No Murder, Self-Defense in HamletIt is said that the fall of the Danish royal family was the fault of Prince Hamlet. But in truth, Hamlet was not responsible for all the deaths. He simply wanted to avenge the murder of his father, that of Gertrude, Polonius, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Ophelia. If you don't know who you are killing, are you held fully responsible for the murder? In the case of Hamlet, he promised his father that he would avenge his father's murder. After the play, Hamlet was called into Gertrude's room to talk with his mother. That evening, Hamlet had played badley and embarrassed King Claudius by implying that he had killed King Hamlet. At this point in the play, Hamlet was aware that almost everyone was spying on him. So he had reason to be suspicious when he heard a noise behind a curtain. It was of course Hamlet's fault that he stabbed Polonius, but Hamlet did not know it was Polonius. He thought it was Claudius who was about to pull a knife on him, so to defend himself, Hamlet killed him. Polonius was simply mistaken for king. He was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Therefore, since Hamlet did not know that he was killing the wrong person, he cannot be entirely responsible for Polonius' death. After Hamlet realized that he had murdered the king's advisor, and not the king, he felt sorry for Polonius and sort of apologized. "You are a miserable, rash, intrusive fool, farewell. I took you for your best. Take your fortune. You find yourself too busy in danger." (Act 3, scene 4, line 38) Everyone deals with death differently. Hamlet cries, promising revenge. Gertrude leaves with a new husband to replace the old one. When Ophélie learns of her father's death, she goes crazy. This is how Ophelia deals with death. She went crazy; acting crazy like crazy. Soon, she got to the point where she could no longer control her actions. As a result, she herself decided to end her life, to end the madness and pain. Ophélie's death is due to the death of her father. Because Hamlet was not entirely responsible for Polonius' death, he could not be responsible for Ophelia's death. Hamlet loved Ophelia; he wouldn't deliberately hurt her like that. "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, constitute my sum.".