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Revenge as motive in Shakespeare
The theme of vengeance and revenge in the play Hamlet
The theme of vengeance and revenge in the play Hamlet
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Conventions are commonly known as a customary feature of a literary work such as the use of a chorus in Greek tragedy or an explicit moral in a fable. They are found in stories, plays, essays, poetry, and movies. Conventions are found frequently in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, and Othello. They are also detected in D. H. Lawrence’s The Horse Dealer’s Daughter and The Rocking Horse Winner, and lastly in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House. These literary devices all grasp the same conventional concept. The use of a prop in a literary work is a perfect example of a convention—each prop is used to show a significant idea in its respective literary work.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright and poet. He was recognized in much of the world as the greatest of all dramatists. In Hamlet, Shakespeare provides the first prop as letters. Ophelia proclaims, “My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to redeliver; I pray you, now receive them” (III.I.93-95). In this citation, Ophelia gives Hamlet the letters (“them”) of poetry he has written to her. With this action, she manages to devalue Hamlet, bring forth a feeling of worthlessness and unimportance.
Another significant prop in Hamlet is the fencing sword. Fencing was a common, competitive and recreational sport practiced in the Middle Ages. The sword was usually tipped with foil to prevent injury. In act V, Hamlet and Leartes engage in a game of fencing. Leartes deceives Hamlet and “unbates” his sword. The unbated sword is soaked in poison and the opponents bleed on both sides (V.II.271-273). This occurrence signifies the revenge each son is instilled with. Hamlet is mislead by his long-lived acquaintance. Deception and revenge brought him to his final resting place
Also in act V, Hamlet and Horatio watch two clowns while they dig a grave. While the clowns dig, they come across a skull. Hamlet pronounces, “This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o’er reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?” (V.I.66-67). This skull resembled Hamlet’s jester who has passed away over 20 years ago. The skull represented the dead smell in Denmark. This is a turning point in the drama. Everything around Hamlet was falling; first his father, the incest of marriage, and his fair Ophelia.
The props so far have lead up to the dramatic end of the play.
Early on in Hamlet, a guard slightly mentions that there is “something rotten in the state of Denmark” (Shakespeare, I.iv.90). The tranquility of Denmark is suddenly shattered by Claudius’s marriage to Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, only a short time following the death of King Hamlet. To Hamlet was revealed the murder of his father and becomes determined to avenge his father’s death no matter the cost. This sets off a trail of pretending, backstabbing, plotting, luring, and deadly accidents that ultimately lead to a clash of hatred between the characters and the doom of Denmark. Shakespeare animates the characters with these sinful deeds and vengeance to illustrate that these corruptions strips the innocence and sanity in human kind. Had Hamlet not gone on a tangent and lost his mind about the murder of his father, there might not have been a domino effect of madness knocking down everyone else in this royal chain. Hamlet pretends to have app...
William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is the dramatic story of a son who felt betrayed by both his mother, and the woman that he loved. Written in the Elizabethan era, around 1600, “Shakespeare's focus on Hamlet's intellectual conflicts was a significant departure from contemporary revenge tragedies… which tended to dramatize violent acts graphically on stage” (Hamlet). The play depicts Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, who it visited by the ghost of his father, King Hamlet. The ghost reveals how he was murdered by his brother Claudius, who then claimed the title of King, and married Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. Hamlet vows to avenge his father’s untimely death. Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, but her brother, Laertes, and father, Polonius, warn her that Hamlet can never really love her. Ophelia, following her father’s wishes, is unwittingly enlisted to spy on Hamlet, which leaves him feeling betrayed. Hamlet rejects Ophelia, accidently stabs and kills Polonius, and then hides the body. Ophelia becomes so distraught over her father’s death, that she ultimately drowns herself. Hamlet is devastated when he learns of Ophelia’s death. The play culminates with a sword fight between Hamlet and Laertes. Hamlet’s mother dies from inadvertently drinking poisoned wine that was intended to kill Hamlet. Laertes and Hamlet are both stabbed with a poison-tipped sword, but before dying, Laertes confesses that Claudius was the mastermind behind everything. Hamlet forces Claudius to also drink the wine and the irony is that everyone dies in the end. One of the most controversial topics in history is the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet’s letters express his sincere feelings, and reveal that he was very much in love with Ophe...
Literary Devices Identified in Hamlet’s Soliloquy O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Metaphor The purpose of a metaphor is to compare the similarities between two different ideas.
The first glimpse of death is the reappearance of King Hamlet in the spirit form of a ghost signifying as well as reinforcing the suspicion clouding the demeanor of his death. Upon appearing at the platform of Elsinore castle an amazed Horatio describes “Together with that fair and warlike form/ In which the majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes march” (I.i. 45-48) .The battle attire adorned by the king foreshadows the conflict and bloodshed that will ensue later on in the play. Another portent of death is when Marcellus one of the guard remarks “something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (I.iv.90). In saying this the heavy use of imagery while describing death is brought forth in wh...
Hamlet tarnishes his image and sacrifices his dignity as a result of his ploy to fool those around him and avenge his father’s murder. Initially, the character of Hamlet is portrayed as “a soldier” and “a scholar” with “a noble mind”. This description by Ophelia is one that the citizens of Elsinore including friends and family of Hamlet would have open-heartedly agreed to. After all, as Claudius said to Hamlet: “You are the most immediate to our throne...” Hamlet must act in a presentable state at all times so can be in favor with the people in the event that he were to become king. However, after the revelation by the Ghost that “The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown,” Hamlet is shocked but at the same time confused. He is forced into a conflict between acting and not acting ...
