Theme Of Retribution In Hamlet

Revenge and Retribution are key themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and the outcomes of these themes are heavily influenced by Dante Alighieri’s Dante’s Inferno, an epic poem telling about the seven sins by which all humans are judged by in the afterlife. Throughout the play, the murder of family members spurs three groups to act. These groups, being those seeking revenge, those incapable of thinking for themselves, and those that ignore the need to correct immoral actions such as murder, eventually become a victim of their own folly. By the end of the play, and rightfully so, each character that broke god’s law dies in the form of divine retribution for their actions, whereas those that resisted the temptation, such as Fortinbras refraining from …show more content…
While the relation to the dead is not the sin itself, but rather the excessive pride the living had in them. Ophelia is the guiltiest of this, and the death of her father, the source of her pride, leads to her death. Due to the lack of a mother figure, Ophelia relied solely on her fathers decisions her entire life. Even as a fully grown adult, she still refuses to think for herself, also violating sloth, by staying in stagnation and not advancing her life by herself. Ophelia pays for this, however, when Gertrude reports that she was “incapable of her own distress …/ Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay/ To muddy death” (4.7.201-208), implying she drowned herself since she did not know what to do without her father. In the end, Ophelia deserved to die due to her inability to grown and think for herself, as someone who cannot do so will eventually stagnate and burden others …show more content…
With the death of the late king, Hamlet ends up seeking revenge for his father's death, which inadvertently through Hamlets murders, spurs Laertes to seek revenge for his own father's murder. Laertes also admits that he is not better than Hamlet when he says “Let come what comes; only I'll be revenged/ Most thoroughly” (4,5,140-145), acknowledging that taking revenge on the murder makes him no better than the murderer, and that both will be judged for the same crime. In comparison, Fortinbras has the same situation, as his father was also murdered, however, Fortinbras gave up on the idea of revenge and was ultimately spared from death, serving as a contrast to how Hamlet and Laertes gave in to their greed. In the end, those that sought revenge that was not theirs to begin with, primarily Hamlet and Laertes, were punished in the end by death, while those that abstained from the temptation were rewarded, such as how Fortinbras eventually became king of