THEMES EXPLOITED IN "HAMLET".

"Hamlet" is a revenge tragedy.The main characteristics of the revenge tragedy are the following:

-Crime, usually murder, with varying motives.

-The one who has to take vengeance is a near relative.

-A ghost is involved, generally the ghost of the dead, which reveals the crime committed.

-The duty of revenge is accepted as something sacred.

-There is a lot of blood involved.

In "Hamlet" we find all these characteristics. There is the element of murder, adultery, incestuous marriage, insanity and faithfulness, blood shed and violent, terrifying scenes.

But let´s see these themes one by one.

1. REVENGE. "If thou didst ever thy dear father love,

Revenge his fouland most unnatural murder". The Ghost, I.5.23-5.

Hamlet wants to avenge his father's murder. Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great many perspectives.

Claudius' murder of King Hamlet initiates Hamlet's quest for revenge, and Caludius' death is the end of that quest.

2.SEXUAL, MORAL, and PHYSICAL CORRUPTION.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark". Marcellus, I.4.90

The relationship between Claudius and Gertrude that so disgusts Hamlet brings sexual infidelity and incest to the very center of life in the Danish court. Added to that, Claudius' additional sins of fratricide (killing his brother), and the moral corruption he embodies becomes truly monstruous. And his corrupting influence is contagious: Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern all seem to lose their moral sense.

3.MADNESS AND MELANCHOLY.

"I am but mad north-north-west." Hamlet, II.2.347.

Hamlet's actual state of mind seems terribly unstable at several points throughout the play and it is difficult to know whether he is mad or not.Apart from this, Hamlet displays other kinds of mental disorder: melancholy, pessimism, self-criticism, depressed mood and persistent thoughts of suicide.

Ophelia's madness is indisputable in Act V. When her father is murdered by the man she loves, she loses touch with reality.

4. MISOGYNY.

"Frailty, thy name is woman". Hamlet, I.2

Shattered by his mother's decision to marry Claudius so soon after her husband's death, Hamlet becomes cynical about women in general, and he makes a clear connection between female sexuality and moral corruption.