Examples Of Duplications In Hamlet

There is duplication and repetition seen in everyday life and in various forms of art, duplication can be a natural occurrence as well as one created to enhance or give deeper meaning to an idea or situation. One important form of art in which duplication can be seen is literature; specifically in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Examining the duplications of characters, actions, and scenes in Hamlet can be useful in better understanding the play itself because these duplication are what the audience remembers most since they have seen it twice and thus we can make connections between the similarities and differences of repeated situations and what implications they have on the play. Duplication creates a foundation onto which Hamlet is viewed in two,

Throughout Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, it is evident that Hamlet is indecisive and contemplative, he is stuck in an internal conflict between what choices he should make and how he should go about avenging his father’s death. Hamlet acts mad in order to make people believe he has gone crazy so no one is suspicious of his plans to kill Claudius. He does not want to kill Claudius while he is praying because he believes Claudius may go to heaven-- he wants Claudius to pay for the murder of King Hamlet and burn in hell. Hamlet suggests that he kill Claudius “when he is drunk asleep, or in his rage,...about some act That has no relish of salvation in ’t—Then trip him,...his soul may be as damned and black As hell, whereto it goes”(83). Hamlet often overthinks situations and in this process fails to act and releases the

Guilfoyle argues that duplicated actions are “reverberations of death” that cause an opposing view of Hamlet as both a hero and a villain in his own tragedy. Furthermore, she argues that duplicated scenes represent a “further spiral into what is evil, wrong, or impure”, presenting the idea that these duplications showcase the negativity in the play and highlight the immorality of the situations in the play. Guilfoyle examines the doubling of characters as to what characters relate to one another and the circumstances duplicated on their basis. She states that there are too many words repeated to examine them all but that “one form of repetition may be important in inducing the listener to give weight to a piece of information which may not have seemed significant on first hearing”(Guilfoyle 6). Guilfoyle finds that duplications symbolize a sin or evil in the play, once something is duplicated, there is bound to be trouble found in the situation: “the doubling and dividing, the negations and visions of nothing go hand in hand with the procession of sin, disaster, and death in the play” (Guilfoyle 12). Guilfoyle focuses on the opposing ideas of good and evil in relation to action and denial in order to interpret duplication within the play and it’s implications on the meaning of the