Hamlet – the Irony The existence of considerable irony within the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet is a fact recognized by most literary critics. This paper will examine the play for instances of irony and their interpretation by critics. In his essay “O’erdoing Termagant” Howard Felperin comments on Hamlet’s “ironic consciousness” of the fact that he is unable to quickly execute the command of the ghost: Our own intuition of the creative or re-creative act that issued in the play
The complexity and effect of father-son relationships seems to be a theme that Shakespeare loved to explore in his writings. In Hamlet, the subject is used as a mechanism to identify the similarities between three very different characters: Fortinbras, Laertes, and Hamlet. They have each lost their fathers to violent deaths, which leads them to seek vengeance. As different as they may seem, they all share the common desire to avenge their father’s deaths. The method they each approach this is what
Dramatic irony in the Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet has long been the subject matter of literary critical reviews. This essay will exemplify and elaborate on the irony in the play. David Bevington in the Introduction to Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet identifies one of the “richest sources of dramatic irony” in Hamlet: Well may the dying Hamlet urge his friend Horatio to “report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied,” for no one save Horatio has caught more than a glimpse of
Hamlet - Shakespeare's Ophelia as Modern Icon Shakespeare's Ophelia is not lacking in attention. As one of Shakespeare's most popular female characters she has enjoyed many appellations from the bard. '"Fair Ophelia." "Most beautified Ophelia." "Pretty Ophelia." "Sweet Ophelia." "Dear Ophelia." "Beautiful Ophelia…sweet maid…poor wretch." "Poor Ophelia."' (Vest 1) All of these names for Ophelia can be found in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Since Shakespeare's incarnation
Resource Center. Web. 1 Dec. 2010. Sartre, Jean-Paul. "No Exit." New York: Vintage Books, 1947. Stoppard, Tom. "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1967. "The Fools of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead." Free Essays 29 November 2010 Whitaker, Thomas R. "Playing Hell." The Yearbook of English Studies 9(1979): 167- 187. Rpt. in Contemorary Literary Critism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 52. Detriot: Gale Research, 1989. Literature Resource
viewing a conscious act. The full benefit of the theatrical experience is felt only when the auditor recognizes his role. Clearly, in Shakespeare’s view, life is very much like a play. For one thing, all human beings are actors, or as Hegel says, "free artists of themselves" (Bloom 6). As "real" as we perceive ourselves to be, Shakespeare’s great characters demonstrate that personal identity is an assumed role, a fabrication. We are all playing characters. When the mad and weather-beaten King Lear
Doctor Faustus as Apollonian Hero How long will a man lie i' th' earth ere he rot? - Hamlet, V, i, 168 The Tragic History of Doctor Faustus is Marlowe's misreading of the drama of the morality tradition, the Faust legend, and, ironically, his own Tamburlaine plays. In the development of the character of Doctor Faustus, we find one of the supreme artistic achievements of English dramatic literature, a milestone of artistic creativity and originality. The force of Marlowe's dramatic poetry
Bergson, and Cervantes, to name only a few--but the one writer that he consistently mentioned as a constant and continuing influence was William Shakespeare. Though Faulkner’s claim as a fledgling writer in 1921 that “[he] could write a play like Hamlet if [he] wanted to” (FAB 330) may be dismissed as an act of youthful posturing, the statement serves to indicate that from the beginning Shakespeare was the standard by which Faulkner would judge his own creativity. In later years Faulkner frequently