Revenge can be defined as “the act of retaliating for wrongs received”. William Shakespeare 's “Hamlet” is considered one of his greatest plays and the plot is centered on revenge. Euripides ' Medea also shares a theme of revenge. While both central characters have been betrayed, resulting in their impending revenge, there is more than one theme of revenge in Hamlet, and there are differences in the ways all decide to handle their betrayals and the outcomes of their actions.
In “Hamlet,” he is betrayed by the King of Denmark, his uncle Claudius, who killed his father, the previous King, so he could rule the kingdom and marry the Queen, Hamlet’s mother. Hamlet feels extreme betrayal by his mother as well, who chose to marry Claudius a mere two months after the death of his father. When trying to avenge his father by killing Claudius, Hamlet inadvertently mortally wounds Polonius, the father of his friend Laertes and his girlfriend Ophelia. This act forces Laertes to obtain revenge for his father’s death by killing Hamlet. Hamlet’s father killed the King of Norway during combat. The Prince of Norway, Fortinbras, thus wanted revenge on the entire country of Denmark. In Medea, the betrayal by her husband is to take another woman in marriage. Although she used her magical powers to ensure Jason secured the Golden Fleece; fled her country and
Slecka #2 family to live with Jason in Iolcus; killed her brother and dumped him overboard forcing their pursuers to slow down and
Medea and Jason are married and have children. Jason then abandoned Medea for Glauce. Medea then gets angry and decides to plan a quest for justice. Glauce is poisoned and the children are murdered. Medea leaves and Jason is left with all of his values lost.
Jason tries to reason with Medea by showing that his betrayal was for the sake of the children “so [that] [they’ll] be well off” (326) and be brought up “in a way that’s worthy/ Of [his] family” (325). Medea consumed in her grief is still unable to mediate with Jason’s betrayal and is determined to kill Jason’s new bride by sending her a poisoned dress and tiara. Understanding that displaying fury towards Jason will not accomplish her plans, she chooses to show that she “agrees with him about his marriage” (332). Confessing to her own stubbornness and “bad temper” (334), she is able deceitfully continue on to say she “realizes how wrong [she] [has] been” (335). Furthermore, she uses the children to cumulate sympathy, similar to how she initially gained Creon’s mercy. By “[admitting] [she] was wrong” (335) and telling Jason she “supports [his] [plans]” of their children “having royal brothers” (326), he becomes persuaded by Medea’s thoughtfulness. After Medea allows the children to “come out” (336) and embrace him, she asks whether his “new wife” (336) could ask Creon to “let [the] [children] stay” (336). Medea takes advantage of knowing it would be difficult for Creon to refuse a request from his own child to resume her agenda. After spotlighting how concerned she is about the children, she recognizes that Jason
these stories the Olympian gods in the stories play important roles that affect the lives of both Jason and Medea. The behaviors of these two character also have a great contrast between them. In the story of “Jason and the Golden Fleece”, Jason is the son of Aeson who is the legitimate king of Iolcus, in Thessaly. Aeson’s half brother Pelias steals the throne away from Aeson making himself the new king of Iolcus. Jason is the rightful heir to the thrown but his father feared for his life and sent him to live with the centaur Cheiron. In time Jason wanted to know of his parents and wanted to reclaim the royal
Revenge is the great motivator of men and women alike. People are compelled to seek justice for themselves and for the ones they love and many will commit atrocities to achieve their retribution. Revenge, and its role in Hamlet, is established early in the play with the presentation of the character Fortinbras, the Prince of Norway. Fortinbras is introduced as a hot headed, merciless, and revenge obsessed man who is assembling a private army to reclaim the land that his father, the former King of Norway, died for. The theme of revenge is further established in Act I when Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark, is convinced by the ghost of his father, the former King of Denmark, to avenge his death by killing the man who murdered him, Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the current King of Denmark. Revenge continuously acts as a major motivating force for the actions of Hamlet and Fortinbras, and even affects Laertes, Hamlet’s old friend. When Laertes’ father is killed by Hamlet, he is convinced that he will find justice for his father by killing Hamlet. Love is the uniting force among these men, they all love their fathers and demand justice for their murder. The theme of revenge in Hamlet by Shakespeare shows how human emotion drives: Hamlet, Fortinbras, and Laertes to commit horrendous acts in the name of “justice”.
In Medea, a play by Euripides, Jason possesses many traits that lead to his downfall. After Medea assists Jason in his quest to get the Golden Fleece, killing her brother and disgracing her father and her native land in the process, Jason finds a new bride despite swearing an oath of fidelity to Medea. Medea is devastated when she finds out that Jason left her for another woman after two children and now wants to banish her. Medea plots revenge on Jason after he gives her one day to leave. Medea later acts peculiarly as a subservient woman to Jason who is oblivious to the evil that will be unleashed and lets the children remain in Corinth. The children later deliver a poisoned gown to Jason’s new bride that also kills the King of Corinth.
