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How well do you feel the character of Hamlet suits the stereotype of a protagonist in a revenge play
Over the past four hundred years Hamlet has become the most frequently performed play of all time. Its popularity is global and it appeals to audiences of all ages, young and old. One of the possible reasons for this play's popularity is the way Shakespeare uses the character Hamlet to exemplify the complex workings of the human mind. Delay was one of the key conventions of a revenge tragedy that Shakespeare inherited; if the Prince had carried out his father’s ghostly image’s instructions straight away then ‘there would have been an End of our Play’. The complexity of Hamlet’s thoughts and the ambiguous actions carried out by him, brought Hamlet a ‘life-like’ identity that could not be summed up. Through out this piece of work I will produce a critical analysis of Hamlet as a character and whether or not he resembles a stereotypical protagonist within the revenge play.
Gorboduc is thought to be the first English tragedy. The King of Britain divides his realm between his two sons. The two sons start fighting and the eldest is killed. Their mother loved the eldest more and chose to revenge his death. This unnaturally cruel act lead to a rebellion, this resulted in the deaths of both the King and Queen. Nobles kill the rebels and a civil war breaks out because of confusion for succession to the thrown. Like Hamlet, this follows the same themes of a tragedy. The revenge plot results in a great loss of life which in turn all resulted from a small family affair. This shows that Shakespeare moves on a stage, taking revenge tragedies to another level. Shakespeare’s new concept is repulsion for life itself and is explained later on.
The great philosopher Aristotle believed that the two main emotions that a tragedy should revolve around are that of pity and fear. In order to move on from these rather old ideas, Shakespeare decided to add a third; this can be understood as repulsion for life itself. At the time Aristotle was writing, his tragedies would be structured around a straight forward plot. In Hamlet, Shakespeare drives away from this classical idea and instead weaves the three themes around each other, whilst creating an entirely different outcome for them all. Evidence of this concept is shown clearly within Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Fortinbras’s father was killed by Hamlet’s father during combat in war; because of this, Fortinbras wants to avenge the death of his father. Laertes has he’s mind set purely on avenging the death of Polonius and finally the third and central avenger is Hamlet, King Hamlet’s son, determined to avenge the death of his father who lays dead and buried by the work of his uncle Claudius.
A difference that separates Hamlet from Fortinbras and Laertes is that he does not follow the words of his revenge advisor, without asking himself why he should actually carry out the deed. The further into the play, the longer the audience has to wait for the eventual [next page]