ipl-logo

Contradistinction In Hamlet

388 Words2 Pages

Everyone, at one point or another, ponders the idea of their death and how short life is. In Act V, Scene I of Hamlet, Shakespeare notes that even royalty and nobility struggle with the concept of dying and its impact. In the scene, Hamlet encounters two desensitized gravediggers who have handled so many bodies that they elate the gruesome and morbid conditions of their practice. Originally upset with the gravediggers blasphemy, Hamlet grows more absorbed with the bodies beneath the boneyard. When he stumbles upon the decaying cranium of his jokester from adolescence, Hamlet undergoes an epiphany regarding living and dying. The section (lines 185-206) applies contradistinction between the former behavior and ongoing condition of two contrasting …show more content…

Hamlet opens his passage by initially detailing the psychological facet of Yorick before his death. He characterizes his jokester as someone of “infinite jest” and “excellent fancy,” and reveals Yorick to be amusing and animated (5.1.186-187). Shakespeare’s portrayal of Yorick delineates the jokester to be someone who savored and celebrated his life’s peak. Nonetheless, Hamlet resumes his expression by presenting a sequence of open-ended inquiries in regards to the contradistinction between his jester’s deceased skull and formerly living opposite. He facetiously interrogates Yorick, saying, “Where be your gibes now?” (5.9.191). Through his contemptuous questioning, Hamlet wishes to differentiate his old jester’s prior exuberance and glee with his current aphasic and hollow condition. Even more cases of Hamlet’s contradistinction with the current state of Yorick and his former self surface as he further challenges Yorick on the whereabouts of his emblematic “songs”, “gambols”, and “flashes of merriment” (5.1.191.192). All while this is happening, Hamlet is still handling the dislodged cranium of his jester while questioning Yorick. In context with the situation, Hamlet’s interrogation is designed to clarify the contrasting elements of Yorick’s psyche before and after his death. He construes the vacancy of his jester’s cheerful behavior as confirmation that an underlying transformation took place at the time of Yorick’s cessation of

Show More
Related
1231 Words | 5 Pages

And due the fact that Strawson think that “The concept of a person is logically prior to that of an individual consciousness” (Strawson, 1958/1981, p.109) is that, finally Hamlet can talk to Yorick’s skull: “We speak of a dead person –a body- and in the same seconday way we might at least think of a disembodied person, retainging the logical benefit of individuality from having been a person” (Strawson, 1958/1981, p.109), and we can talk to the bodies of the love ones has pass

Read More
843 Words | 4 Pages

Of all present [themes] in Hamlet, Yorick’s skull has symbolic significance in reference to themes Shakespeare adopted in Hamlet. Beyond its skeletal form, Yorick’s skull holds an interpretation

Read More
826 Words | 4 Pages

Prince Hamlet realizes that death is an unstoppable fate for everyone, even for himself. Since Prince Hamlet comprehends that death is a fate for humanity that can’t be escaped, this element eliminates the distinction between people. This recognition allows Prince Hamlet to accept the fate of death which develops his character in a mature way. The topic of death grants Prince Hamlet to carry out his obligation of revenge because he is now aware of the fact that death will emerge as a repercussion of revenge, just as it the creator. Shakespeare uses Yorick's skull to develop Prince Hamlet’s character with the idea of death so that he can continue with his ultimate

Read More
694 Words | 3 Pages

Queen Gertrude teaches Hamlet a valuable lesson about death when she says “Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die, / Passing through nature to eternity” (1.2.74–75). She tells us that all we know is that we go from earthly existence back into the mysterious pace from whence we came. In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Hamlet contemplates what happens when we die and what it means to die. Hamlet's point of view on death changes throughout the play. His views range from one side of the spectrum – contemplating the worth of life – to the other, which is death.

Read More
1432 Words | 6 Pages

(Greenblatt, 412) the skull is now a reminder of the finality of death. Hamlet is looking directly into the face of death literally (looking at Yoricks skull) and philosophically. He contemplates how the jester and Alexander the Great could have ended in the same exact place. The idea leads him to believe that death is common and it is inevitable. Yoricks skull now develops the theme of death because it is the first time Hamlet physically sees death seemingly giving him a more mature perspective of

