Hamlet fascinates many readers and the first thing to point out about him is that he is mysterious. Shakespeare's work demonstrates Hamlet's dilemma as the role of revenger showing a man of thought forced to be a man of action. Hamlet is extremely phil...
Hamlet fascinates many readers and the first thing to point out about him is that he is mysterious. Shakespeare's work demonstrates Hamlet's dilemma as the role of revenger showing a man of thought forced to be a man of action. Hamlet is extremely philosophical and introspective. He is particularly drawn to difficult questions or questions that cannot be answered with any certainty. Faced with evidence that his uncle murdered his father, Hamlet becomes obsessed with proving his uncle's guilt before trying to act. He is equally overwhelmed with questions about the afterlife, about the wisdom of suicide, and about what happens to bodies after they die. However, even though he is thoughtful to the point of obsession, Hamlet also behaves rashly and impulsively. When he does act, it is with surprising as when he stabs Polonius through a curtain without even checking to see who he is. He seems to step very easily into the role of a madman, behaving erratically and upsetting the other characters with his wild speech and pointed innuendos. It is also important to note that Hamlet is extremely depressed and unhappy with the state of affairs in Denmark and in his own family. At a number of points in the play, he contemplates his own death and even the option of suicide. Hamlet is a man of thought' forced to become a 'man of action' because right from the start of the play, he is
Hamlet Act 3 scene 4
Act 3 Scene 4, so called the closet scene, is the first time we see Hamlet and Gertrude together alone. In this scene Hamlet releases his anger and frustration at his mother for the sinful deed she has committed i.e. her marriage to her brother-in-law and the murderer. We can see that Gertrude is unaware of her husband's murder when she says `As kill a King?' and it is the first time she confronts her own behavior. There is a conflict between the two; Hamlet gives powerful replies `Mother you have my father much offended' `Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue' Hamlet takes control of the conversation from the very beginning of the scene although it is Gertrude who was meant to be rebuking him and doing much of the talking. Hamlet succeeds in shaming her until the point when she begs him to stop. Hamlet having the upper hand in the conversation, asks his mother to change her ways, which she agrees to and asks for his advice, showing that she has submitted herself to her son. Hamlet does not really show much respect for his mother while reproving her and forcing her to sit down but he does love her. Some critics believe that his love shows sexual connotation and that is a reason why he gets so upset at her remarriage. There is a point in this scene when Gertrude thinks her life is in danger of Hamlet and gets frightened, which shows us that she considers him to be mad
T.S. Elliot's The Wast Land: metaphors and metonymy.
T.S. Elliot's The Wast Land: metaphors and metonymy. Metonymy doesn't substitute like metaphor something like the thing that is meant for the thing itself, but substitutes some attribute or cause or effect of the thing for the thing itself. As an elaborate and repetitive device, it fulfils two functions in modernist poems. It depicts a fragmentation of perception - which it in part creates as well. It also constructs a new coherence, one that is unlike the linear structure of the conventional narratives, but resembles a network. One of the central problems of modernist poetry is indeed its attempt to overcome the traditional narrative, the epic tradition that brings with it coherent characters and personalities (like the epic heroes) as well as a linear view of history. Both of these points were threatened by the more and more increasing speed of modern life in the late industrial society as well as by the most radically disturbing experience in history so far: The First World War. The abandoning of epic tradition was much more difficult than the early attempts of the modernist suggested. For example, Imagism thought to overcome the traditions of its predecessors by simply refusing to develop coherent arguments. A single image was declared sufficient, and narrative to be avoided at all costs (R. Stevenson). Yet the price that it had to pay for its radical reduction of poetic
Many of the plays revolve around the central question of 'killing the King.' What are the political
Many of the plays revolve around the central question of 'killing the King.' What are the political Kings are everywhere in Shakespeare, from Hamlet to Richard the Second, from Henry the Eighth to Macbeth; many of the plays contain a central element of a king or autocratic head of state such as Julius Caesar, for example. They focus more specifically on the nature of that person's power, especially on the question of removing it; what it means on both a political and psychological level, how it can be achieved, and what will happen afterwards. This is not surprising, considering the times Shakespeare was living in: with the question of who ruled and where their authority came from being ever more increasingly asked in Elizabethan and Jacobean times the observations he makes are especially pertinent. Kings and kingship also lend themselves well to drama; the king is a symbol of the order (or disorder) of the day and a man who possesses (almost) absolute authority and the status that accompanies that, whilst in contrast he is also a human being with the ordinary weaknesses of that condition. Shakespeare is also said to have loved the drama of killing; according to legend he would "make a speech when he killed a calf" in his father's abattoir (Richard Wilson: 'A Brute Part'.) The dramatic image of sacrifice is particularly prevalent in Julius Caesar; Brutus says: " Let us be
What, in your opinion, were Hamlet's reasons for delaying the killing of the King in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'?
