Hamlet and Spanish Tragedy

[joana_lee]

I have read both of these plays, but I'm confused why these plays are so similar?anyone can tell the differences?especially on Hamlet and Hieronimo

[Charles Darnay]

There are not so similar: one is clearly better than the other.

Hamlet's source material is the Icelandic work Amleth[, c. 11th century. The Spanish Tragedy is however the first majorly successful revenge tragedy: the subgenre that Hamlet falls under.

There are some who say that Kyd wrote the "Ur-Hamlet" of c. 1589 - it is a much poorer version, but still noticeably, Hamlet. The more popular theory is that Shakespeare actually wrote the "Ur-Hamlet", abandoned the project, then returned to it in 1601.

Shakespeare certainly drew from the popularity of The Spanish Tragedy when creating his revenge plays. This can be seen in his earliest one, Titus Andronicus as well as in Hamlet and to a lesser extent, Macbeth. The only part of Hamlet that serves as a direct nod to Kyd's work is "The Mousetrap". Whether Shakespeare was satirizing Kyd or just reminding the audience that his monument, Hamlet, is stuck in a revenge tragedy is not really known.

There is however, nothing in common between Hamlet and Hieronimo: the latter is a stock character serving as the figure of Revenge. Hamlet is as real as a person in fiction gets. Even their respective madness is so different that I find it hard to believe that Hamlet's madness was inspired in any way by Hieronimo's.

I'm not discounting the influence or importance of Kyd's work - but he laid the foundation for the backdrop of Hamlet not the play proper.