"Hamlet is so much more than a traditional revenge tragedy"

Thulasi Naveenan

“Hamlet is so much more than a traditional revenge tragedy”

Although Shakespeare wrote Hamlet closely following the conventions of a traditional revenge tragedy, he goes far beyond this form in his development of Hamlet’s character. Shakespeare’s exploration of Hamlet’s complex thoughts and emotions is perhaps more the focus of the play rather than that of revenge, thus in Hamlet Shakespeare greatly develops and enhances the form of the traditional revenge tragedy.

The main source of Hamlet is Saxo Grammaticus’ Historiae Danicae, a folk tale that has a similar plot to Hamlet; however, Shakespeare greatly transforms this story of revenge when creating Hamlet. Shakespeare also draws upon contemporary revenge tragedies, in particular Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, which exemplifies the main traditions of the Elizabethan revenge tragedy, which was developed by Kyd from the tragedies of the Roman writer Seneca. When comparing ‘The Spanish Tragedy’ and Hamlet, we can clearly see how Shakespeare has gone far further than the conventional revenge tragedy.

Kyd’s transformation of Senecan traditions of revenge tragedy in The Spanish Tragedy, provided the main principles for the popular Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, and thus gave Shakespeare the basic model for Hamlet. Therefore, it is easy to draw parallels between The Spanish Tragedy and Hamlet, for instance the use of a ghost seeking revenge.

In The Spanish Tragedy, the ghost of Don Andrea begins the play by retelling the story of how he was ‘slain,’ and how the gods have sent him back with Revenge to avenge his death. Therefore, Kyd uses the ghost to introduce the main theme of revenge and set out the basic plot of the play. Don Andrea does not spur Hieronimo, the main protagonist in the play, to revenge, he merely watches in the background, whereas in Hamlet, the appearance of his father’s ghost begins his quest for revenge. The revenge ghost is a convention Kyd took from Seneca’s tragedies, and in fact, Don Andrea has similar parallels to the ghost of Achilles in Seneca’s play Troades.

The first appearance of the old king’s ghost in the opening scene of Hamlet would have been suggestive of a revenge tragedy to an Elizabethan audience. However, the ghost does not demand revenge as Don Andrea does, but rather adds to the uncertainty and sense of foreboding in the scene. The play begins in a ‘bitter cold’ night, bringing a sense of pathetic fallacy to the scene, as the setting adds to the sense of trouble in Denmark, as described by Horatio and Marcellus. It is not until Act I, Scene V that the ghost appears to Hamlet, demanding ‘revenge [for] his foul and most unnatural murder,’ and thus introducing the theme of revenge in Hamlet. Although Hamlet proclaims that ‘[he will] sweep to [his] revenge,’ he does not take his revenge until the final scene of the play. Hamlet’s inaction and delay of his revenge is paralleled in The Spanish Tragedy, however the reasons for delay in Hamlet are somewhat different.

In The Spanish Tragedy, immediately after Hieronimo discovers his son’s body he claims that it is only ‘in revenge [his] heart would find relief,’ and although his wife Isabella reminds him that ‘the heavens are just,’ and thus of divine retribution, Hieronimo is intent on ‘vengeance [following his son’s] death.’

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Revenge in the Elizabethan era was considered morally wrong on religious grounds, as in the bible it states that ‘Vengeance is [the lord’s] and [he] will repay,’ (‘Romans 12:19’), therefore the acts of revenge in Hamlet and Hieronimo would have been disapproved of by an Elizabethan audience. However, in Sir Francis Bacon’s contemporary essay ‘Of Revenge,’ he writes that ‘the most tolerable sort of revenge is for those wrongs which there is no law to remedy,’ which is true in both Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy. In The Spanish Tragedy, Lorenzo prevents Hieronimo from seeking legal justice, and Hamlet cannot seek legal justice against Claudius, since he is King of Denmark. However, the question of the morality of revenge delays neither Hamlet nor Hieronimo in their quest.

