Passion Turned To Prettiness: Rhyme Or Reason In Hamlet

In Katherine Bootle Attie’s article “Passion Turned to Prettiness: Rhyme or Reason in Hamlet” she argues that throughout the play passion as a kind of madness is represented through rhyme, and that Shakespeare holds this link between rhyme and madness until the last act of the play. I agree that passion and the madness of revenge are expressed through rhyme frequently in the play, and I feel that Shakespeare’s shift in what rhyme represents indicates sense of conflict about the nature of rhyme.

Many moments of madness and revenge in the play are expressed through rhyme. After Hamlet mistakenly stabs Polonius thinking that he is Claudius, Hamlet’s mother Gertrude exclaims “oh, what a rash and bloody deed is this!” (3.4,27) and he replies by saying “A bloody deed – almost as bad, good mother /as kill a king and marry

Horatio, who’s name literally means “voice of reason” only rhymes once in the entire play when he says to Hamlet “if your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit” (5.2,215-216). It is significant that Horatio’s rhyme takes place after this shift in the play and that what he is saying through this rhyme is entirely reasonable; telling Hamlet that he does not have to go and fight Laertes. However, Hamlet’s quick, rhyming reply of “Not a whit” (5.2, 217) indicates that he is not swayed by his friend’s words and is still blinded by his passion, (something about conflict). Finally, at the end of the play Fortinbras gives orders to “take up the bodies. Such a sight is this / Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss” (5.2,403-404). Fortinbras’ observation that the corpses at court indicate that much has gone wrong is entirely reasonable and measured. That his reaction is not blinded by passion of what takes place at all further demonstrates the shift of what rhyme