[Girard maintains that Hamlet belongs to the Revenge Tragedy genre. Revenge Tragedy is adramatic fonn made popular on the English stage by Thomas Kyd, acontemporary of Shakespeare, whose Spanish Tragedy is an early example of the type. Such aplay callsfor the revenge of afather by ason or vice versa, an act which is initiated by the murdered man's ghost Other devices found in Revenge Tragedies include hesitation by the hero, real or feigned madness, suicide, intrigue, and murders on stage. In the critic's opinion, Shakespeare despised the Revenge Tragedy genre as afonn whose conventions had become trite. Yet; because revenge theater was highly popular among Elizabethan audiences, the dramatist had to confonn to certain guidelines of the genre to produce afinancially succesiful tragedy. As aresult, Shakespeare innovated the theatrical type by creating adouble entendre.....
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