In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, conflicts exist among characters, prompting them to take action against each other. As a result, revenge becomes a mutual theme between the two literary works. Although differing in the effects on readers’ opinions of vengeance, both Hamlet and The Great Gatsby reveal that acts of revenge lead to tragedy through the progression of character flaws. The characters in Hamlet face their downfalls as a result of vengeance. Prince Hamlet, the play’s protagonist, dies in an attempt to avenge his father’s death. As part of his plan against King Claudius, Hamlet modifies the play The Murder of Gonzago to prove Claudius guilty of treason. With the conscience of a criminal, …show more content…
During his quest for revenge, Hamlet is flawed in that he reveals himself as knowing too much information, which leads him to his own demise. Likewise, Laertes also faces his tragic fall as a result of vengeance for his family. Upon finding out the deaths of his sister Ophelia and his father Polonius, Laertes blames Hamlet and plans to kill him with a poisoned sword during a “friendly” fencing combat. However, Laertes gets a taste of his own medicine as he is injured with that exact sword by Hamlet and dies afterward. Laertes’s grief for his late sister and father takes away his calmness and causes him to act entirely on his id. As a result, Laertes dies under his own act of vengeance. Through the development of character flaws, the tragic falls of Hamlet and Laertes appear as outcomes of vengeful behavior. Similarly, characters in The Great Gatsby suffer tragedy as a result of revenge. In the novel, Daisy rekindles her romance with Gatsby as a form of retaliation against Tom’s extramarital affair. Her decision exacerbates Tom’s pre-existing spite toward Gatsby, whom Tom considers a bourgeoisie wannabe for attempting to climb the social ladder through illegal …show more content…
The Great Gatsby, on one hand, emphasizes acts of vengeance as a form of anger relief, as portrayed in Tom’s false accusations about Gatsby due to pre-existing conflicts in romance. On the other hand, Hamlet establishes revenge, particularly Hamlet and Laertes avenging the death of a loved one, as a code of honor. As a result, even though both works convey the idea that vengeance causes tragedy, characters in The Great Gatsby are prone to criticism, whereas those in Hamlet are justified for their actions. Finally, the two pieces of literature differ in their readers’ final impressions of justice. Hamlet ends with the majority of characters deceased, implying that all characters succeed in their quests for revenge, and at the same time, pay the price for their own spiteful behavior. Therefore, upon reading the play, readers gain a sense of relief knowing that justice is rightfully earned. The Great Gatsby, however, reveals tragic endings only for the proletariat–represented by the Wilsons–as a result of not only their own wrongdoings, but also the bourgeoisie’s. On the contrary, the lives of Tom and Daisy–the bourgeoisie in question–remain unaffected in spite of all their bad
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare and the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the objective is to divulge the quintessence of humanity. Although the protagonists in both works of literature have drastically different journeys that lead to climactic endings, the use of plot is to demonstrate that the essence of mankind is ultimately a tragedy if great care is not taken. Both Hamlet and Jay Gatsby are unable to focus on the reality of the situation, and rather waste valuable time focusing on simply the appearance of things. However, Hamlet is a character completely consumed by despair and ultimately believes that life is futile. In contrast, Gatsby is a character who is rather obsessive of achieving the American Dream, and winning the love of Daisy, and is decisively far too anticipative.
Struggling for perfection and reaching for the impossible are the driving factors in the lives of Gatsby, and Hamlet. In both The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the theme of idealism is demonstrated as the main contributing factor into the evident downfall of both Gatsby, and Hamlet. Although each respectable character is faced with dissimilar scenarios, it is the similarities of Gatsby and Hamlet's character traits that allow them both to be victims of their own idealism. Gatsby and Hamlet both lose their lovers, leaving them to live heartbroken and lonesome lives. The tendency to masquerade as their true personalities, whether it be to escape the past or to plot the perfect revenge, displays the idealistic attitude of the two characters.
How Tragic are Hamlet and Gatsby? A tragic hero is defined as “a character in literature who has a fatal flaw that is combined with fate and external forces, brings on a tragedy”(site). Both Hamlet from William Shakespeare 's play Hamlet, and Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald 's novel The Great Gatsby share many similar fatal flaws in their stories that eventually lead them to their ultimate demises, thus they both the definition of a tragic hero.
