Revenge

Revenge

1. Seen as an Old and Unlawful kind of justice

   • Church taught that revenge was a sin, wrong for a man to settle dispuites himself, BIble says revenge is God's responsibility
     • "Vengeance [is] mine" (Romans 12:19)
     • Reason that Hamlet wonders if ghost is the "devil" in a "pleasing shape" (2.2.597-598) - tempts him to commit sin of revenge
     • Ghost's apperance contradicted Protestant Church's teachings (Protestants don't believe in purgatory, could represent fear of being forgotten after death and conflct between Catholicism and Protestantism, the Reformation didn't accept traditional Catholic idea of purgatory) Hamlet has to decide whether to follow his beliefs, or the Ghost's orders
   • In contrast, classic traditions supported revenge if there was family honour at stake.
     • Revenge plays by Seneca, a Stoic philospher from Roman times, punished villains in a way matching their crimes
   • Conflict between Christian values and duty of blood revenge, common theme in Elizabethan theatre, may be because of religious upheaval during the period, making people question their beliefs

2. Revenge Tragedy was a popular dramatic genre

   • Elizabethan playwrights were influenced by Seneca's dramas from the 1st century. Bloody and violent plays, followed a similar structure
     • 1) Murder (Usually important + innocent person)
       • 2) Supernatural vision (A ghost that makes the revenger accept their duty)
         • 3) Planning (Revenger prepares a punishment designed to fit the crime. Period of planning often involves a disguise or madness, either real or feigned)
           • 4) Violence (Revenger carries out their planned attack)
             • 5) Annihilation (Play ends in a blood bath, most major characters die, including the revenger whose death restores the balance and ends the bloodshed)
   • Modern scholars call plays using these characteristics "revenge tragedies"
     • Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy"
       • Was popular in the late 16th century and established the revenge tragedy genre.
       • Corrupt court where the protagonist, Hieronimo, takes revenge into his own hands. He shouts "Vindicta mihi!" (Quoting from the book of Romans in the Latin Bible, "Vengeance [is] mine")

3. Hamlet is not a Typical Revenger

   • Shakespeare was influenced by The Spanish Tragedy
     • However, Hamlet is an anxious, hesitant thinker (considered by many a humanist revenger), not a blood-thirsty revenger
       • Protestant Reformation coincided with the rise of humanism - a school of thought which believed that studying philosophy, reason and ethics, like Hamlet's education in Wittenberg, led to well-rounded individuals, interested in the human experience and man's ability to understand the world
   • Stephen Greenblatt notes that humanists turned a person's thoughts into an important part of their identity.
     • Hamlet's need for revenge is compromised because he's so influenced by his thoughts - more concerned with how he feels on the inside than he is with his duty to seek revenge

4. Hamlet thinks it's his fate to take revenge

   • His language repeatedly suggests that it's his fate to become a revenger
     • Hamlet tells the Ghost that he's "bound to hear" his story. Ghost focuses on the word "bound" when he replies "So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear" (1.5.6-7). The Ghost makes it clear that learning the truth about his murder is the equivalent to being duty-bound to avenge it.
     • Hamlet suggests that the only reason he exists is to restore order to the state of Denmark: "The time is out of joint. O, curséd spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!" (1.5.188-189
   • However, throughout, Hamlet tests and resists his role as revenger
     • Believes he can "Rough-hew" his own destiny, despite acknowledging the power and role of fate: "There's a divinity that shapes our ends" (5.2.10-11)
     • In Act 3, Scene 1, Hamlet weighs up whether it's better to suffer what fate brings, or to be responsible for his own actions: "to take arms against a sea of troubles / And by opposing end them" (3.1.59-60). The position of this soliloquy at the play's centre makes it an important turning point for Hamlet.
     • When Hamlet has time to think, he chooses to delay his revenge. He could have killed Claudius when he was praying in Act 3 - Hamlet says "and now I'll do't" (3.3.74), but lets the moment pass
   • The relationship between fate and free will is left deliberately ambiguous, theaudience must decide whether they think Hamlet is predestined to take revenge or whether he's free to decide his own future.

5. To Act or not to Act - that is the Problem

   • Hamlet is defined by its lack of action. Play is considered to share the structure of other revenge tragedies, but Shakespeare shifts the focus from the revenger's obsessive planning to Hamlet's indecision.
   • Hamlet tries to encourage himself to act by using more violent and determined language.
     • After seeing Claudius's reaction to the players' performance in Act 3, Hamlet is so angry that he says "Now could I drink hot blood" (3.2.397) and declares he will "speak daggers" (3.2.403) to his mother. The play-within-a-play is a characteristic feature of revenge tragedy, and at this point in the play Hamlet's language becomes more like a revenger's - yet he still doesn't do anything.
     • Just before Hamlet leaves for England he admits that he's frustrated with himself for his lack of action and compares himself to Fortinbras whose "divine ambition" (4.4.49) motivates him to fight. This leads him to promise that "from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth" (4.4.65-66)
   • Hamlet's "thoughts" are the problem as he cannot act until he stops thinking. Just after he finally kills Claudius, he tells Horatio "I am dead" (5.2.327). This shows that he was already dying when he killed Claudius - he acts impulsively because he has nothing more to lose.
   • There are a few revenge plots in the play - Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras all want revenge for their fathers' deaths. Hamlet contrasts with Laertes and Fortinbras, because they actively seek revenge.