combined act of contrition and pardon, "Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. / Mine and my father's death come not on thee, / Nor thine on me" (V..71-) as he attempts to secure for himself and Hamlet the opportunity for salvation that was denied their fathers.

By presenting Laertes as one who "dare[s] damnation" (IV.5.1) in the name of revenge, Shakespeare creates a stark contrast to the puzzle that is Hamlet. Sir Francis Bacon wrote, "Revenge is a kind of wild justice" (A Shakespeare Reader P.1). In Laertes, Shakespeare presents revenge as a blind deed without thought, driven by anger or grief. As a typical revenge hero, Laertes is able to brush aside all of the moral objections to revenge that prevent Hamlet from playing the role. Hamlet's intellect allows Shakespeare to both examine the ethical questions posed by revenge and place it in the play's overall theme of humanity.

Long before the ghost's fateful intervention we learn that Hamlet holds emotion "within that passeth show," (I..85). Burdened by grief and a gnawing disgust at his mother's hasty remarriage, "a father killed, a mother stained" (IV.4..47), Hamlet is emotionally vulnerable, longing for "self-slaughter" (I..1) to escape what has become a "weary, stale, flat and unprofitable" (1) world. This indifference to life, prompted by the death of a father and the loss of a mother to "incestuous sheets" (I..157) proves fertile ground for the ghost's demand, "Revenge [my] foul and most unnatural murder" (I.5.5) Hamlet responds to this demand with a plea "…that…wings as swift / As meditation or the thoughts of love / May sweep me to my revenge" (I.5.-1). By favouring meditation and love over the chaotic elements such as fire or flood, Hamlet reveals his nature as a thinker and lover; a nature that draws him to constantly examine the ethics of his proposed vengeance and prompt the ghost to reappear to "whet [Hamlet's] almost blunted purpose" (III.4.101)

Why does Hamlet not rush to confront "The serpent that did sting [his] father's life" (I.5.) ? Is he "a coward" (II..548), "unpregnant of [his] cause" (545) ? His soliloquy in Act Scene highlights his conflicting emotions as he spurs himself to anger, "Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain! / O vengeance!" (558-) before admonishing himself for "fall[ing] a-cursing like a very drab" (564). Finally we understand that Hamlet's procrastination stems from the fact that despite his proclamation, "It is an honest ghost," (I.5.14), Hamlet has yet to answer his own question, "Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned" (I.4.1). The ambiguities surrounding the ghost's true nature raise questions about the legitimacy of its demand for revenge. If, as it claims, it lies in purgatory "Till the foul crimes done in [its] days of nature / Are…purged away" (I.5.1-1), how may it demand revenge, contrary to God's laws? This contradiction is emphasised as the ghost instructs Hamlet to leave his mother "to heaven" (I.5.86). In Act , this doubt robs Hamlet of the perfect opportunity to avenge his murdered father.

Claudius' admission of guilt in Act Scene is followed by a strikingly honest soliloquy as he attempts to reconcile his desperate need to repent with his desire to retain those "effects for which [he] did murder" (III..54). His question, "May one be pardoned and retain th'offence?" (56) bisects the ethics of killing that have preoccupied Hamlet since the appearance of the ghost. Claudius admits that "In…this world / Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice" (58), implying that corruption may usurp earthly law. However, this undisputable proof of the king's guilt, as with the incriminating aside, "How smart a lash that…doth give my / conscience!" (III.1.5), is only witnessed by the theatre audience. Despite Hamlet's determination to find "grounds / More relative" (II..580-1) than the ghost's word as a justification for a revenge killing, this does not come until he crosses to England and discovers his uncle's request that his "head should be struck off" (V..6).

Lacking this definite proof, Hamlet holds back to consider the implications of killing a man at prayer, extending the theological questions already posed by the king. Throughout the play, Hamlet compares an ideal memory of his father against Claudius, "So excellent a king, that was to this / Hyperion to a satyr" (1..1-40). Now he recalls the manner of his father's death, "With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May" (III.4.81) and acknowledges the likelihood that his spiritual account is a poor one having been denied the opportunity to repent his sins. This prompts the question, "am I then revenged / … / When [Claudius] is fit and seasoned for his passage?" (84-6). Sheathing his sword, Hamlet resolves to wait until he may catch Claudius "about some act / That has no relish of salvation in't" (-), thus sending him to hell. Hamlet's procrastination stems not from a reluctance to kill (as Polonius is about to discover) but a desire to find the perfect time for revenge; an impossible task if one accepts God's prohibition of revenge. This forms a part of the paradox created by the ghost's command, "Taint not thy mind" (I.5.85). Recently described by Peter Brook, in an interview with Richard Eyre, as the most important line in the play, the impossibility of killing without taint is fundamental to the play's philosophical considerations.

