What I believe to be the main and most important theme of Hamlet is that power corrupts and kills. This is evident in many parts of this play. In the first half of this tale, Shakespeare shows us that the power King Hamlet gave to his brother (free run of the castle, ability to get where the king slept) let to the king’s death. If King Hamlet would have limited his brother’s activities and had himself guarded while he slept, perhaps the late sovereign would still be ruling.
In the second part of the play, the main actions of the play start to unfold. The death of Ophelia could be viewed as caused by the emotional power Hamlet had over her. It might be that she became mad because of her love for Hamlet, who was acting mad herself. The greatest show of “power corrupts and kills” is in King Claudius. This man uses his power to not only indirectly kill 3 members of the story, (Gertrude, Hamlet, and Laertes), but he also uses Laertes to directly kill Hamlet so that Hamlet will not uncover the murder of King Hamlet. Also, throughout the play, he manipulates Gertrude, Hamlet’s loving and trusting mother, to satisfy his own wishes
