A Razor Sharp Tongue

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A Razor-Sharp Tongue

        The utilization of spoken language at the hands of a skilled manipulator of words can inflict unexpected harm upon one’s enemies. It can destroy good intentions; demoralize the opposition and spread fanaticism to others. Such a theme of cruel or manipulative words as a kind of poison is inherent within Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet”. The play reflects upon the downfall of Hamlet, caused by the grief over his father’s death and his disgust towards the incestuous relations of his mother and uncle. These two factors culminate to form a complex vehemence within Hamlet, which subsequently leads him to lash out against those close to him. Hamlet uses words as metaphorical “daggers” both as a tool to attain his wishes, as well as an emotional response to his grief, respectively directed towards Claudius and Gertrude.

            Hamlet’s antagonism towards Claudius manifests itself into violent language meant to draw out Claudius’ guilt. One of these moments in the tragedy is the performance Hamlet presents to Claudius. Hamlet intentionally produces a speech within the play to confound the audience and extract Claudius’ guilt . He first mentions his intentions to one of the players when he asks: “You could for need study a speech of some dozen lines…Which I would set down and insert in’t…” (Shakespeare II. ii 476-478).  Later on in the scene, a soliloquy unheard by the other characters in the play sheds light upon Hamlet’s intentions. Hamlet wishes the player to “Cleave the general ear with horrid speech,/ Make mad the guilty and appal the free/ Confound the ignorant and amaze indeed” (II. ii 498-500). Thus, it is revealed that Hamlet wishes to use the play to reveal Claudius’ crime: the murder of King Hamlet. His words “Make mad the guilty” reference to his attempts to draw out a confession from Claudius, while “appal the free” means to simply make others aware of Claudius’ wrongdoings.  Within the aforementioned speech is a stage direction that involves one of the actors pouring poison into another actor’s ear (III. ii 253). This is indubitably a clever allusion by Shakespeare meant to compare Hamlet’s use of words to a kind of poison, which he uses most slyly to wheedle out Claudius’ guilt. Horatio confirms this guilt to Hamlet when he says to Horatio: “I’ll take the ghost’s word for a thousand pound. Didst thou perceive?” Horatio responds by saying “I did very well note my lord” (III. Ii 278-280). Thus, Hamlet manipulates the lines of the play to form a palpable tool with which to reveal Claudius’ transgression.

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        Hamlet’s deep emotional repugnance of his mother’s incestuous relations with his uncle manifests itself into cruel words against her.  One such indication of this is within Hamlet’s first soliloquy in which he says:

O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned longer, married with my uncle/ My father’s brother (though no more like my father/ Than I to Hercules) Within a month…/ O most wicked speed! To post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets… (I. ii 150-157).

Hamlet’s disappointment is made abundantly clear. His feelings over his mother’s quick marriage have left him in a state ...

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