Essay 4: Comparative Analysis of Two Texts When comparing two texts, one must look at the characters and themes to find similarities and differences and we see a similarity with the theme of accepting reality in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet and The Great Gatsby. There are differences in both texts with the way the characters fight reality, but the outcome is the same. The power of love in both texts is looked at as more important than social priorities and the main characters will do anything to get what they want and it results in death. One might come to conclusions to say that F. Scott Fitzgerald based the relationship of Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan on Romeo and Juliet, seeing that both stories have characters who do not accept the reality and in their minds, love overpowers everything. When looking at these two texts side to side, one would notice many similarities in the actions of the main characters.
Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia. Hamlet ends up deceiving everyone around him, and also himself, by putting on a mask of insanity. In spite of the fact that Hamlet attempts to act morally in order to kill his uncle, he delays his revenge of his fathers’ death, harming others by his irritating actions. Despite Hamlets’ decisive character, he comes to a point where he realizes his tragic limits.
In Hamlet Shakespeare is able to use revenge in an extremely skillful way that gives us such deep insight into the characters. It is an excellent play that truly shows the complexity of humans. You can see in Hamlet how the characters are willing to sacrifice t...
As an American citizen we seem to make presumption that all cultures are different from ours, and some might even call those cultures weird. Americans fail to realize just how similar we are to these “weird” cultures. By reading Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe and The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald , it makes the reader realize how similar the African culture is from the American culture. There 's those obvious differences we already knew about with the two cultures, but readers can learn that not just American culture value men and give them advantages, but many cultures including 1900 's African culture. In both books we come across two main characters that is portrayed as being more superior compared to others. Okonkwo, main
I will make a case that due to Mulder’s PTSD his mind has fabricated a memory in which he imagines a supernatural cause for the abduction of his sister. I will provide evidence for this claim is through various episodes in the show X-files, specifically the episode “Closure” in season seven. I shall summarize the dynamic of the TV show X-files and the role Fox Mulder plays in the show. Fox Mulder, a “believer,” and Dana Scully, a sceptic, are FBI agents faced with case assignments which may involve the supernatural as well as aliens. Together they run the X-files, a department of the FBI dedicated to investigating unexplained cases.
Revenge is a major theme throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. This theme provides motivation for characters to murder each other throughout the play, whether or not characters seek revenge for themselves. Because Laertes and Hamlet are so absorbed with wanting to exact revenge upon certain people, they ultimately cause the deaths of all of the main characters in the play. Revenge is the main root of evil in this play.
“If you seek revenge, dig two graves.” This ancient Chinese proverb explains the mood in Hamlet, a play, written by Shakespeare. The theme of revenge is seen throughout the play as each character extracts one form or another of revenge from a person who has wronged them. In the play the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all desire revenge for a lost father; however, their motivations for murder differ. Hamlet is unlike the other two characters in the way that he uses reason and logic before he acts and decides to kill his uncle, Claudius, because he is aware of the consequences.
Revenge almost always has the makings of an intriguing and tragic story. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a perfect example of how revenge unfolds and what it unveils. The play tells the story of Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, marries his mother soon after his father’s death. Hamlet greatly disapproves of the hasty marriage and suspects foul play. His suspicions are confirmed when the ghost of his father appears and tells him that Claudius murdered him. Hamlet’s father asks him to take revenge upon Claudius, and soon everything takes a drastic change. The courses of revenge throughout Hamlet surround each character with corruption, obsession, and fatality.
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).
In the play, there are several characters wanting vengeance like that of Hamlet. Throughout the play, Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all had a tragic death of a family member which caused their decision for revenge. Consequentially, these revenges caused the demise of two characters and the rise of power of another. The retaliation shown by the Prince of Denmark, as well as Laertes led to the downfall of their government. In the play, Hamlet seeks revenge on his uncle Claudius.
”(153) It becomes clear that the parallels presented throughout the play are there to further illuminate the flaws of Hamlet’s character. Laertes is a hot-headed man looking for revenge. His father was killed by Hamlet and his sister was driven insane due to the series of events that took place because of Hamlet. Like Hamlet, Laertes wants to avenge his father by killing the man who killed Polonius.
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society, coupled with his innate tendency to over-think his actions, leads to an unfocused mission of vengeance that brings about not only his own death, but also the unnecessary deaths of nearly all of the other main characters in the revenge tragedy.