What imagery is used in Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 1?

The main subject of Hamlet's soliloquy is the futility of life in the face of so much hardship. Hamlet believes at this point that life just isn't worth all the hardship, and he would consider suicide if he wasn't also a coward about what may follow death. To convey Hamlet's sense of desperation, Shakespeare utilizes imagery as one of the literary devices in this speech.

One of the images is found near the beginning:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, (III.i.66-67)

These lines also represent a metaphor. Suffering the "slings and arrows" in life allows for the destructive imagery that is important to Hamlet at this point. Life is dangerous, and "fortune" might catch him unaware of an impending attack. The words create imagery reminiscent of battlefields.

Another relevant image is found in the next line:

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles (III.i.68)

This "sea of troubles" is a vast and seemingly impossible source of conflict. How does one count the number of waves in the sea? Likewise, Hamlet feels that his troubles number too many to be counted.

Hamlet uses abusive imagery in this line:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, (III.i.79)

Hamlet feels that time has "whipped" him; this places him in a position of victimization and subservience to the events which plague him. Time injures him and causes him pain, and he feels unable to stop the punishment.

His view of life is captured in this image:

To grunt and sweat under a weary life, (III.i.86)

In this image, life is portrayed as something to be endured. It is physically exhausting, causing Hamlet physical weariness to maintain it. This image makes clear that Hamlet doesn't view life as enjoyable. Rather, he is barely surviving it.

Hamlet also effectively uses imagery in his consideration of the afterlife:

The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns. (III.i.88-89)

Undiscovered lands, particularly at the time this play was written, served a duality in connotative associations. First, they allowed for hope of a new and better life. However, they also served as a possibility of danger. It is this second image that Hamlet attaches to the afterlife in these lines. No one ever returns from death, so it is impossible to know with certainty what might lay beyond. This uncertainty is what keeps Hamlet planted (for the moment) in the land of the living.

What poetic devices are evident in Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4?

Hamlet begins the soliloquy with an exclamation, immediately followed by a rhetorical question. The rhetoric builds further in the long sentence that begins:

Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the event…

to the insistent polysyndeton at the end, which increases the force of Hamlet’s self-reproach by emphasizing the factors that favor revenge:

Sith I have cause and will and strength and means
To do't.

The tone of the simile that follows (“gross as earth”) only increases the sense of Hamlet’s self-disgust which is evident throughout the passage. The contrasts in language between his descriptions of Fortinbras ("a delicate and tender prince") and the troops he leads ("this army of such mass and charge") along with the overblown alliteration ("death and danger dare") and final bathos ("Even for an egg-shell") may ridicule the Norwegian, but their primary effect is to deprecate Hamlet, since he has failed to do as well as Fortinbras in revenging his father. The more absurd Fortinbras is, therefore, the greater Hamlet's own disgrace. Moreover, Hamlet finds a kind of greatness in Fortinbras's quarrelsome disposition, since he is motivated by honor, as his repetition of the words "great" and "greatly" demonstrate:

Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor's at the stake.

After berating himself for inertia, the rhyme (a full rhyme in the original pronunciation) that ends the speech and the scene provides momentum to propel him forward like Fortinbras.

What poetic devices are evident in Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4?

In this soliloquy, Hamlet is wondering why he continues to be so hesitant about avenging his father's death now that knows that Claudius murdered his father. He tries to motivate himself to act by thinking about Fortinbras. Fortinbras is marching with an army to attack Denmark as Hamlet speaks, in order to avenge his own father. Hamlet wants to be inspired by this, but he instead shows his ambivalence about Fortinbras's action through his use of the literary device of antithesis, or the juxtaposition of opposites, as he speaks about this prince:

Witness this army of such mass and charge

Led by a delicate and tender prince,

Whose spirit with divine ambition puffed

What poetic devices are evident in Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4?

Hamlet uses a metaphor to compare a human being who only sleeps and eats to a beast, a mere animal that lacks reason and critical faculties. A metaphor is a comparison of two unalike things in which we say that one thing is another. He says,

What is a man
If his chief good and market of his time
Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more (4.4.32-34).

