Topic > A response to Hamlet's morality in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, a play by William Shakespeare

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare the protagonist, Hamlet, is faced with multiple situations in which he must make a moral decision. After Hamlet discovers that his father was killed by Claudius, he embarks on a quest for revenge. With this situation many boundaries between good and evil end up being blurred. It is good that Claudius is held accountable for his actions, but it is not good to kill, which Hamlet ends up doing. Although the morality of the story may be distorted in the eyes of the audience, a good question to research is how Hamlet views the morality of things that happen. Overall, it seems that Hamlet sees the obvious murder of his brother as obviously evil and therefore feels justified and good at taking revenge in any way possible. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Even though Hamlet makes some questionable decisions throughout the story, he is nowhere near as guilty as Claudius. Everything that goes wrong in this play can be traced back to Claudius' actions. If Claudius had not killed King Hamlet, the ghost would never have reached Hamlet and therefore all the other deaths in the play would not have occurred. Therefore, there is no doubt that Claudius is more guilty than Hamlet in the story. However, even Hamlet is not necessarily the hero of the play. Hamlet takes a bad situation and makes it even worse with his actions. Instead of revealing Claudius' betrayal, he decides to avenge his father by killing the new king, which then leads to the death of almost every other character in the play. Looking at the story and trying to find a hero, it becomes clear that there is none. Nobody succeeds, they are all dead and the town is left to Fortebraccio. Overall, when analyzing Hamlet's morality, it seems that there is no clearly defined good and evil throughout the play. Instead the play is just a narrative of characters in a chaotic situation and how they respond to that situation. It seems like it could be argued that every character is innocent in some way. Claudius feels justified in killing King Hamlet because he feels he has a right to the throne. Hamlet feels justified in his actions as he follows the instructions of his father's ghost. Ophelia and Laertes feel justified in supporting their family. Polonius feels justified by standing by the king. Gertrude feels justified by standing by her husband. Although there is a flaw in each character and their actions, if the story is told from their point of view, they are somewhat innocent, and thus the lines between good and evil are blurred..