Revenge is considered by many, sought by some, and carried out by few. It consumes the avenger and what remains is madness. The theme of revenge is depicted in many literary works. Two great examples of this theme would be The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe and Hamlet Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's play the character of Hamlet seeks to avenge the murder of his father, King Hamlet, and in McCabe's novel the character of Francie Brady seeks revenge for almost everything that happened to him, from the death of his mother to the loss of Joe's family. friendship. The question often arises whether revenge is justified. In Hamlet's case I think revenge is justifiable because his motivations are strong, but things quickly get complicated and end in tragedy. In contrast, I do not believe that Francie's acts of revenge are justified because her motivations for revenge are unfairly posited; his acts of revenge cause harm to himself and the person on whom he places all the blame. The combination of anguish and anger motivated Hamlet to avenge his father's murder. The first thing we learn from the play is that King Hamlet had recently died. As a result Hamlet felt an overwhelming melancholy, this is evident in his soliloquies, he states "How tired, stale, flat and useless all the uses of this world seem to me!" (1.2.133-134). Life for him is useless and tiring. It's been two months and he's still in pain to the point where he's no longer in his right mind. This melancholy combined with the anger he felt at his mother's remarriage to his uncle so soon after his father's funeral was a bad combination, but what pushed Hamlet over the edge was his encounter with his father's ghost with ... .center of the sheet......stairs room (209).This last act of revenge is not justifiable, it is cold-blooded murder. When she called Brady's pigs she sealed her fate and she was killed like a pig. Ms. Nugent was wrong to insult the Brady family and thought and acted as if she were better than them, but getting to this point is unreasonable. Francie attempted to take revenge on the Nugent family, leading to retribution against him. The first was when he broke into the Nugents' house and trashed the place (he even defecated on their carpet). As a result, Francie was sent to a convent where she was sexually abused by a priest, and her friendship with Joe began to end. The next act of revenge was when he actually killed Mrs. Nugent and as a result he was sent to the "garage" and never came out again. It was definitely a sad ending and I feel some sort of sympathy for both Hamlet and Francie.