Hamlet's Frustration

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Hamlet's Frustration

In order to understand Hamlet, we must understand his frustration. This frustration is most clear in his famous monologue, famously beginning with the line "Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I."

This self-condemnation is contrasted by his admiration for the actor of the previous scene, who "in a fiction" is able to "force his soul to his own conceit." The word "soul" is an example of metonymy, as the soul represents the

actor's "visage," "tears," "distraction," and "voice." Thus Hamlet equates "soul" with one's actions, so by his own comparison his soul is weak, as he does not take action against the king. The second sentence is furthermore a rhetorical question, beginning with, "Is it notŠ" So clearly Hamlet's lack of emotion is "monstrous" in his own mind at the very start of the monologue. The equation of "Hecuba" to "nothing" is then contrasted by Hamlet's "cue" being the murder of his father. Hamlet then states that the actor would "drown the stage with tears" if he were in Hamlet's position. The visual hyperbole which is compounded by the repetition of rhythm ("Make mad the guilty," "appal the free") and the deep assonance ("cleave," "ear," "speech," "free,") serves to further prove Hamlet's belief that he is inadequate, weak, since both the sounds and the exaggeration build to and are immediately compared with Hamlet himself.

Hamlet directly holds himself up to the actor and then begins to apply his feeling of inadequacy to his exact situation. The fragment, "yet I" is isolated to emphasize the contrast between the actor and himself, action and inaction. The following metaphoric phrase "dull and muddy-mettled rascal" can only be spoken slowly, thereby illustrating the hesitation through b...

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...oretically have an impact, though in reality the purpose of the play is to verify something that Hamlet already knows. It is therefore a convoluted method of procrastination and a haphazard way of avoiding all of his self-criticisms.

Works Cited and Consulted

Danson, Lawrence. "Tragic Alphabet." Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Alphabet: Shakespeare's Drama of Language. N. p.: Yale University Press, 1974.

Rosenberg, Marvin. "Laertes: An Impulsive but Earnest Young Aristocrat." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Masks of Hamlet. Newark, NJ: University of Delaware Press, 1992.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html

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