Revenge and Vengeance in Shakespeares Hamlet - Pure...

Hamlet – the Revenge Tragedy? A baffling array of considerations relevant to the revenge aspect of Shakespeare’s tragic drama Hamlet make an essay on this topic an interesting experience. Ruth Nevo in â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging† explains the uncertain place which revenge occupies within the hero’s most famous soliloquy: And conversely, because self-slaughter is the ostensible subject of the whole disquisition, we cannot read the speech simply as a case of conscience in the matter of revenge – Christian revenge and the secular sanctions and motivations of honor. Whether Hamlet is talking of his revenge or of his desire for death, or of both, one substituting for the other as mask for†¦show more content†¦Yet Hamlet hardly recognizes Horatio at first, and speaks as if he himself lived at Elsinore (I refer to his bitter jest, ‘We’ll teach you to drink deep ere you depart’). Who would dream that Hamlet had himself just come from Wittenberg, if it were not for the previous words about his going back there? How can this be explained on the usual view? Only, I presume, by supposing that Hamlet is so sunk in melancholy that he really does almost ‘forget himself’ and forgets everything else, so that he actually is in doubt who Horatio is. (370) The ghost says that King Hamlet was murdered by Claudius, who had a relationship with Gertrude prior to the murder. Hamlet swears to carry out vengeance. Gunnar Boklund in â€Å"Judgment in Hamlet† sees the ghost as the character who introduces revenge into the play: An equally familiar and somewhat more plausible argument may also be adduced to explain the significance of the Ghost: Shakespeare, like his fellow dramatists, did not personally regard blood-revenge as justified but followed the so-called revenge convention of the Elizabethan theatre. Dramatic heroes were, in other words, traditionally supposed to have the right to revenge the deaths of their kinsmen, provided that they did not resort to such un-English methods as poisoning or allow their desire for vengeance to express itself in the form of indiscriminate murder. . . (118-19) The hero’s emotionalShow MoreRelatedHamlet : A Cycle Of Revenge1165 Words   |  5 Pages and in the case of The Tragedy of Hamlet, the Shakespearean masterpiece, parents may face untimely deaths at the hands of enemies. This, of course, commences a cycle of revenge, a cycle where an equilibrium of justice is attempted to be reached through retribution. But much too often this cycle of retribution has little thought. Despite following a procedure with valid, emotional roots and a lengthy pensive phase, there is rarely logic in the emotional process of revenge, but rather invented, falseRead MoreHamlet Cause and Effect Essay1716 Words   |  7 Pagesand surprise the audience as much as possible (Roff).† Hamlet is a dramatic production written by William Shakespeare. â€Å"The play, set in the Kingdom of Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius for murdering the old King Hamlet, Claudiuss own brother and Prince Hamlets father, and then su cceeding to the throne and marrying Gertrude, the King Hamlets widow and mother of Prince Hamlet (Hamlet†).† Shakespeare’s main objective was to impress his Elizabethan audienceRead MoreThe Need for Revenge: Hamlet and The Butcher Boy1132 Words   |  5 PagesRevenge is considered by many, sought by some, and carried out by few. It consumes the avenger and what is left is madness. 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A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfullyRead More Hamlet Essay: The Unlike Characters of Gertrude and Ophelia3420 Words   |  14 PagesHamlet -- the Unlike Characters of Gertrude and Ophelia      Ã‚  Ã‚   The Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet features two ladies who are very unlike in character. Queen Gertrude, denounced by the ghost as faithless to King Hamlet, is pictured as evil by many, while Ophelia is seen as pure and obedient and full of good virtues. Let’s explore these two unlike people.    Rebecca Smith in â€Å"Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother† presents an unusually â€Å"clean† image of the present queen that is not consistentRead More Hamlet, the Melancholy One Essay3212 Words   |  13 PagesHamlet, the Melancholy One      Ã‚   Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet features the most famous protagonist in English literature – Hamlet. Inseparable from his character is the melancholy which permanently afflicted him. This essay concerns itself with this aspect of Hamlet.    Harry Levin explains the choices open to the melancholy hero in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare:    The explanation of Hamlet, â€Å"What a piece of work is a man!† (II.ii.303), carries an ironic