Running head: HALMET BRITISH LITERATURE 1

Hamlet British Literature

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Question 1

Extent in which Hamlet's quest for revenge gets justified according to the situation presented by

William Shakespeare.

Hamlet quest for revenge get discussed to get met by many colliding arguments. Some

people argue based on the religious beliefs that he should not go ahead to avenge his father's

death while others offer great support for the revenge. The justification on the extent to which

Hamlet quest for revenge got noted, get based on the situations that Hamlet finds himself after

his uncle takes over his father's throne (Crystal, 2013). His uncle gets discussed as the person

who killed his father to ascend to the throne. The uncle goes further to marry Hamlet's mother

without giving consideration the pain of the demise of Hamlet's dad in his cold hands.

It also gets evidenced from the textual analysis that Hamlet saw the ghost of his father

and he informed him of his uncle's hand in his death. The other textual evidence that justifies

Hamlet's quest for revenge gets based on the idea of the uncle depriving their family of

everything. The uncle, takes over the throne that belonged to his father, takes his father's life, and

marries the mother and finally destroying the relationship that existed between them. The step

taken by Hamlet's uncle represents an act of greed, selfishness, and egocentrism (Crystal, 2013).

The only way to change the whole situation gets based on Hamlet developing ways of dethroning

him and restoring the royal dignity of their family. Once the uncle gets ousted, he will get

powerless, and Hamlet's mother will get able to come back to her royal marital home. Hamlet

will also be able to take over the throne as king and bring a continuation to their royal lineage.
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Question 2

Evidence of Hamlet's religious beliefs and how they influence his actions and decisions

Religion gets mentioned to play a very key role in the William Shakespeare's character

(Hamlet). Several instances of Hamlet's actions get noted to consider religious beliefs and

thereby giving a direction on how he engaged in coming up with some decisions. The first

evidence that illustrates his religious belief gets noted on how he contemplated on the need of

committing suicide after what the uncle did to him and his family. It got mentioned that Hamlet

got the conscience of life after death as pertained in the Biblical versions and got no surety on

what would happen to his soul once he commits the act (Witte, 2007). Fear of the aftermath of

death made him make the decision of refraining from the action.

The second evidence of his religious belief got based on the sight of his uncle Claudius

offering prayers. Hamlet thought of that chance as one of the best which he could use to revenge

the death of his father. He thought of killing his uncle who by then got construed as the

incumbent king. In the end, he got no ability to kill him due to his religious conscience. Evidence

from the text notes that Hamlet thought of what could happen to him if he kills his uncle. He

thought of sending him to heaven since he got to die while praying and him going to hell (Witte,

2007). He knew that by killing his uncle he got to violate religious laws and the aftermath of

death would get ironical as presented by the evidence. He, therefore, made the decision of

sparing his uncle's life.

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References

Crystal, B. (2013). Hamlet: Before, during, after. London: Bloomsbury.

Witte, M. (2007). Shakespeare's Hamlet: Renaissance was ruling on revenge and religious

redemption.