Hamlet and Macbeth both portray usurpers as ruling kings, and in each case it is made clear that such rule is not to be tolerated either by the ruled or by the universe. Indeed, the fate of kings is tied to the order of the universe, and dissension and tension in one is reflected in the other. Yet, the issue is complex, and while the usurper has no right to rule, it is not always clear who has the right to prevent him from ruling. In Macbeth, the fate of the usurper is ordained, and his downfall at the hands of the wronged Macduff, who is the rightful king. Macduff has the right to retake his throne by force. The hesitation of Hamlet, much commented on by critics, may derive from the fact that while he knows Claudio to be a regicide, to kill Claudio would make him a regicide as well. In both plays, the usurpation of the throne leads to a more dangerous and uncertain environment in the land, and nature concurs by expressing through storms and other travails visited upon the people that a great political wrong is also a great moral and religious wrong.
The effects of a regicide are seen in storms and the like because such actions offend the gods, or God. In Hamlet the disorder in the kingdom derives from the fact that the natural order has been challenged - a king has been murdered by his wife and brother, and Hamlet is to act to restore the natural order by avenging his father. The appearance of the Ghost at the beginning of the play shows the degree to which the natural order has been sundered. Hamlet is told what to do by the ghost of his father, whom he meets on the ramparts at night, a portent to all of things to come:
If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned incest.
But howsoever thou pursuest this act,
Taint not they mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against they mother aught: leave her to heaven. . .
Hamlet is called upo...