Hamlet

“Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” These words, once written by renowned poet Walter Scott excellently describe the theme of revenge in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Three men, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortenbras, destroy their lives and the lives of other in their quests to avenge the deaths of their fathers.
Prince Hamlet discovers that his uncle, the newly instated King Claudius, poisoned his father to gain control of the throne. Driven to near insanity by his own indecision as to whether he should avenge his father, Hamlet goes to see his mother. Polonius, who is in league with the king, is hiding in the curtained closet of Hamlet’s mother in order to spy on Hamlet. Not being in his right mind, Hamlet frightens his mother who cries for help. Hearing the cry, Polonius repeats it revealing his location. Thinking that it is Claudius in the closet, Hamlet stabs Polonius through the veil. Hamlet is distraught to discover that he has killed the father of his beloved Ophelia.
Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, conspires with the king to set up a fencing match between himself and Hamlet, and to poison the tip of Laertes’ foil. He and King Claudius prepare a poisoned cup as a precaution but it is accidentally drunken by Hamlet’s mother. In the fencing match hamlet is poisoned by the foil but before he dies he manages to stab Laertes with the poisoned foil and they both die. Meanwhile Prince Fortenbras of Norway, angry because Hamlet’s father killed his father in battle, lays siege to and captures Denmark.
Shakespeare's Hamlet shows that revenge brings only destruction. Hamlet kills the wrong man and brings about his own death while Laertes kills hamlet and his mother. Fortenbras does seem to have profited from his revenge, however, it must be taken into account that he waged an entire war to avenge the death of one man.