How Evil Is Hamlet Evil

The perception that evil exists in every level of life clearly presents itself as a universal theme in Shakespeare’s Hamlet because of the evil acts Claudius and Prince Hamlet commit throughout the play. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, mourns the death of his father while his mother marries Claudius, his uncle. When Hamlet encounters the ghost of his dead father, he learns of the foul deed Claudius continues to hide from Queen Gertrude and the court. At first Hamlet attempts to keep his knowledge unknown to everyone except his closest friend, Horatio, but the pressure becomes too much and Hamlet eventually drives himself mad with a thirst for revenge. In his madness, he commits a murder just as foul as his own father’s and that leads to the death of a woman Hamlet cares for deeply. In this tragedy, King Hamlet’s death acts as only the first of many. Claudius tries multiple times to keep Hamlet quiet, but in the end, he uses extreme measures that not only emphasize his perniciousness but also shows what power can drive a man to do. …show more content…
By dropping poison in the King’s ear, he makes his act of treason look like a natural death. His method of murder reveals his high level of treachery. Such an evil act goes over the heads of Gertrude and the court, but not the Prince. Hamlet, the only one that stills grieves for his father, learns that “all is not well” (1.2.254) in Denmark. He claims “foul deeds will rise,” (1.2.256), vowing to learn the truth, no matter how hard the murderer tries to cover the act. Hamlet’s awareness of treachery in the kingdom proves that Claudius brought evil to Denmark with his deed of, what the Ghost describes as, a “murder most foul,” (1.5.27) and only furthers the depth of foulness by his impending actions. This supports the universal theme of finding evil in every level of life because Claudius’s desire for power drove him to murder his own