Discussion Topic
Shakespeare's use of language and dramatic effects in Hamlet
Summary:
Shakespeare’s use of language and dramatic effects in Hamlet enhances the play's emotional intensity and depth. Through soliloquies, metaphors, and wordplay, he explores complex themes like madness, revenge, and mortality. Dramatic effects, such as ghostly apparitions and the play-within-a-play, heighten tension and underscore the protagonist's internal struggles, drawing audiences into Hamlet's turbulent world.
How does Shakespeare use language and dramatic effect in Hamlet's act 3, scene 4?
This is a dramatic scene that shows Hamlet at his highest emotional pitch. The scene opens ironically, however, as Polonius advises Gertrude to take a firm stand with Hamlet and tell him how much pressure his erratic behavior has put on her, forcing her to mediate between Hamlet and Claudius. Gertrude is to tell Hamlet that he needs to cut it out. As usual, Polonius is clueless: events have sped way past the point Polonius assumes they are at, and confronting Hamlet is exactly the wrong tack to take at this juncture. Gertrude makes it worse by greeting Hamlet with:
Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet, knowing now that what the ghost told him about his uncle is true, has worked himself into a frenzy and is not likely to respond well to the idea that he has offended Claudius. Hamlet reacts angrily and says to Gertrude:
You go not till I set you up a glass
Where you may see the inmost part of you.
Leave wringing of your hands. Peace. Sit you downHamlet then contrasts his dead father to Claudius, calling his father godlike and his uncle like a "mildewed ear." He uses harsh language to confront his mother with the hypocrisy of what she has done in cynically marrying Claudius, describing her relationship with him in contrast to her innocent love for Hamlet's father as
And let me wring your heart.
the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed,The alliteration or repeated use of "s" sounds at the beginning of words puts the emphasis on the words "sweat," "stewed," and "sty," which foregrounds the animalistic nature of Gertrude and Claudius's marriage. These words pierce Gertrude's heart, forcing her to confess their truth, but if this level of intensity were not enough, the ghost again reappears to Hamlet. This time, however, Shakespeare complicates the ghost's appearance, for only Hamlet sees it. Gertrude sees Hamlet's hair stand on end, but she doesn't see the ghost, leading the audience to conclude that Hamlet is possibly hallucinating it. The entire scene has a fevered, gothic quality, beginning with a murder and culminating with a ghost. Shakespeare keeps the emotional pitch at the highest of intensity, in this way showing how deeply distressed Hamlet is.
Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty
How does Shakespeare use language and dramatic effect in Hamlet's Act 4, Scene 3?
Much of the drama in act 4, scene 3 stems from Hamlet's seemingly cruel cat-and-mouse game with Claudius, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern over the whereabouts of Polonius's corpse. What's dramatic is not so much the question of what's happened to the dead body but Hamlet's reaction to events. Although he didn't intend to kill Polonius, he takes his death as a golden opportunity to keep up the facade of madness. In doing so, he resorts to extensive wordplay, adding to the macabre sense of playfulness that epitomizes the scene.
When Claudius asks Hamlet where Polonius is, he tells him that Polonius is at supper:
Not where he eats, but where he is eaten. A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet. We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots.
Polonius is indeed "at supper;" but he's on the menu, providing a sumptuous feast for worms. Hamlet also uses a political pun, when he says that "Your worm is your only emperor for diet." The Diet of Worms was an assembly called by the Holy Roman Emperor in 1521 to examine Martin Luther, the renegade monk who founded Protestantism.
Hamlet's callous disregard for Polonius adds to the general impression that he is not of sound mind. He soon warms to his theme, toying with Claudius like a cat with a mouse in its claws:
A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
This line foreshadows the graveyard scene where Hamlet muses on the common fate of the highest and the lowest alike. Here, he's saying to Claudius that a humble man can catch a fish with a worm that has eaten the remains of a king:
Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.
Hamlet's rather gross, repellent language has a serious point. As well as burnishing his credentials as a dangerous madman, he's also reminding Claudius of the fate that will one day come to him, as to everyone else. Hamlet is making a none too subtle threat here. Claudius doesn't need reminding that he will die one day, but the fact that Hamlet mentions this at all is disturbing for his wicked stepfather. It gives the impression that Hamlet is ready to make a move—to do to Claudius what he's just done to Polonius. This battle of wits and wills heightens the dramatic tension between the two men, forcing Claudius to make a move of his own and send Hamlet off to England with the intention of having him assassinated.
How does Shakespeare use language for dramatic effect in Act 4, Scene 7 of Hamlet?
In act 4, scene 7 of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a variety of imagery and figurative language to increase the dramatic effect of the conversation between Claudius and Laertes and their plot against Hamlet. Let's look at this in more detail.
