Home > Hamlet Summary & Study Guide > Themes
Hamlet | Themes
Hamlet is often called an "Elizabethan revenge play", the theme of revenge against an evil usurper driving the plot forward as in earlier stage works by Shakespeare's contemporaries, Kyd and Marlowe, as well as by the French writer Belleforest (Histoires Tragiques, 1576). As in those works, a hero plays minister and scourge in avenging a moral injustice, an affront to both man and God. In this case, regicide (killing a king) is a particularly monstrous crime, and there is no doubt as to whose side our sympathies are disposed.
As in many revenge plays, and, in fact, several...
[The entire page is 851 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
- Hamlet: Introduction
- Hamlet: Summary
- Hamlet: William Shakespeare Biography
- Hamlet: Reading Shakespeare
- Hamlet: List of Characters
- Hamlet: Historical Background
-
Hamlet: Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act I, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
- Act II, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act II, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act III, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 3 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 4 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 5 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 6 Summary and Analysis
- Act IV, Scene 7 Summary and Analysis
- Act V, Scene 1 Summary and Analysis
- Act V, Scene 2 Summary and Analysis
- Hamlet: Critical Commentary
- Hamlet: Quizzes
- Hamlet: Essential Facts
- Hamlet: Essential Passages
- Hamlet: Themes
- Hamlet: Character Analysis
- Hamlet: Principal Topics
-
Hamlet: Essays
- Hamlet's Delay
- Exploring Hamlet's Hesitation
- Is Hamlet Sane?
- The Ghost: Is He Really Hamlet's Father?
- The Character of Ophelia: Why Does She Go Mad?
- To Thine Own Self Be True: An Analysis
- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
- Minor Characters and the Number Three
- To See or Not to See: Fortinbras in Two Film Productions of Hamlet
- Hamlet and Macbeth: A Comparison
- The Theme of Pretense in Shakespeare's Hamlet
- Analysis of Act Five of Shakespeare's Hamlet
- Character Analysis of Horatio
- Comment on Hamlet's "To Be or Not to Be" Soliloquy
- Staging for Shakespeare's Hamlet: Act II, Scene ii, Lines 85-221
- The Nature of Hamlet's Character
- Hamlet's Delay: An Objective and Subjective Analysis Compared
- Analysis of Three Critical Works on Hamlet
- Hamlet: History, Religion, and Myth
- Hamlet: Criticism
- Hamlet: Selected Quotes
- Hamlet: Suggested Essay Topics
- Hamlet: Sample Essay Outlines
- Hamlet: Modern Connections
- Hamlet: Media Adaptations
- Hamlet: FAQs
- Hamlet: Bibliography and Further Reading
- Hamlet: Pictures
- Copyright
Related Topics
Tell a friend about Hamlet at eNotes.
