Laertes Monologue In Hamlet

In Laertes’ monologue in Act One, Scene Three of the Hamlet, William Shakespeare presents a man warning his sister about the nature of man, specifically regarding Hamlet, through heavenly imagery, a rhyming couplet and foreboding diction. Shakespeare utilizes these facets of figurative language and structure to speak to unpredictability of human nature and therfore the lack of control man possesses over his destiny. Throughout this monologue, Shakespeare compares man to the “this temple of waxes” and a nature that is “crescent”. By utilizing this heavenly imagery, Shakespeare illustrates not only the specific concerns of Laertes that Hamlet love is only temporary lust, like a burning candle or the cycles of the moon, but this inherent part

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