Revenge

Some people recompense for the wrongs and injustices committed in their lives. The human qualities of revenge and vengeance are brought to light in well-known stories and novels, such as Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Both Dumas and Shakespeare use elements such as allusions, figurative language, point of view and tone to convey the theme of revenge in their literary works. However, both works of literature utilize such literary techniques to achieve different meanings of revenge. Even more, these novels reflect the styles of two different time periods and of different authors. The characters in The Count of Monte Cristo and Hamlet are so viciously wronged, that they return like a wrath of nature, with and unquenchable thirst for vengeance. Such a vendetta is the building block for the theme of for these novels. In order to discern the differences in both works, it is crucial to understand what type of work it is. Hamlet is a Shakespearean revenge tragedy so readers can expect a complex character, whose actions will lead to his own demise and the demise of his friends and family. The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel with a moral. The main character Dantes experiences grief but he ultimately attains happiness. This helps set the atmosphere or tone of both stories. Tone is the author’s attitude toward his/her story. In The Count of Monte Cristo, the, there is yet a darkness to the atmosphere as Dantes acts, in his words, as the emissary of God/Fate. The story, Hamlet, has a paranormal undercurrent that adds a certain mysteriousness and darkness to the work as a whole. These undercurrents foreshadow the fate of the main characters. The divinely guidance leads the Count of Monte Cristo to a blissful ending whereas the dark presence in Hamlet hints at the tragic ending. The use of literary devices allows a writer to illustrate his or her view point on a novel. tone oscillates from despair to In The Count of Monte Cristo, the divine justice and spiritual guidance