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Hamlet and the Revenge Tragedy (Part II)
This video takes up where we left off in “Hamlet and the Revenge Tragedy: Part One.” In that video, we revisited the initial call for revenge: the ghost’s request that Hamlet avenge his father’s death. We noted that Hamlet’s indecision and internal struggles impede his action in the first part of the play. (Watch Part I here: ua-cam.com/video/FUzT0TriDQ4/v-deo.html)
This video will explore how the second half of Hamlet as a play continues to defy the expectations of a revenge tragedy.
Hamlet has been, from the very first moments of Act I, reluctant to carry out the absurd and generic task that is his as a character in a revenge tragedy - “The time is out of joint,” he says. “Oh cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!”
Hamlet’s self reflection reveals that he is not a hero who will act quickly, or in accordance with the timing of retribution.
It is not until Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in Act IV, Scene 4, that Hamlet describes his decisive course of action:
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
(Act 4, Scene 4)
While Hamlet does seem to make up his mind in this speech, Act IV also presents us with an alternate version of revenge.
After Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius in a fit of rage in Act III, Laertes (Polonius’s son) is driven by a desire for retribution. Laertes’s goal only intensifies when his sister, Ophelia, dies by drowning.
Laertes’ vengeance serves as a contrast to Hamlet’s own hesitating, over-thinking character. This is a true avenger. When he bursts into court demanding satisfaction, he says,
That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirched brow
Of my true mother.
In other words, Laertes proclaims that he has a blood-bound duty to avenge his father’s death impetuously and bloodily, or else he proves himself not his father’s son. In contrast, Hamlet has been calm, reflective, passive, playful, morbid, and impotent in his own long-delayed quest for revenge - a quest which has led rather to an attempt to find motivation for revenge, to reflect on the nature of revenge, the nature of man, and the nature of himself. By Act IV, Hamlet has thought and thought but not acted. Laertes, in contrast, acts without thinking.
CONCLUSION
As we’ve seen, the play begins rather straightforwardly, if ironically, as a revenge tragedy - the king’s ghost spurs his son to revenge. In Act Five, like the Act Fives of all major revenge tragedies, the protagonist does kill the initial perpetrator: Hamlet kills Claudius. But he does so in such a roundabout, half-cocked, off-hand way, we wonder whether this really counts as revenge. The death of Claudius certainly lacks the poetic justice that vengeance seems to require.
In some ways, Shakespeare seems to have miscast his hero: he has given us a character whose accomplishments are intellectual and verbal, not violent and physical. By the final Act, it seems as though the playwright has finally given up trying to tie his hero down to conventions. Hamlet the character has forced Hamlet-the play- to diverge from the predictability of its genre. Hamlet as a character resolves little, but constantly turns over the questions. The play has turned from a simple and predictable genre play to one that is somewhat inscrutable, one that seems to value introspection over action.
Read the full study guide at www.gradesaver.com/hamlet
Watch the full summary video at ua-cam.com/video/IaTaaNinolU/v-deo.html
This video will explore how the second half of Hamlet as a play continues to defy the expectations of a revenge tragedy.
Hamlet has been, from the very first moments of Act I, reluctant to carry out the absurd and generic task that is his as a character in a revenge tragedy - “The time is out of joint,” he says. “Oh cursed spite / That ever I was born to set it right!”
Hamlet’s self reflection reveals that he is not a hero who will act quickly, or in accordance with the timing of retribution.
It is not until Hamlet’s famous soliloquy in Act IV, Scene 4, that Hamlet describes his decisive course of action:
How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.
(Act 4, Scene 4)
While Hamlet does seem to make up his mind in this speech, Act IV also presents us with an alternate version of revenge.
After Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius in a fit of rage in Act III, Laertes (Polonius’s son) is driven by a desire for retribution. Laertes’s goal only intensifies when his sister, Ophelia, dies by drowning.
Laertes’ vengeance serves as a contrast to Hamlet’s own hesitating, over-thinking character. This is a true avenger. When he bursts into court demanding satisfaction, he says,
That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,
Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot
Even here between the chaste unsmirched brow
Of my true mother.
In other words, Laertes proclaims that he has a blood-bound duty to avenge his father’s death impetuously and bloodily, or else he proves himself not his father’s son. In contrast, Hamlet has been calm, reflective, passive, playful, morbid, and impotent in his own long-delayed quest for revenge - a quest which has led rather to an attempt to find motivation for revenge, to reflect on the nature of revenge, the nature of man, and the nature of himself. By Act IV, Hamlet has thought and thought but not acted. Laertes, in contrast, acts without thinking.
CONCLUSION
As we’ve seen, the play begins rather straightforwardly, if ironically, as a revenge tragedy - the king’s ghost spurs his son to revenge. In Act Five, like the Act Fives of all major revenge tragedies, the protagonist does kill the initial perpetrator: Hamlet kills Claudius. But he does so in such a roundabout, half-cocked, off-hand way, we wonder whether this really counts as revenge. The death of Claudius certainly lacks the poetic justice that vengeance seems to require.
