Hamlet is a play that deals with the theme of revenge. How might the response of a modern audience differ from that of An Elizabethan audience?

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Hamlet Coursework

Marie Edmunds

Title- Hamlet is a play that deals with the theme of revenge. How might the response of a modern audience differ from that of An Elizabethan audience?

William Shakespeare wrote hamlet, the play has a revenge tragedy genre. The play very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge in Elizabethan theatre. All revenge tragedies originally came from the Greeks. Then came Seneca who was very influential to all Elizabethan tragedy writers. Seneca created all the rules and ideas for revenge play writers in the Renaissance era, which included William Shakespeare.

                 Hamlet has nearly all revenge conventions, which makes it a typical revenge play. We find out from the start, that the play will involve revenge. Hamlet sees a ghost which is his father ‘ I am thy fathers spirit’ He tells Hamlet it was his brother Claudius who killed him and he tells hamlet to get revenge for him by killing Claudius ‘ revenge his foul and most unnatural murder’. It is quite obvious that Hamlet’s father had suffered a violent death as he uses words such as ‘foul’ here the ghost is talking about his death. There is also clearly a sexual aspect of the play. This shown by Claudius marrying Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The ghost tells Hamlet that is why Claudius killed him.

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                 Hamlet though does delay his revenge right till the end of the play. This is a normal convention for a revenge tragedy. In all revenge tragedies first a crime has to be committed and then for some reason the law cannot do anything about the crime so an individual usually the main character has to get their own revenge. However the main character then usually has a period of doubt when they decide whether they should go through with it or not. Hamlet expresses doubt to the audience through a soliloquy. He ...

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