Hamlet challenges conventions in revenge tragedies.
– Sydney Bolt, 1985
Hamlet was the first major production to be staged in 1604. The audience of Elizabethan theatregoers had high expectations. Elizabethan revenge plays, whose origins date back to Roman poet Senecahad’s work, had long been established. Thomas Kyd published The Spanish Tragedy (1586) and established “Kydian Formula”, an outline that included all the elements in a typical revenge drama. Kyd’s story revolves around the murder of an unnamed future king who is therefore placed outside of the legal system. The play is narrated by the ghost of the deceased victim who has returned from Purgatory and wants to teach his son how to revenge his death. His son presents himself as a fool in court to ensure that the murderer is blamed. This melodramatic play ends with almost all characters dead, including the murderer and his son. Hamlet is a perfect example of how Shakespeare has incorporated all the key elements from Kyd. Bolt has declared that Shakespeare does not follow the conventions for revenge tragedies. Shakespeare, in fact, transcends the conventions of revenge tragedies, and produces something much more powerful. Shakespeare takes the conventional revenge drama and turns it into a psychological drama that focuses on the character of the protagonist, his motivations, and not the revenge itself.
Shakespeare uses Hamlet’s Soliloquies in order to show his protagonists’ depression and instability. Hamlet describes his own existence as an “unweeded” garden. The garden is full of worthless items that are almost choking Hamlet. Hamlet’s indecision is a result of his torturous self-doubt.
If it is nobler to suffer
The wild slings & arrows that fortune throws at you
Or take arms to fight a sea trouble,
What if you oppose them?
Hamlet’s uncertainty and philosophizing about suicide are furthered with these questions. Hamlet is a man of few consistent actions. His father died, his mother had married his murderer (in ignorance), and Ophelia was “denying him access” at the father’s request. His misogyny grows as a result of his two women rejecting him. Hamlet’s tension towards Ophelia can be seen from the very beginning of Act III. Hamlet is most concerned with his loss in faith for women. Hamlet’s speech is a disjointed savagely written prose. It conveys that Hamlet believes women (he addresses them as “yourselves”) to be treacherous deceivers. They “jig”, amble”, “lisp”, and “nickname God’s creations” are all signs of their “wantonness”. Hamlet reveals his hatred of all women to Gertrude when he tells her about the sins she committed: “As kill and marry a brother, as jig, amble, lisp, nickname God’s creatures, as savage prose.”
While corruption is rife, it’s a mine within.
Infects undetected”), he does not only cause his mother great distress (“O Hamlet you have split my heart”) but, indirectly, also condemns womankind.
Hamlet scolds Claudius in Act I, Scene VI. He also scorns Denmark for its “customs” of large feasts. Hamlet is not a fan of the Danes, as he feels that their celebrations are a disgrace to the nation and have tarnished its reputation. Hamlet compares nature with a male, saying that as a result of his birth, every man will be born with a flaw. This flaw will only grow and eventually bring the man down. The audience is made to feel sorry for Hamlet because they realize that, in retrospect, he was describing himself. Shakespeare has given Hamlet, in keeping the revenge-theatre tradition, a fatal fault, which is, ironically, his failure to carry out the wishes of his father’s spirit. Elizabethan audiences were surprised that Hamlet did not seek revenge. Hamlet’s decision to refrain from killing Claudius is based on his academic knowledge. Hamlet, the student, is fatally flawed because he starts to consider and think about the consequences of murder. Hamlet’s soliloquy begins with the words “that will be scanned”, and he starts to consider his actions. Hamlet is genuinely convinced, according to the religious beliefs at the time that Claudius’s soul would go directly into Heaven if Hamlet killed him while he was praying. Claudius was destined to Purgatory at all other times, where Hamlet’s Father now resides. He did not receive forgiveness of his sins until after he was murdered. Hamlet was not the traditional revenger his Elizabethan readers expected. If he were, he probably would not take the time to understand all the implications of his actions.
