Who Should Get Revenge? Hamlet or Laertes?

In William Shakespeare's play of Hamlet, the characters Hamlet and Laertes both experience the deaths of their fathers, but Laertes also experiences the death of his sister, Ophelia. Hamlet learns about how his father was murdered by his uncle, the new king, Claudius, through his father's ghost. Hamlet never liked his uncle and now his father wants Hamlet to avenge his death on his uncle. I felt that Hamlet was trying to do the right thing, but he went about it in the wrong way. First he completely crushed Ophelia's dreams of possibly marrying her. Hamlet takes his time to plot against the king, but on one occasion when he is talking to his mother, he impulsively kills Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia's father. This brings Ophelia to complete madness. Hamlet does avenge his father's death but shortly after he dies as well. Laertes had a greater reason for getting revenge on Hamlet. Hamlet killed his father, and Laertes blamed Hamlet for the cause of his sister's madness as well as for her death. Laertes, I felt, had a more grounded reason for wanting to kill Hamlet. Laertes went about it in a better way, by allying with the King, but in the end he realized that this was nonsense to want revenge like this. Laertes gave up to Hamlet that it was the King who poisoned his mother, Gertrude, and the duel to have Hamlet killed was also the King's idea.

In today's world, this happens, though we do not see it, we know that it is still there. People believe that they should get revenge on those who ruined their lives or people in their lives. For example, the ABC series Revenge is about a woman who is determined to get revenge on those who ruined her father’s life as well as hers. She ends up in situations where people die at her beckoning, or by people she is affiliated with, but she has little remorse over that fact. I do not believe in going about that way. Yes, one can be upset about a tragic event that happened in their life, but getting revenge on someone who may have been the cause of that is never the right way about going about things. I felt when I heard Laertes give up the King’s doing her realized that the way he went about getting revenge on Hamlet was not worth it. I do not believe that Hamlet ever realized this until his last breath, when he realized that he too was poisoned by the blade. In the case about Laertes vs. Hamlet over who had a right to get revenge, I felt that neither one should have been so caught up in the situation. Their struggle for their honor and revenge for their fathers, ultimately led to their downfall in the end.