Q. What, in your opinion, were Hamlet's reasons for delaying the killing of the King in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'? A. Revenge tragedies have captivated audiences worldwide long before the time of Shakespeare. In reality Hamlet - supposedly a Shakespeare original - has its roots in the celebrated Danish story of Amleth from the twelfth Century. Critics have also drawn many conclusions that 'Hamlet' was a re-make or Shakespeare's version of Thomas Kyd's famous 'The Spanish Tragedy'. Like 'The Spanish Tragedy' and the many other revenge tragedies of that time, Hamlet too consisted of the stock conventions of revenge tragedies like the ghost, the crime done in secret, the play-within-the-play, a male lead who stimulates madness and a heroine who goes mad and commits suicide. Yet there was and is something very different about the tale of 'Hamlet'. This play has managed to keep audiences and critics alike questioning themselves and the world around them. Hamlet's delay in the killing of the King is another aspect that make 'Hamlet' one of the most intriguing plays that explore human nature. Revenge tragedies, especially the ones about murder were extremely popular with the Elizabethan audience. This was more or less because they were forbidden to commit revenge, let alone murder, in their lives. The church forbade it and it was silently agreed upon that if the revenge seeker
Explore how and why Shakespeare presents thought and actions in the first two acts of the play.
AS English Literature: 'Hamlet'- A study of the play Jaffar Al-Rikabi 12 - 2 Explore how and why Shakespeare presents thought and actions in the first two acts of the play. "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!" Hamlet famously pronounces in the second act of William Shakespeare's longest drama, and one of the most probing plays ever to be performed on stage. It was written around the year 1600 in the final years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who had been the monarch of England for more than forty years and was then in her late sixties. The prospect of Elizabeth's death and the question of who would succeed her was a subject of grave anxiety at the time, since Elizabeth had no children, and the only person with a legitimate royal claim, James of Scotland, was the son of Mary, Queen of Scots, and therefore represented a political faction to which Elizabeth was opposed. The Elizabethan era also witnessed the rise of the Renaissance movement in which many old ideals and beliefs were challenged or rejected. In Copernicus and Galileo's discoveries in Astrology, Sir Walter Raleigh's geographic and trade expansion, Machiavelli's revolutionary ideas in political thought and in the discoveries of chemical cures as medicine, the Renaissance was, in essence, the beginning of the modern world, one which clashed with the Catholic Church and thus was seen as a movement of
An Analysis of Hamlets Philosophy of Life and Death in William Shakespeares Hamlet
Takala Siobhan Takala Mr. Hodson English B30H June 17th 2012 A Struggle with Death’s Dominion; An Analysis of Hamlet’s Philosophy of Life and Death in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Dylan Thomas once wrote “And death shall have no dominion”. William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, is a provocative play that portrays how a young prince struggles with his philosophy of life and death after the death of his father. Hamlet, the prince, has trouble overcoming his father’s passing as he also has to deal with its aftermath. The first problem Hamlet has to deal with is his mother Gertrude’s marriage to the newly appointed king, Hamlet’s uncle Claudius. Hamlet is disgusted by this, seeing it as “incestuous”(Shakespeare 1.2.162) and begins to contemplate suicide as an alternative to dealing with his problems. His strong angst toward the newly weds grows even more acute when Hamlet is visited by his father’s ghost and becomes aware that Claudius murdered his father. With this, he continues to struggle, asking himself which is easier, “to be or not to be”(3.1.64). After this, Hamlet’s outlook on life and death is continually changing due to a series of events until he comes to the conclusion that people should “let be”(5.2.238) because “there’s a divinity that shapes our ends”(5.2.11).Thus, through Hamlet, Shakespeare presents the idea that
Critical Approaches to Shakespeare: Some Initial Observations.
