Themes from HamletThe themes of the Shakespearean drama Hamlet are numerous. Let us discuss some of the most commonly recognized themes in this essay. In the essay "Hamlet: His Own Falstaff", Harold Goddard makes a statement about the two main themes of the play, namely war and revenge, by relating them to the final scene. :The dead Hamlet is carried "like a soldier" and the last rites on his body must be the rites of war. The last word of the text is “pull”. The last sounds we hear are dead walking and the reverberations of ammunition fire. The ending crowns it all. The sarcasm of fate could not go any further. Hamlet, who aspired to nobler things, is treated at his death as if he were the mere image of his father: a warrior. Shakespeare knew what it was about when he concluded his martial play. Its theme was war as well as revenge. (23) The interpretation of the play's main theme as revenge is stated by Phyllis Abrahms and Alan Brody in "Hamlet and the Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy Formula": There are ten deaths in Hamlet, if we include the death of the father of Hamlet and the “imaginary” death of the Player-King. The cause of each can be traced directly to another character's action – or lack thereof. But for a play to be a cohesive work of art, there must be a central action around which all the other parts revolve. What is the central and unifying action of Hamlet? Revenge. (43-44) RA Foakes continues the theme of revenge in "The Play's Courtly Setting": And where there is no legal punishment for his father's death, he must stoop, driven by evil universal, and "being thus surrounded with wicked people", to take revenge. He mu...... middle of paper......on Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from “Hamlet and the Court of Elsinore”. Shakespeare Survey: An annual survey of Shakespearean study and production. No. 9. Ed. Allardyce Nicoll. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univ. P., 1956. Levin, Harry. General introduction. The Shakespeare by the River. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1974. Neill, Michael. “No one can escape death, the “unknown country.” » Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from “Hamlet: A Modern Perspective.” The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. NP: Folger Shakespeare Lib., 1992. Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line number.