莎翁時代劇作中源自於復仇的迫害

Revenge-Driven Oppression in the Plays of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries

莎士比亞時代的劇作中，有不少是以復仇為主題。大多數企圖復仇的角色最後都因復仇而傷人害己。 在《奧賽羅》、《哈姆雷特》、《羅密歐與茱莉葉》、《威尼斯商人》等作品中，復仇已然成為令一種形式的迫害；復仇者因心切於報復而無法看見其對自身及周遭的人所造成的傷害。在大部分以復仇為主題的作品中，尋求復仇的人最後多半被心中的仇恨所吞噬。甚之，其復仇的意念往往扭曲其理性的思考而導致毀滅性的政治迫害行為。復仇者的報復行為帶來的是自身和他人的毀滅，並無法為其帶來正義或補償其所受的傷害。莎士比亞的劇作在在應證了復仇者與其對手玉石俱焚的下場。

Shakespeare wrote a number of plays in which the theme of revenge is central to the plots. In Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, and others, the protagonists’ or the antagonists’ attempting to carry out revenge is ultimately inflicting to themselves and the ones that are involved. Revenge becomes a form of oppression when the person seeking revenge becomes so obsessed with his actions that he cannot see that he is destroying himself and harming everyone and everything else around him. In most of the plays where revenge is the dominating theme, the person seeking revenge is eaten by his own malice. Furthermore, the thought of revenge leads to the oppression of the mind, distorting the individual’s thinking and resulting in destructive and anomic behaviours. Socially, the unreinable rage of the revenge-driven individual can lead to politically oppressive behaviour. In very few cases do those who seek revenge actually succeed. In the case they do, they bring about the ruin of those who they are seeking revenge against. The revenge does not really help them as it does not right the wrong that was done to them or heal the hurt that they suffered. As Chinese saying goes, ‘He who seeks revenge needs to dig two graves,’ Shakespeare, in many ways, proves this to be true.