Revenge as a theme is cleverly built upon throughout Hamlet; with it being the driving force behind three of the key characters in the play. Revenge is a frighteningly vicious emotion, which causes people to act blindly and without reason. In Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor enacts revenge for reasons unknown. Hamlet in contrast, has all the motive in the world to complete his task; yet he constantly hesitates. The text reveals that the need for revenge creates a stranglehold on the genuine emotions, thoughts, and actions of three characters: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Laertes; son of Polonius, and Fortinbras; Prince of Norway. This hold makes the characters act beyond their standard ethical positions and makes them helpless to their plots of revenge. The sadness of losing a loved one makes the characters participate in acts they wouldn't normally carry out. The language Shakespeare presents suggests that the characters will do whatever it takes to avenge, immorally, without a sense of rationale; thus effecting their true morality. The real question is, why?
As we see in both stories, revenge is not an easy task to complete. Hamlet encountered many obstacles on the way to enacting his revenge. Hamlet reveals that promising the act of vengeance to oneself, or to the actual victim itself, creates an amplified need to carry out their plans. Hamlet, who swore to his father's ghost that he will kill Claudius for revenge, states:
“Prompted by my revenge by heaven and hell, must like a whore unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing like a very drab, A scullion. Fie upon't, foh! About, my brains!” (2, ii, 525-9).
This proclamation by the crazed Prince Hamlet suggests that the promise he’s made to his father is eating...
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...of revenge is that revenge is immoral, no matter the case; and that just because one thing is immoral, does not mean we need to recover with the same, immoral act.
Works Cited
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Edgar Allan Poe.” Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature. Vol. 58. No. 2. 2004. pp. 47-62. Web. 24 October. 2011.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Cask of Amontillado.” Portable Literature. 7th ed.
Boston: Wadsworth Cenage Learning. 2011. 219-224. Print.
Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” Portable Literature. 7th ed. Boston: Wadsworth
Cenage Learning. 2011. 947-1056. Print.
Skulsky, Harold. “Revenge, Honor, and Conscience in Hamlet.” PMLA. Vol. 85.
No. 1. Jan., 1970. pp. 78-87. Web. 24 October. 2011.
“The Cask of Amontillado”: Montresor’s Revenge – InfoRefuge.com." Info
Refuge. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.
Revenge is a fairly strong emotion; it’s wanting to retaliate towards those who wronged you. Revenge is such an uncontrollable way of retaliation that it can result in a destructive outcome or carried out successfully. Although the results may vary, revenge sums up to one thing which is pain of some sort, affecting both parties or just one. Throughout history we see many tales of revenge and redemption. Often revenge does leave the one carrying it out feeling victorious but this can suddenly change as the process of karma generally begins in some tales.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Cask of Amontillado. Mankato, MN : The Creative Company, 2008. Print.
Redfield, J. S. "The Genius of Poe." Foreword. The Works of Edgar Allan Poe. Ed. A.C. Armstrong & Son. New York: A.C. Armstrong & Son., 1884. xv-xxvi. EPUB file.
Thomson, Gary Richard, and Poe Edgar. The selected writings of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Norton & Company, 2004
One rainy, spring afternoon I noticed a flashing light and a loud, booming sound outside my bedroom window. I quickly grabbed my raincoat and rushed outside to see what was going on and before I knew it, blinding lights beamed me up inside a strange object. I had never seen anything like it and then it dawned on me that I must be inside a spaceship! Strange-looking, blue creatures appeared before me and began asking questions about human feeling and emotion. They seemed to be harmless, yet curious as to what I could tell them about revenge. So I began by saying, revenge is the act of inflicting hurt or harm on someone in hopes of getting even with them for wronging somebody else. Revenge is spiteful and often people retaliate because of anger or hatred. Humans have a tendency to want to be hateful to those who have wronged us. Revenge is done for a number of reasons: someone hurt you or someone you love, sometimes it is done to be malicious, and other times because somebody took advantage of you. There are three different ways to explain the idea of revenge. Through a short story, poem, and a play, I will attempt to explain revenge. The short story is “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe, the poem is “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, and the play is “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare. All of these writings encompass this broad idea of revenge, yet at the same time they show different sides of revenge and the circumstances behind their actions.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: The Modern Library 1992
Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century, 2003. 105. The Print. The. Poe, Edgar Allan (1809 - 1849) - Credo Reference Topic.
