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Hamlet

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Hamlet’s Revenge
It does not matter how old a person is or if that person likes literature or not, it is very probable that he or she has heard these words pronounced by Hamlet: "To be or not to be; that is the question..." (Act III, Scene I). This quote is not only one of the most popular quotes in history of literature, but also one that describes Hamlet’s dramatic situation after his father’s death, when he contemplates suicide as an option. This dramatic story is considered one of the greatest in history and, for many people, the best book written by Shakespeare. The influence of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in many modern narratives can be easily identified. Scott Leslie’s presentation is a good example of how Hamlet’s tragedy has influenced modern authors to write similar stories like “The Lion King”. In fact, Scott literally said, “The Lion King is the light version of Hamlet”. The story of Hamlet is based on revenge and Hamlet’s internal conflicts. Revenge is a concept that is not well considered today due to the strong moral values the society seems to have. However, anyone with my same perception of both modern justice and honor will claim that Hamlet’s revenge is justified.
The first point to be discussed in order to demonstrate that Hamlet’s revenge is justified is the concept of justice. Many people will state that revenge has nothing to do with justice and it is nothing else than a primitive behavior. However, what is justice? According to Oxford’s dictionary, “justice is the quality of being fair and reasonable”. However, it can be said that today’s justice is based on punishment and in many occasions on mistreatment. Justice does not treat very differently a person that steals a car from someone that murders a person. Therefore, today’s justice, despite being much better than the one during Hamlet’s time, does not seem to be very reasonable. As we can see in a daily basis on TV, justice seems to be nothing else than revenge executed by the public administration. Parents asking for their child’s murder’s death and hundreds of people supporting their claim are a good prove of it. Nowadays, almost every country has a constitution that provides the right to be judged by a jury of peers or similar. On the other hand, Hamlet lived in a very different system in which the law and the justice were almost determined by the king’s mood that day. That concept of justice is not very trustworthy itself, but it is even worse when the person you want to report is the king. Revenge seems to be the only real option Hamlet had. In addition to that, I consider more reasonable to get revenge myself than putting my personal interest on public hands. Justice is supposed to be something pure and clean, not a public administrator for people’s revenges. I believe justice must be based on forgiveness, second opportunities, and helping people to find the right path in life.
The second argument that supports that Hamlet’s revenge is justified is based on the concept of honor. There is not concept of family without honor, since family values and traditions are something unique of each family. It is easy to understand why for many people is very important to deposit their parents’ ashes on the specific place they said before dying. It is just matter of honor. In Hamlet’s case, his father ghost came and told him about Claudius, “revenge his foul and most his unnatural murder” (Act I, Scene IV). Therefore, it is understandable the pressure Hamlet has since he knows his father wishes his son gets revenge in order to defend his honor. It is not only Hamlet’s personal situation of knowing that his uncle murdered his father and married his mother, but also knowing that his father demands revenge. Furthermore, the concept of honor among royalty families is well known by everyone. Honor can has been the cause of a lot of wars and the death of thousands of innocent people, so why was this time to be any different?
Taking all this arguments into consideration, it can be said that Hamlet’s revenge is justified. The lack of a justice system to judge Claudius during those days, as well as the poor performance justice has in today’s society justify Hamlet’s behavior, who demonstrated great humanistic values by having an internal conflict about the revenge. In addition to that, the fact that his father’s ghost demanded revenge just puts more pressure on Hamlet since he has to do it not only for himself, but also for his father’s honor. Hamlet’s behavior seems quite logical because before living in peace with the rest of people in this world, a person has to live in peace with himself, and revenge was the only way Hamlet could have found that internal peace.

Work Sources
Shakespeare, William, and Robert S. Miola. Hamlet: Text of the Play, the Actors' Gallery, Contexts, Criticism, Afterlives, Resources. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. Print.
"Oxford Dictionaries." Oxford Dictionaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014.

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