Honor and Vengeance

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play that questions the very idea of what it means to be honorable.  In this play, Hamlet’s father dies and soon after this horrible tragedy, his mother marries his father’s brother.  Hamlet is filled with despair because of these events.  At this point in the play, Hamlet is confronted with his father’s ghost who relates to Hamlet, how Claudius murdered him.  Because of this, Hamlet must seek his revenge.  The play’s major conflict involves Hamlet deciding whether or not to kill Claudius.  When Hamlet asks himself this question, he also toys with the idea that mankind has no honor.  Throughout the play, there seems to be a constant theme that mankind is not naturally an honorable or noble race.  Although humans are rational creatures, they seem to act more like beasts then the highly intelligent creatures they were created to resemble.  It is therefore evident in the play Hamlet, that Shakespeare makes a point of portraying neither Hamlet nor all mankind as truly noble.  This can be seen in the fact that Hamlet himself recognizes the corrupt nature of mankind, but acts like the very people he condemns.  Hamlet himself delays action against Claudius because of his rational over-analysis of the task at hand.  Also, he is easily distracted by his mother’s actions and is swayed by passion in many cases, which causes him to act rashly.  These are the qualities of a corrupt human being and not of a noble hero.

 Hamlet has absolutely no faith in mankind.   He sees the world around him to be a cesspool for corruption.  In fact, in Hamlet’s very first soliloquy he states, “Fie on’t, ah, fie, ‘tis an unweeded garden / That grows to seed”(1.2 134-135).  The “unweeded garden” that he speaks

of is the world in which corruption goes unchecked.  Man has no value to the world and is simply a weed.  Hamlet seems to see no good in mankind and he doubts that honorable or noble men exist in this world.  He illustrates this point further when speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in act 2.  At this point in the play Hamlet is believed to be mad, and because of this, he speaks his mind freely and without discretion.  In this conversation, we see Hamlet’s true feelings when he says, “What piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form how like an angel, in apprehension how lie a god: the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! And yet to me what is this quintessence of dust?”(2.2 273-278).  Hamlet views mankind as worthless, like dust.  It can be seen then that Shakespeare does not emphasize the honorable qualities of man in this play.  Instead, he has his main character lament about the disgusting and insignificant creature that is man.  However, Shakespeare also points out in this speech by Hamlet, that man is only noble when he uses reason.  Hamlet does often use reason throughout the play, but at times when he should be acting to solve problems instead of reasoning.

 Hamlet himself does not act nobly.  By the very ghost of his father, Hamlet is called upon to avenge his father.  This would in fact be the honorable thing to do, and there is no question in the play as to whether or not killing Claudius would be honorable.  Even Hamlet knows this and often spends time criticizing himself for his lack of action.  After he witnesses an actor filled with passion simply because he is acting the part of another man, Hamlet comments, “ What’s Hecuba to him, or he to her, / That he should weep for her?  What would he do / Had he the motive and the cue for passion / That I have?(2.2 497-499).  By saying this, Hamlet is criticizing his lack of both passion and action.  This actor is forced to tears by a false reality, while Hamlet does not face his own reality.  Obviously, even Hamlet knows the honorable thing to do would be to swiftly get his revenge.  However, his human nature seems to slow him down. 

