Shakespeare's Revenge Tragedy
Hamlet doesn't just avenge murder, he contemplates it.
While perhaps influenced by writers of revenge tragedy before him, Shakespeare produced in "Hamlet," a work that was altogether new. Bold. And defining all its own.
“The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.” (2.2.581-2)
According to Shakespearean scholar A.C. Bradley, “tragedy” concerns itself with one person, the “hero,” and at most two characters – the “hero” and “heroine.” With regards to Hamlet, it is a solitary journey. The second aspect of a tragedy is “death of the hero.” As Bradley points out, without death, it isn’t truly a tragedy in the Shakespearean sense: “It is, in fact essentially a tale of suffering and calamity conducting to death.” (Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy, 25)
Revenge Tragedy
Hamlet is also subcategorized as a “revenge tragedy,” in which the hero carries out an act of revenge. Popular during the Renaissance, the revenge play’s roots according to a number of literary scholars can be found with Roman playwright Seneca the Younger (4 B.C. to A.D. 65), who wrote eight tragedies in his time based on the Greek model. A framework taken from his works could be placed over well-known Elizabethan tragedies, such as William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, and points of comparison could be made.
Brian Arkins, Associate Professor of Classics at the National University of Ireland, Galway, noted in his essay, "Heavy Seneca: His Influence on Shakespeare's Tragedies," that he found seven points of influence from Seneca to Shakespeare. For Hamlet, these five seem to apply:
- A stress in the supernatural.
- Vaulting ambition (for Claudius, not Hamlet).
- A ghost that calls for revenge.
- Self-dramatization of the hero, especially as he dies.
- The frequent use of stichomythia(1) in dialogue.
Shakespeare’s Most Famous
In the play, the prince is charged with the task of avenging the murder of his father, the rightful ruler of Denmark who was killed by his brother out of ambition. Visited by his father’s ghost, Hamlet is urgently set forth on his mission, but does not carry out his revenge until the final bloody endgame, when the doors are locked and no one can escape, including the hero.
Hamlet delays action throughout the play, finding reasons to not move forward, always promising that it will be done -- eventually. Though he gets frustrated with his inaction (“Fie upon’t, foh! – About, my brain.”, 2.2.565), he also finds it necessary to make peace with what he is to do. In the process, chaos continues to swirl about him, enveloping those near (Ophelia) and inviting those far (Fortinbras).
Shakespeare does not take the simple route from Point A to Point B. Rather, he arrives at the tragedy’s end by having the hero go through a number of trials. The play that Hamlet stages, “The Mousetrap,” brilliantly mirrors the events that surround the kingdom. His motive is to “catch the conscience of the King,” but the play is as much for Hamlet himself, as he seeks confirmation. While the play causes panic for the new king, it also gives Hamlet a way to reaffirm his belief and center his resolve (“I’ll have grounds/ More relative than this,” 2.2.580-1).
A Category All Its Own
From the subcategory of revenge play, Hamlet can occupy one further all on its own, given the way it thoughtfully looks at revenge and the way it puts its hero through the psychological struggles of someone suddenly asked to take a life. Kiernan Ryan, Professor of English at Royal Holloway, University of London, remarks that Shakespeare does so “to problematize the whole revenge tragedy form and the assumptions and values about life, which a revenge tragedy – which the play – would otherwise smuggle through unchallenged.”
"The time is out of joint. O cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!" (1.5.189-90)
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Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare. Stephen Greenblatt, ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1996. 1668-1756.
1. Dramatic dialogue characterized by brief exchanges between two characters, each of whom usually speaks in one line of verse during a scene of intense emotion or strong argumentation. (Example: Hamlet/Gertrude in Act III, Scene 4, 8-11). Random House Unabridged Dictionary. Random House, Inc., 2006.
