The story of Hamlet comes from a long line of revenge tragedies in which a character attempts to avenge the murder of a family member. Just as revenge is present in literature, it is also present in today's society. It is always there, lurking in the darkness of the human mind, watching, waiting for an opportunity to lash out at the surrounding world. Shakespeare suggests in Hamlet that revenge is a debilitating force, and the pursuit of it can infect the most noble of all souls. Once tainted by this infectious disease, no weak minded individual can be cured of it. Revenge is an unavoidable power moving the mind closer towards destruction.
             In order for revenge to truly corrupt Hamlet, he had to be an innocent and noble character from the onset of the play. Without this innocence and respected status, Hamlet would have nothing to lose, revenge would have no affect on him because the evil would already exist. There has to be a shift from good to evil in order for Hamlet to be a tragedy, and it is the darkness of revenge that provides this shift. It is from Ophelia that a reader gets their description of Hamlet's character before it was corrupted. She reveals everything about Hamlet that would make him a noble man. It is in their first meeting in the play, that Ophelia states, "O, what a noble mind is here o'er-thrown! The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's, eye, tongue, sword; th' expectancy and rose of the fair state, the glass of fashion and the mould of form, th' observ'd of all observers" (III.I.142-146). First of all, she herself states that he has a noble mind. Then Ophelia comments on how he can relate to everyone in some small way. This ability makes Hamlet the pride of Denmark, and the most loved. He is also considered to be a model for all men, thus meaning that people admire him and look to him for guidance. One can base the entire notion o
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