How Does Cardinal Wolsey Use Figurative Language In Henry Viii

499 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shakespeare's use of language and imagination

In the play Henry VIII by Shakespeare, Cardinal Wolsey is facing a great hardship: he just lost his position as advisor to the king. To hi, this position meant a great deal and now he does not know what else life has in store. He has lost the one thing that made him truly happy. Shakespeare uses these elements and a dismal tone to convey to the reader the intense shame and embarrassment that Wolsey feels. The use of diction and figurative language help the reader connect and really understand Cardinal Wolsey's complex web of emotions. The use of the word "farewell" depicts the idea of a closing door that will never be open again. His position was his passion and it was what he thrived on in his day-to-day life. By using an extended metaphor with nature, demonstrates that this was his source of life and hope. So when "the third day comes a frost, a killing frost. . . nips his root, and then he falls as I do" explains this was stripped away violently without warning. Even though he was on the verge of something great or …show more content…

This allusion is very strong because Satan was casted away forever when he was stripped of his title; this dark thought continues to haunt Cardinal Wolsey. It is an ironic allusion because a Cardinal is comparing himself to Lucifer, an "enemy" in the Bible. He realizes though that people of high nobility all share the same fear: losing their power and status. He even said that they have "more pangs and fears than wars or women have." This is a strong wording because it demonstrates that nothing can scare them more, leaving them very selfish. And the fact that they will "never to hope again" ends his soliloquy in a very depressing way. Cardinal Wolsey can never reach the success, friendship, or status again and he sees no purpose in his life anymore. Everything that was once good is not his to claim and life is moving on without

Show More
Related

  • Is The Juxtaposition In King Henry's Soliloquy

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare shows King Henry to be a politician who practices deceit by juxtaposing his expressed intentions with his ulterior motives in the plays opening monologue. The expressed intention is one that preaches unity, as is conveyed when King Henry IV denounces war as “civil butchery”, which is a clear indication of an anti-war sentiment, highlighted through the use of ‘butchery’ and its negative connotations of brutality. Moreover, when King Henry IV declares “those opposed eyes” are “all of one nature”, the synecdoche represents the idea that he is against war, which is reinforced by the ironic juxtaposition of ‘opposed’ and ‘one’, which alludes to his view on the absurdity of the conflict. The ulterior motive of King Henry IV is soon after

    Read More

  • Wolsey's Use Of Figurative Language In Henry Viii

    422 Words  | 1 Pages

    William Shakespeare is a renowned writer for his effectiveness in writing, which is hailed from crafting his pieces with various types of literary devices. Cardinal Wolsey's soliloquy after being fired in Shakespeare's Henry VIII is no different. Shakespeare uses allusion, figurative language, and a shifting tone to hone in the complex and passionate set of emotions Wolsey felt.

    Read More

  • The Concealment of Ones True Inner Nature in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1071 Words  | 3 Pages

    The motif of a seemingly healthy exterior concealing inward sickness establishes meaning through foreshadowing and irony by demonstrating that it spreads throughout and ultimately rids itself of everything that conceals inward sickness. Corrupted thoughts throughout William Shakespeare’s Hamlet are based on greediness and the act of avenging a family member’s death.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices Identified In Hamlet's Soliloquy

    513 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the soliloquy, Shakespeare accentuates the shared characteristics between Hamlet and a submissive servant. Hamlet submits to his cowardice and falls victim to his tendency to reflect on his profound thoughts instead of acting upon them. Additionally, he accuses himself as a troublesome scoundrel. He views himself as a criminal although he had not done anything indictable yet. This metaphor introduces Hamlet’s perception in his current emotional state to the audience.

    Read More

  • Laertes Monologue In Hamlet

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare employs oxymorons, personification and contrasting decision to speak to the human condition of fulfilling the need for pleasure as well as order. All through the passage, Shakespeare uses oxymorons like “wisest sorrow”, “mirth in funeral” and “dirge in marriage” to illustrate Claudius struggle between these two facets in his inherent human nature (6, 12). Through pairing an emotional reaction that does not match the event as well as combining two parts of the human psyche that are often at odds, the mind and the heart, Shakespeare clearly illustrates Claudius conflicting mental state. Additionally, Shakespeare utilizes these oxymorons to highlight apollonian and dysnision views of humanity and how they factor into the human existence. Additionally, by exhibiting this mental state through universal emotions and events, such as sorrow, death and marriage, Shakespeare broadens the application of them to the entirety of humanity. In addition, Shakespeare personification of the state as contracting into “one brow of woe” develops Claudius struggle even more by comparing struggled, no feeling entity to a depressed human being. Through this lack of line between the characteristics of a human being and an entire country, Shakespeare creates an image of Claudius experiencing this in his own being. Furthermore, the focus on the whole state of Denmark having this sorrowful reaction again expands this human struggle of Claudius between structure and desire to the entirety of

    Read More

  • Wreck Of The Hesperus Personification

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the poem “Wreck of the Hesperus”, the author, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, uses several examples of personification, simile, and irony to convey the message that people’s overconfidence uncontrollably leads to their downfall, and the destruction of pure objects in their life that the person loves.

