Week 12

The End of Revenge

            When terrible deeds are done, a victim is created.  For that person, emotions often begin to take over.  Hatred and rage can start forming.  In fury, especially, these emotions of vengeance multiply rapidly.  It’s at this point that things get dangerous.  A thirst for revenge takes shape, leading actions, and escaping rationality.  Revenge, being one of the strongest emotions, secures its hold in people’s minds.  It drives them insane, drives them to destruction, and ultimately to their own downfall.  It is this terrible nature of revenge that needs to be watched for.  William Shakespeare shows in his plays that revenge is a self-defeating cycle that can only be ended with forgiveness.  Shakespeare depicts this cyclical nature of revenge in his plays, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, and The Tempest.

            Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, focuses on how revenge brings about death and madness.  The play details the struggle of the prince of Denmark, Hamlet, whose father’s ghost appears to him seeking Hamlet to get revenge for his death as he says, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (Shakespeare 1078).  The ghost of Hamlet’s father, the former king, tells him that he was murdered by his brother, the current king, Claudius.  Immediately following the talk with the apparition, Hamlet is incited into rage, crying, “O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!” (Shakespeare 1079). This statement embodies the tone for Hamlet as he continually acts rashly with the foundation of revenge over all else.  Despite his seemingly just goal of honoring his murdered father, the nature of revenge makes his quest irrational.  Soon Hamlet is enveloped in his plot of revenge so that he appears mad.  Polonius, the chamberlain, believes Hamlet must be in love with his daughter Ophelia to be behaving so crazily.  When discussing his actions, Polonius comes to the conclusion he is truly mad as he tells Hamlet’s mother, the Queen, “I will be brief:-your noble son is mad: Mad I call it; for to define true madness, What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?” (Shakespeare 1082).  Later in the play Hamlet finds the opportunity to kill Claudius while in prayer but fears that killing him at this time would send him to heaven rather than hell.  Even though it is a prime situation, Hamlet chooses to pass it up just to send Claudius to hell.  Hamlet plotting Claudius’ death plans to kill him so, “that his soul may be as damn’d and black As hell, whereto it goes” (Shakespeare 1094).  Hamlet’s only goal in life now is to get revenge.  Later Hamlet’s hunger for revenge leads him to kill an innocent man on accident.  In his mother’s bedchamber he sees a man behind a curtain who he mindlessly decides must be Claudius and stabs him.  After killing Polonius, Hamlet says to his lifeless body, “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!” (Shakespeare 1095).  Despite this unfortunate death, Hamlet sees only that Polonius got in the way, rather than it being a travesty for an innocent man be slain at his hands.  In the final scene of the play Hamlet is in a fencing match with Laertes, son of Polonius.  Here is where Hamlet finds his final revenge and the self-defeating nature that accompanies it.  He stabs Claudius with a poisoned sword and forces him to drink from the poisoned goblet that also killed his mother.  Hamlet then dies from his poisoned wound, fulfilling how revenge comes with a great price.  Because of his revenge-seeking madness many people lost their lives: Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet.  For something seemingly honorable, revenge instead brought about madness and death.

            Aside from Hamlet, other characters in the play portray the nature of revenge.  After Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius, Laertes hears the news of his father death vowing, “Let come what comes; only I’ll be reveng’d Most thoroughly for my father” (Shakespeare 1100).  He, like Hamlet, upon the utterance of their fathers’ misfortunes, seek revenge in haste.  Nathan Macasek states in his article, “Hamlet Into Madness,” that Laertes, “takes after Hamlet in the dutiful honoring of wronged fathers” (Macasek 89).  Conniving with Claudius, Laertes is set up to fence Hamlet with a poisoned sword.  When Laertes hears of his sister, Ophelia’s drowning he is sucked into the allure of justice that revenge projects.  His wrath for Hamlet overwhelms his mind to only want Hamlet’s death.  Laertes is pinned to this mindset until it is too late: dying of a poisoned wound.  Receiving his fatal wound, Laertes realizes how revenge brought about his own destruction, as he admits, “Why, as a woodcock to my own springe, Osric: I am justly kill'd with mine own treachery” (Shakespeare 1111).  Shakespeare’s usage of the word, “justly,” shows how he believed the treachery of trying to kill Hamlet – while justified – was rightly rewarded with his own death.  Revenge again defeated the person who sought after it.

            In his play, Titus Andronicus, Shakespeare creates more characters falling to the ill effects of revenge.  The tragedy follows the Roman general, Titus Andronicus, as he seeks revenge for his family from the new emperor, his wife, and a devious villain.  Tamora, the captured queen, and her secret lover, Aaron, plot to get revenge on Titus for sacrificing one of her sons to the Gods.  As part of their plan, Lavinia, Titus’ daughter is raped and mutilated by Tamora’s sons, and Lavinia’s husband murdered.  Two of Titus’ sons are framed for this murder and sentenced to death.  Titus’ hand is cut off in a trick, and his other son is banished.  Here Titus makes his vow for revenge and asks, “Then which way shall I find revenge’s cave?” (Shakespeare 932).  He, like Hamlet, then makes revenge his only directive.  In both of these examples, Shakespeare seems to view revenge as also have a captivating power.  Shakespeare creates revenge in his characters to completely fill them and blind them from how it truly works.  In this, revenge hides from its victims the ultimate consequence, with a mask of only what seems appealing: its benign aspect of justice.  However, even with all the horrid acts and events that happen to Titus throughout the play, revenge’s true nature still transpires.  After he feigns madness to lure, kill, and bake Tamora’s sons into pies that he serves to her, the self-defeating aspect of revenge is seen again.  Titus kills Tamora, Titus is killed by the emperor, and he by Titus’ son.  Titus gets his revenge, only at the cost of his life.

