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At the crux of Shakespeare’s Hamlet lies the timeless, dynamic exploration of human nature and experience, supplemented by masterful manipulations of dramatic and literary elements that embed within the play ambiguity in both meaning and purpose. As a responder, the final scenes of Hamlet has significantly affected my judgement of the play, as Shakespeare’s masterly ability to control the use and flow of language serves to rectify through these scenes the universal confrontation of thematic concerns such as morality, mortality, and uncertainty. The combination of characterisation, symbolism and Hamlet’s struggles as an existentialist hero acts as a vessel for Shakespeare’s insightful perception on the intricacies of the human condition, sparking
The fulcrum of iambic pentameter verse is the accent of syllables. Thus in lines where syllables go unaccented, meanings and certainty are weakened and ambiguity, among other notions, is created out of contrast, as can be seen in Hamlet’s most famed soliloquy. A close examination of the line “to be, or not to be, that is the question” reveals an unaccented eleventh syllable; a feminine ending. This technique exemplifies the uncertainty of Hamlet’s words, and as the soliloquy continues, we see the repetition of the feminine ending: “whether ‘tis noble in the mind to suffer/ the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune…” Such repetition combined with the rhetorical question Hamlet ponders illuminates the central theme of indecision which again can be seen in the final scenes. As Hamlet rhetorically reasons: “he that hath killed my king, and whored my mother/… is’t not perfect conscience to quit him..?” the feminine ending on the first line again emphasises the theme of uncertainty whilst Hamlet questions the morality of avenging his father out of loyalty. It is through this internal affliction, aimed at enforcing theme of uncertainty, that Hamlet retains its textual integrity, as the Renaissance man valued filial loyalty and the
Hamlet often speaks in prose when addressing Polonius: - “Slanders sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have/grey bears, that their faces are wrinkled…”, as well as R&G: - “Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her flavours?”. By Act 2, it has been established that iambic pentameter verse is predominantly used to by royalty and to remain respectable. Accordingly the depreciation to prose suggests that Hamlet is disrespecting the characters, whilst Polonius and R&G speak in prose and prove themselves to be lesser moral characters by their actions. Furthermore, as Hamlet speaks in prose to R&G, his language use gradually evolves into prose poetry, asserting his moral authority and intellectualism over R&G, indulging in the use of metaphor, accumulation and juxtaposition as he declares “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god!.. Man delights not me.” Moreover, in act 5, Hamlet speaks in prose as he converses in the graveyard with the clown-gravediggers and Horatio. Interestingly, whilst in prose, Hamlet often speaks his most truthful words. In his aforementioned soliloquy, he speaks of the great capabilities of man, however condemns man for their great atrocities,
Polonius, his [Hamlet’s] seeming opposite in so many ways, is, like Hamlet, an inveterate punster. To whom else but Polonius should Hamlet direct the taunt of “Words, words, words”? The aged counselor recalls that in his youth he “suffered much extremity for love, very near this,” and he has been an actor at the university. Polonius too has advice for the players: “Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.” When Hamlet jibes at “so capital a calf” enacting Julius Caesar, killed in the Capitol, he reinforces the parallel to his own playacting and anticipates the slaying of Polonius behind the arras. (4)
“What is the matter, my lord?” asks Polonius. Hamlet answers, “Between who?” (2.2.193-194). Tenney Davis responds to this by saying that Hamlet feigned his insanity convincingly by taking things too literally, which manifested in a desire to “split hairs” (Davis 630). Hamlet was always annoyed with Polonius and his garrulous speeches, but reacted not in an irrational way, but to the contrary, with the most simple, though rude, coherent answers.
After hearing this description, Polonius assumes that only one thing could cause Hamlet to behave like this so he asks is Hamlet is “Mad for thy love?” (II, i, 94) This scene is full of beautiful language spoken b...
Much of the dramatic action of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet is within the head of the main character, Hamlet. His wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled, mocking, nature of his mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love, as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishes for consummation and annihilation. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears, and also polite badinage.
In this paper I will be analyzing and discussing how these four soliloquies reflect changes in Hamlet’s mental state; his
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...
Barnett, George L. “Hamlet’s Soliloquy.” Modern Language Quarterly 7.1 (1946): 57-59. Literary Reference Center. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is arguably one of the best plays known to English literature. It presents the protagonist, Hamlet, and his increasingly complex path through self discovery. His character is of an abnormally complex nature, the likes of which not often found in plays, and many different theses have been put forward about Hamlet's dynamic disposition. One such thesis is that Hamlet is a young man with an identity crisis living in a world of conflicting values.
Polonius is over-eager and tries to give unwanted advice, during the play he is tactless and often rude. For instance, Polonius is a comic relief during his conversation with Gertrude and Claudius regarding Hamlet’s madness. Polonius rambling through his conversation contrasts with Gertrude’s seriousness of wanting to find out the reason to Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius begins to deliver to the king and queen the results of his investigation, he makes this statement, “My liege, and madam, to expostulate/ What majesty should be, what duty is,/ What day is day, night is night, and time is time,/ Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;/ Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,/ And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,/ I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .”(IIii,86-92) . Polonius’ speech is windy and nonsensical he wastes ti...
As the play’s tragic hero, Hamlet exhibits a combination of good and bad traits. A complex character, he displays a variety of characteristics throughout the play’s development. When he is first introduced in Act I- Scene 2, one sees Hamlet as a sensitive young prince who is mourning the death of his father, the King. In addition, his mother’s immediate marriage to his uncle has left him in even greater despair. Mixed in with this immense sense of grief, are obvious feelings of anger and frustration. The combination of these emotions leaves one feeling sympathetic to Hamlet; he becomes a very “human” character. One sees from the very beginning that he is a very complex and conflicted man, and that his tragedy has already begun.
Up until this point the kingdom of Denmark believed that old Hamlet had died of natural causes. As it was custom, prince Hamlet sought to avenge his father’s death. This leads Hamlet, the main character into a state of internal conflict as he agonises over what action and when to take it as to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s play presents the reader with various forms of conflict which plague his characters. He explores these conflicts through the use of soliloquies, recurring motifs, structure and mirror plotting.
In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist exhibits a puzzling, duplicitous nature. Hamlet contradicts himself throughout the play. He endorses both the virtues of acting a role and that of being true to one's self. He further supports both of these conflicting endorsements with his actions. This ambiguity is demonstrated by his alleged madness, for he does behave madly, only to become perfectly calm and rational an instant later. These inconsistencies are related with the internal dilemmas he faces. He struggles with the issue of revenging his father's death, vowing to kill Claudius and then backing out, several times. Upon this point Hamlet stammers through the play. The reason for this teetering is directly related to his inability to form a solid opinion about role playing. This difficulty is not present, however, at the start of the play.
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.
The perfection of Hamlet’s character has been called in question - perhaps by those who do not understand it. The character of Hamlet stands by itself. It is not a character marked by strength of will or even of passion, but by refinement of thought and sentiment. Hamlet is as little of the hero as a man can be. He is a young and princely novice, full of high enthusiasm and quick sensibility - the sport of circumstances, questioning with fortune and refining on his own feelings, and forced from his natural disposition by the strangeness of his situation.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is, at heart, a play about suicide. Though it is surrounded by a fairly standard revenge plot, the play's core is an intense psychodrama about a prince gone mad from the pressures of his station and his unrequited love for Ophelia. He longs for the ultimate release of killing himself - but why? In this respect, Hamlet is equivocal - he gives several different motives depending on the situation. But we learn to trust his soliloquies - his thoughts - more than his actions. In Hamlet's own speeches lie the indications for the methods we should use for its interpretation.