Although Hamlet regretted killing Polonius, the troublemaking voyeur and eavesdropper - Laertes, nevertheless was pissed off at him, Polonius being Laertes' father, and all. And Ophelia, Polonius' daughter, wasn't happy either, and was considerably befuddled. She loved the old man, but she loved Hamlet, too, and to make matters worse, Hamlet, with unforgivably bad timing, treated her poorly, calling her a whore - as if Laertes, Ophelia's brother, needed a bigger gripe against Hamlet. When Laertes found out that the unglued Ophelia, who had a nervous breakdown after her father's death on the sword of her beloved Hamlet, had drowned herself, in my opinion, it was the last straw, as far as Laertes was concerned. (Remember that.) But, the scheming Claudius - Hamlet's uncle, and the murderer of his own brother, Hamlet's father, and by rules of succession, then King of Denmark, and now Hamlet's step-father after marrying the widow Gertrude, Hamlet's mother - threw explosive fuel on the already blazing fire. (I warned that this is a tangled tale.) Certain that Hamlet knew of the murder, and fearing the young prince, he treacherously arranged a duel between Laertes and Hamlet, and slipped Laertes some snake venom to put on the tip of his blade. Laertes, who was a bad sport, took pleasure in using the poison, eventually killing Hamlet, but not before all hell broke loose, with almost all of the people in the play killing each other, and Claudius accidentally poisoning Gertrude before Hamlet eventually got around to killing him, just in the nick of time, before finally expiring. Horatio, Hamlet's only true friend, dissuaded by Hamlet from joining him in death, survived the unpleasantness, and lived to tell the tale. Then, a guy named Fortinbras, a distant relative, with no business in this tragedy whatsoever, nevertheless, acceded to the throne, finding Denmark in a mess. So much so, that Shakespeare washed his hands of the whole thing, and didn't even waste his time on a sequel.
| Writing Prompt |
Write a flash fiction tale of REVENGE. Maximum 800 words. This can be in any genre and can range from a light-hearted prank to a murderous act of vengeance. Clever twists and irony encouraged. |
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