Themes of Hamlet- William Shakespeare

Hamlet is the most influential and critically acknowledged tragedy written by the great English playwright, William Shakespeare. Many critics have done a lot of legwork in solving the puzzles of this play. The most important and perplexing thing in the play is indecisiveness of the protagonist Hamlet and his inability to act.

Theme of Revenge

The main plot of the play revolves around the revenge. This theme is so prominent that the play is often acclaimed as a revenge play. The main character, Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, has been assigned to avenge the death of his father. The ghost of his deceased father asks Hamlet to kill his brother and the present king of Denmark, Claudius, as he is guilty of a murder. Hamlet makes several futile endeavors to avenge the death of his father and the former king of Denmark, but fails to accomplish in his task until the last scene of the play when he stabs Claudius just before his own death. Another sub-plot also based on the same theme in which the young Norwegian prince named Fortinbras wishes to avenge the death of his father who was killed by Hamlet’s father.

Theme of indecisiveness

Although the main and the most prominent theme of the play is revenge, but the theme of indecisiveness also plays an important role in building the plot of the play. Hamlets learns about the murder of his father almost in the beginning of the play, but it is his inability to act which prolongs and extends the plot of the play as well as causes the delay of the revenge. Most of the critics believe that Hamlet is not a man of action but a man of thoughts. He spends so much time contemplating the causes and effects of his actions. His too much speculation leads him away from his assigned task i.e. the revenge of his father. The only time we see him in action is when he does not have much time to think and speculate. For example, when Hamlet went to his mother room and instantly draws his sword and stabs Polonius who was hiding behind the curtains in his mother bedchamber. At this moment, he does not have much time to ponder the event. The similar thing happens in the climax scene of the play, when Hamlet gets a verbal confirmation of Claudius’ crime from a living soul for the first time, instantly acts and stabs Claudius without contemplating anything.