Five Revenges

Revenge permeates the play. There are 5 acts of revenge: Hamlet avenges the death of his father; Laertes the death of his father and the madness of Ophelia; Claudius, the revelation of how he murdered King Hamlet and the attempt on his life by Hamlet; Pyrrhus the death of his father Achilles and the abduction of Helen; and Fortinbras the death of his father and the loss of his lands

Hamlet: When told by the ghost of the murder of King Hamlet by Claudius, he swears to avenge the murder. At first he is eager. “Haste me to know it, that I with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge.” (1.5.29-31). “Thy commandments all alone shall live within the book and volume of my brain.” (1.5.102-103). As time passes, his ardor cools and he chastises himself for his lack of action. ”Why, what an *** am I! This is most brave, that I, a dear son of a father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore, unpack my heart with words . . .” (2.2.567-570). He excuses himself by saying that the ghost may be the devil and he needs more proof of the murder. He will have the players act out the murder to test Claudius. (2.2.574-590). When Claudius stops the play as the murder is re-enacted, he is convinced of Claudius’ guilt. (3.2.277-281). Hamlet is resolved to take his revenge: “Now could I drink hot blood, and do such bitter business as the day would quake to look on.” (3.2.376-378). When he has an opportunity to kill Claudius in the chapel, he hesitates. He wants pure revenge, and does not want to send him to heaven, by killing him at prayer. “A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.” (3.3.76-79). He decides to kill Claudius in an act where there is no relish of salvation, and thus send him to hell. (3.3.87-95). In his passion, he swings wildly and kills Polonius by mistake, thinking it was Claudius. “Is it the king?” (3.4.25-26). He takes revenge by sending Rosencrantz and Guildernstern to their death by substituting a letter to the English ordering their execution for the letter from Claudius ordering Hamlet’s beheading. (5.2.19-47). Horatio: “So Guildernstern and Rosencrantz go to it.” Hamlet: “Why, man, they did make love to this employment. They are not near my conscience; their defeat does by their own insinuation grow. Tis dangerous when the baser nature comes between the pass and fell incensed points of might opposites.” (5.2.56-62). Finally, Hamlet, dying from Laertes’ poisoned sword, kills Claudius and takes his revenge. (5.2.314-319).

Leaertes: “Let come what comes; only I will be revenged most thoroughly for my father.” (4.5.135-136). Seeing the mad Ophelia he declares: “By heaven thy madness shall be paid with weight” (4.5.156). “And so have I a noble father lost, a sister driven into desperate terms . . . but my revenge will come.” (4.7.25-26,29). Laertes has no religious scruples. When Claudius asks: “Hamlet comes back, what would you undertake to show yourself your father’s son in deed more than in words?” Laertes replies: “To cut his throat in the church.” To which Claudius says: “No place indeed should murder sanctuarize: revenge should have no bounds.”(4.7.123-127). Laertes and Claudius then conspire to murder Hamlet by arranging a fencing match in which Laertes would kill Hamlet with an unbated and poisoned sword.
(4.7.127-147). Laertes takes his revenge by fatally wounding Hamlet.
(5.2.295, 307-310). In the end, he has doubts when he is about to wound Hamlet and says to himself: “yet it is almost against my conscience.”
(5.2.289). After fatally wounding Hamlet and is himself dying, he relents and asks forgiveness: “Exchange forgiveness with me noble Hamlet, mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, nor thine on me.” (5.2.322-324).

Claudius: At the play, Hamlet reveals how Claudius had murdered King Hamlet. (3.2.243-255). Claudius stops the play. (3.2.256-260). As a result of the disclosure, Claudius “In his retirement is marvellous distempered”
(3.2.290), and the Queen is “in most great affliction of spirit.” (3.2.299-300). Gertrude tells Hamlet: “thou has thy father much offended.” (3.4.9). Claudius sees Hamlet as a threat: “I like him not, nor stands it safe with us to let his madness range. . . . The terms of our estate may not endure hazard so near as doth hourly grow out of his brows. . . . we will fetters put about this fear which now goes too free-footed.” (3.3.1-2, 5-7, 25-26). He decides to send Hamlet to England (3.3.3-4). Hamlet kills Polonius, and Claudius, learning of the killing says: “It had been so with us had we been there. His liberty is full of threats to all.” (4.1.13-14). He later says: “How dangerous it is that this man goes loose.” (4.3.2). He will take his revenge by sending Hamlet to England to be killed: “By letters congruing to that effect the present death of Hamlet.” (4.3.65-66). He tells Laertes that he is taking revenge against Hamlet: “You must not think we are made of stuff so flat that we can let our beard be shook with danger and think it pastime. You soon shall hear more.”
(4.7.30-33). The letters sent by Claudius to England order that Hamlet be beheaded immediately. (5.2.18-25). When Claudius learns of Hamlet’s safe return, he conspires with Laertes to murder Hamlet by having Leartes kill Hamlet in a duel with an unbated sword, which Laertes will poison, and if this fails by a poisoned drink. (4.7.127-161). In the end, Hamlet dies from a wound from the poisoned sword. (5.2.307-311, 345-351).

Pyrrhus: When the players arrive, Hamlet has them recite from a play derived from Homer’s Iliad, and Virgil’s Aeneid, book 2, involving the Trojan war. It is the scene where Pyrrhus kills Priam. “So after Pyrrhus’ pause, a roused vengeance sets him new awork; and never did the Cyclops hammer fall on Mars’ armour, forged for proof eterne, when less remorse than Pyrrhus’ bleeding sword now falls on Priam.” (2.2.474-479). The vengeance was for the killing of Achilles, Pyrrhus’ father, by Paris, and the abduction of Helen by Paris, which was the cause of the Trojan war. During the fighting Paris killed Achilles by shooting an arrow into Achilles vulnerable heel. Paris himself died during the battle. Paris was Priam’s son, so the vengeance was against the father for the acts of the son.

Fortinbras: He wants revenge for the death of his father and the lands he lost. In single combat, King Hamlet killed the elder Fortinbras and by agreement, won Fortinbras’ lands. After the death of King Hamlet, Fortinbras’ son raised an army and was threatening to invade Denmark to avenge his father and to recover the lands lost by him. (1.1.80-104; 1.2.17-25). His plan was thwarted by his uncle, the King of Norway, who forbade him from invading Denmark. (2.2.60-79). In the end, Fortinbras gets his revenge. Returning from a successful campaign against the Poles, he arrives to find Claudius and Hamlet dead, and intends to take advantage and become king.
(5.2.344, 380-383). In fact, he was nominated by Hamlet to become king: “I do prophesy the election lights on Fortinbras. He has my dying voice.”
(5.2.349-350).