Hamlet knows that he has a fatal flaw. This makes him a less conventional revenge hero. He suggests:
What would you do?
Was he a man of passion?
You have what?
He would drown his stage in tears.
Hamlet feels guilty because he is unable to accomplish this. He calls himself, “unpregnant in my cause”, and interjects the soliloquy with its exclamations “O revenge!,” broken sentences, and verses that are reduced to a single word, “Ha!”
Hamlet’s internal turmoil over his inability act is heightened by Shakespeare’s juxtaposition of Hamlet’s situation to two other similar situations in which heroes actively seek revenge. Hamlet’s inner turmoil is heightened by Shakespeare’s juxtaposition of Hamlet’s situation with two similar situations in which the heroes are actively seeking revenge.
Laertes is the second character Shakespeare presents as a contrast. Laertes, inspired by Claudius the Machiavellian, is desperate to get revenge after Hamlet killed Polonius and indirectly led to Ophelia going mad and dying (because she probably committed suicide). Laertes, upon hearing of the death of his father, is furious with Claudius and rushes to Denmark in order to exact revenge on him. Shakespeare shows us “the ocean” as a powerful symbol of the rising tides Laertes’s “rabble”, which quickly cover the seashore. Laertes then uses his aggressive dialogue to continue the feeling of tense, urgent urgency: “That blood drop that is calm proclaims m bastard.” Laertes does not want to be calmed down, claiming that it would mean he was no longer his father’s boy. Claudius informs Laertes of his desire to kill Hamlet by “accident” in order to prevent Gertrude from suspecting any wrongdoing. Laertes then offers himself to Gertrude as an “organ” for Hamlet’s death. Laertes does not just allow Claudius to manipulate him; he is also actively involved in formulating the plot. He even comes up the idea for poisoning an “unbated” blade. This desire to avenge himself would lead him to kill a friend from childhood. Hamlet is the hero who takes revenge in an unconventional way, but he cannot kill a killer of his father and his wife. Laertes answers Claudius directly and firmly: “To cut him throat in the church.” In an ironic parallel, Hamlet was also unable to kill Claudius when he first tried to in Act III scene III.
Laertes’ aggressive reaction reveals his mediaeval nature. Hamlet, however, is more of a Renaissance-style thinker. Shakespeare’s choice to make Hamlet into a modern-day figure, as opposed to a Senecan revenger in the traditional sense, fits perfectly with his desire for a transcendence of the elements found in revenge tragedies. Shakespeare creates a character who is not a traditional Roman Catholic but rather a member of a modern breed. Hamlet is a student at Wittenberg University in Germany. Wittenberg was the birthplace of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Shakespeare gives Hamlet a humanist touch with his quest for knowledge (“What is man? “), and preoccupation with man’s complexity. Shakespeare distinguishes Hamlet from other revenge heros such as Hieronimo of The Spanish Tragedy or Laertes by creating a Renaissance Humanist educated at university.
Hamlet is transformed in the final scene into the revenge hero Hamlet always aspired for, by killing Claudius during a passion-fueled rage. The final scene is consistent with traditional revenge tragedies. Elizabethan audiences were sure to be satisfied. Shakespeare’s Hamlet, however, treats revenge in a very unusual way. Although revenge is the primary theme of the play, it only plays a minor role. Hamlet’s inability, caused by his indecision, misogyny, and instability, to exact revenge is far more important. Shakespeare creates a conventionally-structured revenge tragedy, but ensures that his hero is not trapped within these confines. Shakespeare uses theatrical conventions like soliloquies to build a connection between his hero, the audience and himself. This allows them to understand the emotions of the hero. Shakespeare, by constructing a psychodramatic play within a revenge tragic structure, ensures that Hamlet’s character is the central focus of the drama, not revenge. Shakespeare does not depart from the conventions associated with revenge tragedies, but rather transcends them. This is what Sydney Bolt says.