Critical Approaches to Shakespeare: Some Initial Observations [This text was last revised on November 19, 2001] Introduction An earlier introductory note to some basic principles of literary interpretation ("On Scholarship and Literary Interpretation"), stressed that literary interpretation or literary criticism is, in many ways, an anarchic conversational activity with the practical purpose of enriching our shared understanding of a particular text. The value of any particular interpretative observations, or of a methodology upon which those observations are based, is judged by the results, as adjudicated by a group of intelligent conversationalists who have read and thought about the text under discussion. Hence, there is no one privileged way of organizing and presenting one's views. As that previous note mentioned, there are some basic rules about how the conversation should proceed, but these do not require a shared adherence to a single way of reading a text. In fact, the conversational basis for really useful literary interpretation finds its justification in the contrast between different ways of reading a text or some portion of it, because conversation is the best forum in which such differences confront each other and the participants profit from a discussion of the results of such different readings. However, in spite of the above remarks, there are some
Select two soliloquies from Hamlet and analyse their significance to the play as a whole
Harry Street Select two soliloquies from Hamlet and analyse their significance to the play as a whole In this essay I will consider the significance of the soliloquies in Shakespeare's Hamlet. When Shakespeare wrote his plays he intended to make them entertaining for the era of his time, which was of course the Elizabethan era. At this time there was no technology available, and going to the theatre was the only real form of entertainment that was offered to the people. To ensure that the plays were enjoyable, Shakespeare had to include aspects that were relevant to the people, so that they could relate to what was happening. During the Elizabethan period teachings of Greek mythology were very common, and Shakespeare does relate parts of Greek mythology in the play, so that the audience have more understanding. Also, most Elizabethans were convinced that they lived in a world that God had created, and the christen view that mankind was redeemed by Christ was rarely challenged by Elizabethans. As the majority of Elizabethans were Christians, Shakespeare uses aspects of Christianity in Hamlet, once again so that the audience can relate to the feelings that are portrayed. At the beginning of a soliloquy there is only one character present, all the others that were in the scene must leave the room before the soliloquy starts. This is because a soliloquy is a dramatic monologue
How effectively does Shakespeare use the language of Hamlets soliloquies to help the reader to get an insight into his character?
Q: How effectively does Shakespeare use the language of Hamlets soliloquies to help the reader to get an insight into his character? Ans: No other writer in the world is so quotable or so often quoted as Shakespeare is. He expressed his deep thoughts and feelings in words of great beauty and power. In the technical skills of rhythm, sound, image and metaphor he remains the greatest of craftsmen. His range is immense. It extends from funny puns to lofty eloquence, from the speech of common men to the language of philosophers. His plays rose to fame and appreciation due to his extraordinary insight into human psychology. His ability to distinguish man in all forms and character is extraordinary. This magnificent ability is shown through all his plays. Some of Shakespeare's famous tragic plays include Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar and Macbeth which not only captures our interest and wonder but teach us valuable lessons in life as well. Shakespeare's magic speech and fancy can be felt but not described. No one else has his wide variety, his warmth, his clear-cut vision of evil and his high regard for heroism. He believed that man could overcome the evil in himself. He once said, "we are mixtures of good and evil." His characters have an astonishing reality. Like real people, they can be great and yet foolish, bad and yet likable, good and yet faulty.
