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A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hamlet

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Shakespeare suggests that when an individual has the drive to avenge someone and reconcile with their past, they often take drastic measures without thinking through their actions because they are uncertain what the repercussions will be, and end up in situations that don’t have anything to do with what is going on. Hamlet’s character is very paradoxical to both the reader and the characters within the play. Readers may believe that he is a noble and misunderstood character, “So, gentlemen/ with all my love I do commend me to you”(Shakespeare 1.5.204-205) because of the way that he cares for the people in his life; He is willing to risk it all just to avenge his dead Dad. As readers, Shakespeare convinces the audience to feel remorseful towards …show more content…

Readers are convinced in the opening act that Hamlet would do anything to help his friends out. Meanwhile, characters in the play portray that he is a depressed maniac, “where sadly the poor wretch comes/ reading” (Shakespeare 2.2.183-184) because he is feeling the burden of losing his entire family. The imagery describing Hamlet as he is in a depressive state helps to develop the idea that he is hurting from the betrayal within his family and that is why he is making rash decisions without thinking of the people that are currently in his life. A main characteristic that has played into this idea of Hamlet being crazy is his inability to make decisions, “To be or not to be- that is the question” (Shakespeare 3.1.64). Over the course of the play, we see Hamlet make many decisions that end poorly because he doesn’t think it through entirely. The use of paradox in this quote helps to develop the rationale behind his actions, and shows readers that he is an indecisive person when it comes to making hard decisions. The way that Hamlet acts throughout the play shows us that his heart and his desire is in the right place, but his actions don’t mirror his true

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Your father has just passed away and your best friend is off to college. To make matters worse your mother remarries extremely fast to your uncle. In the midst of all this, you find yourself lost and and confused. Just like Hamlet was in his soliloquy to be or not to be. Hamlet’s father's ghost appears and ask to avenge his death.

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In Act 4, Scene 4 of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses a variety of rhetorical devices to convey Hamlet's inner turmoil. The soliloquy is a powerful expression of Hamlet's despair and sense of hopelessness, and it marks a turning point in the play. Shakespeare uses metaphors, repetition, and rhetorical questions to convey the depth of Hamlet's pain. One of the most striking rhetorical devices used in the soliloquy is the metaphor of the "diseased" country.

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Hamlet represents the indecisiveness in all of us, and his philosophical thinking allows him to be more rounded as he considers varying sides. Brian Pearce writes, “It is as if the character itself is a contradiction” (Pearce 4). While in one sense, Hamlet is adamant to avenge his father’s death and plans to murder his uncle Claudius, he also thinks that murder is wrong because he is horrified at what Claudius did. And then there is the fact that he also expresses a shockingly little amount of remorse when he kills Polonius.

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In the David Tennet video clip of the infamous “To be or not to be” speech Hamlet says from the movie of Hamlet in which Tennet Portrays Hamlet, helps to add clarity to the audience of the portrayal of this speech. Hamlet is “alone” during this and to help add that feeling of aloneness the producers of this particular movie and scene, made the surroundings darker to emphasize the feeling of being alone that Hamlet feels, even though people are listening to this speech, although they are not pictured in the clip. The background colors and darkness helping to create this alone atmosphere help to then emphasize the tone of Tennet during the portrayal of this speech. The tone is one that is serious, solemn, and sad all at the same time, these feeling which is conveyed through Tennet's tone throughout the speech helps add to the seriousness of this speech, and helps to emphasize the points of death, humanity, feeling alone, and betrayal that is all present within the words used in this speech.

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1) In Hamlet, pouring poison in a person’s ear had both a literal and symbolic significance. The literal meaning is that they are telling lies to people in order to deceive them. They are pouring poison or “poisonous” words into that person’s ear. The symbolic meaning of pouring poison in a person’s ear can be associated with the symbolic meaning of the snake in the story of Adam and Eve where the snake lures Eve in through lies. The characters in Hamlet were misled in the same way because they had poison poured into their ears.

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“Pain is inevitable suffering is optional” -Buddha Pain and suffering are evident in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, yet Hamlet experiences of pain transformed him…... Yet his suffering accumulates in his soliloquy in Act 3 scene 1, where he contemplates suicide. Through this metaphor, Shakespeare conveys his message of how humans can inflict their own suffering, which leads to their downfall. To convey this message, he utilizes rhetorical questions, paradoxes and metaphors of sleep.

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The cold wind violently blew as it brushed my hair into into my eyes, I swatted it away and squinted as it blew harder. I stared at the coffin, a little too long perhaps I was just shocked that he was actually gone. To think that these "ghost" shenanigans would lead to all of this blood shed. I hear a faint voice coming closer and closer, "My lord! , shall the speech be redied for you?

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Hamlet no longer wanted to live in this life despair and pain. Another illustration of his indecisiveness is during the play when he had a clear chance to avenge his father by killing Claudius but choose not to do so, because he thought that Claudius was repenting for his

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Hamlet is expressing to the audience at the beginning of the play where he feels depressed, in a dark place wanting to disappear. He feels in deep anguish and despair because of his father's death and his mother's remarriage to his uncle, Claudius. Because of society and God, Hamlet refrained from taking his own life. The text reveals the struggle he's going through in real life and in his own thoughts. Religion played a huge part in the era Hamlet grew up in, God is mentioned many times in the soliloquy.

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It is that persona that makes it such a challenge to understand him, but in fact, it can be that the reason that his feelings are widely unknown are not because he is completely inexpressible as he is portrayed, but can be the outcome of a plot that besmirched his character. Shakespeare’s fault was generating a story that unsettled Hamlet’s emotions, and so his madness is perceived as “a deliberate dissimulation” – a trick to gain revenge on his

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As a moral obligation to obey the Bibles caution, the player king in Hamlet sums up the dilemma when he recites these lines: ”Our wills and fates do so contrary run that our devices still are overthrown; our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.” (Act 3, Scene II, Line 208) Throughout the play, various occurrences will arise,

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In the classic play, "Hamlet" the main character Hamlet suffers his father's death. As if this is enough to deal with, his Mother then quickly remarries to Hamlet's uncle. It is easy to imagine that this is hard to deal with. In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet reveals his complex thoughts of life and death by weighing the positives and negatives of each against each other through the use of figurative language.

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(Hamlet 568-82). Hamlet feels pity for himself for being in such a horrible situations with his father’s death, his mother’s quick marriage, and his depression but he is angry at himself for not doing anything about his situation, for not avenging his father against a horrible person. He does not create a revenge plan, he does not speak for his father, etc. He is frustrated and angry because wanted to avenge his father but he does not follow through with his desires. Hamlet then begins to fire up with anger and motivation for revenge against Claudius.

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261 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout Hamlet, Prince Hamlet is faced against many situations that question his mental stability and ability to make decisions. His indecisiveness comes from the way he reacts to the situations he is put in and the way his mind presents these situations to him. The most important indecisive moments are Hamlet’s suicidal thoughts, his father’s ghost, and his vengeance to Claudius. When Hamlet is told by a ghost that has a resemblance of his father that Claudius had killed him, he vows to take vengeance and revenge his father’s death.

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Hamlet is telling himself how he has the will and power to do what he wants to do, yet

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