Injustice And Self-Respect In Hamlet

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Injustice and Self-Respect in Hamlet In the Shakespearean play “Hamlet” we see that the main character Hamlet responds to the murder of his father by seeking out revenge on his uncle. With no cooperation from his mother, he feels that he must takes matters into his own hands. Hamlet’s character is seen as a very logical and quite non-violent; however the acts that occurred in the play showed us that Hamlet as a character develops a more growing anger, which distorts his overall view on the situation. Hamlet becomes a very angry person who is eventually only concerned about seeking revenge and discovering who his true friends are. Throughout the play Hamlet sacrifices a lot of the self-respect he had for himself in order to carry out the promise…show more content…
We see this become prevalent when Hamlet decides that he must kill his uncle in hope to bring justice to his father’s name from the injustice that has been reflected from the murder. This is most well reflected when Hamlet says “So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word; It is, “Adieu, adieu! Remember me.” I have sworn’t.”(1:5 111-113) This is the point where the theme of injustice becomes most prevalent, and at which point we see Hamlet take matters into his own hands. As the play progresses we see that Hamlet gains the opportunity to kill Claudius. However, despite the injustice brought to Hamlet and his father’s death we see that Hamlet shifts from being totally ruthless and wanting to seek revenge on his uncle; to him managing to justify that it is not the right time and that justice will be served but only when the time is right. We see how this developed from his initial take on the concept of injustice to Hamlet thinking a little more in depth and justifying how he will act “Now might I do it pat, now he is praying; And now I’ll do’t: and so he goes to heaven: And so am I revenged. That would be scann’d: A villain kills my father; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven.”(3:3 74-79) Hamlet has the ideal opportunity to take revenge and kill his uncle but does not take advantage, because he does not want to see a murderer be sent to heaven when he should be going to hell. This is how Hamlet initially responds to the act of injustice, and how throughout the play his initial response develops into a more methodical
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