Or is Hamlet the villain?

Claudius is often believed to be the villain in the play. He does kill King Hamlet and marries his dead brother’s wife. And Hamlet is the hero who wants to nobly find justice for his father and rid Denmark of corruption. However Hamlet can also be interpreted as the villain of the play. Firstly, if we are looking at sheer number, Hamlet kills more people than Claudius; Claudius kills only his brother while Hamlet kills Polonius with his own hands and sends a letter that dooms Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to die. Hamlets motives are also very sinister. He compares Claudius to satyr, a half man and half goat; However the difference between human and beast is that humans are to rationalize and think which makes Hamlet is also beastlike in the sense that he is driven by his emotion of revenge which clouds his rational thought. Also, Hamlet doesn’t simply want justice, he wants violent revenge – the difference being in that justice seeks out rightfulness or lawfulness order to maintain stability while revenge is to exact punishment in a resentful or vindictive spirit. Revenge is what is sought out by the villain while justice is what is sought out by the hero. Hamlet doesn’t want to set things right in Denmark or cure it of corruption; he wants exact harm on Claudius because he feels he was indirectly wronged through the murder of his father. Evidence of this can be seen in Act III Scene iii when Hamlet says “When he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,/Or in th’ incestuous pleasure of his bed”,/ At game a-swearing, or about some act/ That has no relish of salvation in’t-/Then trip him, that his heels may kick at Heaven,/And that his soul may be damned and black/As Hell, whereto it goes” which reveals that Hamlet doesn’t want to kill Claudius, he wants to kill Claudius while he is partaking in a sinful and act so that Claudius can be sent to hell and suffer eternally.  At this point Hamlet isn’t simply in a fit of rage, he is calculated and is planning how he will kill Claudius; he appears psychopathic. Even when Hamlet accidently kills Polonius he shows no remorse; after Hamlet kills Polonius Gertrude exclaims, “Oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!” in which Hamlet wittingly replies, “A bloody deed? Almost bad, good mother,/ As kill a king and marry with his brother” which suggests that Hamlet is not concerned with outcomes of his actions or the effect it might have on others but is only concerned with getting revenge on Claudius. Hamlet writes a new letter to England so that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be murdered. Depending on your interpretation of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern could be perceived as being uninformed about what was in the original letter.  This means that by killing them, Hamlet could have killed two innocent men. In the end, many people around Hamlet get hurt but if Hamlet truly is the villain to whom killing Claudius is paramount, that shouldn’t matter too much to him.