What type of genre is revenge?
The revenge tragedy, or revenge play, is a dramatic genre in which the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury. The term revenge tragedy was first introduced in 1900 by A. H. Thorndike to label a class of plays written in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras (circa 1580s to 1620s).
What makes a revenge tragedy?
revenge tragedy, drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras and found its highest expression in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
What are the characteristics of revenge tragedy?
Revenge tragedies typically consisted of one or more of the following:
- ghosts and the supernatural.
- murder.
- insanity/mad scenes.
- a character seeking revenge against a strong(er) opponent for a real or imagined wrongdoing.
- personifications of revenge / the supernatural.
What is the main characteristics of revenge in drama?
Common ingredients include: the hero’s quest for vengeance, often at the prompting of the ghost of a murdered kinsman or loved one; scenes of real or feigned insanity; a play‐within‐a‐play; scenes in graveyards; scenes of carnage and mutilation; etc.
Is King Lear a revenge tragedy?
Lear’s threats bestow four unique aspects that apply not only to his character but they also apply to Shakespearean tragic heroes. Lear’s speech tells us that he is determined to have an awful type of revenge on his daughters.
What is the main characteristic of revenge in drama?
a character seeking revenge against a strong(er) opponent for a real or imagined wrongdoing. personifications of revenge / the supernatural. a clear villain (although interestingly the character of Hamlet was a hero seeking revenge) onstage violence, often sensational.