a theme of the play is revenge. after king claudius persuaded laertes that hamlet was responsible for ophelia's madnes and the death of polonius, laertes promised revenged. but the king obviously thinks that it is necessary to ensure that laetes meets the plan to kill hamlet with unreasonable means. before he reveals the complete plan, the king asked laertes if his father was good to him, or was he otherwise a painting of sorrow, a "face without a heart." the ghost said something very similar to hamlet. thus the king said to prove that someone loves his father like ghosts by taking revenge, the king said his father, raele, to prove his love, at hamlet in the church. the king said that there really is no place to kill the sanctuary. of course he can accept the mean and cowardly revenge method for laetess, so the king approves