Uncertainty and disillusionment associated with revenge:

- For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ. Hamlets second soliloquy, personification
- Pyrrhus stood, And like a neutral to his will and matter, / Did nothing Enjambment emphasises Did nothing
- ...harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, / Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres (1:5) Hyperbole,
Parallel phrases, descriptions exaggerate dramatic act
- with wings as swift as meditation or thoughts of love will sweep my revenge (1:5) Simile
Characterisation: Hamlet is compared to his foil characters:
- Hamlet: The courtiers, soldiers, scholars, eye, tongue, sword (Description by Ophelia) Cumulative listing
- Laertes: will cut his throat ithe church
- Fortinbras: Of unimproved mettle hot and full, (spoken by Horatio)
- Claudius Revenge should know no bounds Personification
Critiques:
- number of images of sickness, disease... the idea of an ulcer or tumor, as descriptive of the unwholesome condition of
Denmark morally Spurgeon
- Hamlet, although corrupted by the evil with which he is asked to deal, does at last resign himself to becoming the agent of
Christian providence Kenneth Muir (1963)
Moral and Political Corruption:
- sick at heart tis bitter cold this dreaded sight Denmarks a prison fair and warlike form something is rotten in the
state of Denmark Beginning of the play
- our state to be disjoint and out of frame Iambic Pentameter Claudiuss opening soliloquy
- A little more than kin and less than kind Aside, play on words Characterisation of Claudius
- I am too much ithe sun Sarcastic pun
- Hyperion to a satyr Mythological allusion, hyperbolic language
- I have that within me which passes show / these but the trappings and the suits of woe Rhyming couplet, Reveals the grief
of Hamlet juxtaposed with the grief of Claudius and Gertrude
- the serpent that did sting thy fathers life, now wears his crown Symbolism of the serpent evokes hell
- The time is out of joint. O cursed spite/ That ever I was born to set it right! Rhyming Couplet, Iambic Pentameter
Corruption of the state Characterisation of Hamlet as being the one to fix it
- O most wicked speed...to incestuous sheets! Characterisation of Gertrude and Claudius
- But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue Hamlets second soliloquy
- A murderer & a villaina vice of kings/ A cutpurse of the empire & the rule Juxtaposition Hamlets assessment of
Claudius, indented to evoke guilt on Gertrude
Characterisation: Gertrude and Claudius as being corrupt
- Frailty, thy name is woman Characterisation of Gertrude
Critiques:
- He is a success, for he gets his man, and a failure, for he leaves eight bodies, including his own, where there was meant to be
one. B. Nightingale
- He is the epixcal hero fighting overwhelming odds with his back against the wall John Dover Wilson 1935
Internal Struggle between Action and Inaction:
- To be or not to be, that is the question Hamlets famous antithesis Hamlets 3rd soliloquy alludes to the afterlife
Characterisation of Hamlet as being indecisive
- whips... scorns... oppressor... wrong... disprized... spurns... unworthy Negative imagery
- that the Everlasting had not fixed/ His canon against self-slaughter Hamlet contemplating suicide, however, deciding not to
because it is a sin revealing Hamlets renaissance characterisation
- Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I/ Am I a coward/I am pigeon-livered and lack gall/ To make oppression bitter
- More relative than this the plays the thing / Wherein Ill catch the conscience of the King! Conclusion of second soliloquy
Iambic Pentameter, Rhyming Couplet
- That guilty creatures sitting at a play, Dramatic irony of play-within-a-play
- Am I a coward? / Who calls me villain, breaks my plate across / Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face /... as deep as to
thy lungs? Who does me this Hamlets second soliloquy Rhetorical questions
- Bloody, Bawdy, villain! / Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindles villain. Alliteration of plotives in rhetorical climax,
followed by sibilance
Characterisation: Hamlets character as struggling
- What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties... Highlights his renaissance character
- "To be or not to be...", he alludes to an unknown afterlife, "The undiscovered country...," which is a stark departure
fromMedieval religious ideas rooted in a strict belief that people either go to heaven or hell when they die. religion
- Hamlets references to Greek and Roman mythologies (Hecuba, Pyrrhus) Displays classical antiquity
Critiques:
- Hence great, enormous, intellectual activity, and a consequent proportionate aversion to real action Coleridge
- The great object of Hamlets life is defeated by continually resolving to do but does nothing but resolve Coleridge (1817)
- a man distracted with contrariety of desires and overwhelmed with the magnitude of his own purpose Dr. Johnson
- A man who at any other time and in any other circumstances...would have been perfectly equal to his task. ...For the cause (of
his delay) was not directly or mainly an habitual excess of reflectiveness. The direct cause was a state of mind quite abnormal
and induced by special circumstances, a state of profound melancholy A.C. Bradley (1904)

Words to Use
Linking verbs
similarly
however
moreover
furthermore
in particular
specifically
conversely
additionally
consequently
therefore
indeed
clearly
subsequently
nevertheless
correspondingly
ultimately
although
another

Effects
highlights
reinforce
stresses
exemplifies
convey
illustrate
encapsulate
emphasises
demonstrate
exhibit
depicts
represent
embody
constitute
examines
voiced
reflect

capture
reveals
evokes
Use
utilise
employ
apply
Corruption
Disorder
Dishonesty
Immorality
Personal Response
Clearly
Evidently
Undeniably
Indeed
Individual
Understanding

Enhanced
Influenced
Altered
Enhanced
Captivating
appealing