Revenge causes one to act blindly through anger, rather than through reason. It is based on the principle of an eye for an eye, but this principle is not always an intelligent theory to live by. In William Shakespeare"s Hamlet, Young Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet were all looking to avenge the deaths of their fathers. They all acted on emotion, but the way the characters went about it was very different. Because of this, it led to the downfall of two, and the rise of one. The heads of the three major families were each murdered, the eldest sons of these families swore vengeance, and two of the three sons died while exacting their acts of vengeance, while the third rose to power.

             All of the three eldest sons had one thing in common. All three of the murders affected the sons of the deceased in the same way; it enraged them. For people during this time, revenging the murder of one"s father was part of one's honor and had to be done. All three of the sons swore vengeance and then acted towards getting revenge for the deaths of their fathers. Because of all of this, revenge is a major theme in Shakespeare"s Hamlet. Fortinbras took his revenge out in a proper way and rose to power in the end. Both Laertes and Hamlet, however, used force to accomplish their revenge. The lack of thought used in exacting their revenge led to the deaths of both Laertes and Hamlet.

             When Laertes found out about his father's death, he immediately returned home and confronted the king with accusations of the murder of his father. When Claudius tells Laertes that Hamlet was responsible for his father's death, he decides to kill Hamlet to avenge the death of his father. He and King Claudius concoct a plot to kill Hamlet by having Laertes duel with Hamlet and using a poisoned sword. However, they had not thought that something could have gone desperately wrong with their plan. What if Hamlet was by far the better swordsman, or what if Hamlet managed to get the sword away from Laertes without it being used against him first? With Laertes believing the King's accusations that Hamlet had murdered his father on purpose, he was in a blind rage and would not listen to Hamlet's explanation and apology.