Themes in hamlet11/30/2022 ![]() ![]() Although Hamlet claims that his revenge will be swift at first, he puts it off because he thought the ghost was a devil imitating his father in order to convince him to sin in order to punish him eternally in the afterlife. The thought of being punished in the afterlife was the leading cause of delay in Hamlets revenge as he puts all his trust on Heaven as the providential means to the resolution to the crises he’s facing.(Zak,85). Those who decided to pursue revenge lost any chance of forgiveness and were eternally punished in the afterlife. Instead of seeking out vengeance Elizabethans believed that seeking revenge was sin and was better left to god. Since punishment was the prerogative of the state, every possible argument was induced to convince the private citizen that he must leave revenge to god. Revenge can be seen as The returning of evil-for-evil (Benditt,8) and although the revenge tragedy was a popular genre, a majority of the Elizabethans condemned the idea of revenge as both the church and state believed that it would cause immense amounts of civil disorder Private revenge could lead to quarrels, thence to a public tumult thence to dissension between families, and thus to national quarrels. Shakespeare is intent in developing the persistent developing the persistent ambiguities of emotion, rhetoric, and acting to their ultimate riddling potential, to the point where they have the power to not only delay the movement to revenge but to subvert and even abort it (Mercer, 121) In this Shakespeare implies that vengeance shouldn’t be so sought after and is better left to the heavens to decide the killers fate. Hamlet and Laertes the two that pursued vengeance the most ultimately met their end, while young Fortinbras who was convinced to not enact on his desires to get revenge lived and rose to power. ![]() The act of revenge was a major theme that revolved around Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras who all share a desire to kill their father’s murderer yet contrast in terms of character. To avenge ones fallen father was seen to be a moral obligation in most revenge tragedies during the Elizabethan era and it was certainly no different in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet. ![]()
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