was to be committed against a family member of the avenger.
However there is a lot more to Hamlet than the traditional conventions of a revenge.
tragedy. When reading Hamlet you have to take into account that in Greek society.
revenge had an honourable place within the city, however it was not intended to take.
the life of the person to whom revenge was directed, it was to restore the avenger's.
sense of his position before the original act against him, therefore we can see that.
revenge was fully accepted in the Greek Renaissance period.2 On the other hand the.
revenge plays do not parallel the moral expectations of the Elizabethan audience.
Church, state and the regular morals of people of that age did not accept revenge as.
decent behaviour, instead they thought that revenge would not under any.
circumstances be tolerated no matter what the original deed was. In the Elizabethan.
period the legal definition of murder was :.
An act of a man of sound memory and an age of discretion; who unlawfully kills.
another with malice aforethought. Therefore revenge is malice prepense and has no.
place in Elizabethan England.3.
Claire Kaprow.
.
So Hamlet, being a revenge tragedy was based around an idea that the society of the.
time did not accept, it was therefore controversial in the Elizabethan era and it made a .
big impact on the audience whereas in Ancient Greek times it would not have made.
such a large impact as the issues that it raised were not taboo in Renaissance Greece.
It is apparent that it was expected of traditional revenge tragedies to see "violent.
action. horrific incidents. bloody action and ranting speeches".4 However Hamlet is.
a comparatively non- violent play and even the deaths themselves compared to many.
other plays of the same genre are discreet and not based around purely blood and guts;.
"and in the porches of mine ear did pour the leperous distilment" shows us how the.
death of old Hamlet was through the use of poison and then the final death of Hamlet.