In great literature, no scene of violence exists for its own sake. Choose a work of literary merit that confronts the reader or audience with a scene or scenes of violence. In a well-organized essay, explain how the scene or scenes contribute to the meaning of the complete work. Avoid plot summary.

Answer and Explanation:

There is a scene in "Hamlet" that presents a shocking moment of violence that shapes the rest of the story and presents an important point of the main character.

This scene occurs when Prince Hamlet, disgusted by the news that his marriage to his uncle, goes to his mother's room to find out about it. Arriving there, he and his mother start an intense discussion and it is at that moment that Shakespeare, finds a spy behind the curtains of the room. Thinking that he is his uncle, Hamlet stabs the spy who falls dead, revealing his identity, which, to everyone's surprise, was not Hamlet's uncle, but the father of the woman Hamlet loved.

This moment of violence, serves to shape the character of emotional lack of control that Hamlet presents, in addition to making him a character disliked by others, provoking Ophelia's madness and the distrust of Claudius, Hamlet's uncle and the villain of the story.