king or Hamlets father who they believed had died of a snake bite. This is the showing of the first
Going Beyond Revenge in Hamlet
The simplest and superficially the most appealing way to understand Shakespeare’s Hamlet is to see it as a revenge tragedy. This genre was well established and quite popular in Shakespeare’s time, but it was precisely part of his genius that he could take old forms and renew them by a creative violation of their standards. As this essay will explore, Hamlet stands the conventional revenge tragedy on its head, and uses the tensions created by this reversal of type to add depth to its characters and story.
Hamlet and Laertes both contribute to the play main theme, revenge. Both characters dearly loved their fathers, thats the reason for revenge. But, their love has been distorted and all they feel now is a need for revenge for their fathers’ deaths. But they cope with it differently. Hamlet knows who killed his father, but does not take immediate action. Laertes is a little unclear on who is responsible for his fathers death, but he takes immediate action to avenge him. "To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil! Conscience and grace, to the profoundest pit! I dare damnation: to this point I stand, that both worlds I give to negligence, let come what comes; only I'll be revenged most thoroughly for my father." Laertes Act 4 Scene 5. Both Hamlet and Laertes love their father and seek revenge, but they have different responses to their fathers death.
One trait that haunts many humans throughout every time period is revenge. In Hamlet, revenge is a main motive in almost every part of the play and has an overall affect on how the play takes place. When someone seeks revenge, they stop for no obstacles till this retribution has been reached. Once the retribution is fuelled by anger, it drives the seeker of revenge to a degree of no boundaries and might usually be the response of deceit or betrayal. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy-play “Hamlet”, this concept of revenge is sent to be terribly apparent, that to the current day reflects an unchanged response of anger and deceitful actions.
Shakespeare’s plays, among other classic works of literature, tend to be forged with the tension of human emotion. The archetypical parallel of love and hatred polarizes characters and emphasizes the stark details of the plot. More specifically, the compelling force of revenge is behind most of the motives of Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. The play opens with the return of Hamlet’s father, a surprising encounter, which ended in his son learning that his father’s death was the result of foul play. By emphasizing this scene as the beginning of the story to be told, Shakespeare clearly implies that the plot itself will be based around the theme of revenge. Through three different instances of behavior fueled entirely by vengeance, Shakespeare creates an image in the reader’s mind, which foreshadows the future of the story and provides insight into the plot line. Even so, despite the theme of revenge being the overarching concern of the plot, the parallels drawn between characters truly strengthen the thematic depth of the piece overall, making the play easily one of Shakespeare’s most infamous and historically valuable works.
In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the actions done by Hamlet are driven on revenge. After his father’s murder the ghost of his father comes to Hamlet with a request. The ghost wants Hamlet to murder Claudius because he is responsible for his father’s death. Hamlet is clueless to the affects of revenge. He never stops to think about how revenge will not only himself but also those around him. Even without any knowledge of what revenge can do to a person Hamlet obliges to the ghost’s request. The outcome of Hamlet’s journey left me wondering does revenge do any good for either sides?
“While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself” (Douglas Horton). This quote by Horton relates to Hamlet because it speaks of revenge, and Hamlet is a revenge play. The main character, Hamlet, while seeking revenge seals his own fate, and like the quote says while trying to kill someone else ends his own life in the process. Hamlet is a traditional revenge play, it focuses on the plot of revenge but also has subplots that distract the main character from the larger point of the story. Shakespeare was one of the first to expand the revenge tragedy, using what he and everyone knew and intensifying it. He did this by giving his main character many different sides, not just making him two dimensional. These many sides to Hamlet distract
Storming into the palace and throwing accusations at Claudius, Laertes reveals he is impulsive. Laertes anger is due to the dishonor that has been inflicted on his family by Polonius’s murder. Claudius takes advantage of the sudden appearance of Laertes, by provoking Laertes into assisting him in plotting Hamlet’s murder. Shakespeare uses Laertes not only as a catalyst in the story, but as a contrast to the pensive Hamlet.
Revenge of The Ghost
‘’The memory be green’’ (1.2.0-5). It has not been much time since Hamlet Sr. died, his memory stays fresh, but his brother, Claudius, has already married his wife and taken his kingdom. Claudius says he does it for the good of the Denmark, in The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. In addition; Hamlet cannot stop his hatred and anger toward his mother and uncle. He gets devastated and goes in grief by the loss of his father.
Throughout the play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare it becomes apparent that revenge isn’t really worthwhile if you die in achieving it. Hamlet Sr. was murdered by his brother, Claudius, who then became king of Denmark and married his sister-in-law, Hamlet Sr.’s queen. Upon Hamlet’s discovery of the act of treachery he wants his revenge. In trying to accomplish it he kills an innocent man, Polonius. In result, the daughter of Polonius and former lover of Hamlet, goes mad and kills herself. The deaths of the innocent father and daughter cause another to seek revenge, Laertes. Laertes wants to avenge the deaths of his father and sister. The man who started it all is worried about being found out. In order to keep his actions covered up he teams up with Laertes to kill Hamlet. Claudius doesn’t know that hamlet’s friend, Heratio, also knows the truth about the death of the king. In the scene where everything is supposed to go as planned to kill Hamlet, Queen Gertrude drinks out of a poisoned cup intended for Hamlet and dies. Hamlet is wounded by an unblunted fencing sword with a poisone...