Hamlet post 1

Shakespeare's Hamlet drastically differs from any other piece of his I have read in the past. While I have only read two other pieces of Shakespeare before hand (Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night), it is easy to see they are different in many ways. Of the two, the most different from Hamlet is Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night follows a cross dressing woman through her part in a mysterious love triangle. It is a comedy. This kind of play is completely different form the sort of play Hamlet is. Romeo and Juliet is more similar, though still very different. While it does focus on the final tragedy between the love struck rebels, Romeo and Juliet distracts from this with its romantic aspect. Hamlet does not seem to any other large theme associated with it to distract from this. It is also important to note that the types of tragedies from both pieces is different. In Romeo and Juliet, the story is considered a tragedy because the two young lovers kill themselves out of grief of losing the other while at the prime of their lives. This heart wrenching type of tragedy is very different from the type seen in Hamlet. As we discussed in class the other day, Hamlet is a revenge tragedy, where the avenger becomes consumed by the hatred of  the villain and eventually takes on an identical person because of it. Hamlet is a unique piece of literature, even when compared to other works of Shakespeare.