Is+Hamlet+primarily+a+tragedy+of+revenge?

A Revenge Tragedy is a type of tragedy where the main source of the tragic events is revenge. It is important to notice that not every tragedy that has elements of revenge in them is a Revenge Tragedy. While a tragedy may have elements of revenge, in order for it to be a Revenge Tragedy, the plot must revolve mostly about the desire to get revenge.
 * Revenge Tragedy:**


 * Hamlet is an example of a Revenge Tragedy**
 * The death of Hamlet’s father is the source of all of the want for revenge throughout the entire play. Every event throughout the play could be traced back to Hamlet trying to seek revenge for the death of his father.
 * First the ghost of Hamlet’s father comes and tells Hamlet to seek revenge on his uncle who murdered him . After this Hamlet believes it is now his responsibility to defend his father and get revenge on his uncle which leads to all the tragic events throughout the play.
 * Hamlet in an act of revenge tries to kill his Uncle Claudius who was behind the curtain but it turned out to be Lord Polonius. Hamlet killing Lord Polonius was the first time that Hamlet acts on his drive for revenge and did something irreversible.
 * After the death of her father Ophelia goes crazy and gives up on everything, this is all a result of Hamlet’s attempt at revenge against his uncle.
 * By Ophelia letting everything go and giving up on everything it was her own way of getting revenge on the world and the people who hurt her.
 * After Laertes came home and found that Hamlet had murdered his father which caused his sister to go crazy he is overwhelmed. After coming to terms with all this knew information he is filled with rage and has a strong desire to seek revenge on Hamlet.
 * The last scene is when all the little acts of revenge and the main act of revenge where Hamlet wants revenge for his fathers death come together and everybody falls and gets killed.

1. //"And so I am revenged. That would be scanned: A villain kills my father, and for that, I, his sole son, d this same villain send to heaven;" (p. 161, 3.4).// In this quote, Hamlet states that since he is his father's only son, it is up to him to avenge his murder. This development for Hamlet comes after his encounter with his father's ghost. It is one of the first times that the theme of revenge is introduced as a primary element of the story.
 * Evidence from the Text**:

2. //"Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. Thou find'st to be too busy is some danger;" (p.165, 3.4).// This is right after Hamlet kills Polonius by mistake. His desire to kill his uncle out of revenge takes over his rational side, causing him to blindly stab the person behind the curtains. The murder of Polonius sets of a chain reaction of death and betrayal.

3. //"She speaks much of her father, says she hears there's tricks i'th' world, and hems, and beats her heart, Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt that carry but half sense. Her speech is nothing, yet the unshaped use of it doth moce the hearers to collection; they yawn at it..." (p.194, 4.5).// Ophelia going mad is an example of one of the results of the death of Polonius. Polonius's murder was the first real act of revenge in the play, and the negative events that followed were connected to that.

4. //"And so have I a noble father lost, a sister driven into desp'rate terms, whose worth, if praises may go back again, stood challanger on a mount of all the age for her perfections. But my revenge will come;" (p. 213, 4.7).// Laertes returns to Denmark to find that his father has been murdered, and that his sister has gone mad. He is told that both of these losses are because of Hamlet, and he directs all of his rage toward him. In this statement, Laertes vows that he will too, have his revenge. Once again, the revenge that Hamlet strives for, causes more desires for revenge to be born.

5. //"Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, until my eyelids will no longer wag...I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum." (p. 243, 5.1)// This quote from the text relates back to revenge and Ophelia. While Ophelia did lose her mind becauase of the actions of Hamlet, based on his desire to gain revenge, she also, in her own way, got her revenge back on Hamlet. For treating her terribly, and killing her father, she took herself away from him. In this way, he lost his love, one of the last people that was truly important to him.

6. //"Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio...But let it be Horatio, I am dead;" (p.269, 5.2)// In the last scene of the play, Hamlet fulfills itself as a revenge tragedy. All of the characters confront each other, and they all fall. Every character that was involved in revenge, suffered death, and suddenly everything was finished.

Works Cited:

1.Woodock, Matthew. "Revenge Tragedy". //The Literary Encyclopedia//. June 29, 2006. http://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=951

2. "Revenge Play". //Wikipedia.org//. February 9, 2007. []

There are additional serious prilosec facet effects but it should be noted that these are a lot of rarer but they're required to say them if it has been shown that the medication has caused them to occur within simply a few folks. If you do get any of them then it's vital that you just get medical help immediately as these reactions can be dangerous for some people. [|prilosec side effects]