He means to show how we are meant to be so much more than animals; he says that God created us to be different, to be more than animals, and that we are wasting our "godlike" abilities when we fail to use them.

Hamlet uses a simile when he says that "examples gross as earth exhort [him]" to avenge his father's murder (4.4.45). A simile is a comparison of two unalike things using the word like or as. He means that the reasons he has to act are as obvious as the earth on which he stands. Both are obvious and clear to his perception.

Hamlet uses another metaphor when he describes the reason that Fortinbras and his massive army have to fight as "an eggshell" (4.4.52). The two countries are obviously not fighting over an eggshell, but the reason that they have to fight seems about as important as an eggshell: not very. Fortinbras and his men go to fight over a small piece of land that has no real value to either Norway or Poland, the country whom they will fight.

Further, Hamlet uses another metaphor when he says,

Rightly to be great
Is not to stir without great argument,
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw
When honor's at the stake. (4.4.52-55)

He compares one's small reason to argue with or fight another person to a "straw," meaning that in order to be great, one must fight even when the reason is small if one's honor is ultimately at stake.

What poetic devices are evident in Hamlet's soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4?

Shakespeare’s soliloquy here, as in many of his soliloquys, is not overly poetic – that is, not overly stylistically artificial or self-conscious.  They were not intended to stand alone as poetic discourse by one narrator (Aristotle’s criterion for verse) but as internal dialogues revealing of character, here almost a dialogic argument between two forces inside the character’s head (one arguing for action and one arguing for thoughtfulness).  He compares the impulses of beasts to the god-like ability of Man to choose actions (such as revenge).  Other than the standard iambic pentameter line (ideal for realistic discussion in English), very few poetic “tricks” are visible – an occasional poetic contraction (“do’t) for meter – some syntactic inversion (“or be nothing worth”) – and of course metaphors and other figures of speech (what may appear like a poetic vocabulary is in fact fairly standard for 16th-17th century English, especially in dramatic performance).  The real strength of the soliloquy lies in its persuasive rhetorical language; in it, Hamlet actually argues himself into action (“O, from this time forth,/My thought be bloody or be nothing worth!”); and  the final rhymed couplet, a standard form of closure, adds considerable strength to his resolve.

What diction, imagery, and figurative language are in Hamlet's fifth soliloquy in Act 4, Scene 4?

An example of some interesting diction in this soliloquy is Shakespeare's use of the word "egg-shell." Hamlet is admiring the dedication of Fortinbras's army. They are all marching into battle and potentially towards death, for reasons as thin as an egg-shell. This shows that the army is dedicated to Fortinbras regardless or whether or not they agree with his motives.

Shakespeare creates imagery brilliantly in this soliloquy. The audience is treated to the image of twenty thousand soldiers in an army, despite the fact that they are sitting in a relatively small theater and using their imagination. When Hamlet speaks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern before the soliloquy, the imagery is set up. They explain to Hamlet what Fortinbras and the army are doing. At the end of the soliloquy, Hamlet refers to the giant army marching through the snow. The audience has to use their imagination, but at the climax of a passionate soliloquy, it is easy to visualize the army because of how Hamlet is so deeply inspired by this image.

Hamlet uses some good figurative language early in the soliloquy when he compares humans to beasts. To paraphrase, Hamlet says that if humans do nothing besides eat and sleep, they are beasts. He uses this figurative language to try and elevate himself to the status of an adept human rather than being a beast or an animal. His desire to seek revenge and display his familial loyalty is what separates him from a mindless beast.

What literary devices are used in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy?

Hamlet compares death to sleep, via metaphor, when he says,

To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! 

Comparing death to sleep seems to lessen its finality, its permanence, as though Hamlet is trying to talk himself into it.  He also uses metonymy, the substitution of a detail associated with a thing for the thing meant, when he describes the word "heartache" to describe emotional pain; we don't actually feel pain in our hearts, but we associate our hearts with emotion. 

Moreover, Hamlet uses another metaphor to compare the afterlife to a dream when he says,

To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.

He means that thoughts of what might await us after death make us worry a little bit about dying (or going "to sleep").  Such concerns might make us hang on to life, painful as it is.

