In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the title character is a man haunted by a changing world. In his eyes, his father, the dead king, was the greatest leader ever to live. In comparison, his Uncle Claudius, who inherited the throne, was an omen to Hamlet’s world. Even though the people around Hamlet, including his own mother, supported Claudius’ succession to the throne, Hamlet refused to admit his legitimacy.



Yet, Hamlet’s true problem did not lay with his dislike for his uncle, but with his fear of change. Denmark had prospered once under Hamlet’s father. When Hamlet had left his mother country to study in Wittenberg, the whole of Denmark began to mutate into a different world. For these crimes of evolution, Hamlet waged a war against all the people he knew and loved, even if he did not realize it. He conspired, insulted, coerced, and even murdered people who would have otherwise been free of such violence if Hamlet had never returned to Denmark.

Hamlet delayed his violent deed on Claudius because he believed that if he killed a man in the midst of prayer, that man would go to heaven. This delay caused a chain reaction of deaths that killed off Hamlet’s loved ones along with Hamlet. Even though this delayed revenge may have resulted in multiple deaths, the simple fact that Hamlet desired retribution would lead to at least Claudius’ death. Hamlet does not even have significant proof that Claudius is responsible for King Hamlet’s death, before or after he encounters the ghost. In conjunction with Claudius’ suspected legitimacy as king, it is not perceived, with the exclusion of Hamlet, that King Hamlet was a better king.

The fact that the ghost commands Hamlet to commit revenge against Claudius is an act of Hell. Urging the living to commit an act against the church constitutes that a ghost is indefinitely a demon. The question remains whether the act of revenge is truly against the church. The establishment of governments and religious organizations condemns revenge by man.