SOURCE: Rose, Mark. “Hamlet and the Shape of Revenge.” English Literary Renaissance 1, no. 2 (spring 1971): 132-43.

In the following essay, Rose asserts that Hamlet, having had the role of revenger imposed upon him by the ghost, endeavors to redefine the part and mold it according to his own moral and aesthetic values.

Like most tragedies, perhaps like every tragedy, Hamlet is a play about the limits imposed upon the mortal will, a play about the various restrictions that flesh is heir to. Polonius speaks to Ophelia of the “tether” with which Hamlet walks and the image is a useful one to keep in mind for it suggests both that the prince does have a degree of freedom and that ultimately he is bound. Laertes cautions Ophelia in a similar manner and develops more explicitly the limits on Hamlet's freedom. The prince's “will is not his own,” Laertes says,

For...