Rhetorical Devices In What Dreams May Come

By studying and analyzing different and unique works of literature and movies this year has really opened my eyes to different connections of literary work. By studying and analyzing these works I have learned about power, politics, and many different rhetorical devices. There are many aspects of literature but some of them over power the others. Out of all of those works I choose to analyze Heathers, What Dreams May Come, Hamlet, and V for Vendetta. The movie Heathers written by Daniel Waters and the other movie What Dreams May Come written by Richard Matheson has many rhetorical devices and aspects in them as well. The movies are similar to each other in some ways, such as color symbolism, love, and death. For these movies I will be analyzing

Like many British rulers (e.g., Henry IV, Elizabeth I, Richard III), Claudius kills a family member, performing “an act of state” and following “a tradition which every English monarch had had to accept for two hundred years” (45). Once on the throne, he must begin the process of securing his position: praising the dead king, forming political alliances, marrying Gertrude, dealing with the threat of Fortinbras, conciliating ministers (e.g., Polonius), and attempting a reconciliation with his primary rival Hamlet. Because Hamlet refuses to embrace the new king, Claudius must engage in spying tactics to gain knowledge about his potential enemy and, ultimately, decide to terminate the threat. But in Shakespeare’s political tragedy (unlike the realities of British history), murderers are destined to fail. Aside from the fact that all of his supporters die (e.g., Polonius, Laertes), Claudius proves a weak leader because he “invariably prefers compromise to confrontation, placatory gestures to open defiance” (51-52). Perhaps if Claudius had not delayed his efforts to kill Hamlet, he might have been able to maintain his position as ruler; but the King “was such a nice man, in a way, that he decided to defer the action”