Hieronimo is delayed because he does not know ‘by whom [his son’s murder] was brought about,’ however this is not the case in Hamlet. When Hamlet learns of his father’s murder, he immediately thinks of revenge. However, after the ghost’s exit, instead of taking avenging his death ‘with wings as swift as meditation,’ he proceeds to ‘set [his revenge] down.’ This is ironic as he has just stated that ‘[he will] wipe away all trivial fond records,’ and ‘alone…live [to seek revenge].’ The fact that Hamlet has ‘[to remove] all saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, that youth and observation copied [to his memory],’ suggests that revenge goes against his learning, and his ironic actions at the end of his speech, suggest that his education and thoughts will delay him in his revenge.

In the soliloquy we also see how Hamlet is also much preoccupied by Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius, the speech is heavily punctuated making it very disjointed, thus suggesting that Hamlet is very troubled by their union. An Elizabethan audience would have seen this marriage as religiously wrong, as the Bible states that ‘if a man shall take his 's [in marriage], it [is] an thing,’ (‘Leviticus 20:21’). Henry VIII used this as grounds for divorcing Catherine of Aragon, as she was formerly the wife of his dead brother Arthur.

Hamlet is also wary that ‘the spirit that [he has] seen may be the devil,’ although he essentially believes that ‘it is an honest ghost.’ The king’s ghost states that ‘[during] the day [he is] confined to fast in fires…till [his] foul crimes…are burnt and purged away,’ which suggests that he is in purgatory. However, this is a Catholic rather than a Protestant belief, and thus a Protestant Elizabethan audience would have believed that the ghost was from hell. Therefore, the Elizabethans may have seen the king’s ghost as an evil spirit leading Hamlet to his doom.

Therefore, this shows that Hamlet is distracted by many other worries from his pursuit of revenge, and again suggests how the focus of Hamlet is not revenge, but rather Hamlet’s inner turmoil, which indicates Shakespeare’s departure from ‘the formulaic restrictions of the revenge tragedy.’

In the characters of Laertes and Fortinbras, Shakespeare presents examples of more traditional revenge tragedy heroes, who seek revenge without any delay. Fortinbras can be easily compared to Hamlet, as his father has been murdered and his uncle is now king. However, unlike Hamlet, ‘young Fortinbras of innaproved mettle hot and full’ immediately mobilises an army ‘to recover [his father’s lost land]’ and thereby avenge his death. After the murder of his father Polonius, Laertes, ‘with impetuous haste’ storms the castle and proclaims that ‘[he will] be revenged most thoroughly for [his] father.’ These characters are in complete contrast to Hamlet, who spends much of his time despairing of the ‘weary, stale, flat and unprofitable…world,’ rather than seeking revenge. This again shows Shakespeare’s transformation of the conventional revenge tragedy, although Hieronimo in the traditional ‘Spanish Tragedy’ also delays his revenge until the very end of the play.

In The Spanish Tragedy, madness plays a substantial role in Hieronimo’s delay of revenge, and to a certain extent, this is true in Hamlet. Hieronimo is driven mad by grief over his son’s death, having discovered his son’s body, in complete disbelief he claims that ‘[Horatio] may still be in his chamber.’ He also becomes disillusioned with life, in his grief-stricken state, and claims that ‘the world [is nothing] but [a] mass of public wrongs, confus’d and fill’d with murder and misdeeds.’ This soliloquy is very similar to Hamlet’s first soliloquy, where he sees the ‘world … [as] an unweeded garden that grows to seed,’ and inhabited by ‘things rank and gross in nature.’