When Medea’s husband, Jason, plans to marry Glauce, a daughter of King Creon, for wealth and power over the kingdom, Medea becomes angry with Jason for breaking their vows of eternal love. She decides the best way to hurt Jason was by murdering his bride-to-be and their own two children.
The theme of Revenge has been utilized in numerous works of art throughout history, including books, plays, movies, etc. Revenge is the result of one’s desire for vengeance, however, revenge is known to be implied under high emotions of anger thus not with reason concluding with a horrible outcome. Shakespeare’s play ‘Hamlet’ is no doubt a play about a tragedy caused by revenge; Prince Hamlet’s retribution for his father, King Hamlet’s murder and Laertes vengeance for his father, Polonius’ murder. The theme of revenge in Hamlet is portrayed through various literary techniques such as foreshadowing and irony.
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the world’s most renowned plays, one which has stood the test of time over the course of 400 years, finding relevance even today. A complex and sophisticated work, Hamlet is a masterful weaving of the myriad of components that make up the human experience; it delicately touches upon such topics as death, romance, vengeance, and mania, among several others. Being so intricate and involuted, Hamlet has been interpreted in countless fashions since its conception, with each reader construing it through their own subjectivity. Some of the most popular and accredited methods of analyzing the work are the Traditional Revenge Tragedy, Existentialist, Psychoanalytic, Romantic, and Act of Mourning approaches.
In the tragedy Medea, Jason is faced with realization of the death of his twin sons who were killed by their, mother, Medea; he falls into agony as he laments, inspiring a katharsis in the reader. Jason cheated on Medea, assuming that it was okay with her, saying, “…I/ Grew tired of your bed and felt the need for a new bride” (18). Jason desired a bride of title so that his current children and future children could be brought up “worthily” (26). He betrayed his family and Medea’s love for another woman, causing Medea began to seek revenge. She decides to do two acts: kill her husband’s fiancée and kill her own sons. “…I shall kill my own children. /My children, there is none who can give them safety,” Medea expresses, as she plots her plan (26). Jason is unaware of this act that his wife is ready to commit. No longer does he have a fiancée, but now he has lost his heirs to the kingdom. The tragic act occurring among family members, happens in Medea, which was highlighted in Poetics. The death of Medea and Jason’s sons leads to Jason’s
In Medea, a woman betrays her homeland because of her love for a man. Jason is the husband that she ferociously loves and makes sacrifices for. They have two children together: Antigone and Ismeme. In Jason's quest for the golden fleece, Medea assists him in multiple ways. One of the things she does to help their cause is bring
When Medea first met Jason she made the huge decision to kill her brother so Jason could get what he wanted. After she had killed her brother her family disowned/kicked her out of there. When Medea had first met Jason she fell madly in love with him due to Aphrodite
"The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / That ever I was born to set it right!" (I.5). Shakespeare's Hamlet is an unwilling avenger. Despite his hatred of his uncle Claudius and his sense of the injustice perpetuated upon his father's memory, Hamlet seems unable to obey the will of his father's ghost. Ultimately, this is not shown to be a sign of weakness or cowardice upon Hamlet's part. Rather, the intellectual protagonist understands all too well the futility of attempting to use violence to enact justice. By attempting to become an avenger, Hamlet simply begets more violence.
In modern society humans stand up and fight for what they think is right and fair. Human beings have the desire to avenge what they think is wrong. The theme of revenge has a major effect in the play Hamlet and is a constant throughout the play, it underlies almost every scene. In the play Hamlet, William Shakespeare examines the theme of revenge through the erratic thoughts and actions of the characters Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras. The main revenge plots in the play is Hamlet’s aim to avenge his father, Hamlet Sr, Laertes’ aim to avenge the murder of his father, Polonius, and Fortinbras’ aim to avenge the death of his father, Fortinbras. Having lost their fathers, Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras take vengeance on the people that killed them. These plots play a major role in the play presenting the theme of revenge to the audience.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy Revenge Tragedy was a genre which lasted from 1590 until 1615. The genre appealed to the Elizabethan audience’s desire for blood and violence without emotional depth. = == ==
Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most well-known tragedies. At first glance, it holds all of the common occurrences in a revenge tragedy which include plotting, ghosts, and madness, but its complexity as a story far transcends its functionality as a revenge tragedy. Revenge tragedies are often closely tied to the real or feigned madness in the play. Hamlet is such a complex revenge tragedy because there truly is a question about the sanity of the main character Prince Hamlet. Interestingly enough, this deepens the psychology of his character and affects the way that the revenge tragedy takes place. An evaluation of Hamlet’s actions and words over the course of the play can be determined to see that his ‘outsider’ outlook on society,