The Story Of Revenge In Hamlet

The story of a murder, a ghost, and revenge; Hamlet is one of Shakespears most read works. The story revolves around the murder of Hamlets father the king, and his quest for revenge. Quite naturally we side with Hamlet whose father, the king, was brutally murdered. But why? Do two murders really make it better than one? Are we just blood thirsty readers, or do we have some reason to believe that Hamlet should take revenge? We have a ghost word of course; what better reason do we need? The ghost 's story is enough to convince Hamlet to vengeance. The ghost forces Horatio and Marcellus into an oath. He orders Hamlet to commit the same sin that the king 's murderer committed when he killed the king. And he by no means has anything worthwhile …show more content…
The ghost looks like the recently (two months) deceased king and floats around in armor that the king used to wear. The guards, Horatio and Marcellus, try to speak with the ghost but with no response. The ghost leaves as dawn approaches. Horatio and Marcellus go and tell Hamlet. And Hamlet makes plans to try and speak with the ghost. That night they see the ghost and try to get it to speak to them but the ghost still refuses to talk and motioning for Hamlet to follow him he leaves the stage. Hamlets companions try and prevent Hamlet from following him because they think the ghost may be dangerous. After which Hamlet drawls his sword on his companions threatening to kill them if they do not let him go. Hamlet goes off with to talk with the ghost warning his companions not to follow. Hamlets companions decide to disobey his orders and pursue after Hamlet to make sure that he stays safe. The spirit, who claims to be Hamlets father, tells the story of his death and tells Hamlet to avenge him death by killing Claudius. Hamlet swears to do the ghost bidding and the ghost leaves. Hamlet then stumbles across his companions who inquire about what happened. Hamlet tells them to swear to keep it a secret. Seeming somewhat hesitant to commit such an oath, the ghost screams at them to swear and starts to shake the earth and break apart the ground. Here the ghost is trying to force them to swear by …show more content…
From this knowledge, we can conclude that any servant of God would not command evil. We also know that even when God allows evil to happen he will bring good out of it. This gives us the ability to know the source of spiritual apparitions after they have happened. Let us apply this to the ghost of the king. What happens after the ghost commands revenge? First, we see Hamlet start going, or at least pretending to go, mad. Shortly after this, Hamlet uses the play to convince himself of his uncle 's guilt. Then Hamlet sneaks up on his uncle in the church and contemplates killing him but decides not to because he does not want to kill his uncle while he is in the church because he thinks then he will send Claudius to heaven. Hamlet does not just want his uncle dead, he wants him condemned for eternity. Hamlet then goes to his mother 's room and after killing the kings right hand man, Polonius, he sees the ghost again. Hamlet 's mother, however, while standing right next to Hamlet cannot see the ghost. If the ghost was really against the sin of the uncle then why does he conceal himself to everyone but Hamlet? If he were to appear to the queen and make know the sin of Claudius, then his purpose would be fulfilled. His revenge would be served after the queen left Claudius. But this is obviously not the ghost 's true intent. After this Hamlet gets sent to England for