            However, Shakespeare shows through the death of Titus that even with sacrifice the cycle of revenge can go unbroken.  Marcus, Titus’ brother, is shown to understand that the cycle cannot be easily broken as he speaks, “O, let me teach you how to knit again This scatter’d corn into one mutual sheaf, These broken limbs again into one body; Lest Rome herself be bane unto herself” (Shakespeare 945).  Despite the revenge being justified, Marcus saw that the deaths alone cannot right the problem.  Tamora also entered into a vow of vengeance for her capture and her son’s sacrificial death.  Sara Anderson wrote in her article, “Revenge in Titus Andronicus,” that, “Tamora embodies the disastrous events of treachery done in the name of justice” (Anderson 216).  Revenge for her was so overwhelming that she laughs at Lavinia’s pleas: “O Tamora, be call’d a gentle queen, And with thine own hands kill me in this place!” (Shakespeare 928).  Tamora appears to find some comfort in her vengeful acts but ends with the same fate as all of Shakespeare’s revenge seeking characters: death.

            Shakespeare then shows how the cycle can end.  Aaron the Moor, who is the root of most of the play’s evil, is caught with his child by Lucius, Titus’ son.  Condemned to die by torture, Aaron pleads to Lucius to save his son from death, asking Lucius to, “Swear that he shall” (Shakespeare 941).  Shakespeare uses the child, as a symbol of forgiveness in the play.  Having Lucius accept and save the child shows how he no longer seeks revenge for all that has happened.  Despite the father’s despicable actions, his child is spared, ending the revenge cycle.  Only through forgiveness is this shown to be possible.  Aaron in his pleading also alludes to this as he says, “If thou wilt not, befall what may befall, I’ll speak no more,-but vengeance rot you all!” (Shakespeare 941).  Vengeance and revenge will destroy them unless the child is saved: unless forgiveness is given.

            In Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, this ability of forgiveness to end revenge is embodied.  The play follows the estranged, Prospero, as he gathers his brother, – who usurped his position – his king, and other men by use of magic to get his life back.  Prospero’s brother, Antonio, had usurped his Dukedom with the help of the King, Alonso, and sent him on a boat with his daughter to die. They did not however, landing on a remote island where they spent twelve years living in relative solitude.  Prospero shows his disdain for Antonio as he is speaking to his daughter, Miranda, saying, “I pray thee, mark me, -- that a brother should Be so perfidious!” (Shakespeare 2).  Maxwell Edwards writes in his article, “A Man of Honor: Prospero in The Tempest,” that, “he [Prospero] enters into the arrangement without any intention of harm” (Edwards 178).  Throughout the play as Prospero takes care to assemble Antonio, Alonso, and other men together, it appears yet again that revenge should be justified.  But here Shakespeare takes the other course of action with Prospero than he did with most.  Prospero, when faced with the choice to enact his vengeance on Antonio and Alonso, chooses to instead forgive them.  Prospero says to Antonio, “For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive Thy rankest fault, -- all of them” (Shakespeare 20).  In this the cycle is broken.  Prospero keeps his life, unlike so many other characters that have the chance of revenge.  Even after the twelve years of exile that he has endured he is able to forgive his treacherous brother: an act rewarded, by Shakespeare, with his life and dukedom back.

            In these three plays Shakespeare carries the theme of revenge with various aspects, though all linking together.  First of all, revenge is self-defeating.  There is no revenge that can be carried out without consequence.  Revenge, even grossly justified, cannot exist without its recoil.  Secondly, Shakespeare shows through his plays that revenge is terribly alluring, yet equally deceptive.  It can envelop a person’s whole life, drive them to madness, and incite them into an evil rampage, all while masquerading a feeling of justice.  Lastly, Shakespeare shows that revenge is cyclical.  It will continue through one person or another as long as its only cure is never seen: forgiveness.  Revenge, to Shakespeare, will continue with the void of forgiveness.  Shakespeare targets the underlying nature of revenge in his plays: depicting its secrets.

Works Cited

Anderson, Sara. “Revenge in Titus Andronicus.” Shakespearean Criticism 61.  (2001) Literature

            Criticism Online. Web. 6 Nov 2011.

Edwards, Maxwell. “A Man of Honor: Prospero in The Tempest.” Shakespearean Criticism 119. 

            (2007) Literature Criticism Online. Web. 6 Nov 2011.

Macasek, Nathan. “Hamlet Into Madness.” Shakespearean Criticism 31. (1996) Literature

            Criticism Online. Web. 6 Nov 2011.

Parsons, Kelly. “Overview of Shakespeare’s Life.” Shakespearean Criticism 52. (1999)

            Literature Criticism Online. Web. 6 Nov 2011.

Shakespeare, William. “Titus Andronicus.” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New

            York: Avenel Books, 1975. Print.

Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York:

            Avenel Books, 1975. Print.

Shakespeare, William. “The Tempest.” The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New

            York: Avenel Books, 1975. Print.