Bad Blood

Billy and Jack Abbott from Young & the Restless compare to the betrayal that Claudius and Old Hamlet show towards to each other.

In Hamlet, Claudius betrays his brother, Old Hamlet, to gain the position of “king” for Denmark. To get to this point, Claudius kills Old Hamlet so he can be king and later marry Hamlet’s wife, Gertrude. Claudius purposely goes out of his way to attack his brother greedily and ended up getting what he wanted. Through this act of betrayal, Claudius shows how much power meant more to him than family and how he was jealous of what Hamlet had. In the play, it was believed that Claudius was having an affair with Gertrude before he decided to kill his brother which is another form of betrayal mainly from Claudius, but also from Gertrude. Claudius does end up feeling bad and guilty for killing his brother but only after the damage was done. He had no way to apologize and anything he said wouldn’t be taken seriously by Hamlet, the person who was most affected by Old Hamlet’s death.

In Young & the Restless, Billy and Jack Abbott are brothers who work for the same company, Jabot. In the show, Billy has a gambling problem and ends up betraying the brother, who is also the CEO, and the company by using a lot of the company’s money to complete his problem. Similar to Claudius, Billy also ended up sleeping with Jack’s wife at the time, Phyllis, where she ended up leaving Jack for Billy. Although Billy didn’t kill Jack as Claudius did to Hamlet, they Claudius and Billy both betrayed their own flesh and blood in the same aspects. While Claudius took his betrayal to the next level by killing his brother, Billy and Jack betrayed each other throughout the show and even continues until now.

Young & the Restless and Hamlet can compare to each other through betrayal in so many aspects throughout the show because betrayal is a common theme between every family. Because Young & the Restless is a soap opera and Hamlet is a play that has to finish, the theme of betrayal continues on throughout the show up until now and will continue until it finishes. With new families and characters constantly being introduced, similar story lines appear within their families and between siblings, just like Jack and Billy. They also end up apologizing but finding new ways to let down their family and mess up another relationship and situation.