Topic > In what sense is Hamlet a good person? - 748

The first death for which he is directly responsible is that of Polonius, the one that demonstrates Hamlet's recklessness. This then leads to Ophelia's death, as she goes mad when Polonius dies and causes her to fall into the river. Subsequently, he has Rosencrantz and Guilderstein killed. Finally, he is responsible for almost all the deaths in the last scene of the play. He directly kills Laertes and Claudius, and it is basically his fault that his mother dies because she drank the cup of poison that he was supposed to drink. If he feels guilty about these deaths you might say that they don't make him a bad person, but that's the question at hand. He may feel guilty about Polonius' death but not show much emotion due to his depression. He directly says he doesn't care about the deaths of Rozencrantz and Guilderstein, but puts the blame on them that they deserve it, which is true because of all the spying they've done. Revenge seems common for the time period and it would not be unusual for Hamlet to want to get revenge on two people who betrayed him. As for final deaths in the play, Hamlet also dies in this scene, so he doesn't have much action. Although he saves Horatio from committing suicide, which could help the argument that he has some good