I dont know if Hamlet has too many rights to complain about his uncle killing his father.
Seems like back in those days it was not such a big deal to kill somebody anyway. And Hamlet is the one who causes death to most people in the end. You only see one side of the of the story, who knows, maybe his father was no good in the first place? Who is to say that he was less of a bad guy than Polonius or Rosencrantz? As easy and fast as Hamlet labels people to be deserving to die, it's no surprise to me that his uncle probably appied the same logic to his father too.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
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I don't agree that murder was "not a big deal" in Shakespeare's time. Taking a life has always been a big deal.
In addition, I think you must take the text as it is given. We are told that the now-dead King Hamlet was a good king and loved his wife, and so we must believe that. The action of the play doesn't hinge on whether King Hamlet was good or bad, or whether he deserved to die. In fact, the only idea put forth in the play is that King Hamlet DIDN'T deserve to die, and that it was wrong for Claudius to kill his own brother. In fact, Claudius seems aware of his misdeed, because he kills Hamlet surreptitiously. If Claudius believed he had the right to murder King Hamlet, he would have done so openly.
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