CITY POSTGRADUATE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN JHELUM

Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy:

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is complex and multifaceted play
bringing together many themes. It is evident that in writing
Hamlet, Shakespeare, to some extent, adopted the dramatic
conventions of revenge tragedy. Revenge proved to be
popular theme for Elizabethan dramatists and the audience.
Although it was a wild justice, Elizabethan audience
considered vengeance to be a pious duty laid upon the next
of kin. The old law claimed an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
tooth; vengeance demanded both the eyes, a jaw full of
teeth, and above all the victim should go direct to hell there
to live in everlasting torment. A perfect revenge therefore
needed great artistry.

Hamlet is a play that very closely follows the dramatic

conventions of revenge tragedy. All revenge tragedies
originally stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote and
performed the first plays. After the Greeks came Seneca
who was particularly influential to all Elizabethan
playwrights including William Shakespeare. The two most
famous English revenge tragedies written in the Elizabethan
era were Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare and The
Spanish Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd. These two plays
used almost all of the conventions for revenge tragedies in
one way or the other. Hamlet especially incorporated all
revenge conventions which truly made Hamlet a typical
revenge play.

During Elizabethan era revenge plays were well acclaimed.

Most of them were a typical revenge tragedy, a melodrama
with so many turns and twists to keep the audience spell-
bound. “Hamlet” as well as “The Spanish Tragedy” tackled
almost all those areas that were essential for the
consummation of a great revenge tragedy.

Shakespeare in Hamlet employs the framework of Senecan

Tragedy to convey the revenge theme. But underneath the
outer framework of Senecan Revenge Tragedy, lie key
Shakespearean themes of human condition, social
indoctrination, the morality of the ghost’s injunction, and
the ethics of revenge.
The opening scene sets the tone of the play – a play
shrouded in mystery and horror. The ghost appears to the
night guards, a shadowy figure resembling much in the
dress and the armour of the late king. The appearance of
dead king’s ghost has a profound effect upon the night
guards as Marcellus remarks: “Something is rotten in the
state of Denmark”. Although Horatio will not believe in the
ghost until witness of his eyes; it appearance“harrows him
with fear and wonder”. It is not made to speak rather “stalks
away majestically”. The ghost appears twice in the opening
scene but does not vouchsafe a reply to Horatio’s
questions. Hamlet is amazed at the idea of his father’s
apparition:
“My father’s spirit in arms! All is not well/ I doubt some foul
play.”
Hamlet himself is dumbfounded at the sight the ghost. The
ghost makes the shocking revelation of its murder to
Hamlet. It further enjoins on Hamlet the sacred duty of
avenging his “foul and the most un-natural murder”. The
ghost’s injunctions are very clear:
“Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/A couch for luxury and
damned incest”.
The awful revelation of the ghost forms the soul of the
tragedy and drives the entire action.
Verity points out:
“Without the ghost’s initial revelation of truth to Hamlet,
there would be no occasion for revenge; in other words no
tragedy of Hamlet.”
Hamlet’s mind is assailed with doubt whether or not this
apparition is a demon sent from hell, or if it is truly his
father’s spirit which has come from purgatory, to divulge
the horrors of his murder, in the hope of revenge:
“The spirit that I have seen/ May be the devil and the devil
hath power/To assume a pleasing shape.”
To verify the truth of the ghost’s statement, Hamlet first
feigns madness, and then gets enacted mousetrap play
to “catch the conscience of the king”. During the play
Hamlet closely watches Claudius’ reaction when the actors
perform the murder scene. Hamlet's plan works and his
uncle in a fit of discomfort runs out the room, where Hamlet
goes after him. Now, Hamlet knows that Claudius is guilty.
Afterwards Hamlet finds Claudius at prayer, confessing his
sins:
“O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven/It hath primal
eldest curse upon it/A brother’s murder.”
He pulls out his sword and gets ready to kill Claudius. But
suddenly Hamlet changes his mind because if he kills his
uncle while he is praying he will go to heaven, and Hamlet
wants him to go to hell. So Hamlet postpones the execution
of his uncle at this point in the play.

The next confrontation between Hamlet and Claudius does

not happen till the end of the book. Claudius hatches a plan
according to which Hamlet and Laertes will have a mock
sword fight, but Laertes will be using a real poisoned sword.
Laertes stabs him with the poisoned sword then Hamlet
takes hold of the poisoned sword, and stabs Laertes with it.
Meanwhile Queen Gertrude dies from the poisoned drink
intended for Hamlet. As Laertes lays down dying he reveals
to Hamlet that his uncle King Claudius was behind it all.
Hamlet then in a fit of rage runs his uncle through with the
poisoned sword. Hamlet has now finally revenged his father
but too late and at the cost of so many lives.

Hamlet fulfills all the conventions of typical revenge tragedy:

there is murder, adultery, insanity, incestuous marriage and
faithfulness. Besides these, there is a melodramatic element
also– violence and bloodshed, terrible and blood-chilling
scenes – which is in line with the revenge tragedy
conventions.

Hamlet is not a simple revenge tragedy. Shakespeare has

woven complex threads of the contrasting characters.
Shakespeare has introduced characters like Laertes and
Fortinbras that are obviously foils to Hamlet. Fortinbras, the
son of the slain king of Norway, is all hot for action. He
finds “quarrel in a straw” and intends to risk his life even for
an “egg-shell”. He travels many miles to take his revenge
and ultimately succeeds in conquering Denmark. When
Hamlet murders Polonius, another revenge is ready to
begin. Laertes is a typical revenger who is capable of direct
and headstrong revenge even at the cost of damnation.
“To hell, allegiance! Vows to the blackest devil.” , he
declares.
If Hamlet feels “Thus conscience doth make cowards of us
all”, Laertes consigns conscience to the devil, and will “cut
his throat in the church”. Hamlet, on the other hand, has to
convert the external action of revenge into one that is
internal, free and truly moral.
Summing up, to say Hamlet merely a revenge tragedy would
be to do a great injustice. It would ignore play’s artistic
superiority over other plays of this genre. It is only befitting
that its hero falls to the beautiful heavenly benediction of
Horatio:

“And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”