To Revenge Or Not To Revenge: A Comparative Study on the Revenge in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the Chinese Yuan Dynasty Drama The Orphan of Zhao

• Main Authors: CHAN,CHIEN- CHEN, 詹前臻
• Other Authors: TSAI CHI-CHANG
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/32qxr8

碩士 === 東海大學 === 外國語文學系 === 106 === In Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark not only loses his father, but also his relationships with others whom he used to rely on to establish his identity. Rather than trying to become the substitute of his father, who is the object of Gertrude’s desire in the viewpoint of Jacques Lacan and his previous Freudian scholars’, Hamlet strives to fulfill his father’s desire to revenge. The theme of the lost father is also seen in Chinese Yuan Dynasty Play The Orphan of Zhao. Having lost his biological father, the orphan of Zhao also loses his identity as the firstborn descendant of the Zhao’s clan. The killer of his biological father and family members later becomes his father in honour. The grown orphan has to figure out which of his three fathers (the biological father, the adoptive father and the godfather) he should pay his filial piety to and whether he should revenge for his biological father. The revenges in the two plays have their meanings for the two avengers to restore their subjectivity, and contain the cultural and religious significance. This thesis discusses the religious and psychological factors that lead to the different consequences of the two plays based on the notion of ‘revenge’.