Vengeance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Emily Bronte’s...

Vengeance in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights Love, betrayal and revenge play leading roles in both Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Emily Bronte’s â€Å"Wuthering Heights.† Both works feature doomed relationships, a ghostly haunting, and death. The court at Elsinore, despite its luxurious setting, almost mirrors the seclusion of the Yorkshire moors of Wuthering Heights — making both settings almost prison like. But, it is not setting that makes both works interesting: it is the search for vengeance by the protagonists. Few stories stir the soul more than that of a lover wronged – seeking vengeance on his foes. The lovers, Heathcliff and Hamlet, differ in their nature. One is a passionate brute, the latter a†¦show more content†¦Hamlet flees to England, only to return to the king’s court at Denmark. It is here that Hamlet hears of Ophelia’s death and is torn with grief. Ophelia’s vengeful brother, Laertes, challenges Hamlet to a duel. Hamlet does not realize that Claudius has rigged the duel and has poisoned a cup of wine and the tip of Laertes’ rapier. The queen, Gertrude, drinks the cup of wine and dies. Hamlet, wounded and dying, kills Laertes and the king, finally avenging his father. As he is dying, he requests his friend, Horatio, to tell the people the true story, and to appoint the nephew of the king of Norway as the ruler of Denmark. Hamlet is not unique in its choice of antagonists, as Emily Bronte uses both ghostly apparitions and a calling for vengeance in Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is spread across two generations. Set in the moors of Yorkshire, nature and the metaphysical world play large roles. The story is told through Mr. Lockwood, who relates Nelly Dean’s narration. Mr. Earnshaw, the father of Catherine and Hindley, brings an orphan to the Heights, naming him Heathcliff. Unable to bear his father’s favoritism towards Heathcliff, Hindley develops contempt for him. Upon Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley treats Heathcliff with cruelty, especially after his wife’s death, from which he never recovers. Catherine, in adolescence, is infatuated with the well mannered Edgar Linton, who lives in Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff, who has an untamed nature,