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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page paper which compares an early seventeenth-century audience’s response to Hamlet’s plight of love and revenge within the revenge tragedy construct to that of a modern-day audience’s response. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGhamrev.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
desire for Ophelia and love for his mother Queen Gertrude on one side, and the equally compelling need for revenge to demonstrate his loyalty to the memory of his murdered
father. Since its first production, at Londons Globe Theatre in approximately 1599 (MacCary 123), audiences have been left spellbound by this web of emotional intrigue and remain continually fascinated
by the ways in which Prince Hamlet attempts to disentangle himself so that he can regain some semblance of mental stability. However, the responses of Elizabethan audiences in the
early seventeenth century differs from those of modern-day responses, their reactions are conditioned by the values espoused by their respective societies. For just as societies have evolved, the moral
standards they reflect have also changed considerably. Before examining Hamlets dilemma in detail, it is recommended that the student who is writing about this topic consider the revenge
tragedy construct, upon which the play is based. The revenge tragedy, which originated with English dramatist Thomas Kyds The Spanish Tragedie, was an interpretation of Senecas Greek tragedies, with
the primary conflict being an act of vengeance. According to renowned Shakespearean scholar, author Northrop Frye, all revenge tragedies consist of three types of characters - one who to
be killed, one to kill, and one to avenge the killer (89). For audiences during the early seventeenth century, revenge is regarded as "a positive act of retribution that
brings the moral norms of society into balance again" (Frye 89). The gesture meets with empathy from the audience, who because of the biblical edict that represented God as
declaring, Vengeance is mine, the protagonist who seeks revenge is embraced as "an agent of divine vengeance" (Frye 89). However, for the seventeenth-century audience, this sympathy placed them in
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