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Hamlet Figurative Language Essay

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William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a work of art so prolific that many consider it as one of the best tragedies ever written in the history of literature, in which ideas and motifs of sickness and decay embed the entire plot of the story. Each unique character then conveys these ideas by the way they converse with other characters, their actions, and their use of figurative language. These create a unominous tone that is carried throughout the story, which helps the audience in fully grasping Hamlet’s truest emotions. These also help the reader know each character as well as to understand the how the figurative elements of the play translate to real life circumstances. From the start of the play, Shakespeare establishes a tone of uncertainty and …show more content…

For example, Hamlet utilizes an image of decay that helps him show his deep depression in his first suicidal soliloquy: “O, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew” (I.ii 133-134), which is followed by a metaphor that compares the world to an “unweeded garden” (I.ii. 140). Hamlet stays relatively silent prior to this, but suddenly unleashes all his deepest emotions and thoughts through a soliloquy revolving around decay – thus developing a visualization of death towards the audience. Hamlet describes himself as someone who is rotting to death and having “sullied flesh,” which is followed by an image of a garden infiltrated by weeds that cause destruction. With this soliloquy, he expresses his great desire to simply cease to exist because of all the pain he is feeling, which were caused by the unjust death of his father and the “incest-filled” marriage between his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle, King Claudius. With all these things Shakespeare uses to emphasize Hamlet’s character, the audience becomes more aware of the desolating kingdom. They become able to empathize with Hamlet’s emotions and feel the pain and his longing simply to cease to exist.

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