Hamlet is a Shakesperean tragedy. Historians believe that this was written around the 15th up to the 16th century. Denmark is the place of setting. It tells the life story of prince Hamlet who seeks revenge agains Claudius. Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle who killed his father who was then the king and who reigned afterwards.
Claudius also married his mother which makes it all more painful for Hamlet. This play shows so much emoitions especially of great rage and prolonged grief. The themes that were touched were revenge, incestual relationship, treacherous relationships and morality.This play is actually the longest Shakepearean play.
Many critics think that this is one of those tragedies that influenced many other tragedies written by other authors, The storyline is easily adaptable and can be retold. This was also a play many considered to be the best from Shakespeare. The strongest point of the play is uncovering Hamlet’s nature. His nature has been debated by many literary scholars for many years.
A particular theory formulated was that Hamlet was obsessed of obtaining protection. During the time Hamlet lived the king needs to have many spies to know who is friend or enemy.Hamlet was in agony for a long time because he kept a secret from everyone that he knows his father’s killer. He was secretly planning his revenge all on his own. A typical theme Shakespeare used is about having secrets and spies. Shakespeare also made use of several devices in literature and linguistics for this play to strengthen the plot and theme of Hamlet’s revenge.
This reflected the society at that time where governments had to employ spies to know their enemies and friends. The play Romeo and Juliet is another tragedy and portrays passionate love among younger people during Shakespeare’s time.Shakespeare used a dramatic approach for this play. He expanded many characters and used them to create more plots from the main plot.
He really excelled in this field. This is also similar to Hamlet because of its dramatic nature. Shakespeare likes changing the personalities of the characters to provide a more poetic nature to the play. Romeo and Juliet breaks away from the traditional way of courting a woman. During that time women are expected to require more time to be with a man for proper courtship. This also increased the interest of the people watching the play.
The lovers were able to break from the traditional way their parents would have wanted because their love was not forbidden. The suicide of the lovers was also a part of the play that raised controversies since the Catholic Church forbids this act. Romeo and Juliet had their own world and their own views of love. The central theme revolves around feud of two rich families.
The lovers, Romeo and Juliet were caught between choosing their families or love. The two lovers were alienated from their families and were rebuked by their own parents.Love is also another theme for this play because this was portrayed all throughout the play as the one thing Romeo and Juliet could not deny from each other. This also reflected the fact that during the time of Shakespeare many marriages were already arranged by parents to families they like. Shakespeare used tragedies and drama to most of his works.
He seems to challenge the other writers whose works lacked a poetic and artful nature. Shakespeare started using the failures of his main characters to provide more suspense. During Shakespeare’s time his works were considered unconventional.