In what way do the techniques used in a prescribed text develop ideas and influence your response as a reader? The revenge tragedy, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare is a tale of murder, secrets and lies where a son is called upon by the ghost of his father to avenge his death. Shakespeare uses a range of techniques in order to influence the readers understanding of Hamlets main themes and ideas. The most effective techniques used within the play are the soliloquies that give depth of both character and story, the powerful displays of imagery used within the play, and the dual understanding that emphasizes the connection between king and country. Through these techniques Shakespeare is able to develop the play in such a way that influences the reader by communicating a deeper meaning and a more complex understanding.
...gton, 2009, pp. P1139 L190,191) Clearly, this is short-lived as but a few scenes later, he slays Hamlet in a fencing match by a poison blade as planned earlier. (Shakespeare & Bevington, 2009, pp. P1146-1148)
Here, Hamlet really gets a feel for death. You can tell his emotions are sad and sorrowful by his reaction to finding the skull. He says “he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred in my imagination it is! my gorge rims at it”. That line shows his emotions of finding the skull as “abhorred”, which is a synonym of hate.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet revolves around Hamlet’s quest to avenge his father’s murder. Claudius’ first speech as King at the beginning of Scene 2, Act 1 introduces the themes of hierarchy, incest and appearance versus reality and plays the crucial role of revealing Claudius’ character as part of the exposition. The audience is left skeptical after Horatio’s questioning of King Hamlet’s ghost in the first scene of the play. By placing Claudius’ pompous speech immediately after the frightening appearance of Hamlet’s ghost, Shakespeare contrasts the mournful atmosphere in Denmark to the fanfare at the palace and makes a statement about Claudius’ hypocrisy. Through diction, doubling and figurative language, Shakespeare reveals Claudius to be a self centered, hypocritical, manipulative and commanding politician.
At the start of the play, Horatio and his companions, Bernardo and Marcellus, witness the sudden and frightening apparition of Hamlet’s deceased father, former king of Denmark. The three friends are “[harrowed] with fear and wonder” as they encounter the ghost and Horatio is convinced to attempt conversation it (Shakespeare, I. I. pg. 2). Before engaging the ghost, Horatio recalls the time before “the mightiest Julius fell” when “the graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead / Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.” (Shakespeare, I. I. pg. 4) In that instance, the rising of the dead precipitated the brutal and premature demise of Julius Caesar, a horrible misfortune that rocked all of Rome. Likewise, Horatio sees the parallelism in the appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost concluding that his manifestation must be Fate’s morbid signal of impending doom and disaster (Weller).
Hamlet can be explored from a Traditional Revenge Tragedy approach, as the whole play revolves around Hamlet seeking revenge for his father’s death. Traditional Revenge Tragedy is whenever a crime is committed against someone, but the character cannot get revenge in a lawful way, so they have to take it upon themselves to punish the other character even if it is a involves a personal risk (Taofiki.) Whenever Hamlet’s father first dies, everyone assumes it is just a natural death, but soon a ghost comes to make Hamlet think otherwise. The ghost reveals to Hamlet that his own brother, Hamlet’s uncle who now is married to his mother, murdered his father by pouring snake venom into his ear. Hamlet is then faced with a predicament because his father
Death threads its way through the entirety of Hamlet, from the opening scene’s confrontation with a dead man’s ghost to the blood bath of the final scene, which occurs as a result of the disruption of the natural order of Denmark. Hamlet is a man with suicidal tendencies which goes against his Christian beliefs as he is focused on the past rather than the future, which causes him to fall into the trap of inaction on his path of revenge. Hamlet’s moral dilemma stems from the ghost’s appearance as “a spirit of health or a goblin damned”, making Hamlet decide whether it brings with...
In the beginning of the play, Hamlet has returned from Wittenberg to honor the death of his father, King Hamlet, and the ghost of his dead father suddenly confronts him. The ghost of King Hamlet has returned to inform his son about the murder that his brother has committed. While King Hamlet was asleep, his brother, Claudius, placed poison in his ear and left him suffering to die. The ghost of King Hamlet sets the main conflict of the play into motion and puts the idea of revenge into Hamlet’s mind. He says to Hamlet:
Shakespeare utilizes prose through Hamlet’s dialogue in order to indicate disrespect to the other speaker. When Hamlet casts Ophelia away, he insults her using the informal structure of prose, saying “get thee to a nunnery” and “marry a fool, for wise men know well enough”. Hamlet’s decision to speak these informal words to Ophelia emphasizes his disregard for higher status. Later, Hamlet addresses actors of a lower social class in prose, saying “O, it offends me to the soul to hear a […] fellow tear a passion to tatters”. The unstructured format of Hamlet’s speech to the actors indicates his acknowledgment of their lower class compared to his royalty. Similarly, Hamlet breaks iambic pentameter and uses prose when referring to Osric, calling
In Act I scene V, Hamlet is told by his father’s ghost to “revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The ghost then goes on to tell Hamlet that as he was “sleeping in my orchard, A serpent stung me” and that “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown.” Hamlet is told by the ghost to seek revenge, telling him that Claudius has corrupted Denmark and corrupted Gertrude, having seduced her in the foul lust of their incestuous marriage. The ghost urges Hamlet not to act against his mother in any way, telling him to “Leave her to heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her.”