In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the two scenes of violence that occur in full view of the audience are Hamlet's accidental killing of Polonius in act 3, scene 4 and the violent climax of the play in act 5, scene 2.
Other acts of violence relevant to the plot occur out of sight of the audience, as they do in the Ancient Greek plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The violence is reported—often in the most horrific and graphic detail—by a messenger or a secondary character who observed the violence, or, less often, by a participant in the violence.
In an unusual variation, the ghost of Hamlet's father describes his own death to Hamlet in act 1, scene 5.
GHOST. Sleeping within my orchard,My custom always of the afternoon,(65)Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,And in the porches of my ears did pourThe leperous distilment, whose effectHolds such an enmity with blood of man(70)That, swift as quicksilver, it courses throughThe natural gates and alleys of the body,And, with a sudden vigour, it doth possetAnd curd, like eager droppings into milk,The thin and wholesome blood. So did it mine;(75)And a most instant tetter bark'd about,Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crustAll my smooth body.Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother's handOf life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd... (1.5.64-80)
Hamlet's killing of Polonius in act 3, scene 4, although shocking in its unexpectedness, suddenness, and violence, is actually hidden from the audience's view.
GERTRUDE. What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me?Help, help, ho!
POLONIUS. (Behind the arras) What, ho! help, help, help!
HAMLET. (Drawing) How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead!
Makes a pass through the arras
POLONIUS. (Behind the arras) O, I am slain!
Falls and dies. (3.4.23-27)
The audience sees Hamlet thrust his dagger or sword through the curtain behind which Polonius is eavesdropping on Hamlet's conversation with his mother and sees Polonius fall to the floor from behind the curtain.
Throughout the play, Hamlet has done nothing but talk about taking revenge on Claudius for murdering Hamlet's father. Hamlet even had an opportunity to kill Claudius outright in act 3, scene 3, when Claudius was on his knees praying for forgiveness for the murder, but Hamlet talked himself out of killing Claudius. In this scene with his mother, however, Hamlet takes instant, decisive action against a person who he only thinks might be Claudius.
The effect of this scene is that the audience sees Hamlet act in a way that is totally inconsistent with his previous actions—or, rather, his total inaction—and shows the audience a part of Hamlet's character they haven't seen before.
The violent deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in Hamlet's place in England are mentioned only in passing by Hamlet at the beginning of act 5, scene 2. Hamlet is much less concerned about their deaths than he is about telling Horatio how clever he was to rewrite the letter that Claudius sent with them to King Edward of England requesting that "not to stay the grinding of the axe, / My head should be struck off" (5.2.25-26).
HORATIO. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to't.
HAMLET. Why, man, they did make love to this employment!They are not near my conscience; their defeatDoes by their own insinuation grow. (5.2.61-63)
So much for the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. It was their own fault.
Gertrude interrupts Claudius and Laertes while they're plotting Hamlet's death to report Ophelia's death to them. Although Ophelia's death isn't particularly violent, it's nonetheless distressing (or seemingly so) to those three characters and hardens Laertes's vengeful heart even further towards Hamlet.
Ophelia's death resolves a lingering question for the audience as to what happened to Ophelia after her "mad scene" (Act 4, Scene 5) and also avoids having Ophelia as the only major character (other than Horatio) left alive at the end of the play.
The final scene of Hamlet is the only truly violent scene that the audience observes. The scene serves to resolve all the loose ends of the plot and avenges all the real and imagined wrongs that the remaining characters need to avenge.
Although Hamlet didn't intend to avenge his father's death on his mother, Gertrude, she's justly rewarded for possibly participating in the plot against Hamlet's father and for her "incestuous" marriage to Claudius. Some Shakespeare scholars suggest that Gertrude might even have known that the goblet of wine intended for Hamlet was poisoned, and she drank it herself to spare Hamlet's life or to take her own life out of guilt for what she's done.
Hamlet avenges his father's death by (finally) killing Claudius. Laertes avenges Hamlet's killing of his father, Polonius, and avenges his sister, Ophelia, for whose madness and death Laertes blames Hamlet.
It remains only for Horatio to report to Fortinbras all the violence relevant to the plot, after the play is over.
HORATIO. ... So shall you hearOf carnal, bloody and unnatural acts;Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause;And, in this upshot, purposes mistookFall'n on the inventors' heads. All this can ITruly deliver. (5.2.395-401)
There are numerous examples of violence throughout Hamlet. However, it is best to concentrate on those which have the greatest degree of dramatic significance for the play as a whole. Let us start off with one that takes place before the play even starts: the murder of King Hamlet, the protagonist's father. This is arguably the most important act of violence in the text: it sets the tone for all subsequent events in the play and provides Hamlet with the prime motivating factor for his actions (or lack thereof). The murder of Hamlet's father is the foundational act of violence that leads directly or indirectly to all other acts of violence in the play.
In act 1, scene 5, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears to him and tells him how he really died. Hamlet, like everyone else, assumed that his father had died after being bitten by a poisonous snake. In reality, Claudius crept up on him while he was sleeping in the orchard and poured poison down his ear. Additionally, Claudius seduced King Hamlet's queen, Gertrude:
Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,
With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts—
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!—won to his shameful lust
The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen.
Hamlet's fraught relationship with his mother will be an important theme running throughout the rest of the play. The ghost is firmly establishing in Hamlet's mind an intimate link between Claudius' act of murder and Gertrude's adultery.
Gertrude, unwittingly perhaps, always seems to be related to violence. Indeed, for Hamlet, her betrayal of his father and subsequent marriage to Claudius is an act of violence against honor, dignity, and all that is decent.
Gertrude is in the thick of things again in act 3, scene 4. She gets into a blazing row with Hamlet, who lets fly with a volley of vicious personal abuse against his mother. As expected, it revolves around his detestation of Gertrude for marrying his father's murderer. Hamlet's verbal violence spills over into physical violence as he stabs and kills Polonius, who had been hiding behind a curtain to eavesdrop on Hamlet's conversation. At this stage in the play, whether we believe that Hamlet's madness is real or feigned, there is no doubt that whatever is going on in that mind of his is having deadly repercussions.
Murder is not the only kind of violence which has significance in the play. Take Ophelia's suicide, for example. At least, most people conclude that she committed suicide. The Church refuses to bury her in hallowed ground, a sure sign that she actually did kill herself. At the very least, Ophelia does not really care whether she lives or dies because she is so psychologically damaged by the twin tragedies of Hamlet's rejection and the death of her father, Polonius. It is significant that a relatively passive character in the play shows more resolution in enduring "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" than Hamlet himself, even though it did lead to her death.
The act of violence that the whole play leads up to—Hamlet's revenge upon Claudius in act 5, scene 2—turns out to be much less dramatic than we expect. One quick swig of poison and it is all over. However, there is still some significance to this particular act of violence, nonetheless. Claudius's death allows King Hamlet to be avenged and serves as a neat instance of poetic justice. Just as he poisoned his brother and (inadvertently) his wife, so too has he poisoned himself.
Hamlet had a number of oppurtunities to kill Claudius. In this scene he stabs him, but it is not enough to kill him. It is important for the overall dramatic structure of the play that Claudius ends up dying in the same way as his brother. Thus, the ambiguity of violence in Hamlet is revealed. It can be terrible, brutal, and unjust. Yet, just like fire, it can purge and destroy.
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