What literary devices are used in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy?

Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy uses several metaphors, including "to suffer/ The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." In this metaphor, fortune is compared to an army that throws arrows at one. The next metaphor is "to take arms against a sea of troubles,/ And, by opposing, end them?" In this metaphor, which has become a bit of a cliche, Hamlet likens troubles to a sea in which it is difficult to swim against the tide so that by taking up arms against it, or fighting it, one might die and end one's troubles. In the metaphor, which is an extended metaphor that goes on for several lines--"To die, to sleep"--dying is likened to a long sleep that may or may not bring dreams. That is what worries Hamlet--that death might bring bad dreams.

The next part of the soliloquy features a great deal of anaphora, or the repetition of words at the beginning of clauses. Hamlet speaks of the horrors of life that death will end, including "the whips and scorns of time, /Th' oppressor’s wrong,/ the proud man’s contumely, /The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay," and the list goes on. Time is personified so that it is capable of whipping and scorning people. The word "the" is repeated to emphasize the many horrors present in life.

In a very interesting metaphor, death is compared to "The undiscovered country from whose bourn/ No traveler returns." In other words, death is the country from which no one ever comes back.

What literary devices are used in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy?

This speech in Shakespeare's Hamlet uses several different literary devices. The most important is its overarching generic shape, namely that of a soliloquy, a speech in which a single actor is alone on stage talking to himself in a manner that the audience overhears. In this genre, characters typically reflect on their inner feelings and thus this device works on stage in much the same manner as certain types of narration in novels. 

The first metaphors of the speech compare suffering bad fortune to the suffering experienced by victims of war and violence and are found in the lines:

... to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

Slings (i.e. the pellets flung from a slingshot) and arrows are projectile weapons and Hamlet is emphasizing that suffering bad fortune feels like being shot by these weapons. Next, he extends the metaphor by suggesting that one has a choice of simply suffering from being hit by projectiles from a distance or picking up arms (a sword, for example) and closing with ones' enemy for hand-to-hand fighting. 

Alliteration, or the repetition of consonant sounds can be found in such phrases as "bare bodkin." 

The phrase "shuffled off this mortal coil" is a euphemism for "died." 

What literary devices are used in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy?

This short speech uses many literary devices.  Here are a few samples.

a) "to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"

Metaphor: Unfortunate events that can occur to a person are compared to slings and arrows.

b) "a sea of troubles"

Metaphor: the many troubles that a person might suffer from are compared to a sea 

c) "To die, to sleep— / To sleep—perchance to dream"

Anaphora: The repetition of the infinitive form of the verb (to die, to sleep, etc.) can be considered a form of anaphora, or forceful repetition. 

d) "The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of disprized love"

Alliteration: "Proud" and "pangs" are examples of simple alliteration; they are joined by "oppressor's" and "disprized," which have the "p" sound not in the beginning of the word, but in its stressed syllable.

What literary devices are used in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy?

Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy overflows with metaphors that have made it one of the most famous soliloquies in English literature. Hamlet uses such rich imagery to describe his state of mind that his mental state sticks with us. He describes his (bad) fortune or luck as "slings and arrows," and he imagines "troubles" as an army he can oppose. We can visualize him being struck with the rocks propelled by a sling or pierced painfully by the arrows of bad luck. We can imagine him with a sword, fighting back against his troubles. He calls his body a "coil," and he imagines time as "whips" beating him. All these metaphors communicate how deeply wounded and battered he feels psychologically. 

He goes on to liken death to an "undiscovered country." He imagines his thoughts as "sicklied" and "pale," another metaphor that expresses his inner despair. He then likens his thoughts to a wild ocean that sweeps his desire for action and pushes it on the wrong currents, or currents "turned awry." These metaphors suggest he oscillates from a depressed to a manic state.

All of these metaphors of wounding, of illness, and of ocean currents make real Hamlet's inner turmoil, just as the metaphor of death as an undiscovered country becomes a place we can visualize. 

What rhetorical devices does Shakespeare use in the "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy?