As the scene opens, Claudius is telling Laertes that the man who killed Laertes's father is now pursuing the king's life. Laertes asks him why he has taken no action against Hamlet, and Claudius responds with an interesting metaphor. He has two reasons, he says, that may “seem much unsinew'd” to Laertes, but they are really quite strong. Claudius goes on to explain that for the queen, Hamlet is central. He is the star in her sphere, and Claudius dares not harm him directly. Hamlet also has the support of the people, and if Claudius were to metaphorically fire an arrow at him, it would turn back upon himself. We can see how much more dramatic these metaphors make Claudius' answer here.
Hamlet's letter that he has returned to Denmark also contains some interesting language, which is, perhaps, meant to continue Hamlet's ploy of madness. He calls Claudius “High and mighty” and says that he has been “set naked” in the kingdom. He wants the king to think that he is vulnerable and crazy.
Finally, toward the end of the scene, Gertrude enters with news that Ophelia is drowned. Her words paint a vivid picture of the event, probably that of an eyewitness. Read through Gertrude's speech, and look at the intensity of the description. The queen captures the scene well with phrases like “weedy trophies,” “weeping brook,” and garments “heavy with their drink” that pull Ophelia to a “muddy death.”
How does Shakespeare use language and dramatic effects in a specific passage from Hamlet?
Context is all-important in Shakespeare. Shakespeare loves to use the dramatic technique of dramatic irony, in which the audience knows something the actors don't. We will examine this in the second passage we look at. Shakespeare also loves to use figurative language and imagery, so that the audience can experience with the five senses what the actors see, hear, and touch, both internally and externally. This was particularly important on the Elizabethan stage, where visual pictures would have had to supplement available props.
So to analyze a passage of Hamlet, it's important both to look at context and then closely consider the words he uses to. We'll turn first to the opening of a very famous soliloquy in act 1, scene 2. Glancing back at the play, we note the context is a conversation Hamlet has just had with Gertrude and Claudius that has left him feeling soiled and unhappy. At this point, he has not met with the ghost but is grieving his father's death, his mother's remarriage, and all that is happening the court.
In analyzing this passage, we first want to look at the language. Hamlet uses the imagery of referring to his own dirtied ("sullied") flesh as something he wishes would melt into a dew—the drops of water we see on the morning grass—and then disappear. Using the image of dew, which is fresh, clean, clear water, is a sharp contrast to "sullied" and suggests that Hamlet believes he will be purified through death. This conveys more than simply saying, "I want to kill myself." It also suggests that he initially welcomes death as nothingness, a way out of all his problems.
Continuing on in the passage, we note the punctuation: the repeated use of exclamation points reveal that Hamlet is feeling emotional, as does the repetition of "God" and the use of "O." Think too about how the words "weary, stale, flat" and then "unprofitable" make you feel. What do they reveal about Hamlet's state of mind? Finally, stepping back, why would Shakespeare stop the action for Hamlet to deliver a soliloquy about being depressed? What is Shakespeare trying to convey?
Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God, God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
He will come straight. Look you lay home to him.
Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,
And that your grace hath screened and stood between
Much heat and him. I’ll silence me even here.
Pray you, be round with him.
First, try and find a passage that speaks to you. You should have a good understanding of the meaning of the passage. You need to have a firm grasp on what is actually being said before you can analyze how it is being said, so that is where you should start.
Next, determine whether the text you have chosen is written in verse or prose. Hamlet is written primarily in blank verse, with characters speaking lines of iambic pentameter. When characters, like the gravediggers, speak in prose, this tells you something about their social class and can form part of your analysis. In Hamlet specifically, Shakespeare also uses prose to indicate that Ophelia has lost her mind.
To analyze blank verse, pay attention to the meter and look especially for places where the meter breaks. Generally, Shakespeare only breaks iambic pentameter to indicate that the speaker is in great distress or has had a revelation.
Shakespeare also heavily uses literary devices and figurative language. Keep an eye out for metaphors, similes, personification, and allusions, most commonly allusions to Greek mythology. All of these devices will give you a way to understand the text.
Finally, to analyze dramatic effect, look for action words in the text. Shakespeare did not use stage directions the way a modern playwright would. He usually only indicated when characters entered and exited, and often, he did not detail the minutiae of action within a scene. However, you can find clues for what should be happening on stage within the language of the dialogue itself. Lines like "put up thy sword" indicate that the characters are drawn, and "dry thine eyes" indicates that a character has been crying. The language is where the action is.
I can give you a couple of focal points to consider about Shakespearean language and the tragedy Hamlet overall to use on the passage assigned by your teacher.
Meter
Shakespeare is particularly well-known for his use of Iambic Pentameter in his
plays. This meter has several uses when it comes to analyzing his work. Noble
characters tend to speak in iambic pentameter, whereas common or comic
characters speak without form, which contributes to characterization. Syntax
has to be reorganized to accommodate the meter, and Shakespeare tends to use
this to advantage in order to emphasize certain elements of a statement, such
as a theme or conflict.
Figurative Language
Shakespeare enjoys integrating analogy, symbolism, allusion, and imagery into
his writing. Some or all of these might be present in your passage. Each of
these has its own literal meaning but then a subtler, inferred meaning that the
audience can discover, which adds to the development of the plot, characters,
conflicts, and themes.
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