Hamlet Essay

HAMLET ESSAY

A revenge tragedy was a popular form of writing during the Elizabethan age, in this form of writing the main character is directed by a ghost of his murdered father or son and the ghost inflicts retaliation, amongst a powerful villain. Revenge tragedies usually include the following; violence, bizarre criminal acts, insanity, a hesitant protagonist, and the use of soliloquy. Thus Hamlet becomes a Revenge of Tragedy it follows all the guidelines and in some cases go above and beyond.

Revenge tragedies have been pretty popular, because of the fact that everyone deep down can understand at one level, its something that we all understand and respond to even if it be imaginatively because we can’t carry out such a vengeance our selves. The basic outline in a revenge tragedy goes as follows: The avenger in this case Hamlet assumes the responsibility early on in the play to avenge the death of his father, and from there he spends much of his time overcoming obstacles, weather this may be uncovering the identity of the murderer or chasing the murderer or collecting clues that lead him to the villain. This may cause a whole lot of action and a whole lot of excitement, and then it concludes with the avenger taking out the act of revenge, however the revenge must be carried out in the most appropriate fashion, handing the villain over to the authorities may not be satisfying. This is a very old formula that still works today, it can sum up a number of western movies, and if it’s done well it can lead to a lot of success at the box office.

Hamlet is a very popular example of a revenge tragedy, yet still a very extreme case of a revenge tragedy, extreme in the sense that the web of revenge spiraled out of control, and caused a vary tragic ending with the lives of many key figures throughout the play lost due to revenge. Shakespeare may have tried to teach a lesson throughout the play using the theme of revenge, he may have tried to show that revenge is...