response to injustice hamlet essay

Response to Injustice



In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare argues that when faced with injustice one’s response and actions directly correlate with the amount of self-worth and self-respect one possesses. Numerous characters in Hamlet are faced with injustice and react in diverse ways. Hamlet, a scholar, comes home from university when he hears news of his father’s death, and seeks revenge. Once informed of her father’s death and faced with her unrequited love for Hamlet, Ophelia goes mad and kills herself. To gain prominence with the throne, Polonius blindly accepts anything that the King proposes may be true.  Shakespeare creates characters in Hamlet to show that self respect directly correlates to the actions taken when faced with injustice.

Hamlet flourishes into a much more complex person as the play progresses. When Hamlet first comes home from university he was very depressed about his father’s death and mother’s quick remarriage “[To] mine uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules[.]” (Act I Scene ii l.151) “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue,” (Act I Scene ii l. 159) is Hamlet’s first response to injustice. As Hamlet encounters the ghost and realizes his Uncle Claudius’ true colors, Hamlet’s self-worth and self-respect grow. Shakespeare suggests that as people discover the truth regarding unjust events, their actions change. Hamlet, being a scholar, plans and procrastinates his revenge on Claudius. Hamlet knows that Claudius is corrupting Denmark’s royalty by planting wrongful thoughts into the Danish minds. Hamlet plans to act mad, so Claudius does not see him as a threat, allowing Hamlet to take revenge. “The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King” (Act II Scene ii l.602-603) shows Hamlet has enough self respect to ensure the King truly did kill his father and not just act out of emotion. Shakespeare links the level of self respect and reactions to injustice, providing a valuable lesson that still applies today. Many people died in Hamlet’s attempt to take revenge on Claudius. When Hamlet first returned from school he was disgusted by what had happened, “Fie on’t! O fie! ‘tis an unweeded garden, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature.” (Act I Scene ii l.135) and after all the death Hamlet had weeded the garden. By weeding the garden Hamlet has removed the corruption from the throne. Shakespeare advances the point “the dram of evil doth all noble substance of a doubt to his own scandal” (Act I Scene iv l. 36-38) speaking about rot or corruption. If one small piece has become rotten it ruins the whole object. Hamlet had to invoke so much death to remove the rot, and right the wrong Claudius had created.

When faced with injustice, Ophelia does not know how to react because she never made decisions on her own. When Hamlet appears to go mad, Ophelia’s father, Polonius, tells her she is to no longer have any contact with Hamlet, and she doesn’t even question him responding, “I shall obey, my lord.” (Act I Scene iii l.136) Ophelia has no self-confidence to stand up to her father or her brother, Laertes. Never making decisions, resulted in her not knowing how to react to injustices. When Ophelia’s father is killed by Hamlet, Ophelia goes insane. Without her father or a husband to guide her, Ophelia does not know how to deal with her sadness, and lets her emotions take the best of her. She did not have the self respect to take control of her emotions and reacted with irreversible actions “your sister’s drown’d, Laertes.” (Act IV Scene vii l.160) Little self-respect leads to little thought about actions taken when faced with injustice.

Polonius, the Lord of Chamberlain, will do anything the King says is right to stay in the King’s favor. He does not have the self-respect to stand up to Claudius in fear of being shunned from the royal circle. Hamlet feigned insanity around Polonius leading both him and Claudius to believe that Hamlet had become mad. Due to his lack of self-respect, Polonius becomes a pawn for Claudius, following Claudius’ commands without thinking through the consequences. When an individual allows others to use them, they lose self-respect, and this effects their response to injustice. Polonius acts without fully thinking through his deeds and “Behind the arras [he] convey[ed] [him]self” (Act III Scene iii l.29) in order to impress Claudius with such will to catch Hamlet’s madness. In his efforts to please Claudius, Polonius is stabbed. While trying so hard to impress others, he lost his self-respect. In his willingness to do anything, he reacted to injustice in a way that cost him his life, fighting for something that should have been fought against.

Though Claudius, Ophelia, and Hamlet each react in different ways to injustice, all lives end in tragedy. Claudius and Ophelia, with little self-respect, lost sight in themselves when control was gone in a situation. Hamlet, on the other hand, was able to control his emotions and carry out the facade of being crazy while plotting revenge on his Uncle. These difference in the actions of characters reflect the levels of self-respect and self-reliance. At times Hamlet felt undecided, “To be or not to be” (Act III Scene i l.57) reflected Hamlet’s inner struggle between life and death. Having dealt with many injustices, Hamlet’s strong self-reliance and self-confidence allowed him to die fighting to return Denmark to a peaceful state.

In Hamlet, William Shakespeare demonstrates that one with strong self-respect, when put in a stressful situation of injustice, can control emotions and work towards goals. Inversely one with little to no respect for themselves is unable to respond in a positive way when injustice occurs. Shakespeare, in the play Hamlet, develops juxtaposition of character’s self-respect which causes their reactions to others wrong doings to dramatically change. To be human is to strive to be accepted, but the ability to stand up against the majority creates a true hero.