The revenge tragedy was a very popular genre in the Renaissance era, and can be directly traced back to Seneca, a Roman philosopher and playwright. One of the most well known and popular revenge tragedies of all time is William Shakespeare's Hamlet.
To Be or Not To Be: Hamlet's Dilemma
Hamlet's protagonist is Prince Hamlet who is visited by his murdered father's ghost right at the beginning of the play and asked to take revenge on his uncle Claudius, the usurper of his father's throne, the murderer of his father and the new husband of his mother, Gertrude. Hamlet is a thoughtful, scholarly young man who is torn between his duty and his innate horror and hesitation at committing such a gruesome and final act as killing someone.
He procrastinates by feigning madness to give himself more time to think about what he is going to do. It is in Hamlet that we come across Shakespeare's immortal thought "To be or not to be; that is the question". Other such memorable sentiments expressed in the course of the play include "This above all: to thine own self be true" and "There is nothing that is good or bad, thinking makes it so". He also scorns his lady love, Ophelia, who eventually dies of unclear reasons: it could have been either a suicide or an accident, but she is clearly disturbed and possibly mad at the time of her death. Prior to the death of Ophelia, Hamlet had mistakenly and hastily killed her father, the pompous Polonius.
Various Layers in Hamlet
There are many complex religious connotations in Hamlet: sometimes medieval, sometimes modern – i.e. both Catholic and Protestant. This is a play which can be interpreted in an unlimited number of ways, and has been adapted into amazing stage productions. It has also been analyzed in the political, psychoanalytic and feminist contexts to name a few. Hamlet's deeply contemplative and philosophical musings add more depth to the play, taking it beyond the realms of a simple revenge tragedy and making it, through Hamlet, address many fundamental questions about life, death and the choice one makes in one's lifetime.
This makes Hamlet one of the most celebrated pieces of literature in history, and elevates the simple but tremendously tragic story that starts with a murder and ends in a massacre into a work that is central to the essence of all society and would resonate with all human beings. This is the influence of Shakespeare's work, giving it a timeless appeal and dealing with issues that are at the very heart of human existence.
William Shakespeare, author of Hamlet
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