    Read More

  • William Shakespeare Hamlet Suicide Quotes

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet. The son of a king. A man who could have had it all, but instead he chose the much more painful route of revenge and a life of bloodshed. The downfall of Hamlet is comparable to trying to hide a lie one has told. The deeper we try to cover the lie, the worse it gets and harder it becomes to do the right thing. The deeper the reader explores into Hamlets life, the messier and messier it becomes. With a mind full of suicidal thoughts and insanity with no effort to contain it can only lead one thing, and Hamlets downfall is the ultimate example. Pain, suffering, and extreme

    Read More

  • Metaphors In Cardinal Wolsey's Speech

    631 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shakespeare uses metaphors, allusions to the bible, and a bitter tone to convey Cardinal Wolsey’s response to his dismissal from the court and the loss of his pride.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis of Othello

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... In Othello, Shakespeare alludes and makes clear to the similar situation within his own dire life by creating such an atmosphere of anecdotalness, complex-compound sentence structure, and such zeugma for a dramatical and yet strangely comical effect, while doing not what was expected from such a prestine musician. Throughout the whole of Othello, the great Shakespeare remarks through an astounding display of pronouns, allitteration, and cacophonous diction his own resentment of both the King of Italy and the poor conditions of the said novelist undo to the utmost persona of diligent passion wherein is to thine.

    Read More

  • King Henry Iv Part 1

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare’s ‘King Henry IV Part I’ centres on a core theme of the conflict between order and disorder. Such conflict is brought to light by the use of many vehicles, including Hal’s inner conflict, the country’s political and social conflict, the conflict between the court world and the tavern world, and the conflicting moral values of characters from each of these worlds. This juxtaposition of certain values exists on many levels, and so is both a strikingly present and an underlying theme throughout the play. Through characterization Shakespeare explores moral conflict, and passage three is a prime example of Falstaff’s enduring moral disorder. By this stage in the play Hal has ‘reformed’, moved away from his former mentor Falstaff and become a good and honourable prince.

    Read More

  • Human Morality in Hamlet and The Oresteia

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Hamlet, the motif of a young prince forsaken of his father, family, and rationality, as well as the resulting psychological conflicts develop. Although Hamlet’s inner conflicts derive from the lack of mourning and pain in his family, as manifested in his mother’s incestuous remarrying to his uncle Claudius, his agon¬1 is truly experienced when the ghost of his father reveals the murderer is actually Claudius himself. Thus the weight of filial obligation to obtain revenge is placed upon his shoulders. However, whereas it is common for the tragic hero to be consistent and committed to fulfilling his moira,2 Hamlet is not; his tragic flaw lies in his inability to take action. Having watched an actor’s dramatic catharsis through a speech, Hamlet criticizes himself, venting “what an ass am I! This is most brave, that I, the son of a dear father murdered, prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell… [can only] unpack my heart with words” (Hamlet 2.2.611-614). Seeing how the actor can conjure such emotion over simple speech, Hamlet is irate at his lack of volition and is stricken with a cognitive dissonance in which he cannot balance. The reality and ...

    Read More

  • The Effects of Targeting the Audience in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Hamlet’s speech, Shakespeare’s efforts to target his Elizabethan audience develop the theme of the frailty of man. Shakespeare conveys this underlying theme of the play by subt...

    Read More

  • Claudius' Speech

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    Claudius begins his speech with an acknowledgement of Hamlet’s death and his own marriage to Gertrude. Claudius claims that the “green” memory of his “dear brother’s death” “befitted” Denmark to contract into “one brow of woe” (1.2). Despite Claudius’ affectionate reference to Hamlet, his hypocrisy is transparent. The colour imagery reveals the freshness of Hamlet’s death. The metaphor used suggests the kingdom is expected to unite and share the grief over its loss but the diction in “befitted” hints Claudius disapproval of expected mourning rites, causing the audience to doubt his sincerity. Furthermore, Claudius adds that “discretion fought with nature” causing him to think of Hamlet together with a “remembrance of [himself]” (1.2). The metaphorical conflict between “discretion” and “nature” contrasts Claudius’ hasty marriage to the expected mourning after Hamlet’s death. Moreover, in Claudius’ statement, the dependen...

    Read More

  • Gray's “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

    2194 Words  | 5 Pages

    “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.

    Read More

  • Condemned: Hamlet’s Moral Dilemma

    1663 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hamlet is one of the most often-performed and studied plays in the English language. The story might have been merely a melodramatic play about murder and revenge, butWilliam Shakespeare imbued his drama with a sensitivity and reflectivity that still fascinates audiences four hundred years after it was first performed. Hamlet is no ordinary young man, raging at the death of his father and the hasty marriage of his mother and his uncle. Hamlet is cursed with an introspective nature; he cannot decide whether to turn his anger outward or in on himself. The audience sees a young man who would be happiest back at his university, contemplating remote philosophical matters of life and death. Instead, Hamlet is forced to engage death on a visceral level, as an unwelcome and unfathomable figure in his life. He cannot ignore thoughts of death, nor can he grieve and get on with his life, as most people do. He is a melancholy man, and he can see only darkness in his future—if, indeed, he is to have a future at all. Throughout the play, and particularly in his two most famous soliloquies, Hamlet struggles with the competing compulsions to avenge his father’s death or to embrace his own. Hamlet is a man caught in a moral dilemma, and his inability to reach a resolution condemns himself and nearly everyone close to him.

    Read More

More about How Does Cardinal Wolsey Use Figurative Language In Henry Viii

Open Document