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The heroes in the Odyssey and Hamlet both use deception to achieve revenge against those who have wronged them. However, the manner in which they go about these deceptions is very different between the two. It must also be noted that although revenge is clearly an overwhelming influence in the two stories it is not viewed in a truly positive light in either. In Hamlet the young prince uses deception as a means to bring about his revenge for his fathers murder.
The form of his deception is madness, illustrated when he says: But come. Here as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd some er I bear myself (As I perchance hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on), (25, 167 - 171) The image of madness which he intends to project would likely have protected him if he had ever gone through with his plans of revenge and killed his uncle. Unfortunately his indecisiveness leads to his destruction. Odysseus on the other hand uses physical disguises rather than feigned madness to deceive his enemies and achieve his ends. He is disguised as a beggar when he first arrives as his home: At no long interval, Odysseus came Through his own doorway as a mendicant, Humped like a bundle of rags over his stick. He settled on the inner ash wood sill, Leaning against the door jamb (321, 434 - 438) Unlike Hamlet, Odysseus physical disguise is successful and gets him where he needs to be.
Also he is not indecisive and does not wait to do what needs to be done. Rather he rushes in with a fierce determination and gets it over with. Hamlet is portrayed in a more ambiguous way than Odysseus. Odysseus is clearly a hero; he struggles against impossible odds trying to get himself and his crew home intact. He never gives in to the temptations of immortality and easy life but rather chooses hardship and eventual death with his family.
My lady goddess, here is no cause for anger. My quiet Penelope-how well I know- Would seem a shade before your majesty, Death and old age being unknown to you, While she must die. Yet, it is true, each day I long for home, long for the sight of home. If any god has marked me out again For shipwreck, my tough heart can undergo it. What hardship have I not long since endured At sea, in battle!
Let the trial come. (87, 224 - 233) Hamlet is much more questionable. On the whole he is a good man but his sanity is questionable as are his motives and his indecisiveness is his greatest fault. In his failing attempts to avenge his fathers death he destroys the lives of several other people (Ophelia, Polonius, Laertes, Gertrude, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern) and he doesn t appear to feel much remorse about most of them. Particularly when he murders Polonius and says: Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! / I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune. / Thou find st to be too busy is some danger. (61, 33 - 35) The concepts of revenge and deception appear to be viewed as negative but necessary qualities in both Hamlet and the Odyssey. In Hamlet Shakespeare seems to be attempting to show people just how destructive revenge can be.
This theory is supported by Fortinbras speech near the end: And let me speak to th yet unknowing world How these things came about. So shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts; Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters; Of deaths put on by cunning and forced cause; And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall n on th inventors heads. (101, 358 - 363) These words clearly tell the reader that dwelling on something as negative as revenge cannot lead to anything good or constructive. In the Odyssey revenge seems to be viewed as an unfortunate but sometimes necessary part of life. Something that you occasionally have to do but should never take pleasure in. After Odysseus kills the suitors the nurse Eurykleia is happy to see that he has defeated the interlopers and Odysseus says to her: Rejoice / inwardly. No crowing aloud, old woman. / To glory over slain men is no piety. (422, 460 - 462) Following that Eupeithes, the father of Antinoos, is searching for revenge after learning of his son s death. (Vengeance would be his, / he thought, for his son s murder; but that day / held bloody death for him and no return. 459, 518 - 520) As though showing the less successful side of vengeance and an earlier warning than the one which Shakespeare issued.
Both works also seem to show that deception is simply a way to go about achieving revenge and should therefore be held in the same light. Throughout these two works the concepts of deception and revenge keep appearing as though they are being used to issue a warning to humanity that we must be careful lest we destroy ourselves in anger. Hamlets indecisiveness and need for vengeance was his downfall where Odysseus strength and determination was what allowed him to succeed with his revenge. 3) The existence and appearance of ghosts is a major theme in many books. Particularly the Aeneid, the Odyssey, and Hamlet.
