Justice Vs. Rage in Hamlet

Rage and Justice From the very beginning of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the title character feels anger over his mother's quick transition from mourning her dead husband to marrying his brother. In Hamlet's first soliloquy, he berates the hasty marriage, crying "a beast, that wants discourse of reason, would have mourned longer." When the ghost of his father issues demands that Hamlet avenge his murder, Hamlet's pre-existing anger overwhelms this sacred mission, corrupting it and ultimately rendering …

…Give me that man that is not passion's slave, and I will wear him in my heart's core." Hamlet reveals his awareness of his own tragic flaw: that while his will is not strong enough to impel him to fulfill his vengeance, it is strong enough to arrest the full action of his passion. Similarly, he justifies vengeance in the sacred charge of his disembodied father, while it truly is the whim of his spleen.