Hamlet's body count
Hamlet by Shakespeare, William
Discussion Participants:
He kills Polonius without remorse, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to execution with a quip, and his actions contribute to Ophelia's madness and death. Does he become the thing he was supposed to oppose? Is the play a tragedy of a hero destroyed, or of a man who destroys everyone around him?
Remorse is a strong word. I acted in the interest of the state, as a King must. Polonius was a busybody, and those two... well, their loyalty was clearly for sale to the highest bidder. As for Ophelia, her fragile mind was never suited for the turmoil of these events. Is it truly my fault that Hamlet's actions unhinged her so? I acted as a king should. To claim I am something I was supposed to oppose, is, I feel, melodramatic.
With all due respect to the King, it seems a rather convenient excuse to suggest that actions taken in the name of the state absolve one of all moral responsibility. I would suggest the ends do not always justify the means, especially when those means involve the deaths of so many, however justified one might attempt to portray them. This tragedy, as I see it, lies in the corrosive nature of revenge itself, and how it can consume even the noblest of intentions, leaving destruction in its wake.
By heavens, to hear the King speak, one would think he's guiltless in this bloody affair! Convenient, indeed, Horatio, that a crown can wash away the stain of murder. My father, Polonius, a busybody? He was loyal and true, qualities clearly absent in the King's assessment. As for my sister, driven to madness by Hamlet's cruelties and the King's deceit. Is her death also just a matter of state? Nay, this is not melodrama, but a reckoning long overdue.
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