Shakespeares Hamlet The Tragedy of Revenge - 1165 Words

Shakespeares Hamlet: The tragedy of revenge The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right! (I.5). Shakespeares Hamlet is an unwilling avenger. Despite his hatred of his uncle Claudius and his sense of the injustice perpetuated upon his fathers memory, Hamlet seems unable to obey the will of his fathers ghost. Ultimately, this is not shown to be a sign of weakness or cowardice upon Hamlets part. Rather, the intellectual protagonist understands all too well the futility of attempting to use violence to enact justice. By attempting to become an avenger, Hamlet simply begets more violence. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, /That to Laertes I forgot myself; /For, by the image of my cause, I see/The portraiture of his (V.2). In seeking to revenge, Hamlet accidentally stabs Polonius, the kings advisor, thus killing the father of Laertes. Hamlet acknowledges, with his sense of higher justice and objectivity, that Laertes has a reason for hating him, given that he is also a parricide. There is a shar p, circular irony to this cycle of revenge. Similarly, Ophelia is driven mad by the death of her father and kills herself. Hamlet, while much of his madness is assumed, is also driven to a state of emotional distress. Laertes, Hamlet, and Ophelia all act irrationally in ways that bring about their death because of the extremity of their grief. Of course, it could be argued that the larger irony is that Hamlet could have avoided killingShow MoreRelated Revenge and Vengeance in Shakespeares Hamlet - Pure Revenge Tragedy?1932 Words   |  8 PagesHamlet – the Revenge Tragedy?  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   A baffling array of considerations relevant to the revenge aspect of Shakespeare’s tragic drama Hamlet make an essay on this topic an interesting experience.    Ruth Nevo in â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging† explains the uncertain place which revenge occupies within the hero’s most famous soliloquy:    And conversely, because self-slaughter is the ostensible subject of the whole disquisition, we cannot read the speech simplyRead MoreProblems in the Revenge Tragedy: William Shakespeares Hamlet2646 Words   |  11 Pages Shakespeares Hamlet presents the generic elements found in Renaissance revenge tragedies (Revenge Tragedy). 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