Blog #14: Hamlet Blog Post #2

"Justice at any cost."
In Law Abiding Citizen, revenge is a predominant theme in that Clyde Shelton, played by Gerard Butler, seeks to "kill everyone" because of what two men did to his family. Shelton lost both his wife and daughter when two men broke into his home one night. While both the men were captured, one was deemed innocent and set free. Shelton, who is infuriated by this decision, decides to then take justice into his own hands by not only tampering with the death of the man who was captured but also finding and personally executing the man who was set free.
Just as Shelton seeks revenge for the death of his wife and daughter, my good friend, Hamlet, also seeks revenge for his father's murder. When he and I were standing guard the other night, we were visited by the ghost of King Hamlet. While I personally did not speak to the ghost, Hamlet made me "swear by [his] sword...never to speak" of what I had seen (2.5.156-157). By this measure, I presume that whatever King Hamlet's spirit told Prince Hamlet must be of high significance. You don't just ask someone to swear upon a royal sword unless it's a big deal.
Anyways, I haven't seen much of Prince Hamlet since that night. I did, however, hear that he has plans to reveal King Claudius at tomorrow night's performance of "The Murder of Gonzago" (2.2.468). Rumor has it that some players came to visit the royal family and that after their first performance, Prince Hamlet called to one of the players asking him to "study a speech of some dozen or sixteen lines" that he had written himself and then memorize those lines for tomorrow night's performance (2.2.502). They say he is going to have the player "play something like the murder of [his] father before [his] uncle (2.2.557-560). He is then going to "observe his looks" and if King Claudius is to show any signs of guilt or remorse, Prince Hamlet will know that he the ghost was not lying and that Claudius did indeed kill King Hamlet (2.2.560). Oh how I can not wait to see how this play pans out. I hope and pray that for Hamlet's sake, he finds the answers he is looking for so that he can return from this tragic state he is in.
What's odd is that both Shelton and Hamlet act quite similar in that both are strongly determined to seek their revenge, though their situations are somewhat different. Both did lose a loved one, however, while Shelton knows the identity of the men to whom he must seek revenge, Hamlet has an idea of the identity but no real proof. Until he receives that proof, then, he mustn't act upon his desires. Shelton calls his revenge "justice" while Hamlet calls his "vengeance", a term more closely related to revenge than justice (2.2.544). Hamlet also has not yet set out a plan to seek this vengeance where as Shelton immediately devises a plan, telling the counselor that he will "bring the whole place down" referring to it as "biblical". In general, both men have strong ambitions to seek out revenge against those who hurt them, closely relating them to one another.