Shakespeare’s Hamlet is complex and
multifaceted play bringing together many themes. It is evident that in writing
Hamlet, Shakespeare, to some extent, adopted the dramatic conventions of
revenge tragedy. Revenge proved to be popular theme for Elizabethan dramatists
and the audience. Although it was a wild justice, Elizabethan audience considered
vengeance to be a pious duty laid upon the next of kin. The old law claimed an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; vengeance demanded both the eyes, a jaw full
of teeth, and above all the victim should go direct to hell there to live in
everlasting torment. A perfect revenge therefore needed great artistry.
Hamlet is a play that very closely follows
the dramatic conventions of revenge tragedy. All revenge tragedies originally
stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote and performed the first plays. After the
Greeks came Seneca who was particularly influential to all Elizabethan
playwrights including William
Shakespeare. The two most famous English revenge tragedies written in the
Elizabethan era were Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare and The Spanish
Tragedy, written by Thomas Kyd. These two plays used almost all of the
conventions for revenge tragedies in one way or the other. Hamlet especially incorporated
all revenge conventions which truly made Hamlet a typical revenge play.
During
Elizabethan era revenge plays were well
acclaimed. Most of them were a typical revenge tragedy, a melodrama with so
many turns and twists to keep the audience spell-bound. “Hamlet” as well as
“The Spanish Tragedy” tackled almost all those areas that were essential for the
consummation of a great revenge tragedy.
Shakespeare in Hamlet employs the framework
of Senecan Tragedy to convey the revenge theme. But underneath the outer
framework of Senecan Revenge Tragedy, lie key Shakespearean themes of human
condition, social indoctrination, the morality of the ghost’s injunction, and
the ethics of revenge.
The opening scene sets the tone of the play – a play shrouded in mystery and horror. The ghost
appears to the night guards, a shadowy figure resembling much in the dress and
the armour of the late king. The appearance of dead king’s ghost has a profound
effect upon the night guards as Marcellus remarks: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. Although Horatio
will not believe in the ghost until witness of his eyes; it appearance “harrows him with fear and wonder”. It
is not made to speak rather “stalks away
majestically”. The ghost appears twice in the opening scene but does not
vouchsafe a reply to Horatio’s questions. Hamlet is amazed at the idea of his
father’s apparition:
“My
father’s spirit in arms! All is not well/ I doubt some foul play.”
Hamlet himself is dumbfounded at the sight the
ghost. The ghost makes the shocking revelation of its murder to Hamlet. It further enjoins on Hamlet the sacred duty
of avenging his “foul and the most un-natural
murder”. The ghost’s injunctions are very clear:
“Let not the royal bed of Denmark be/A couch for luxury
and damned incest”.
The awful revelation of the ghost forms the
soul of the tragedy and drives the entire action.
Verity points out:
“Without the ghost’s initial revelation of truth to
Hamlet, there would be no occasion for revenge; in other words no tragedy of Hamlet.”
Hamlet’s mind is assailed with doubt whether
or not this apparition is a demon sent from hell, or if it is truly his father’s
spirit which has come from purgatory, to divulge the horrors of his murder, in
the hope of revenge:
“The spirit that I have seen/ May be the devil and the
devil hath power/To assume a pleasing shape.”
To verify the truth of the ghost’s statement,
Hamlet first feigns madness, and then gets enacted mousetrap play to “catch the conscience of the king”. During the play Hamlet closely watches
Claudius’ reaction when the actors perform the murder scene. Hamlet's plan works and his uncle in a fit of discomfort runs out the room, where Hamlet goes after him. Now,
Hamlet knows that Claudius is guilty.
Afterwards Hamlet finds Claudius at prayer,
confessing his sins:“O, my offence is
rank it smells to heaven/It hath primal eldest curse upon it/A brother’s
murder.”
He pulls out his sword and gets ready to kill
Claudius. But suddenly Hamlet changes his mind because if he kills his uncle
while he is praying he will go to heaven, and Hamlet wants him to go to hell.
So Hamlet postpones the execution of his uncle at this point in the play.
The next confrontation between Hamlet and Claudius
does not happen till the end of the book. Claudius hatches a plan according to
which Hamlet and Laertes will have a mock sword fight, but Laertes will be
using a real poisoned sword. Laertes stabs him with the poisoned sword then
Hamlet takes hold of the poisoned sword, and stabs Laertes with it. Meanwhile
Queen Gertrude dies from the poisoned drink intended for Hamlet. As Laertes
lays down dying he reveals to Hamlet that his uncle King Claudius was behind it
all. Hamlet then in a fit of rage runs his uncle through with the poisoned
sword. Hamlet has now finally revenged his father but too late and at the cost of
so many lives.
Hamlet fulfills all the conventions of
typical revenge tragedy: there is murder, adultery, insanity, incestuous
marriage and faithfulness. Besides these, there is a melodramatic element also – violence and bloodshed, terrible and blood-chilling
scenes – which is in line with the revenge tragedy conventions.
Hamlet is not a simple revenge tragedy. Shakespeare
has woven complex threads of the contrasting characters. Shakespeare has
introduced characters like Laertes and
Fortinbras that are obviously foils to
Hamlet. Fortinbras, the son of the slain king of Norway, is all hot for action.
He finds “quarrel in a straw” and intends to risk his life even for an “egg-shell”. He
travels many miles to take his revenge and ultimately succeeds in conquering
Denmark. When Hamlet murders Polonius, another revenge is ready to begin.
Laertes is a typical revenger who is capable of direct and headstrong revenge even
at the cost of damnation.
“To hell,
allegiance! Vows to the blackest devil.” ,
he declares.
If Hamlet feels “Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all”, Laertes consigns conscience to the devil, and will “cut his throat in the church”. Hamlet, on the other hand, has to convert the external action of revenge
into one that is internal, free and truly moral.
Summing up, to say Hamlet merely a revenge
tragedy would be to do a great injustice. It would ignore play’s artistic
superiority over other plays of this genre. It is only befitting that its hero
falls to the beautiful heavenly benediction of Horatio: “And flights of
angels sing thee to thy rest.”