"Love lies sourly at the heart of the play". How far and in what ways do you agree with this view of 'Hamlet'?

Hamlet himself is the victim to his love for his father as it his love and sense of duty that drives the whole play, because his grief and subsequent revenge are the catalysts of the tragic events of the play, eventually ending with the deaths of every single major character. This view is validated by Hamlet himself in Act One Scene Five, where Hamlet states "with all my love I do condemn me to you". The use of the word "condemn" is particularly powerful, as it has connotations of incarceration and sentencing in court. Perhaps Hamlet is aware that he is signing his own death warrant by loving his father enough to seek revenge for his murder. Hamlet seeking revenge on his uncle would be particularly abhorrent to a contemporary renaissance audience, because although the concept of filial duty was a key Hebraic notion at the time, the concept of the blood feud, commonly colloquialised as "an eye for an eye", seemed barbaric to a Shakespearian audience. This view shows how "love lies sourly like an ulcer at the heart of the play", because filial love is what eventually brings the courts of Elsinore crashing down with bloody, tragic murders.

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Answered by Phoebe A. English Literature tutor

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