Preview

Shakespeare's Use Of Metaphors In Hamlet

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
616 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shakespeare's Use Of Metaphors In Hamlet
In this dialogue, Shakespeare writes about Hamlet’s pondering of suicide and death, which provides the reason for his hesitation to carry out his revenge. Hamlet is clearly conflicted with the fear that he might not find peace even after death. However, if he continues to carry on with his life, he will have the burden of knowing his mother had married his uncle Claudius who killed his father. The scene shows his moral and mental anguish at its peak in this soliloquy since Shakespeare portrays a lost, indecisive Hamlet.

During the scene, Shakespeare’s use of metaphors helps emphasize how events have gone wrong for Hamlet. For example, Shakespeare creates this idea/image through the lines “The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” The “slings and arrows” are supposed to represent the fact that Hamlet was attacked with “outrageous fortune” representing the fact that his father was killed by his uncle who married his mother. Shakespeare’s use of the metaphor just restates that Hamlet is troubled and does not truly know what to do. This conflict causes Hamlet view the world as a terrible place for him to live in and thus explains his depression. Another use of metaphors acknowledged is the line “sea of troubles.” Shakespeare uses this line to depict Hamlet’s emotional distress as a sea of suffering. This reiterates the conflict that Hamlet faces and causes him to contemplate whether to carry out his revenge or to suffer dealing with the
…show more content…
He sees death as an eternal dream, and that it is just like falling asleep. Shakespeare emphasizes this phrase by repetition in order to make sure the audience understands Hamlet’s initial perspective about death, which will change throughout the play. As the play goes on, Hamlet’s quest will allow him to understand the true meaning of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, can be seen as one about duty, in particular Hamlet's struggle with his duty to his father and the possible consequences involved. Hamlet's duty is revealed when he speaks with the ghost of his father who commands Hamlet to "revenge his foul and most unnatural murder." The appearance of the supernatural and the suggestion of a "most unnatural murder" also presents the idea of corruption as it portrays the idea of death against the natural order. Hamlet clearly struggles with this command from his father's ghost, as avenging his father's death would mean that Hamlet himself would have to murder not just another person, but his uncle CLaudius, the new king of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet struggles to take immediate action but instead he tells the ghost, "with wings as swift as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge." This simile suggests that Hamlet is eager to seek revenge quickly, however his response is paradoxical as "meditation" and "thoughts of love" suggest that he may have to think about the task ahead of him first. This highlights Hamlet's struggle with his duty as while he wants to avenge his father's death, he is also unsure and so cannot…

    • 1139 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet Essay In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Romeo and Juliet find forbidden love for each other but things don’t go as planned. Metaphors and Romeo and Juliet’s actions emphasize how love is such a powerful emotion that guides people into making rash decisions Metaphors in the play show that love is a powerful emotion. When Romeo is crying because he cannot see Juliet anymore while contemplating suicide, Friar Lawrence says, “Thy tears are womanish” (III.iii.115-120).…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, metaphors concerning the moon, flowers, and Cupid are prevalent and have a significant impact on the play. The play focuses on a romantic situation between four Athenians: Hermia, Lysander, Helena, and Demetrius. As the story unravels, many comparisons are made to enhance the language and the messages that the characters try to convey. The moon is personified as a chaste woman who can be both gentle and fiery. Flowers are used as romantic symbols with the power to influence love. Cupid is personified as an armed child who strikes people's hearts even if that love was not meant to be.…

    • 1711 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This play is a tale of two lovers, tied together by death due to ancient family hostility. Throughout the play, this couple, madly in love, made every effort to see each other. The love-struck pair secretly wed and planned to escape Verona together. Despite their families’ many quarrels, true love prevailed; they died in each other’s embraces and the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets came to an end. In Romeo and Juliet, a sweetly painful drama, Shakespeare uses metaphors, oxymorons, and foreshadowing to convey powerful emotions.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet's Tragic Flaws

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One of Hamlet’s ultimate demises were that he was unable to retaliate his father's death by playing mind games with king claudius and queen gertrude. In him doing this hamlet had to convince everyone including himself, that he has gone madly insane because he is grieving over his father's death. Hamlet was only doing this so king claudius would just confess to everyone including hamlet that he had murdered king hamlet. When hamlet says “But now listen to me. No matter how strangely I act you must never, ever let on...with…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Claudius kills King Hamlet and sends Hamlet into a dark place inside his mind where an obsession with death and possibly avenging his father's suspicious undoing. After his father's death, Hamlet's mother marries Claudius almost immediately. The inappropriately timed union angers Hamlet and his feeling of betrayal causes him to believe that love and compassion are not an important or real part of any human or relationship. His depressive and morbid outlook assures him that death is the only thing that is certain in the world. In his early soliloquies, Hamlet expresses longing for suicide "O that this too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew” (I, II, 130) and often thinks about this…

    • 508 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare writes about Hamlet’s journey of seeking revenge. The play begins with Marcellus and Barnardo taking watch over the Denmark castle one night and running into a ghost in the shape of King Hamlet who recently passed. Along with these two men enters Francisco and Horatio, Hamlet’s friends, who also witness the appearance of the ghost and decide to inform Hamlet of what they have seen. After explaining to Hamlet what they have seen they advise him to see for himself at midnight upon their next watch, and sure enough the ghost reappears. As Hamlet follows the ghost it describes the actions that led to his death, explaining that Claudius murdered him, then asks Hamlet to avenge him. In the midst of asking Hamlet to punish Claudius he also says, “Taint not thy mind, not let thy soul contrive/Against thy mother aught. Leave her to Heaven/And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge/…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ghost In Hamlet

