"Hamlet challenges the conventions of revenge tragedy by deviating from them" (Sydney Bolt, 1985) Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The typical Elizabethan theatergoer who attended the first production of “Hamlet” in 1604 would have had clear expectations. The conventions of Elizabethan revenge tragedy were already well established, drawn initially from the Senacan model of revenge tragedy, which combined bloody and treacherous action with sententious moralism, and later developed by Thomas Kyd, who established the "Kydian formula". This picture, which includes all the typical elements of an Elizabethan revenge tragedy, appeared in "The Spanish Tragedy" and begins with a murder, committed by a later king, which is therefore beyond the reach of the law. The ghost of the victim, returning from Purgatory to order his son to avenge his death, acts as a chorus throughout the opera. The vengeful son pretends to be crazy and presents a silent show in court in order to be sure of the murderer's guilt. The work, full of melodrama and rhetoric, ends with the death of almost all the characters, including the murderer, the avenger and the avenger's accomplice. In "Hamlet", Shakespeare ensures that he adheres to all the salient elements of Kyd. Therefore, Sydney Bolt's claim that Shakespeare departs from the conventions of revenge tragedy is highly questionable. Indeed, Shakespeare transcends these conventions, producing something far more powerful than a traditional revenge tragedy. However, relying on the structure of a conventional revenge tragedy to create what emerges more as a psychological drama, the playwright instead focuses on the protagonist's tortured personality and his motivations, rather than the act of revenge itself. Shakespeare uses Hamlet's soliloquies. to convey his instability and depression to the public. In Act I, scene ii, he exclaims, "Oh, would this too-salted flesh melt," for he sees all the ways of ordinary life as simply "tired, stale, flat, and useless." Shakespeare uses the image of a "weedless garden" as a metaphor for Hamlet's existence, full of worthless things that in their grossness suffocate his life. From this tortuous desperation and insecurity comes his indecision, even regarding his own desperation; "To be or not to be: that is the question." Hamlet's dilemma of whether or not he should end his life is followed by a sequence of rhetorical questions: whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms against a sea of ​​troubles , and oppose finishing them? These further emphasize his philosophizing about suicide and his uncertainty about his situation, and seem almost as if Hamlet is conducting a rhetorical exercise in a matter of philosophical debate. Significantly, Hamlet does not use the first person "I" but further abstracts the speech through the accumulation of infinitives; 'To be', 'to die', 'to sleep'. Although Hamlet clearly appears to be talking about suicide, the impersonal impression that this repression creates actually distances the conversation further from the character and the audience, and the metatheatrical effect pushes not only the individual Hamlet but also the audience to consider the nature of life and of reality. .In fact, there seems to be very little coherence in Hamlet's life; his father was murdered and his mother married the murderer only a short time after the funeral, and his lover, Ophelia, "denied him access", at his father's suggestion. The fact that both women in his life seem to have rejected him fuelsobviously his ardent misogyny: 'Fragility, your name is woman!' (I, ii). What is clear is Shakespeare's concentration on the nature of the protagonist, rather than the theme of revenge, as in Act III, Scene I, the tension between Hamlet and Ophelia is evident from the beginning. She addresses him as “Good my lord,” but what dominates the conversation is Hamlet talking about his loss of faith in women. Abandoning verse for wild prose, Hamlet's rambling speech communicates to the audience that he believes all women (significantly, he uses the address "yourselves") are treacherous deceivers who "jig," "ambling," "lisp" , "they nickname the creatures of God." and they make their 'unruliness' their 'ignorance'. Hamlet later expands his hatred of women further when he confronts Gertrude with her sins; "Like killing a king and marrying his brother." Hamlet attacks the Queen: Will do but skin and film the ulcerous place, While rancid corruption, undermining all within, Infects invisible. With his violent and repellent images of what he considers incest, he not only greatly upsets his mother ("O Hamlet, you have split my heart in two) but, implicitly, also condemns the entire female gender. Shakespeare therefore inserts a psychological aspect into the opera, and while the typical avenger places himself outside the normal moral order of things, becoming more and more isolated as the opera progresses, such a vociferous debate about something that is not immediately related to the theme of revenge is unusual. Act I Scene VI, Hamlet talks to Horatio and despises not only Claudius but also the Danish nation for their 'habit' of throwing great 'feasts'. He disapproves of the Danes' way of celebrating because he believes that this is a flaw that disappoints the country , giving him a bad reputation. Hamlet compares this idea to a man, saying that if a man is born from nature he will