Hamlet goes on to say “Yet I, / A dull and muddy mettled rascal, peak / Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, / And can say nothing […] / Am I a coward?”(2.2 505-510).  Hamlet is acting like a coward by not defending his father’s honor.  He knows this, the audience knows this, and Shakespeare himself intended for the world to know this fact.  Without a doubt, Hamlet’s lack of action makes him dishonorable and almost as corrupt as the world around him.  Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as such, in order to make a point about mankind.  What honor is left in man?  The answer seems to be none.In addition, Hamlet is slow to action because of his excessive reasoning.  As is the case with Hamlet, sometimes individuals are required to act and at this point must do so without hesitation.  Hamlet’s most famous soliloquy is the “to be or not to be” speech.  In this speech Hamlet contemplates whether or not to commit suicide as well as, what it means to be noble.  Within this speech, Hamlet pinpoints the very flaw that makes him and many others eventually become corrupt.  Hamlet claims, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all, / And thus the native hue of resolution / Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, / And enterprises of great pitch and moment / With this regard their currents turn awry / and lose the name of action”(3.1 84-88).  This demonstrates that Hamlet believes that man’s ability to think and reason is the very thing that hinders man from being noble. When one is called on to act, it is noble to stop useless reasoning and to do the job that one is called on to complete.  Hamlet is aware of this fact, and he knows that his over analyzing is causing him to sway from his calling. Since he is swayed, Hamlet is not a noble character.  He is flawed just like the other characters in the play.  Sadly, even though he seems to see his own flaw, he still does not take steps to improve his character.  Once again, Shakespeare forces the world to see mankind’s flawed nature.  Shakespeare purposely makes clear in this famous soliloquy, that although man’s ability to reason sets him apart from wild beasts, it can also lead to procrastination when used in excess.

Hamlet is also easily distracted from the task at hand.  Even though he is supposed to be finding ways to seek revenge on Claudius, he instead is preoccupied with his mother’s affairs.  In one scene, he spends time talking to his mother and begging her not to sleep with Claudius.  He is so interested in questioning his mother about her sexual exploits that the ghost is forced to reappear in order to remind Hamlet to let his mother be and go accomplish his task.  In this scene the ghost says to Hamlet “Do not forget.  This visitation / Is but whet thy almost blunted purpose”(3.4 110-111).  By saying this, the ghost instructs Hamlet to leave his mother alone and focus on what he was called to do.  A noble man would not be so easily distracted from his true purpose.  Hamlet seems to forget about his father in this moment and focus all of his attention on his mother.  Is this the honorable way to act towards a dead and suffering father?  Of course it is not.  The play makes it perfectly clear that directing his thoughts towards the villain and murderer of his father would be the honorable thing for Hamlet to do.  Yet Hamlet drifts from his honorable calling time and time again. 

In the play, Hamlet also acts rashly.  Although he often does think before he acts and uses what he believes to be noble reasoning when making decisions, Hamlet fails to think through his action when he kills Polonius.  This terrible crime is committed without any restraint, and is an example of passion overwhelming logical thought.  When he kills Polonius, Hamlet simply screams, “How now?  A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!”(3.4 24), and thrusts his sword into the hidden man.  In this instance, Hamlet has an outburst of passion, which causes him to act more like a wild beast then a reasonable or noble person.  His actions can only be called rash and inexcusable in this moment.  Bestial passion takes hold of him and he becomes a prisoner to this mad rage.  This is once again, a case where Hamlet does not act honorably; instead, he acts like a thoughtless fool.

Finally, the play’s climax shows Hamlet once again acting because of passion.  In the very moment when some would say Hamlet finally rises to the occasion and becomes an honorable hero, one could easily argue that once again, his character is flawed.  Immediately before Hamlet kills Claudius, Hamlets mother dies after being poisoned by Claudius.  It is at this moment, when Hamlet’s heart is filled with passionate sorrow, that he decides to kill his evil uncle.  As Hamlet kills Claudius, he even says to him, “Here, thou incestuous, murd’rous, damned Dane, / Drink off this potion.  Is thy union here? / Follow my mother”(5.2 308-310). As is clear from this statement Hamlet is in fact avenging his mother’s death and not his fathers’.  Filled with passionate desire after hearing his mother’s last words he once again acts rashly, and kills the king.  If he were truly killing the king for the noble purpose of avenging his father, then he surely would have shouted “Follow my father” instead of his true words, “Follow my mother”.  Therefore, even when he succeeds in accomplishing his mission, Hamlet still cannot be seen as a true honorable hero.  The climax of the play does not redeem Hamlet and exalt him for his honorable vengeance, but instead condemns Hamlet even further to be a dishonorable young man.  Thus, it can be seen, throughout the entire play, that Hamlet thinks when he should be acting and conversely, acts when he should be thinking.  In addition he is easily swayed by both distractions and passions.  Without a doubt, these are not the qualities of an honorable man.