Murder Most Foul
Vengeance is never the answer.
“To be or not to be” may not be Hamlet’s pondering on his own suicide but something more—his contemplating the murder of his uncle. Shakespeare had more insight than most and knew that murder is but the beginning of our own suicide, our own destruction. Or as John Donne put it:
No man is an island, Entire of itself; Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, As well as if a promontory were: As well as if a manor of thy friend's Or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
When we diminish mankind, we diminish ourselves. When we see this diminishing as necessary or laudatory, we are tolling our own death knells. I’ve already worried about this, the celebration of death for those we judge and condemn. Over eighteen million copies of Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens have been sold.
Here’s the thing:
Its popularity has puzzled me because murder is condoned in the book.
Yeah, some say, Chase had it coming. And, perhaps we say that Hamlet’s uncle who murdered Hamlet’s father and married his mother had it coming. However, Shakespeare does not celebrate murder.
Shakespeare, unlike the author Delia Owens, does not have any illusions that murder, even if evidence shows it to be justified, will enrich lives. On the contrary. To enact revenge is to court suicide—to destroy something in a person’s own soul.
Hamlet, in his “To be” soliloquy, views death as mere sleep that ends our troubles before he adds a caveat— “perchance to dream. This is the rub.” Death is not an endless sleep, he recognizes, but is continued life, the “dream,” after death.
There’s the unknown—the “undiscover’d country.” This is the mystery that awaits us, the ineffable, that stays our hand, quiets our minds, and makes “cowards of us all.”
Hamlet condemns himself for doing nothing but has formulated a false dichotomy.
Be as corrupt as his uncle and do nothing.
Kill his uncle for killing his father.
There is a third choice, one Hamlet failed to take. Speak against injustice. Stand up for wrong. Let others know of the corrupt behavior. Let others know that he did not approve of it. Hold people accountable for their actions.
Why, like Hamlet, do we often fail to take this third choice in our own lives? We want someone else to do the work for us. We do not want to face the consequences of our actions.
Yes, there will be consequences. Someone who is corrupt does not want to be called out on their behavior and will attempt to silence those who speak up. Whistle blowers will often lose their jobs if not their lives. Most of us are cowards, not afraid of the dream that follows death, but afraid of powerful people in the here and now.
But those we laud for taking vengeance will face more tragedy, not less. Hamlet kills Polonius whose death triggers the death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends in carnage with the death of Ophelia’s brother, Hamlet’s uncle, his mother, and Hamlet himself.
What was Shakespeare point?
Here’s the Kicker:
Revenge begets more revenge. Murder does not solve problems but only intensifies them.
The play spawned phrases we still use today.
“To thine own self be true.” Hamlet was not true to himself—he feigned madness, feigned disdain for Ophelia, and feigned ignorance.
“Give every man thy ear but few thy voice.” Hamlet did not listen in hopes of arriving at solutions.
Like Hamlet, we allow others to guide our actions and destroy us. Hamlet was never a hero, never remained true to himself, never took appropriate action. Instead, his actions were responses to others. He was a victim, instead.
Giving approval to someone for murdering those we do not approve of does not make that person a hero. It makes them a victim and furthermore, makes us a victim. It does not solve problems but leads to a diminishing of all.
Each person, no matter what we think of that person, is made in the image of God. Can that image be distorted and tarnished beyond recognition? Yes, but we cannot judge whether or not that image can be restored to its rightful glory.
To judge another is to give others permission to judge our own lives as worthy or unworthy. Do we want others to have that kind of power?
Treat all life in a worthy, respectful manner without resorting to lies, distortions, and playacting.
Lift the veil, peer behind the curtain, and allow all to see the evil machinations now hidden. Heroes are not those who enact vengeance. Heroes are those who stand firm against the overreach of the power hungry. Heroes are those who stand firm against the exploitation of the weak.
Heroes are not murderers.
Shakespeare knew it. Do we?