Revenge and Sanity in Hamlet Essay

Does revenge directly correlate to ones sanity? In Hamlet one can contest that it does. Hamlet is so caught up in getting revenge on Claudius for killing his father that it leads to him being insane whether he was acting the whole time or not. Hamlets insanity starts a snowball effect. Hamlet started being a jerk to Ophelia and she ended up committing suicide, then Hamlet stabbed Polonius which led to Laertes seeking revenge on his fathers killer. Revenge is what sanity in the play boils down to, but sanity effects revenge. Is revenge even justified? One can question whether it takes a truly insane person to want revenge, or if revenge really drives people insane. Revenge leads to the downfall of not only Hamlet but also Laertes and Claudius. Hamlet is trying to kill Claudius for his father not for himself, and if the impulse of revenge was not there in the end when Claudius killed his mother and Hamlet. And then it started like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons. (Hamlet 1.1.) Is the revenge in Hamlet justified? It is up in the air that whether Hamlets revenge is even justified, if its not then it led to other peoples deaths. But in my opinion it is justified but the killing of innocent people was not necessary, Claudius killed Hamlets father for the crown, the killing of his friends, Polonius, and the death of Ophelia was unnecessary. The downfall of Hamlet starts when he sees his fathers ghost and it is revealed that Claudius killed his father. From that point until his death Hamlet is so engorged in getting revenge that he is oblivious to everything around him. Revenge is an impulse and Hamlet had the chance to follow through with his plot for revenge when Claudius was in church, so he decided to wait, but revenge is strongest when it is fresh, as time went on his hunger for revenge slowly drifted away. Hamlet has so many plans to catch Claudius and get him feeling guilty like when he wrote part of the play Claudius attended. I have heard, that guilty creatures sitting at a play, have by the very cunning of the scene, been struck so to the soul that presently, they have proclaimed their malefactions;

For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak with most miraculous organ. (Hamlet 2.2.)

When Hamlet thinks its a good idea to start acting insane were not sure when the point is that his sanity completely gone, we could assume that it is when Ophelia kills herself, but there are also a number of other times it would be safe to assume. His downfall could be when he dies or when it becomes vivid that he is acting insane or not. Hamlets sanity or insanity rather leads to Laertes need for revenge.

Laertes seeks out revenge on Hamlet for many reasons. Hamlet stabbed his father and didnt act as if it mattered. Hamlet was being mean to Ophelia for what appears to be no reason at all and it was declared that Ophelia committed suicide and we can assume that it had something to do with how Hamlet was acting towards Ophelia. Is Laertes sanity clouded with his revenge? Laertes without a doubt is angry and feels the need to get revenge but did it in anyway take over his life like Hamlet. Laertes is away at school, Laertes comes back and his father and sister are dead at the hand of Hamlet. Not to mention at Ophelias funeral Hamlet and Laertes fought. We can ask ourselves if Laertes revenge is justified, some would say it is others claim it isnt. But is it with more reason than Hamlets revenge. Hamlet knowingly murdered someone when he was on a crazy rant in his moms closet, finding out later it was Polonius. Laertes and Claudius plotted together to kill Hamlet they had three plans in case any of them failed. They had a real sword, poison on the sword, and a poison drink. Throughout the novel Hamlet keeps putting off his revenge while Laertes is heating up. In the end Hamlet gets a shot of anger which finally makes him go through with killing Claudius. In the end Laertes finally gets his revenge, but also Claudius is the mastermind behind the ideas to kill Hamlet.