Counterproductivity Of Revenge

In Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras, Revenge Tragedies presented the tragedies English playwrights adapted from Greeks and later Romans such as Seneca, highly demanded by the public. Traditionally the plot of the play hinge on political power, forbidden sexuality, family honor and private revenge, hence which both Hamlet and Revenger’s Tragedy are traditional forms of the Revenge Tragedies. However, the nature of the revengers themselves are rather arguable. All through the play Hamlet denies his role as a revenger “O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!” cries Hamlet which once again underlines individual with depth ,

Revenge is a recurring theme in Hamlet. Although Hamlet wants to avenge his father’s death, he is afraid of what would result from this. In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s unwillingness to revenge appears throughout the text; Shakespeare exhibits this through Hamlet’s realization that revenge is not the right option, Hamlet‘s realization that revenge is the same as the crime which was already committed, and his understanding that to revenge is to become a “beast” and to not revenge is as well (Kastan 1).

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “The old law of ‘an eye for an eye’ leaves everybody blind.” By this, King is implying that revenge does not solve any issues, but instead affects multiple people who are involved in a conflict. Revenge is defined as the act of harming someone for any aggression towards another. “The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” written by William Shakespeare, gives an excellent example that the thirst for vengeance can ruin everyone who is connected. Some examples of the play are Romeo and Tybalt, whose actions caused them to meet an unfaithful end. Their actions, which were guided by hatred, not only affected them, but both of their families. Romeo and Tybalt’s actions show that revenge itself can lead to great losses,

Throughout time, people have served justice for the wrongs of others, often through revenge. Because of this, some people see justice as taking an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is no exception. The primary form of justice throughout the play is through revenge. There are three characters who demand and successfully achieve the justice by taking revenge on the wrongdoer. Hamlet seeks justice for his father’s murder, Laertes for the death of his father and sister, and Fortinbras for both the death of his father and the loss of his land.

The relevance and significance of the revenge tragedy is in the way it explores human nature and forces audiences to evaluate ideologies such as revenge and justice. The concept of revenge is accompanied by moral conflict and Shakespeare demonstrates that by acting immorally society is likely to be riddled with corruption. Hamlet seeks to avenge the death of his father but struggles with the ramifications of seeking righteous revenge through an immoral act. The imposition of revenge instills the existential questioning on Hamlet as it contradicts his with his social expectation. His

There exists a human emotion that can lead us to lie to both ourselves and others, to commit actions that we don’t undergo, and to cripple any rational thought process. Its symptoms include irrational behavior, anguish, and lying. Its side effects consist of anger, fear, aggressiveness, and madness. The pair is recurring themes in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Robertson Davies’ Fifth Business. Both themes are demonstrated by various characters such as; Dunstan Ramsay, Paul Dempster, Leola Staunton, Hamlet, Claudius, and Ophelia.

Hamlet begins to react upon his feelings and does away with his reason as he says to the ghost that he will do away with all knowledge and memory and keep within his mind the want to revenge his fathers’ murder. “Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past That youth and observation copied there, And thy commandment all alone shall live”, (1.5.96-103). Hamlet begins to exhibit the argued theme that revenge causes people to act recklessly

“If you seek revenge, dig two graves.” This ancient Chinese proverb explains the mood in Hamlet, a play, written by Shakespeare. The theme of revenge is seen throughout the play as each character extracts one form or another of revenge from a person who has wronged them. In the play the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras all desire revenge for a lost father; however, their motivations for murder differ.

The single most destructive force in this world is revenge. An immense amount of wars, murders, division, and hatred is due to the evil that is revenge. There are many famous forms of literature that discuss revenge. One is “Of Revenge” by Sir Francis Bacon. In this essay Bacon explains the evil of revenge and why it shouldn’t be taken. Also, down-playing revenge, Robert Kennedy gave a speech called “A Eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” Immediately following the death of Dr. King, Kennedy pleads with the African American community and America to forgive this offense instead of taking revenge for King’s murder. The final piece of media that discusses revenge does it in a different manor. Edgar Allen Poe writes about revenge in a short story called “The Cask of Amontillado.” The plot of this story is that of a man named Montresor desperately seeks revenge upon a colleague and eventually murders him by trapping him in catacombs deep underground. No matter what the circumstances, revenge should never be taken because men become controlled and destroyed by revenge, and revenge creates division among people.

Revenge as a theme is cleverly built upon throughout Hamlet; with it being the driving force behind three of the key characters in the play. Revenge is a frighteningly vicious emotion, which causes people to act blindly and without reason. In Poe’s, “The Cask of Amontillado”, Montresor enacts revenge for reasons unknown. Hamlet in contrast, has all the motive in the world to complete his task; yet he constantly hesitates. The text reveals that the need for revenge creates a stranglehold on the genuine emotions, thoughts, and actions of three characters: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Laertes; son of Polonius, and Fortinbras; Prince of Norway. This hold makes the characters act beyond their standard ethical positions and makes them helpless to

Generally in most situations, it is a human’s instinct to act against an enemy in the form of revenge, eventually requiring one to have an asset of acquiring morally corrupted conscious leading to the corruption of others. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, and Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott, the two protagonists show how revenge corrupts moral conscience and leads to depravity both personally and in the eye of society.. When Prince Hamlet, in Hamlet, seeks to access revenge and overthrow the unloyal King Cladius, and when Maximus, in Gladiator, also seeks for vengeance against the current wicked Caesar Commodus, they both similarly are composed of indistinguishable sets of behaviour and both end up corrupting the society and themselves. Firstly, both pathways of revenge show the personal morality of one because of their conscience and also show a change of behaviour towards an unconscious mindset leading to procrastination. Secondly, both characters show how their conscience mind is corrupted during the course of wanting to obtain revenge eventually leading to personal and society’s corruption.

The theme of Revenge has been utilized in numerous works of art throughout history, including books, plays, movies, etc. Revenge is the result of one’s desire for vengeance, however, revenge is known to be implied under high emotions of anger thus not with reason concluding with a horrible outcome. Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ is no doubt a play about a tragedy caused by revenge; Prince Hamlet’s retribution for his father, King Hamlet’s murder and Laertes vengeance for his father, Polonius’ murder. The theme of revenge in Hamlet is portrayed through various literary techniques such as foreshadowing and irony.

In Shakespeare’s original play, Hamlet, the audience learns that when an individual executes an evil crime, they cannot cover their guilt and they must face the reality of the world. It is important for the audience to realize that no living creature on this earth is innocent. Everyone has performed an immoral act and had to deal with the outcome of the

Revenge is one’s desire to retaliate and get even. Human instincts turn to revenge when loved ones are hurt. But, these misdeeds of taking upon revenge may lead to serious consequences. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet,” Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes’s each show how their desire for revenge unavoidably leads to tragedy. The loss of their loved ones caused these characters in Hamlet to take action. Young Fortinbras has built an army to get back the lands his father lost to King Hamlet and Denmark. His actions can be compared to the measures Hamlet is willing to take upon Claudius. Hamlet wants to kill his uncle, Claudius, for killing his father to gain royalty status. Laertes has the same anger as Hamlet killed Polonius,

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society,