Revenge Flashcards
(6 cards)
Revenge as a just act
“but heaven hath pleased it so to punish me with this…that i must be their scourge and minister…i must be cruel only to be kind”
‘Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell’
Laertes: “i am justly kill’d with mine own treachery…the treacherous instrument is in thy hand, unabated and envenom’d; the foul practice hath turn’d itself on me” = audience actually feels revenge is less just by this honest confession
Laertes: “He is justly served. It is a poison tempered by himself. Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet. Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me….Heaven make thee free of it. “
The classic language of an avenger
Hamlet’s comparison to “hellish Pyrrhus” “whose sable arms, black as his purpose”, who later “like a neutral to his will and matter, did nothing…after Pyrrhus’ pause, aroused vengeance sets him new a-work”
SElf deception or acting when he says: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious, with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in,
“the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge” = Hamlet while watching play
“thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane”
Hamlet’s inadequacy as an avenger
“My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules”
“with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love, may sweep to my revenge”
Hamlet’s head as “this distracted globe”
“The time is out of joint. O cursèd spite, That ever I was born to set it right!”
Considers suicide: “himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin”
“hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood”
Evidence of the link between revenge and corruption
“ill lug the guts into the neighbour room…who was in life a foolish prating knave”
“his liberty is full of threats to all…this mad young man…like the owner of some foul disease”
Hamlet “safely stow’d” Polonius’s body and “compounded it with dust…you shall nose him as you go up the stairs”
Corruption of morality: “ R&G go to’t…they did make love to this employment; they are not near my conscience…He that hath killed my king and whored my mother, Popped in between th’ election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life (And with such cozenage!) —is ’t not perfect conscience To quit him with this arm? And is ’t not to be damned To let this canker of our nature come In further evil?”
Fortinbras and Laertes as natural avengers
Fortinbras:
“young Fortinbras, of unimproved mettle hot and full…sharkt up a list of lawless resolutes”
“We go to gain a little patch of ground That hath in it no profit but the name…Two thousand souls and twenty thousand ducatsWill not debate the question of this straw. This is th’ impostume of much wealth and peace”
“….delicate and tender prince…divine ambition…The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That for a fantasy and trick of fame…,Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause”
Laertes:
“What would you undertake to show yourself in deed your father’s son, more than in words?” “To cut his throat i’th’church.” ‘No place, indeed, should murder sanctuaries; Revenge should have no bounds”
‘Th ocean…eats not the flats with more impetuous haste than Young Laertes, in a riotous head…O thou vile king…the drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard…to hell allegiance, vows to the blackest devil, conscience and grace to the profoundest pit, i dare damnation…ill be revenged most thoroughly for my father’
Laetres: “so have i a noble father lost, a sister driven into desperate terms” PARALLEL to Hamlet BUT turned into another pawn by Claudius: “I will be ruled…I might be the organ”
In Laetres: “ the image of my cause, i see the portraiture of his; ill court his favours”
Ghost’s plea 1.5
‘foul crimes…Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder…foul, strange and unnatural’