Read More
981 Words | 4 Pages

Hamlet Journal 1 In William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet, appears to be insane, but his mistrust for his uncle and desire for revenge drives him “To put on an antic disposition on— / That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,” (I.v.181). He succeeds in convincing almost everyone around him that he is truly a mad man whose only cure is execution; however, he is enigmatic and ambiguous. By having an appearance of insanity and madness, Hamlet is able to use it to his advantage to achieve his own purpose of ridding his father’s murderer.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the delusion of madness and irrational behavior contributes largely to the development of the character Hamlet. Following the death of his father, Hamlet decides to inspect how his father passed away. The clearest way to processed is to act helplessly insane. With numerous events of deranged encounters, Hamlet portrays this as a reasonable behavior. The first case of Hamlet’s impersonation as a madman begins when he races to see his previous girlfriend, Ophelia.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, while guarding the castle, waiting in anticipation of the ghost’s appearance, Hamlet, Horatio and Marcellus hear trumpets flourish from within, proclaiming the King’s late night partying (1.4). Horatio asks about the nature of the commotion, however, Hamlet remains nonplussed, crestfallen by the evening’s affairs. In his lengthy, 26-line response to Horatio’s simple question, “Is it a custom,” Hamlet experiences an internal struggle between fated traditions and logic, elaborates upon the country’s damaged reputation, the immediate yield of the King’s drinking, and argues that even the most picayune evils can eradicate a man’s fame (14). Hamlet, despite his devotion to kin and country, through sardonic diction, repetition,

Read More
2042 Words | 9 Pages

Yorick’s skull, which Hamlet discovers in the graveyard in the first scene of Act V. He is fixated on the concept of death’s inevitability that no one can avoid death and is particularly fascinated by the appearance of the disintegration of a body. An example is when he traced the skull’s mouth and says, “Here hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft,” indicating his fascination with the physical consequences of death. It is an important symbol because throughout the play, Hamlet frequently makes comments referring to every human body’s eventual decay, noting that Polonius will be eaten by worms, that even kings are eaten by worms, and that dust from the decayed body of Alexander the Great might be used to stop a hole in a beer

Read More
1457 Words | 6 Pages

The question of whether or not Hamlet was insane is of a never-ending debate. Was he always crazy? Was he always faking it? Or was he somewhere in between? In this paper I will share three different views and provide my own interpretation of Hamlet’s sanity.

Read More
1118 Words | 5 Pages

Consequently, this brings into question Hamlet’s true “feelings” towards

Read More
1071 Words | 5 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet struggles to cope with his late father’s death and his mother’s quick marriage. In Act 1, Scene 2, King Claudius, Queen Gertrude, and Hamlet are all introduced. Hamlet has just finished publicly speaking with his mom and the new king, and after he is interrupted by his good friend Horatio, who reveal the secret about King Hamlet’s ghost. Hamlet’s soliloquy is particularly crucial because it serves as his initial characterization, revealing the causes of his anguish. Hamlet’s grief is apparent to the audience, as he begins lamenting about the uselessness of life.

Read More
962 Words | 4 Pages

He maintains that his life has no value throughout the play and contemplates suicide. Hamlet's questioning thoughts on life's worth is further expressed the ten lines of 203-212 in act V scene i. which read ““No, faith, not a jot, but to follow him thither/ with modesty enough and likelihood to lead it:/ Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander retur-/ neth to dust, the dust is earth, of earth we make/ loam, and why of that loam whereto he was con-/ verted might they not stop a beer-barrel?/ Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,/ Might stop a hole to keep the wind away./ O that the earth which kept the world in awe/ Should patch a wall t' expel the winter's flaw!” Hamlet speaks these lines during an exchange with the gravediggers, one who was singing and juggling skulls while he worked. In these lines, Hamlet explains how no one's life is really worth anything because, in the end, we are all reduced to corpses, skulls, dust, and clay. By using Alexander and Caesar as examples, two influential and powerful leaders of

Read More
782 Words | 4 Pages

Jan-Erik Aavik IB English HL B. Raid 04.11.2016 Written Task 2 Outline: Part of the course to which the task refers: Part 3 Literature - text and context Title of the text for analysis: Hamlet, William Shakespeare 1599

Read More
932 Words | 4 Pages

To be or not to be morally ambiguous is to have the lack of coherence in making moral life decisions. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet goes through a great transformation. Hamlet seeks revenge toward Claudius who he believes killed his father for the throne. In many of Shakespeare’s play there is always a hero and a villain, but in Hamlet, Hamlet plays a pivotal role because he can be viewed as both the hero and the villain. Hamlet is seen as a morally ambiguous character due to the decisions he makes throughout the plot of the novel that ends up leading him to his demise.

Read More

More about Contradistinction In Hamlet

Related Topics

Open Document