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Grief In Hamlet Essay

928 Words4 Pages

A central emotion in almost all of Shakespeare’s tragedy is grief, rightfully so considering the amount of death in an average one of these plays. Hamlet clearly shows his grief in many scenes but the most prominent occurrence is in Act III, Scene I. In the most famous Shakespeare soliloquy, Hamlet questions whether dealing with all of the pain in his life is worth living. Hamlet uses antithesis, metaphor and appeal to the audience in an effort to show the audience the tragedy of his life and to why he is contemplating taking his own life. Even though Hamlet is an emotional character, contemplating suicide truly shows the depth of his pain, nothing about it is superficial. Due to the importance of Hamlet’s speech in Act III, Scene I, Hamlet …show more content…

During his famous speech, Hamlet twice uses metaphor when discussing life’s problems by relating them to “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” (III.I.59) and “whips and scorns of time” (III.I.69). In both cases, these phrases have negative connotations, relating to weapons, death and punishment. By relating the problem Hamlet is suffering to these ideas, a general sense of sorrow is created for Hamlet. The negative connotation of the phrases seeps into Hamlet’s life causing his problems to seem even worse than previously thought. Hamlet uses more metaphor later in his speech by calling death, “The undiscovered country from whose bourn/No traveler returns” (III.I.79-80). This purpose of this metaphor is to cause the audience to experience sadness on a more personal level. Everyone has had an experience with someone not returning, whether it is from a journey as Hamlet says or a relative who never returned after last saying goodbye. Hamlet referencing someone not returning creates an aura of sadness in the audience, which creates sympathy for Hamlet, allowing for more understanding of the pain he is currently experiencing. Hamlet has a very dramatic personality and is someone who uses metaphors often; during this speech he uses them to help create understanding and sympathy for his

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