Role Of Revenge In Hamlet

Sweet Sweet Revenge Hamlet, considered Shakespeare’s best play deals in a large part with the topic of revenge. The characters in the play do not simply worry about how they will get their revenge, but they also find doubts in their minds about whether seeking their revenge would serve a good purpose and also about what they should do if they don’t seek out their revenge. Although the main character Hamlet definitely deals with seeking his revenge on King Claudius, the support character Laertes also has to deal with seeking his revenge against Prince Hamlet. Laertes’ thirst for the blood of Prince Hamlet does not set in until later in the play after Hamlet kills his father Polonius. Soon after the death of his father, Laertes seems hell bound to do all in his ability to get his revenge saying to the King “I dare damnation. To this …show more content…
Before entering the foil match with Hamlet, Laertes admits “I am satisfied in nature, whose motive in this case should stir me most to my revenge” (5.2.259-61). At this point, it seems that Laertes himself is not even sure that getting his revenge by killing Hamlet would be a good idea. He eventually reaches the point where it appears that he may even forgive Hamlet, but the King pressures him into going through with the plan to poison Hamlet. This issue relates to the peer pressure that not only appears in the play, but also in modern day. In this case, the pressure is of a negative nature because it may force Laertes to act in a manner that he wouldn’t normally if he had been left to himself to make the decision. For that reason, revenge is better sought without taking on the ideas and influences of others that may have a personal bias in the situation as in the case of the king who wanted Hamlet dead for most of the second half of the play once he found out that Hamlet knew of his father’s