The famous ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy epitomises Hamlet’s internal ‘dilemma,’ as Hamlet questions whether to take revenge, thus inevitably killing himself, or to commit suicide. In this speech, he also contemplates the woes of the ‘[those] who…bear the whips and scorns of time,’ and thus furthers his depression. This soliloquy clearly indicates how the main theme of Hamlet is not that revenge, but Hamlet’s complex thoughts and emotions. Hieronimo states similarly in a soliloquy:

‘This way or that way? Soft and fair, not so:
For if I hang myself, let's know
Who will revenge Horatio's murder then? Act III, Scene xii

However, Hamlet is not mad, in fact the ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy has a very balanced and even meter, suggesting that Hamlet’s thoughts are collected, rather than erratic and that of a lunatic.

The use of soliloquies is very prevalent in the revenge tragedy genre, developed from the long, rhetorical speeches used in Seneca’s tragedies; they provide the audience with valuable insight into the speaker’s state of mind.

Hamlet puts on an ‘antic disposition’ at first, so that the king is not suspicious of him, and thus to facilitate his revenge. However, it only succeeds in isolating him further from the court and thus increases the king’s scrutiny of him. Shakespeare also uses Hamlet’s ‘antic disposition,’ to provide greater insight into his feelings and emotions.

In the Act III, Scene I, Hamlet feigns madness and his disjointed prose speech suggests this, however as the king states later on ‘[it] was not like madness,’ since Hamlet’s mad speeches often have veiled meaning. For instance he repeats three times to Ophelia ‘get thee to a nunnery,’ while she believes ‘[his] noble mind is o’erthrown,’ he may be saying this to protect her from the events that will occur as a result of his revenge and also to protect her from ‘arrant knaves,’ thus keeping her ‘chaste as snow.’ This scene also show’s Hamlet’s obsession with Gertrude’s corrupt marriage, as he raves against marriage, and states that ‘[women] make wantonness [their] ignorance,’ which is a direct reference to Gertrude. He also states that ‘[this] hath made [him] mad,’ which again suggests that Hamlet is not preoccupied by revenge but by the corruption, and especially the sexual corruption in Denmark.

In this scene he also openly proclaims ‘[of] those who are married already, all but one shall live,’ which immediately alerts Claudius, and thus Hamlet does not prudently use his ‘antic disposition’ to aid him in taking revenge. In The Spanish Tragedy, Hieronimo is far more ‘machiavellian’ in his approach, as he uses his pretend madness to deceive Lorenzo and Balthazar, with the use of a ‘play within the play’, and achieve his revenge. Therefore, Hieronimo uses their villainous methods against them. Hamlet uses the ‘play within the play’ ‘[to] catch the conscience of the king,’ rather than to actively pursue revenge. Similarly, Laertes plots with Claudius, perhaps the cause of most of the corruption in Denmark, in order to exact his revenge. However, Hamlet is more concerned by the corruption that makes ‘the earth [seem] a sterile promontory… [and appear] no other thing [to him] than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours,’ than by the pursuit of revenge.

Revenge is finally taken in both Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy, however, while Hieronimo mercilessly pursues revenge and fulfils it in a violent and bloody manner, after he returns from England, Hamlet takes a fatalistic approach to revenge, choosing to ‘let be’ rather than taking his revenge. However, Shakespeare skilfully manages to construct the last scene so that revenge is fittingly achieved. This again shows that Shakespeare’s main concern in Hamlet is the exploration of the prince’s mind, rather than that of revenge. It is this examination of human nature, which perhaps makes Hamlet so popular and relevant today. Through Hamlet ‘Shakespeare challenged the expectations of his contemporary audiences,’ by going beyond the confines of the popular revenge tragedy genre at the time. In Hamlet he shows the complex human emotions that arise as a result of grief, and also takes a new stance on the ‘burden of the call to revenge,’ by showing how Hamlet is hindered by his overwhelming feelings about the corruption in Denmark, such as the ‘incestuous’ marriage of his mother to Claudius. Therefore, although very much adhering to the conventions of the traditional revenge tragedy, Shakespeare goes beyond this in Hamlet, through his focus on human nature, rather than that of revenge.

A. Bailey, Tragedy, Revenge and Revenge Tragedy in Hamlet

"Hamlet is so much more than a traditional revenge tragedy"

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