Edgar Allan Poe’s stories are credited for having horror-filled endings. Usually darkness is considered to be a good representative of evil, so the setting in “The Cask of Amontillado” is at night-time. This story deals with the jealousy, revenge and, more importantly, wounded family honor. A man named Montresor, whose name is not discovered till the end of story, is seeking vengeance on Fortunato, who has irreparably insulted him. The very first sentence: “THE thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge”, supports the theme of revenge (Poe 161). This theme also suggests that Fortunato had aggrieved Montresor thousands of times, but whenever he insults Montresor and his family, he decides that there needs to be avenge and, which is the murder of a Fortunato. Montresor believes “he is out to get justice by baiting Fortunato” (Whatley 56). Hence, Whatley states “there is no remorse in Montresor’s heart when he finally confesses after fifty years”. So, for the sake of his family honor and self-respect, he vowed to take revenge by killing Fortunato.
Bar-elli, G. and Heyd, D. (1986), Can revenge be just or otherwise justified?. Theoria, 52: 68–86. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-2567.1986.tb00100.x
It is the idea of revenge that sends a cool shiver down the spines of justly men when they begin to question as to why someone would stoop to such a level. But yet it is still more than an idea for revenge has been carried out in various forms along all the eras of history side-by-side of that of novels and tragedies. Even so, revenge is still a dark scheme; an evil plague of the mind per se. It is such a plague that will turn even the greatest persons of the brightest, optimistically capable of minds into lowly, as well as lonely, individuals. Thus, revenge will, and can, only end in despair and agony of the mind. Therefore, provided that all that has been said is true, revenge would appear quite unseemly to the observant onlooker. However, taking an in-depth insight into revenge you can uncover quite a compelling feature, which is best summed up into one word. Pride. Pride is the one clear motivational proprietor needed to push a protagonist into the downward spiral of personal vendetta. Without pride, revenge is no more than a mindless massacre of flesh and bone ending in the obliteration of any hope for reconciliation.
Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).
Poe, Edgar Allan, Andrew Barger, Harry Clarke and Gustave Dore´. Edgar Allan Poe. [Memphis, Tenn.]: BottleTree Books, 2008. Print.
Revenge is a motif we see repeatedly throughout the play. Different characters use revenge differently according to their situation. Revenge leads Hamlet and Laertes to their deaths while it makes Fortinbras gain back the land of Denmark. As you can see, the quote by Phaedrus encompasses the entire concept of revenge in Hamlet. The swordfight at the end of the play allowed the characters to complete their revenge, and probably without this, the different reprisals probably wouldn’t have been carried out. All in all, throughout the play, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all had a tragic death of a family member which caused their decision for revenge.
Throughout Hamlet, each character’s course of revenge surrounds them with corruption, obsession, and fatality. Shakespeare shows that revenge proves to be extremely problematic. Revenge causes corruption by changing an individual’s persona and nature. Obsession to revenge brings forth difficulties such as destroyed relationships. Finally, revenge can be the foundation to the ultimate sacrifice of fatality. Hamlet goes to show that revenge is never the correct route to follow, and it is always the route with a dead
Revenge is such an enormous part of a being human. It is something that no matter how much you try to avoid part of you will persistently lust for it. When you are hurt in any way your natural instinct will always tell you to make the one who hurt you feel just as bad if not worse as how you felt. It is such a natural and powerful feeling, that when revenge is incorporated into a story it makes it so much stronger. Revenge will make you see so many more sides of characters and make them seem much more complex. Revenge can give fictional characters a more human quality. That is why so many writers use it as their theme.