"To be, or not to be: that is the question:" and "To die: to sleep; No more;"

Antithesis--use of parallel structure to show contrasting ideas.  Notice the contrast of suffering for something good with fighting to end troubles in the lines below. Passivity v. aggression.

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? 

Anaphora: Notice how all of the following lines begin with "the" and then a form of possession ('s or "of").

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

Pathos: Look for the many examples of this appeal in the soliloquy such as Hamlet's use of words such as "pangs" "heart-ache" or any other phrases which appeal to human emotions.

Logos: While Hamlet does not rely heavily on logos for this
speech's effect, he does reference some inarguable truths about human nature.  See if you can find at least one example.

These are certainly not the only rhetorical strategies that Shakespeare includes in this speech, but they're a start.

What poetic techniques are used in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Hamlet?

Hamlet uses metaphors when he discusses the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and the "sea of troubles"; he first compares bad fortune to being attacked by projectile weapons, and then he compares the quantity of troubles that one experiences in life to a sea (emphasizing how large a quantity it is). He also uses sleep as a metaphor for death, comparing death "to sleep," and characterizing the afterlife as a "dream" via a related metaphor. In fact, he says that the risk of an unhappy afterlife is actually what often keeps people from taking their own lives. Hamlet claims,

Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. (3.1.73-76)

Here again, he continues to use sleep as a metaphor for death, and he also uses the phrase what dreams may come as a metaphor for the afterlife. He continues, using another metaphor to describe the afterlife as an "undiscovered country from whose bourn / No traveler returns." He says that rather than take the risk that this place is terrible, we prefer a long life. Lots of metaphors!

What poetic techniques are used in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy in Hamlet?

The famous “To be, for not to be” soliloquy from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet employs numerous literary techniques or poetic devices, including the following:

• Juxtaposition, in which two ideas (often opposites) are placed side-by-side, often for purposes of contrast, as in “To be, or not to be” (3.1.55).
• Enjambment, in which a poet moves from one line of poetry to another without punctuation at the end of the first line, so that the first line flows smoothly into the next, as in lines 56-57:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer [no punctuation here]

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune  . . .

• Metaphor, in which a comparison is made without using the words “like” or “as.” Thus the phrase “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (3.1.57) compares misfortune to being assaulted in a battle.
• Fitting syntax to phrasing, or making the structure of a sentence conform to the meaning of a sentence. Thus, at the very end of the soliloquy’s first sentence, Shakespeare appropriately inserts the words “end them” (3.1.59).
• Repetition, as when Hamlet repeats the phrase “To die, to sleep” (3.1.59, 3.1.63) and then immediately repeats “To sleep” again (3.1.64).
• Iambic pentameter meter, in which odd syllables are unstressed and even syllables are stressed, as in the following line: “For in that sleep of death what dreams may come . . .” (3.1.65).
• Rhythmic variation, as when Shakespeare departs from predictable iambic patterns to give greater emphasis to certain words, as in this line: “That makes calamity of so long life” (3.1.68).
• Alliteration, which usually involves the repetition of consonants, as in “so long life” (3.1.68).
• Assonance, which usually involves the repetition of similar vowel sounds, as in “so long life” (3.1.68).
• Return to regular rhythm after departure from it, as in

That makes calamity of so long life:

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time . . . (3.1.69)

• Catalogues, in which key terms are listed so that each gets great emphasis and so that much information is communicated quickly and efficiently, as in

For who would bear the [1] whips and [2] scorns of time,

Th’ oppressor’s [3] wrong, the proud man’s [4] contumely,

The [5] pangs of despis’d love, the law’s [6] delay,

The [7] insolence of office, and the [8] spurns . . . (3.1.69-72)

• Contrasting phrases, as in the lines

Thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklie’d o’er with the pale cast of thought . . . (3.1.83-84)

Many of the techniques listed above are used more than once. Thus, Hamlet’s soliloquy is full of metaphors, and alliteration is often used (as in “bare bodkin” [75] or “conscience does make cowards” [82]). Significantly, no similes (comparisons using “like” or “as”) are used, as if to suggest that Hamlet is not consciously trying to make comparisons but is making them almost automatically, without deliberate fore-thought.