Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy

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Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy

Revenge tragedy was a brief sub genre of tragedy at the end of the

sixteenth century, despite some clashes with the teachings of the

church. In a revenge tragedy a crime, normally murder, has gone

unpunished, because the criminal has too much power and cannot be

reached by the law. This fact is revealed by a ghost to someone

closely connected with the victim, laying on him the responsibility to

revenge the crime. The revenger is usually an outsider who lacks

access to the criminal, who is at the centre of a completely corrupt

court. Poison plays a large part and methods of killing are intricate,

insidious and imaginative. The revenger dies at the end of the play,

as he has gone against religion by taking the power of revenge from

God. There will be many other deaths as the corrupt court is cleansed.

Revenge tragedies contain visual references to death such as

graveyards, bones and skulls. Most revenge tragedies have an Italian

setting and Machiavellian characterisation.

One example of a revenge tragedy is 'The Spanish Tragedy' by Thomas

Kyd (c1590). This play has a revenger lacking access to the criminal,

finally carrying out the revenge by intricate means and dying in the

process.

'Hamlet' is a play, which is essentially about seeking the truth. From

the very beginning Hamlet is trying to find the truth about life and

death. The opening scene of the play begins to suggest many questions,

such as the reasons why Hamlet's father died, which are to be

answered. Hamlet continues throughout the play to seek the truth and

reasons for people's actions. He is a deep thinker. This

characteristic becomes...

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...t' is very much a play of three dimensional characters. The deep

psychological character studies and universal themes of matters such

as truth, lies, life and death make it a timeless piece, which has

outlived other revenge tragedies. To call 'Hamlet' merely a revenge

tragedy is to look at a single aspect of this multi-faceted drama. In

most revenge tragedies the revenger is a fairly simple character but

in 'Hamlet' we find a depressed man, a philosopher and a character who

is heavily religious presented with a dilemma in which his duty

conflicts with his qualms. Hamlet is the character who makes this play

what it is. The central character who should be cold and devious is

one who longs for death and debates which is worse, killing himself or

killing Claudius.

Bibliography

Jenkins, Harold (ed.), 'Hamlet' (1982)

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