Revenge tragedies originally stemmed from the Greeks and after them came Seneca.
who was very influential to all Elizabethan tragedy writers. His basic format of a.
revenge tragedy included: a crime being committed so that the individual who is the.
main character has to go through with revenge in spite of everything; this character.
then having a period of doubt where he debates whether or not to go through with the.
revenge; the appearance of a ghost to convince the revenger to go through with the.
deed and the revenger always having a very close relationship with the audience.
through soliloquies. The original crime was nearly always sexual or violent or both and.
it was committed against a family member of the revenger. After the ghost persuades.
the revenger to commit his deed, a hesitation first occurs in which the revenger can.
convey his real or acted out madness before killing the murderer.
In Hamlet, Shakespeare follows the regular conventions of revenge tragedy for a.
large part of the play. In the beginning Shakespeare sets up the scene, having a ghost.
appearing on a dark night and it appears to talk to Hamlet, telling him that he has been.
given the role of the person who will take revenge upon Claudius. Hamlet starts a.
battle of wits with Claudius by acting mad, "To put an antic disposition on," although.
the whole thing was in fact a ploy on Hamlet's behalf to get closer to his uncle to make.
it easier to avenge the death of his father and kill Claudius.1 The ghost of old Hamlet.
then repeatedly returns to see Hamlet due to the period of doubt that Hamlet goes.
through where he tries to decide whether or not to kill Claudius; and we are indeed.
also shown direct contact between the audience and Hamlet through his long.
soliloquies, one of the most famous of these being his first one in which he talks of his.
own suicide. Claudius, the murderer is in fact Hamlet's uncle and the murder of.
Hamlet's father portrays very much the traditional idea that the murder to be avenged.
