Tales of revenge have been popular for centuries. The hero of the revenge tale is seen as a righteous vindicator who balances the scales after the villains gain an advantage through their nefarious deeds. While seemingly justified, more often than not the hero must also suffer an undesirable fate to complete the act of revenge: “Although revenge may be for the moralist of the sixteenth century…a theme of profound ethical concern, for the hero of the tragedy it is a fate that, while morally inescapable, is also morally suicidal” (Mercer 6). This scenario, which has been repeated countless times in various tales of revenge, has no better representative than in Shakespeare‘s Hamlet . In the play, revenge is the driving factor, and all of the major characters are negative because of it. We can examine the various aspects of Hamlet’s revenge plot to gain greater insight into what the play says about the necessity of and the consequences of revenge. Hamlet is as famous for his hesitations as he is for his quest for revenge. The reason for his hesitations throughout the play is how incredibly sure he felt that he had to be to carry out such an act. As mentioned, the act of revenge would inevitably have negative repercussions upon himself and those around him. The only character in the play to claim to have first-hand knowledge of the murder of Hamlet’s father and who speaks aloud about them to another character is the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Hamlet seems to recognize that he cannot simply carry out such an act only upon the command of a ghost. He does not even know the full intentions of the ghost: “Several critics have recognized that Shakespeare could not have intended a spirit of health, released from Purgatory by divine will, to corrupt his son by commanding bloody revenge” (Prosser 138). The audience of the play would have recognized the morally compromised position that the ghost was asking Hamlet to put himself into, and as such Hamlet’s insistence on gaining some sort of further proof of his uncle’s actions would seem the only reasonable thing to do. Other characters in the play have motives for revenge as well. The most obvious character seeking revenge is the ghost. The ghost’s desire for its death to be avenged is the entire motive behind Hamlet’s revenge plot. Hamlet was simply disturbed by the death of his father and his mother’s quick marriage, but Hamlet’s meeting with the ghost pushed him into full-on revenge. We can consider the ghost’s reasoning behind his insistence on Hamlet’s actions. The ghost would have, being in purgatory, know what sort of long-term consequence this would have for his son. Having been murdered seems to have removed all human reasoning from him; the ghost would have known that he was sending his son to most certain doom, either in a literal or spiritual sense. We must, however, consider the ghost to be telling the truth, considering the actions of Claudius throughout the play, such as when he claims he cannot pray to be forgiven for his sins: “Oh, my offense is rank, it smells to Heaven/It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t/A brother’s murder. Pray can I not/Though inclination be as sharp as will” (3.3.36-39). Hamlet’s main ploy to ensure