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hamlet was considered to be wallowing in self-pity over everything that had recently transpired. His father’s death, his mother’s marriage to his uncle as well as he had been stripped of his rightful place as King of Denmark. Hamlet was of high morals and religious background. He was raised within the Lutheran Christian Faith and was appalled by everyone’s behavior. Resentment now raised its ugly head towards his mother in her “incestuous” union when Hamlet during his soliloquy, proclaims “Frailty, thy name is Woman!” to reflect his disgust of her weakness. But due to the love for his mother Hamlet keeps his resentment and disappointment to himself at this time. Faced with the realization of the murder of his father, who he had idolized and compared to a Greek sun-god and whose ghost has demanded revenge in order to leave purgatory, Hamlet is further torn between his moral values and his Christian faith, as his faith does not allow murder (“Thou shall not…

    • 1324 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gilgamesh Theme

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In each work, death creates change in the storyline and for the main characters. With this change, however, comes newfound strength for the main character. In Hamlet, prince Hamlet is changed forever after the death of his father and the visit with his father's ghost. He mourns the loss of his father as his mother remarries and Hamlet finds the ordeal to be troubling and devastating. Hamlet the Elder warns his son that he was murdered by Claudius and Queen Gertrude. Although stunned at first, young Hamlet faces his mother, angry and betrayed, and fights the new king and even his mother with new found determination. He finds strength in his father's words and is motivated to seek revenge. Hamlet's anger can be seen in this quote, taken from Act I, Scene II, "O God, God, how weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, seem to me all the uses of this world! (298)." Here Hamlet is remembering the loss of his father and is overwhelmed with grief. Later in the play, Hamlet is filled with rage and speaks alone with his mother. When the Queen fears for her life, she calls out for help, alerting the hidden Polonius. In a fit of anger, Hamlet kills Polonius. When his mother comments on the bloody slaying of Polonius, Hamlet replies sarcastically saying, "A bloody deed- almost as bad as kill a king and marry with his brother" (298). It…

    • 1801 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Feeling helpless Hamlet watches his own mother go to bed with the killer of his father, the father that he adored. Since Hamlet is virtually the only person who knows about the traitor that now holds the power of a nation in the palm of his hands, he feels is his duty to save his father’s legacy. Hamlet also feels he is the only one that truly loved his father and therefore the only one who should get the revenge. As said by Gareth Llyod Evans in “this soliloquy …other speculations of Hamlet before the act of revenge, in the form of soliloquy, are less concerned with the deed, than with himself and with self-pitying concern as to why he should have been called upon to put things right” (par. 63). In both soliloquies Hamlet knows he must be the person that kills Claudius for he can only trust himself as shown by not only his uncle. Knowing that Hamlet is the only son of the former king, he has to restore order by killing the perpetrator. Hamlet wants to let know about Claudius’s acquitted crime of fratricide to King…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Shakespeare’s Hamlet provides a lengthy plot which contains many powerful soliloquies and weighty lines that hold significant meaning. As Hamlet himself grows obsessed with avenging his father’s death and murdering Claudius, he consequently questions himself due to his uncle’s cunning nature and smooth transition into kingship. Claudius’ ultimate betrayal of Hamlet’s family sets the action of the play into motion and focuses on the thematic importance of how one man can cheat his way to the throne. In one of his last moments, Hamlet labels his uncle’s actions as “cozenage”, a word which rarely appears in Shakespeare’s writing and therefore holds significance when it is used throughout English texts.…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Metaphor in Hamlet

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Another theme of the play is Hamlet's obsession with death and the afterlife, brought about by his father's untimely death and his own doubts concerning whether or not life is worth living. He metaphorically compares death to sleep,…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In act 3, Hamlet questions the unbearable pain of life and views death through the metaphor of sleep. "To be or not to be: that is the question: / 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. To die, to sleep / no more" (3.1.64-68), details which bring up new thoughts about what happens in the after life. Thus, Hamlet contemplates suicide, but his lacking knowledge about what awaits him in the afterworld causes him to question what death will bring. For example he states, "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn / no traveler returns, puzzles the will / and makes us rather bear those ills we have / than fly to others that we know not of" (3.1.87-90), again revealing his growing concern with "Truth" and his need for certainty. Once again, death appears in act 4 with the suicide of Ophelia, the demand for Hamlet's execution and the gravedigger scene. All of these situations tie back with how death is all around…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Analytical Essay

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare is a tragic story about a prince named Hamlet attempting to get revenge for his father's murder. As Hamlet only to slowly destroy his life in the process. As Hamlet attempts to get revenge, he ultimately ends up destroying himself and the people around him. But before his death, Hamlet slowly decides what he wants to do with his life. Hamlet goes from thinking the world holds nothing for him but not wanting to kill himself because he fears god in the first Soliloquy, to living to avenge his father if needed in the second Soliloquy, to fearing death in the third Soliloquy. Hamlet slowly decides what he wants to do with his life, through his first three Soliloquies in the play…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Death Analysis

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Throughout Hamlet, William Shakespeare’s eloquence and use of thematic imagery helps convey Hamlet’s state of mind as troubled and ambiguous, establishing him as a tragic hero whose feelings of death are nothing short of an enigma. From the opening scene with the ominous apparition to the brutality of the final scene, death is seemingly portrayed further than that of its simplistic physical nature. Hamlet’s thought provoking and introspective nature causes him to analyze death on different levels, ways that are much more profound. Hamlet’s acceptance of death is gradual but very much evident in the play, as his idle nature transitions to one of cowardice and eventually determination and resolve. As the reader is introduced to Hamlet,…

    • 1258 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays