Hamlet's Descent Into Evil Analysis

Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around the titular prince after the recent passing of his father, the king. Quickly into the play, it is revealed that the king’s brother murdered the king and ascended to the throne. Hamlet learns of this information, and he prepares to take vengeance on the evil that was done to his father. As the play progresses, though, the audience must consider whether Hamlet’s commitment to destroying evil has turned him evil. One comes to the conclusion that a man that sets out to destroy evil inevitably becomes evil himself. A man’s descent into evil begins because destroying evil involves encountering evil. Hamlet first commits to destroying evil only after realizing the evil that was done to him. When the ghost of Hamlet’s father reveals that he was murdered, Hamlet vows to no longer allow the “royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest” (1.5.89-90). Hamlet seeks to rid the evil that landed the current king in the kingship, but he only seeks to do …show more content…
When Hamlet finally completes his destruction of evil, he really has just committed murder. When Hamlet brutally forces Claudius to “drink off this potion” (5.2.357), Hamlet, in essence, does the very same evil act that Claudius did to the former king. They both are guilty of murdering someone with poison, and if Claudius is considered evil for murdering the former king, then Hamlet must in turn be evil for murdering the current king. Of course, perhaps one can say that Claudius deserved death as death seems to be a fitting punishment. Nevertheless, though, murdering a murderer doesn’t make murder not evil. This argument could go on in more directions, but it must come to a point that murder, even if it’s the murder of a murderer, is always evil. As a result, no matter how one attempts to destroy evil, one eventually becomes