A Critical Examination of Hamlet's Tragic Journey and Revenge

This essay provides an analysis of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the themes of revenge and tragedy. The essay explores the character of Prince Hamlet and his motivations, examining the impact of his father's ghost and his quest for vengeance against Claudius. The essay also con...Read More

Running head: Hamlet: The Tragic Hero
Hamlet

Hamlet: The Tragic Hero 1
Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................2
References.............................................................................................................................................4

Hamlet: The Tragic Hero 2
Abstract
The tragedy of Hamlet is one of the most classic and lengthy edition of William
Shakespeare illustrates a story of revenge. The play represents the style of revenge by Prince
Hamlet to his uncle, Claudius. The reason of revenge was that Claudius had brutally
murdered his own elder brother, the King Hamlet for a throne and also hastily married his
deceased brother’s wife, Gertrude. The play presents the series of tragic events through
psychological origins of revenge inbuilt in it. It retells audience that revenge is a significant
tool in the play that represents the social implication within kinfolk bond. Thus, Hamlet
provides readers reflection on deepest desires and aggression in the revenge (De Grazia,
2007).
The play Hamlet begins by the return of the young Prince Hamlet to his home, Denmark for a
purpose to join his late father's burial ceremony. Prince Hamlet was dazed to discover the fact
that his mother now re-wedded to his Uncle Claudius. Later, the Prince Hamlet was even
further astonished by the fact when his own father's ghost narrate that he was brutally
murdered by his younger brother for throne.
The design of the Ghost character of late king hamlet build tri-relationship between “father,
son and mother” hostility as the deceased King Hamlet reappear in the form of spirit to take
revenge (Woodbridge, 2010). The process of revenge completely destroyed the Prince
Hamlet innocence and raises his superego to kill his Uncle Claudius in any manner. Such
revenge egoism itself made a Prince Hamlet a victim of his own circumstances at the end
stage of the play.
The central theme of the play sets out that the Prince Hamlet was obsessed with the death of
his father, King Hamlet and over the series of the play the Prince Hamlet considers only

Hamlet: The Tragic Hero 3
death in many perspectives (Gower, 2013). Throughout the play, the notion is closely bind to
the themes of spirituality, bitter truth and vagueness in the death. The theme of revenge and
justice ultimately lost its real pursuit to commit a moral act in the end journey of the play.
It is true to assert that Prince Hamlet consider as a tragic hero because he is portrayed to take
revenge for sake of his father’s ghost in the beginning of the play but eventually the play
progresses in a way that Prince Hamlet take revenge for his own sake. The strong desire of
revenge leads to the death of the Prince Hamlet at the end. Prince Hamlet became a victim of
his own superego of revenge. The Prince Hamlet was permanently stuck in a parental bond
including traits of murder, adultery and incest in it. The play represent the line by Prince
Hamlet to her mother “You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife, and, would it were
not so, you are my mother“. Throughout the play, all character has presented a deep and
strong desire for revenge influences either for themselves or for their adored ones
(Greenblatt, 2013).

Hamlet: The Tragic Hero 4
References
De Grazia, M., 2007. 'Hamlet'Without Hamlet. Cambridge University Press.
Greenblatt, S., 2013. Hamlet in purgatory. Princeton University Press.
Gower, M., 2013. Revenge: interplay of creative and destructive forces. Clinical Social Work
Journal, 41(1), pp.112-118.
Woodbridge, L., 2010. English Revenge Drama: Money, Resistance, Equality. Cambridge
University Press.