In the first two books the reality of ghosts in an unquestionable truth, in Hamlet, however, it is dubious. In fact the ghost in Hamlet may well be merely a hallucination brought on by Hamlets overly stressed state of mind. When comparing Hamlet to the Aeneid and the Odyssey one must keep in mind that the ghosts in the latter two are very real, though insubstantial, whereas the ghost in the former is probably not real in any sense of the word. In the Aeneid the first ghost which we learn about is that of Aeneas wife, who comes to inform her husband that she is dead but that another wife lays in his future. (60 - 61) (Then to my vision her sad wraith appeared- / Creusa s ghost, larger than life, before me. 60, 1002 - 1003) Later in the book Aeneas actually goes to the land of the dead and speaks to his father, Anchises, ghost, where he learns more about his destiny than Creusa was able to tell him: Come, he said, What glories follow Dardan generations In after years, and from Italian blood What famous children in your line will come, Souls of the future, living in our name, I shall tell clearly now, and in the telling Teach you your destiny. (186, 1014 - 1020) This theme of ghosts telling the future to heroes brave enough to venture into their realms is continued, or rather preceded in the Odyssey. Odysseus and his crew travel to the land of the dead as well, though when they go they are searching for a prophet to help them in their journey home.
This story goes a little more into detail as to the appearance and habits of the ghosts: Now the souls gathered, stirring out of Erebos, Brides and young men, and men grown old in pain, And tender girls whose hearts were new to grief; Many were there, too, torn by brazen lance heads, Battle-slain, bearing still their bloody gear. From every side they came and sought the pit With rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear. (186, 40 - 46) In this text the ghosts are frightening in appearance but mean no harm to the heroes and only desire access to the blood, which Odysseus is guarding for Teiresias. In Hamlet there is only one ghost and that one may not even exist. If we were to take it as given that the ghost is a real thing and not just a figment of Hamlets imagination. Then the ghost itself comes for a very different reason than those of the other two texts. It comes to avenge its death through the only medium possible, it s son.
This ghost is treated as something fearful and evil which heralds doom and can only bring destruction to those who see and hear it. In Hamlet the appearance of the ghost is treated with disbelief, but despite the fear which the men feel upon seeing it they still go and tell the prince because it is his father. If this were one of the other stories the ghost would likely have just appeared to the younger Hamlet in the first place and no one would have questioned its existence. The reality of the ghost can be argued either that it is an actual thing or that it is merely a hallucination. To support the theory that the ghost is real one must look to the very beginning of the play and the first appearance of the shade. Upon the first manifestation of the elder Hamlets ghost there are three men present, all of whom see the apparition.
The ghost is described to be like that of the dead king by Horatio: What art thou that usurp st this time of night Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? (4, 46 - 49) The fact that three men, Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo, all saw the thing heavily supports the theory that it is very real and therefore cannot be held as merely a side effect of the younger Hamlets grief stricken and deluded mind. This can be supported even further by its appearance after they inform Hamlet of it. When it comes to him he is in the presence of Horatio and Marcellus and it beckons to him. The other two must see it as well for they ask him not to go with it. Now unless there is some kind of mass hallucination going on I would say that, at least at the beginning of the play, the ghost is quite real. Now later on when Hamlet sees it in his mother s bedroom I would say that he is just seeing things.
This is because he alone sees the spirit. The Queen sees absolutely nothing: Ham: Do you see nothing there? Queen: Nothing at all, yet all that is I see. Ham: Nor did you nothing hear?
Queen: No, nothing but ourselves. (64, 134 - 137) This quote shows pretty clearly that Hamlet has slipped into true madness rather than just the fa ade he was putting on previously. He is hallucinating and does not realize it. A little earlier in the text he even questions whether or not he has really seen his fathers ghost or if it was just a trick: The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power T assume a pleasing shape, yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. (43, 555 - 560) At this stage he seems to realize that it is entirely possible he is just imagining things and that his Uncle may not have committed the murder that the ghost told him about. But by the previous statement he has released all doubts and thrown himself wholeheartedly into the pursuit of revenge.
Throughout the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Hamlet the existence of ghosts is a very common theme, though one which changes from book to book depending on the feelings of the author and the common beliefs of the time. By the time of Hamlet the reality of ghosts is very questionable and their appearance is much more often chalked up to madness and hallucination on the part of the seer. These are conflicts that arise in the novel and must be pondered by the reader.
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