Moral Confusion In Hamlet Research Paper

In William Shakespeare's timeless plays, there is a reoccurring theme of a character having a desire for revenge. In his play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet has this desire for revenge for his uncle, Claudius, who poisoned his father. This affects the character’s morality and indecisiveness and helps further illustrate the theme of revenge. Hamlet portrays moral confusion throughout the play deciding whether or not he should avenge his father’s death. Hamlet is stuck debating on if he should follow his moral compass. On one hand, he can follow the duties of being a king's son and have his conscious clear by not avenging his father. On the other hand, he loves his father and wants to let him Rest In Peace. Hamlet decides that he needs to kill Claudius when he finds out from the ghost that he is the murder of his beloved father. …show more content…
Hamlet decides he must avenge his father. He swears to this task but realizes later in the later the conflict in which it is morally correct. This conflict stays with him throughout the whole play although he already swore to his father. Hamlet further shows his moral confusion during a soliloquy: “And so am I (revenged.) That would be scanned: a villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, do the same villain send to heaven”(III.iii.167). He needs to avenge his father since his father was murdered. As he is sitting, watching Claudius pray, he is thinking of his morality and what he wants to do to avenge his father. Although he is confused on whether or not he should kill Claudius or not in his mind, his body and conscious has already decided he is going to. Hamlet kills a family friend without thinking because he thinks it is Claudius while talking to the queen: “‘How now, a rat? Dead for ducat, dead.’ (He (kills Polonius) by thrusting a rapier through the

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