the study of themes of revenge and betrayal in william congreve's the way of the world and shakespeare's hamlet

the study of themes of revenge and betrayal in william congreve's the way of the world and shakespeare's hamlet

the themes of betrayal and revenges are so common among people of any periods of time, and it is an inseparable part of human lives. william congreve’s the way of the world, and william shakespeare’s hamlet, are two various genres of plays that belong to two different times, the former is a restoration comedy, and the latter is a classical revenge tragedy.

the purpose of the current study was to expose the components and reasons that resulted in the themes of revenge and betrayal in both william congreve’s the way of the world and william shakespeare’s hamlet by close reading of them. the first idea of taking revenge in hamlet’s mind starts from the moment that his father’s ghost asked him to take revenge from his uncle claudius who killed him by pouring poison in his ears.

in the way of the world, the betrayal and revenge themes exist in almost all the characters of the play and in their relationship with each other. mrs. marwood betrays her close friend, lady wishfort; mirabell betrays lady wishfort; mrs. fainall, and mrs. marwood, are in secret relation with each other, and other selected cases in the play.