One would have to say that the tragic ending of Hamlet—in which (spoiler alert!) almost everyone dies—shows us that all the deceit and the political chicanery and the revenge that has unfolded throughout the play hasn't been worth it. As the Norwegian ambassador surveys the scene of bloody carnage at the Danish court, Horatio tells him of the ultimate futility of all this slaughter:
And let me speak to th' yet-unknowing world
How these things came about. So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on th' inventors' heads (act 5, scene 2).
The last two lines of Horatio's lament are particularly important here. He's referring to the murderous plots that have spectacularly backfired on their perpetrators, such as Hamlet's plan to murder Claudius, and Claudius's plan to murder Hamlet by putting poison in his cup. And what did all this murderous double-dealing achieve? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Denmark is in turmoil, and now the Norwegians are ready to impose some much-needed order and stability upon this broken, rotten kingdom.
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