Day after day on television, in the movies, and even in some modern literature we see characters falling within those same old categories of "good guy", "bad guy" or "villain", "victim". Life would be much easier to figure out if human beings were so definitely good or bad, but we are not. Four hundred years ago William Shakespeare wrote a play that presented characters how human beings truly are, neither all good nor all bad. Hamlet is a play twisting and turning so much in human emotion that at times it almost seems to come alive and give us an accurate depiction of inner-torment, death, and humanness. In such scenes as the one where we see Claudius praying for forgiveness for the murder he has committed, guilt is seen in who would be the easy-to-hate "villain" in other stories. He is depicted as a human being with the capacity to be sorry for what he has done. The good and bad qualities of characters in Hamlet makes it harder for the audience to know who is right or who they want to see succeed. Hamlet is the play's supposed "good guy", since Claudius wronged Hamlet and his father the audience wants to sympathize with Hamlet and see him triumph over Claudius. When Hamlet is asked to seek revenge by the restless ghost of his father, his decency and moral appeal are seen as questionable, and he is seen as a sort of a villain. Hamlet then becomes a story immersed in the positive and negative qualities of character and the ambiguity of life. Despite Hamlets evil actions, when a person is pulled into a situation like Hamlet was, where Claudius murdered his father and his father asked for revenge, any choice he would have made would have had some "evil" or "good" qualities to it, this is why Hamlet was truly a victim. .
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In the beginning of the play the audience sees Hamlet struggling with his father's death and his victimization and sincere mourning appeals to us; it is something that makes us feel for him.