have a fundamental flaw that will bring him down as he gradually develops and increases. In hindsight, the audience realizes that Hamlet is actually describing himself when he talks about this man. In keeping with the traditions of revenge tragedy, Shakespeare provides Hamlet with a fatal flaw, but ironically the flaw is his inability to do what his father's ghost asks him to do: for the revenge hero not to take revenge would have been a notable surprise for him. the Elizabethan public. In Act III, Scene III, Hamlet is presented with a perfect opportunity to kill Claudius, when he apparently finds him praying in the chapel ("Now I might do it pat") but ultimately decides against it, a decision perhaps vindicated. of his scholarship. The student Hamlet's fatal flaw comes from his consideration of the consequences of a murder committed now: "that would be scanned." The belief that if killed while praying, Claudius would go straight to heaven and not purgatory like old Hamlet would certainly be the reason why Hamlet chooses not to kill Claudius in the chapel. However, if Hamlet had been the conventional avenger his Elizabethan audience expected, he would not have stayed long enough to fully understand the consequences of his actions; he would kill Claudius as soon as he had the chance. Hamlet's awareness of his fatal flaw makes him even less of a conventional revenge hero; in his soliloquy in Act III, Scene I, he resolves: "Thus conscience makes cowards of us all." He calls himself a "slave thief and peasant" and while the Player is distressed simply by starring in the silent show ("And all for nothing!") he himself is unable to even conjure the same emotion. He hypothesizes: what would he do if he had the reason and inspiration for the passion that I have? It would sink thestage of tears. Hamlet feels guilty that his inability prevents him from doing so, calling himself "not pregnant with my cause." He questions himself; "Am I a coward?", interrupting his soliloquy, already punctuated by exclamations such as "O revenge!", with broken sentences and lines that dissolve into the single syllable "Ah!" His focus on his own failure is also shown through the language itself. Although its first lines, player-centric as they are emotionally charged - 'monstrous', 'passion' and 'Tears' - are nevertheless controlled, rooted in the regular structure of iambic pentametric verse. However, as soon as he begins to consider himself, Hamlet's speech organization begins to collapse again; 'Yet I' disrupts the regular rhythm of the verses. Despite maintaining regular heroic lines, Shakespeare punctuates the flow of Hamlet's speech with semicolons or periods, colloquialisms ("Should I 'a' got fat"), and short questions and exclamations ("Am I a coward?" does this?', 'Cursed, obscene villain!'). While Hamlet violently curses Claudia, his diatribe, which has finally lost all order and form, focuses on self-hatred: 'A dull and murky scoundrel'. and 'Why, what an ass I am!' Here his explosive insults are ironic; although Hamlet is criticizing his lack of real passion, he is actually showing fiery emotion, but the audience is forced to recognize that even his more moderate comparison of real passion and theatrical passion at beginning of his soliloquy actually accomplished nothing is made more powerful as Shakespeare juxtaposes his protagonist's situation with two similar ones, in which the heroes actively seek revenge , useless "little piece of ground" and Hamlet compares himself unfavorably and accuses himself (rightly) of "thinking too precisely about the event." He believes it is a sign of greatness "to find a quarrel in the straw" (over a trivial matter)." When honor is at stake" and realizes that his honor is much more at stake than Fortinbras's, yet he is willing to do so. 'let us all sleep'. Fortinbras's activity seems to spur Hamlet into action: " Let my thoughts be bloody, or worthless!" - but after this point there is no more evidence in the play to suggest that he is plotting to kill the king than before. The second obstacle Shakespeare poses for Hamlet is Laertes. After Hamlet kills his father, Polonius, and is indirectly responsible for Ophelia's madness ("desperate terms") and death, Laertes desperately seeks revenge, spurred on by the Machiavellian Claudius. Laertes' fury, initially directed against Claudius, when he learns of his father's death, pushes him to immediately return to Denmark to avenge the terrible insult to his honor. Shakespeare presents us with the powerful symbolism of "The Ocean, which overlooks his list" - the rising tide of Laertes' "rabble" rapidly covering the seashore, and continues the sense of tense urgency with Laertes' aggressive dialogue: 'That drop of blood that is calm proclaims me a bastard'. . Laertes refuses to calm down, protesting that to do so would deny his status as his father's son. When Claudius reports to Laertes his desire that Hamlet be killed by "accident" to ensure that Gertrude does not suspect anything, Laertes immediately offers himself as the "organ" of Hamlet's death. Although Claudius manipulates him, Laertes plays an active role in the formulation of the conspiracy, himself conceiving the idea of ​​​​poisoning the already "unsharpened" sword; so strong is his desire for revenge that he would be willing to kill a childhood friend. However, Hamlet, the hero of unconventional revenge, cannot find it in himself.