In some ways, Shakespeare seems to have miscast his hero: he has given us a character whose accomplishments are intellectual and verbal, not violent and physical. By the final Act, it seems as though the playwright has finally given up trying to tie his hero down to conventions. Hamlet the character has forced Hamlet-the play- to diverge from the predictability of its genre. Hamlet as a character resolves little, but constantly turns over the questions. The play has turned from a simple and predictable genre play to one that is somewhat inscrutable, one that seems to value introspection over action.
Read the full study guide at www.gradesaver.com/hamlet
Watch the full summary video at ua-cam.com/video/IaTaaNinolU/v-deo.html
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Відео
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Is Hamlet a traditional revenge play? What other forces are at work in Hamlet's psyche? As a play, Hamlet is sometimes considered a revenge tragedy a literary genre principally defined by you guessed it its protagonist’s quest for revenge. Revenge is traditionally the cold-blooded pursuit to make up for one hurt with a strike against its perpetrator. Revenge is usually violent. Hamlet is hardly...
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Was the book banned in some regions of the world for some time?
Now I remember why I never read much Steinbeck: depressing.
Km lowkey reading the book rn
Interesting
Wow what an English
Watching this on 1.25X speed was helpful, a tip for anyone with adhd lol
I wonder why it is so famous 🙂
Why do many characters have Arabian names I wonder❓the author perhaps visited arab or liked anything arabian❓
life full of Iago :/
This is one of my favorite books!
For my examination of class 8
❤❤❤
are you reading this? so many pauses OWO
Soy solo yo o Joc se parece a Shanks
If only he named it 2024 he would literally have been a prophet
This plot is absurd. Give me Racine!
Critics are fools to call assimilation a tragedy. Look at the human tragedy of modern migration, poisined by the voices saying "don't assimilate, its racist to assimilate" and it has wrought hell upon those that never wanted to disillusionment of their borders and especially, their homes.
I was dissapointed by Hamlet because I was expecting more comedy.
Is Tommy Margie's brother or friend?because in another video they said brother
She doesn't try to bring earths destruction, shes just too.bloody hopefull to save it from.the obvious threat.
Why did William Shakespeare made Richard the third to be a Hunchback? it makes no sense.
Historical records say Richard III had some kind of disability, and this reputation for being 'ill-stamped' fit Shakespeare's brief of making the Plantagenets look like the bad guys (because the Plantagenets had been rivals of the current royal family, the Tudors, who were patrons of Shakespeare's company), but there was no direct evidence for Richard's disability until his skeleton was dug up from under a car park in Leicester, spine bent double from scoliosis, complete with unhealed wounds around his head and neck from Bosworth Field.
Bola de nieve xd
The absolute bs
thats sick
When he finnaly surrenders, i felt really bad .like how can you give up ,your the protagonist of this book. Wasn't expecting that ending tho .
Mr brownlow and the bookseller 🤠 1:55
I love the idea of falling asleep in the forest, sounds so romantic.
I’m watching this because I want to -said no except me
man fuck this story what kinda bullshit ending is this.. no one directly does things shit just sort of 'happens', its like everyone is a puppet but theresd no inworld puppet master the authors just chosing what he wants to happen without giving it an actual valid cause. this is basically final destination but as a cheap corny knockoff
شفوني مرة من هنا هههه
Bro, I like how the witches are more women like. In the original play, the witches are skinny and have masculine features such as beards.
My exam is today this morning, 😢
poor shylock
Wuthering Heights will always be one of my favorites 🥰.. Everything about this story sends shivers through my soul
Overall I think is a good story.
I read this book for pleasure for learning English, but my English is not good enough and this recap help me a lot to understand.
I don't understand anything even after reading the book and watching this
I just got casted as Hermia and am very excited!!
well done 6:33
I love the video
"I hope you realize that this is not the practice run, this is not the preview. This is it. There is nothing to do but leap. There is nothing to do but allow yourself to exist as boldly and honestly as you can."
Yall are lucky- I have to read every quotation in the book to answer 😭😭
Thanks have to write a report on this and debate it, have only read chapter one thanks 🙏
Why
I absolutely love this short story. Always have since my school years. I appreciate my English teacher for having us read and study this story. The watch for Jim and the hair for Della represented a form of pride for them. And to sacrifice these two prized possessions for the other exhibits love and sacrifice. “No greater love than this that a man lie down his life for his friend”. A man and his wife. Simply beautiful if you ask me. Truly “the gift of the magi”. May we all love and be loved this way. So many of us love yet we find difficulty in receiving love. Open your heart and allow yourself to be loved too.😢 I speak from experience. ❤️
It helps me a lot in my test
Who's from SLGS
Hubo una telenovela mexicana llamada " ENCADENADOS" se basó en esta novela, de niño tenía que ver las telenovelas que veian mis tias, de joven lei la novela y pude notar algunas similitudes, gracias por el video muy bueno 🤘
FUGGING boring
Yeah im failing
I was don John when my school did this play