Hamlet's preoccupation with life, death and the afterlife is evident throughout the play. After acknowledging, "There are more things in heaven and earth… / Than are dreamt of" (I.5.168-), Hamlet's soliloquies form a series of complex speculations on the natures and states of life and death, God's "canon 'gainst self-slaughter," (I..1), sexuality and relationships. However, amongst all of this speculation, not once does he outwardly consider God's prohibition of revenge, save to negate it, "is't not to be damned / To let this canker…come / In further evil?" (V..6-71). This is particularly surprising when one considers the importance of such issues in Shakespearean England.

The introduction to Sir Francis Bacon's 'Of Revenge' in A Shakespeare Reader notes that Bacon's counsel, "indicates the complex, moral and legal debates about ethics of revenge in Shakespeare England." (P.1). Heaven's laws certainly play their part in other revenge tragedies of the period. In Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Hieronimo asks of the "sacred heavens" (III..5), if the murder of his son were to go "unrevealed and unreveng�d" (), how could heaven's dealings be deemed just "If [heaven] unjustly deal[s] with those that in [its] justice trust" (11) Earlier Shakespearean plays such as Titus Andronicus also consider revenge in a spiritual context. Marcus calls, "O heavens, can you hear a good man groan / And not relent, or not compassion him? / … / Revenge the heavens for old Andronicus!" (IV.1.1-8), asking heaven to intervene for a man "so just that he will not revenge" (17).

Hamlet's disregard of his own spiritual account is particularly noticeable after the murder of Polonius. Although he acknowledges that "For this same lord / I do repent," (III.4.156-7), he goes on to suggest that he is now heaven's "scourge and minister" (15), arguing that he is no longer responsible for his actions. This contrasts with his demand that Gertrude, "Confess [her]self to heaven; / Repent what's past, avoid what is to come" (140-1). This double standard suggests that Hamlet has long accepted his own damnation and is now grasping the opportunity he has longed for since the beginning of the play.

Having had to "hold [his] tongue" (I..15) for so long, he now confronts his mother, "speak[ing] daggers to her" (III..66), that "cleft [her] heart in twain!" (III.4.147). Finally, having made Gertrude aware of her perniciousness, Hamlet appeals to her maternal instinct, "when you are desirous to be blest, / I'll blessing beg of you" (III.4.155-6). Her promise, "I have no life to breathe / What thou hast said to me" (181-) confirms her status as Hamlet's ally against the king. Hamlet's "Good night, mother," (11) is a marked contrast to the sarcastic "good-mother," (I..77) with which he first addresses Gertrude, seeming to highlight a restoration of the son's relationship with his mother.

Caught in the destructive tangle of revenge, Hamlet's relationship with Ophelia cannot be restored.

Although it may be argued that Hamlet belongs in the genre of revenge tragedy, any attempt to confine it to this narrow classification would be unproductive. A short essay such as this can only touch upon the myriad of themes to be found in the play, themes that examine what it is to be human. Hamlet asks, "What is a man," (IV.4. .). His memories of his father are untainted by thought's of the old king's "foul crimes" (I.5.1) whilst his description of Fortinbras as "a delicate and tender prince" (IV.4. .8) is more than a little idealistic. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern prove to be "adders fanged" (III.4. 185.) and Polonius is a "wretched…fool" (III.4.0). Only Horatio remains, "Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled / That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger / To sound what stop she please" (III..6-4). Horatio, unlike Hamlet, "is not passion's slave" (65); he is "as just a man / As e'er…conversation coped withal" (47-8). It is not surprising that it is left to him to tell Hamlet's story, for who else may Hamlet, or we the audience, trust to give an honest account.

Promising a tale of "carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts / … / Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause" (V..5-), Horatio prepares to tell the tale as he has witnessed it. This version, whilst honest, cannot be more than a parody of what the theatre audience has seen. Horatio's sketch, illustrates how we, as an audience, have been given privileged access to the innermost thoughts and feelings of the play's protagonists and how Hamlet becomes, for us, so much more than a conventional revenge tragedy.

Shakespeare, William Hamlet - in The Norton Shakespeare

Edited by Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard

and Katharine Eisaman Maus