![]() ![]() Ironically, this progression in Hamlet’s attitude towards avenging his father and his stricter understanding of justice lead him to act irrationally and unjustly when he rashly kills Lord Polonius just a few lines later, supposedly mistaking him for King Claudius but apparently attacking blindly in any case. Rather than act and avenge his father with no risk of failure, Hamlet loses his cool and resolves instead to wait for a chance to dispatch of Claudius when the latter has sin on his mind, so that he may have no chance of vindication. Hamlet’s search for uncompromising punishment that fits the crime is unexpectedly revealed when he sees his first chance to kill Claudius. He is of course subject to tempers, but Hamlet’s apparent outbursts of passion should be attributed at first to his discomfort with exacting revenge and his weariness of making matters worse, and later to his search for Lex Talionis type justice, whereby he believes that the balance can only be restored if it is restored precisely in the manner in which it was upset. While he is misguided to think that spilling more blood will actually re-establish an equilibrium of justice, he is at least principled, and operates more consistently than others under the assumption that justice is the preservation of a balance in the beneficial and detrimental effects of actions that people take towards each other: a balance that can and should be preserved through gratitude or revenge. His hesitation suggests that Hamlet greatly the balance of justice: he is only willing to exact revenge if he is sure that the retribution will restore the balance, and is weary of upsetting the equilibrium even more. ![]() ![]() This is further established almost indisputably near the end of Act II, when Hamlet decides to test Claudius in order to ascertain his guilt rather than begin plotting immediately. Hamlet’s line, “O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!”, indicates that Hamlet is anything but eager to seek his father’s justice: rather, he acts on a sense of loyalty and duty to his father. Hamlet’s perception of justice as a balance restorable through retribution is perhaps the purest of all the characters’ – he is driven to restorative retribution by a sense of duty rather than vengeful passion. From Fortinbras, Prince of Norway’s desire to avenge his father’s death at the hands of the former Danish King by invading Denmark to the protagonist Hamlet’s quest for vengeance against his uncle Claudius for killing his father, to Laertes’ killing Hamlet as retribution for his father Polonius’ death, the protagonists and antagonists alike seek rashly to restore an equilibrium, be it just or not. The play’s characters see justice as a balance that must be preserved, and they utilize vengeance to preserve it. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the dilemma of justice, especially in connection with retribution, takes center stage. Plato defined justice as “the preservation of what is right”. ![]()
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