The Importance Of Inheritance In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Claudius steals lives and then robs from the grieving living. Wrought with greed, he seizes the chance to take Hamlet’s inheritance, and appears to try the same with Laertes. Inheritance becomes a key element in deciphering Hamlet’s bitterness and Laertes’s return to Elsinore. Inheritance drives the plot from the beginning, and makes many of Hamlet’s gibes and references weightier and relevant. Gertrude’s naiveté is magnified through the lens of common knowledge about her rights as a widow. For Laertes, the confrontation with Claudius is not a simple action of rage and revenge, but is primarily motivated by worry that Claudius plots to rob him. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, stolen inheritance furthers Hamlet’s disgust toward Claudius and Gertrude, exemplifies Gertrude’s foolishness and Claudius’ avarice, and motivates Laertes’ return to Elsinore. Claudius married Gertrude quickly not only to secure the throne, but also to divest Hamlet of the lands entitled to him by his father’s death. As it …show more content…
Upon successfully storming the castle, instead of allowing his followers to barge in along with him, he sends them away to discover the truth without the rashness of a mob mentality. He faces Claudius and demands “Give me my father” (4.5.116). Before Claudius can respond, Gertrude interjects, telling Laertes to calm himself. Laertes responds “That drop of blood that is calm proclaims me bastard, / Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot / Even here between the chase unsmirched brow / Of my true mother” (4.5.116-119). Here, Laertes reveals his true purpose in Elsinore to the court. A bastard may revenge the death of his father as easily as a legitimate son, but gains nothing material, as he is unrecognized in the eyes of the law. Laertes, his inheritance and birthright threatened, stakes his passion in his legitimacy, laying claim to a cause a bastard would be unable to