revenge play

The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a specific form of tragedy, extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. Probably the best-known of these is William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Among the conventions of the genre, the ghost of the person to be avenged appears to spur on his revenger. The revenge is inevitably fatal to both the revenger and his victim. Plays in this genre include:

Hamlet by Shakespeare
(Arguably) Julius Caesar by Shakespeare: Caesar's ghost appears to Caesar's assassin Brutus, who kills himself.
The Revenger's Tragedy, long attributed to Cyril Tourneur but possibly by Thomas Middleton
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
Titus Andronicus by Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Macbeth clearly comes close to falling within this genre, but it is Macbeth himself, not Macduff, who sees Banquo's ghost. That fact is atypical of classic revenge plays: usually the avenger and not the murderer has visions of supernatural phenomena such as ghosts. In this case, it is Macduff who seeks revenge for Macbeth's evil deeds to his family and the former king, so that according to the conventions of the Elizabethan revenge tragedies, he should have been the one to meet the ghost. Similar forms are found in classical Greek and Roman plays, including those of Seneca, although those have never been intended to be actual plays performed on stage.

Revenge Play

See also