Hamlet's Contempt for Claudius- Quotes
Within the passage from Hamlet, Shakespeare uses diction, Imagery and metaphors in order to gravely convey the Ghost and Hamlet’s contempt for Claudius and the Queen. Shakespeare uses vivid Imagery throughout the selected passage to illustrate his theme. While describing the death of Hamlet’s father, the lines read “And curd, like eager droppings into milk, the thin and wholesome blood.” Giving the reader a gruesome picture of the spread of poison, encompassing the king’s body, Shakespeare shows the reader Claudius’s true cruelty. The degree of violence used against his own brother aids in backing the Ghost’s case against Claudius. A little later on the Ghost exclaims, “Let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest.” Depicting the crown as something being taken for granted and used for evil, the Ghost is informing Hamlet that he must not let Claudius remain in power. He tells Hamlet that the only way to rid the country of this evil is to expel the murderer from the thrown and avenge his death. Imagery is scattered throughout to appeal to reader’s senses and help strengthen Hamlet and his father’s Ghost stance against Claudius and the Queen. Diction is also a major literary element used align the reader with Hamlet and the Ghost in their contempt for Claudius and the Queen. Words with extremely negative connotations like “loathsome,” “adulterate” and” incestuous” are used frequently. These words aid in setting a negative tone for the entire passage. These words also help in the development if the truth about what is really going on within the Danish court; rather than the all too perfect society it originally comes off to be, the court is in reality a place of corruption, seduction and betrayal. To give the ghost a more prophetic and poetic way of speech, Shakespeare choose words with similar beginning sounds in several places. At one point he states “With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts- O wicked wit.” The playwright’s