Hamlet language

Comic aspects 1

• - Although the play is a tragedy, the sharp wit and dark humor of Hamlet provide some funny moments, whereas characters like Polonius are unintentianally funny
• - Hamlet's punning is always clever and witty, although there is always a sharp edge to his wit and the tone of their delivery is always bitter "My cousin Hamlet and my son" "A little more than kin and less than kind" . Hamlet also engages in clever word play with Polonius, sich as when Polonius remarks that he played Caeser in a play at university Hamlet replies with "It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf there"
• - the pompous and blustering Polonius is a source of unintentional humour "brevity is the soul of wit"
• - Hamlet's ridiculing of Polonius is also a source of humour. Hamlet highlights Polonius' falseness in their conversation about the clouds, when Hamlet first says the cloud is "in the shape of a camel", Polonius agrees. However, Polonius immeadiatle changes his mind when Hamlet says the cloud looks more like a "weasel and a whale"
• - Hamlet's ridiculing of Osric is also entertaining. when Hamlet observes that the weather is cold, Osric agrees. Hamlet then suggests that the weather is in fact, "very sultry and hot", the servile Osric agrees. Osric speaks in affected jargon to Hamlet, and Hamlet's responses also contain similarly false language, yet Osric is too dim witted to notice
• - Hamlet's wit is also seen in his encounters with R and G, "and when he has finished with you, sponge you shall be dry again"

Comic aspects 2

• - We see Hamlet's black humor when he is telling Claudius where to find the body of Polonius "you will nose him as you go up the stair into the lobby" "he will stay till you come"
• - The graveyard scene provides some light relief before the play's violent and bloody ending. the gravediggers jokes and antics are humerous, and they like to speak in riddles "what is he that build stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? A grave- maker - the houses he makes last till doomsday". While this scene is humerous, there is a dark side to it, prompting Hamlet to reflect on the inevitability of death. While there is a humerous side to the gravedigger casually throwing up skulls, it also underlines the dark reality of the grave.

Soliloquys 1

• - Soliloquys fufil a number of important functions in the play
• - they provide us with important insights into Hamlet's state of mind, it is also when we see the real Hamlet. They also ensure that the audience is sympathetic towards Hamlet by portraying his inner torment. they also inform us of Hamlets plans
• - Soliloquys create a sense of dramatic irony and add to the dramatic tension because the audience knows more about the character than the the other characters do
• - Claudius' soliloquys are very important as they reveal a side of his character that would otherwise remainn hidden. They also inform us of his plans for Hamlet
• - Hamlet's opening soliloquy helps us to understand his hostility towards Claudius and Gertrude, and illustrates the depth of Hamlet's disillusionment with life, as he talks about the world as a "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable". This soliloquy reveals his love for his dead father and his hatred for his uncle and goes on to express his disgust at his mothers behaviour. We see hoe Hamlet's disgust for his mother colours his attitude towards women in general "frailty thy name is woman"
• - Hamlet's second soliloquy reveals his suspicions "I doubt some foul play" and adds to the dramatic tension
• - After his encounter with Fortinbras, Hamlet experiences guilt and anger at his own inaction, leading to a passionate outburst "my thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth"

Soliloquys 2

• - In Hamlet's 3rd soliloquy, the player has just delivered a passionate performance, yet Hamlet, with reasons to be passionate, lacks the passion to act. Hamlet concludes that he is a coward "it cannot be but i am pigeon - livered and lack gall" and this soliloquy helps creat a sense of dramatic irony
• - We see Hamlet at his most philosophical in his 4th soliloquy, and it is important as it helps us to understand the essence of Hamlet's personality, he is a thinker rather than a man of action. Hamlet identifies the key reason for his inaction "thus conscience does make cowards of us all", the more he thinks, the less likely he is to act
• - we see Hamlet's reflective nature in his soliloquy in the prayer scene. Once again he procrastinates, claiming that to kill the villain now would be to send him to heaven
• - Claudius' soliloquy in the prayer scene is very important, we see that he is aware of the enormity of his crime "my offence is rank" and we see how he longs to pray for forgiveness but cannot give up the goods of his crime "my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen". He is also aware that one day he will have to face devine justice for what he has done "but tis' not so above, there is no shuffling, there the action in his true nature". this soliloquy show that Claudius is a villain with a conscience thus making him a more credible villain

Imagery and symbolism 1

• Images of sickness and disease
• - disease imagery recurs throughout the play, symbolising the corrupt Danish court
• - Hamlet beieves that the Danish body politic is suffering from a disease and that Claudius is the source of this moral infection. Claudius morally poisons the Danish court like he literally poisoned King Hamlet "this canker of our nature"
• - The queen admits to her sinful state when she speaks to her "sick soul" While Laertes refers to his grief over his fathers death as "the very sickness of my heart"
• - Ironically, since he is he source of moral corruption in the Danish court, Claudius uses disease imagery to describe Hamlet. He believes that the disease that Hamlets presence represents requires a desprate remedy "diseases by desperate grown by desperate remedy are relieved or not at all". Claudius compares himself to the "owner of a foul disease" and looks forward to the english putting Hamlet to death "for like the hectic in my blood he rages"
• Weed imagery
• - Weed imagery also suggests the idea of corruption. In his opening soliloquy, Hamlet compares the moral condition of the Danish court under Claudius to a garden whose plants have been choked by weeds "'tis an unweeded garden that grown to seed, thing rank and gross in nature posses it merely"
• - when hamlet urges Gertrude to end her relationship with Claudius, He ses an image that reflects his sense of disgust "do not spread the compost on the weed to make them ranker"

Imagery and symbolism 2

• Images of rottenness and decay
• - These images suggest the moral decay of the Danish Court under Claudius' evil rule "something is rotten in the state of denmark"
• - the repulsive image of "the sun breeding maggots in a dead dog" conveys the sense of disgust with which hamlet regards human relationships
• Animal imagery
• - Images of lust highlight Hamlet's feelsing of revulsion at the adultutous and insestouous relationship between is mother and uncle. The bestial nature of their relationship is emphasised through a series of animal imagery "O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer" "honeying and making love over the nasty sty"
• Flower imagery and images of false appearances