Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

Revenge in Shakespeares Hamlet

There is an old saying from the Mafiosi in Sicily which says that Revenge is a dish best served cold ` so that implies the idea that for making the ones that betrayed you or have done something disgraceful towards you or your family to feel the true wrath that takes place inside of your mind everything must be carefully planned and meticulously arranged in such way that every single move, gesture or dialogue is for that specific grandiose, coldblooded act of revenge that is yet to come . For Hamlet the act of revenge becomes his only focus, he is waiting for the right moment to make his move, and avenge his murdered father by killing his uncle Claudius. Shakespeares brilliant contemporary, Francis Bacon, called revenge a kind of wild justice ( Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy,160). So in order to complete the act of revenge Hamlet must wait, he must free himself from his emotions and dont let them dominate him when carrying out his plans, because emotions would make him weak and lose his concentration on what he is to accomplish, that might ruin the act itself. Prince Hamlet, devastated by his fathers death and betrayed by his mothers marriage, is introduced as the only character who is unwilling to play along with Claudiuss gaudy attempt to mimic a healthy royal court. The supernatural appearance of the ghost on a chilling, misty night outside Elsinore Castle indicates immediately that something is wrong in Denmark. The ghost serves to enlarge the shadow King Hamlet casts across Denmark, indicating that something about his death has upset the balance of nature. (SparkNotes Editors) The ghosts precise nature is left mysterious and uncertain because its main function in the play is to tell Hamlet the great secret of the murder, but to do it in such a way and in

Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

such circumstances as to lead him, in due course, to question its reliability and therefore to stage The Murder of Gonzago` as a test of its truthfulness and of Claudiuss guilt. The Kings response to that test puts the Ghosts honesty beyond question. (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 42) Haste, haste me to know it, that with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love May sweep to my revenge (I.5.29-31) Back in the time English history and classic literature were providing an extremely tragic and horrific material for that period where the the great tragedies of horror and revenge out of this mixture was the drama of Seneca, a Stoic philosopher from the first century AD. (The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, 302) . The chief classical literary source for Shakespeares revenge tragedies lies in Senecas ten tragedies, written during the first century ad, and translated into English around the time of Shakespeares boyhood. These were passionate, violent stories, full of high rhetoric, in which the furious indignation of the revenger often provoked (as in Hamlet) by a ghost or vision of a beloved victim took aim not only at the perpetrator but at his entire extended family. This vengeance (again as in Hamlet) often required elaborate deception by the revenger, and finally provided some kind of poetic as well as practical justice. (Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, 166)

Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

So such a play as Shakespeares Hamlet was quite thrilling because of its romantic story, which is in the background , the tragic side , and of course the lust for revenge. But in the English Renaissance Drama, Robert N Watson states : Hamlet is less a tragedy than a frame and a stimulus for the creation of tragedies, infinitely various personal refractions of an archetypal story. Shakespeare uses an array of standard Renaissance tragic conflicts mortality against ambition, Christianity against revenge, love against sexual horror, private truth against political imperatives to compel a deep, sympathetic recognition of the way cultural contradictions agonize the sensitive individual. (The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama, 316) And in this position of good and evil , a position of doubt and uncertainty Ophelia finds herself , in his actions of real and fake madness towards her, Hamlet attracts even more victims to his propose ending up with a gruesome massacre. There is now a girl for Hamlet to love, distrust, and reject; her father for him to kill by accident, and thus drive her into madness; and her brother to take revenge on him , so making the chief revenger a victim of revenge. (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics. 32) Even though it would seem obvious for the reader that this work of Shakespeares is clearly about revenge and vengeance looking deeply into the text main ideas we can conclude that that is not extremely precise. It can be seen that Shakespeare is trying to emphasize that Hamlet is a victim on his own and he is fighting for a goal that he had chosen for himself , and that is to escape his poor faith. Hamlet is a tragedy of thwarted love as well as a tragedy of revenge. (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 48)

Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

The novel interest the Hamlet story held out to Shakespeare was, surely, not its concern with the duty of revenge as such, but the situation within which that duty arises : that of the dutiful son who idealizes his dead father, the fratricidal uprising uncle, and the adulterous incestuous mother. (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 31-32) Another obvious act that determines Hamlets need for revenge is in the moment after the play when Hamlet enters quietly into the room and decides to kill the unaware Claudius. But when he was about to strike it occurs to him that if he kills Claudius while he is praying, he will end the kings life at the moment when he was seeking forgiveness for his sins, sending Claudiuss soul to heaven. (SparkNotes Editors). In act III ,scene III it can be seen clearly that Hamlet wants a more radical revenge for the murderer of his father . Critics such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge have been horrified by Hamlets words herehe completely oversteps the bounds of Christian morality in trying to damn his opponents soul as well as kill him. (SparkNotes Editors).One would say that Hamlet just wants for his fathers killer a sufficient punishment, something equal to the damage that he has done , but he seeks even more he sees everything as a matter of fairness, he considers that if his father was not able of cleansing his soul of sins before his death , because he was killed when defenceless he consideres that Claudius should have at least the same fate , so that is why he decides to kill him only in a moment of sin or lust just to make certain that his uncles soul will be cursed for eternity. In the final scene, the violence, so long delayed, erupts with dizzying speed. Characters drop one after the other, poisoned, stabbed, and, in the case of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, executed, as the theme of revenge and justice reaches its conclusion in the moment when Hamlet finally kills Claudius.( SparkNotes Editors).

Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

Hamlet has reached a state of Christian resignation. But has he? Subsequent events belie the notion. When Laetes wounds him with the unbated rapier and the truth begins to emerge, Hamlet takes complete control of the situation and metes out retributive justice, wounding the King with the poisoned sword and the killing him by forcing the poisoned potion down his throat. In doing so he obtains the revenge for sake of which he spared the praying Claudius 3.3. (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 65). By ending this massacre the young Hamlet accomplishes his initial goal, but the price of his own life. He is satisfied with the fact that he has decided upon the Kings fate, by killing him with perfect conscience`, he is concerned at the last not with the fate of his soul but with the clearing of his name` (General Introduction Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 66). So in conclusion as it was said in the beginning that in order to have a successful ` revenge everything must be accurately taught before , any emotional implication can destroy the whole plan of revenge. In Hamlet the posturing of revenge is extremely violent, the revenge present in the play is not just a physical one, there is more that just the simple desire to kill and punish one for his sins, there is a craving for damnation , a need to make one suffer for eternity. So as a matter of fact Hamlet excelled in carrying on and satisfying his goal , he has avenged his betrayed father and at the same time put his soul to peace by doing so .

Badea Ioana Mihaela Group 1 20 November 2013

Medieval Literature Seminary Eliana Ionoaia

Works cited

1.Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print. 2.SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on Hamlet. SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. 3.G. R. Hibbard General Introduction to Hamlet the Oxford Worlds Classics 4. McEachern, Claire .The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy.Cambridge University Press, 2002, chapter 9: "Tragedies of revenge and ambition (Robert N.Watson)
5. The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama