Issues And Contradictions In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Despite Hamlet being a legendary play it still as some issues and contradictions. To start, Hamlet is said to have recently been studying as a student at Wittenberg, causing us to believe him to be in his late teens or early twenties. Further Laertertes and Polonius warn Ophelia of Hamlets age, reinforcing the idea of him being a young man. Yet late in the play we learn that Hamlet is thirty. Another problem is that of Claudius and Gertrude's marriage. Claudius is Gertrude's brother in-law and at that time a relationship like that was considered incestuous and was forbidden by the church. And yet somehow Hamlet and the ghost where the only ones to notice? Furthermore in the first scene Horatio knows all about Denmark and they political situation causing us to believe him to be from Denmark; and yet later on he asks Hamlet about Danish custom. As we see Hamlet isn't a perfect play and yet despite this Shakespeare is able to bring it all together and unify it in numerous ways. For starters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras are all unified in the hunt for revenge. All three play the part of the vengeful son, but Hamlet takes the lead role. If we dig deeper we can even see how Gertrude and Ophelia relate, both have lost someone dear to them …show more content…
If we skip to the end of the play we see a stage covered in the dead bodies of just about every character in the play. From Claudius to Hamlet himself every person that based their actions on revenge ends up having revenge taken on them as well. Looking at this we can guess that Shakespeare was extremely critical to say the least of revenge. No matter who you extract your revenge on they will always have a vengeful relative ready to take up arms in their defense. The play makes clear that taking revenge upon ones self never brings peace, but only furthers the chain of