Hamlet as a Revenge Tragedy:
Shakespeare�s Hamlet is complex and multifaceted play bringing together many themes. It is evident that in writing Hamlet, Shakespeare, to some extent, adopted the dramatic conventions of revenge tragedy. Revenge proved to be popular theme for Elizabethan dramatists and the audience. Although it was a wild justice, Elizabethan audience considered vengeance to be a pious duty laid upon the next of kin. The old law claimed an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; vengeance demanded both the eyes, a jaw full of teeth, and above all the victim should go direct to hell there to live in everlasting torment. A perfect revenge therefore needed great artistry. Hamlet is a play that very closely follows the dramatic conventions of revenge tragedy. All revenge tragedies originally stemmed from the Greeks, who wrote and performed the first plays. After the Greeks came Seneca who was particularly influential to all Elizabethan playwrights including William Shakespeare. The tw...