The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 10.2228 Thursday, 16 December 1999.
From: Nicolas Pullin <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 15 Dec 1999 11:06:31 -0600
Subject: DC - Hamlet, Shakespeare's R&J -Reply
Comment: SHK 10.2206 DC - Hamlet, Shakespeare's R&J -Reply
Re: Hamlet's request for the Pyrrhus speech, which I am sure will
generate numerous responses.
Pyrrhus is also a revenger who successfully kills a father figure.
Ironically, Pyrrhus' pause with sword aloft foreshadows Hamlet in the
prayer scene. The speech also comes from an early form of tragic drama
where characters narrate actions rather than perform them; yet the moral
questions of revenge are simplified or, indeed, do not apply.
For fascinating psychoanalytic discussions of these echoes and
Shakespeare's use of them, read Lupton & Reinhard's "After Oedipus" and
Kerrigan's recent tome on Revenge Tragedy.
