Hamlet seeks revenge for his father's death, but his actions of killing Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Laertes instead prolong the cycle of violence and death. Hamlet's quest for revenge takes a psychological toll on him and causes him to descend into deep melancholy and madness. Similarly, the ghost of Hamlet's father is unable to rest in peace due to its desire for revenge. Ultimately, seeking revenge often does more harm than good and fails to satisfy one's desires, so alternative means of justice are preferable to vengeance.

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Hamlet Literally Analysis Essay
Introduction
“Hamlet” is a Shakespeare’s masterpiece that revolves numerous instances of revenge, from
various characters. The story starts by outlining the death of King Hamlet of Denmark, and his
throne is taken by his brother, Claudius, who also inherits his wife Queen Gertrude (William 6).
However, King Hamlet appeared as a ghost to his son, young Hamlet, and reveals to the latter
that his brother Claudius killed him in order to become the king of Denmark. This ghost also
requested the young Hamlet to avenge his death, which latter appeared to be a tragedy of
everyone in the state of Denmark. This paper pays a lot of attention to the consequences of
seeking revenge as depicted by various characters in this play.
In most cases, seeking vengeance does not fulfill the one`s desires, but instead prolongs
the unpleasantness of the original offence. This means that seeking revenge can create a cycle of
retaliation, leading to more and more occurrences of the initial offence. For example, when
prince Hamlet decided to revenge his father`s death by killing his uncle, he ended up killing
other individuals (he caused six ancillary deaths). He first killed Polonius (Father to Laertes and
Ophelia), by through hanging him on the wall, after he (Polonius) spied on him and his mother
Gertrude in the Queen`s private chamber (William 54). Moreover, his killing of Polonius made
Ophelia commit suicide (William 70). He then organized the murder of Guildenstern and
Rosencrantz, who had been authorized by King Claudius to deliver prince Hamlet for execution.

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Consecutively, Hamlet killed Laertes, who was responsible for the death of both his father and
sister. Moreover, in an attempt of retaliating to prince Hamlet`s killings, King Claudius
contributed to the death of Queen Gertrude, who took the poisoned wine, that was for his nephew
(William 84).
Seeking revenge may result in punishments to an individual or even death. For example,
when prince Hamlet killed Polonius, his uncle vowed to punish him by exiling him to England
(William 59-60). King Claudius tried all possible means of getting hold of prince Hamlet,
including making use of Hamlet`s friends and schoolmates, such as Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern. Though this never happened, it is evident that King Claudius was determined to
punish prince Hamlet. In addition, Laertes vowed to punish prince Hamlet for killing his father
Polonius, and contributing to the death of her sister Ophelia. He accepts the fight with prince
Hamlet, and though he lost and was murdered by Hamlet, he had managed to wound him with
the poisoned sword, and this marked the latter`s journey to death (William 83).
Moreover, seeking revenge can negatively affect an individual`s psychology. For
example, when prince Hamlet decided to revenge his father`s death, he was involved with
intensive thoughts that made him to suffer from deep melancholic and apparent madness, to the
extent of affecting his uncle and his mother (William 29-30). Consecutively, his father is
incapable of resting peacefully in the death world due to his quest of revenging for his death
(William 6).
Conclusion
It is, therefore, evident that seeking revenge can have numerous consequences, such as
prolonging the occurrences of the original offence, affecting an individual`s psychology; and

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causing harm to an individual. Therefore, people should seek alternative means of seeking justice
rather than vengeance.

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Works Cited
William Shakespeare: Hamlet, Prince Of Denmark: A Tragedy. London: Princeton University,
1603. Print.