The theme of revenge is the overriding concern of the titular character of ShakespeareÆs tragedy Hamlet. Hamlet returns home from university to discover his mother has married his uncle Claudius, the man who has murdered the former King Hamlet of Denmark, HamletÆs father. In the course of the play, Hamlet is wracked by deliberation and conscience as he curses that he was the one born to set things right in Denmark. Through a number of deliberations and schemes, including a play within the play called The Mousetrap, Hamlet eventually recognizes the need for him to avenge his fatherÆs death by killing Claudius. Along the way, Polonius, OpheliaÆs father, Ophelia, OpheliaÆs brother, HamletÆs mother Gertrude, and Hamlet will die. Hamlet eventually kills Claudius and avenges his fatherÆs death, but his decision to do so costs him his own life and that of those he loves. HamletÆs eventual decision to kill Claudius comes after a long period of deliberation in which he tries to determine if killing Claudius is the correct course of action. However, HamletÆs indecision stems from the fact that he wrestles with the morality of such an action to ensure that he is justified in killing Claudius.
The murder of a king was considered one of the most egregious moral violations in ShakespeareÆs time. As such, even though Claudius has murdered his own father, Hamlet does not take immediate action against Claudius. This is because Hamlet is a learned and wise young man who wrestles with his conscience through a series of deliberations before he is sure that what he chooses to do is justified morally. As Scott (p. 74) maintains, Hamlet uses personal meditations ôto make sense of his moral dilemma.ö
Hamlet is an individual whose passions and desires are controlled by his capacity to reason. Once he learns from the ghost of his father that Claudius has murdered him, many onlookers might expect Hamlet to exac
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