Does Hamlet become corrupted and just as evil as Claudius, or is he justified in his actions?

This is a
very interesting question. We tend to identify withas a character because we experience so much
of his interiority through his soliloquies, which reveal his inner thoughts and feelings. We
identify with 's anguish over his loss of his beloved father and his deepening anger and sense
of conflicted emotions as he learnsmurdered his father. We sympathize with Hamlet's sense of
justice as he runs an experiment through the Mousetrap play to find evidence that Claudius truly
is a murderer, rather than rashly murdering him on the mere bidding of a ghost.

Nevertheless, Shakespeare never loses sight of the fact that Hamlet is a powerful
prince, and neither should we. Hamlet, as the play goes on, participates in some cold-blooded
acts. We might overlook his murder of , as Hamlet is in a frenzy at that moment and thinks it is
Claudius hiding behind the arras. However, it is difficult to justify his cold-blooded
manipulation of the foolish and sycophantic but largely innocentto be killed on their arrival in
England. It is also difficult to justify his cruel treatment of .

Nevertheless, Hamlet never becomes as corrupt and evil as Claudius. Even near the end
of the play, he is questioning the price of revenge and wondering if it is worth it for the
highly praisedto bring an entire army to Denmark and sacrifice so many lives to reclaim a few
feet of land. He reconciles withat the end and doesn't kill Claudius until he realizes Claudius
poisoned his wine, murdering , who drinks it by mistake. To the end, Hamlet is thinking with
compassion about other people (if imperfectly), which is not an attribute of a wholly evil or
corrupt person. Claudius, in contrast, seems to lack all compassion. Hamlet may not be entirely
justified in all his actions, but he is largely justified and sympathetic.