King Hamlet Rhetorical Analysis

233 Words1 Pages
Shakespeare uses metaphor to emphasize how King Claudius’ action is characterizing him as a malignant person. When Hamlet was alone at night, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches to converse with him and tells Hamlet that King Claudius killed him. The ghost says “a serpent has stung me”. The word ‘serpent’ resembles to King Claudius. The fact that Shakespeare uses the word ‘serpent’ to identify King Claudius, give him a negative connotation. A serpent is usually known to be an illogically misunderstood venomous creature. This demonstrates that King Claudius is characterized as an unreasonable person as he was the one who poisoned King Hamlet for his own selfish reasons. The substance he used to murder King Hamlet also characterizes him as a