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Struggle and Disillusionment in Hamlet Essays

Decent Essays

Shakespeare’s employment of dramatic struggle and disillusionment through his character Hamlet, contributes to the continued engagement of modern audiences. The employment of the soliloquy demonstrates Shakespeare’s approach to the dramatic treatment of these emotions. The soliloquy brings a compensating intimacy, and becomes the means by which Shakespeare brings the audience not only to a knowledge of secret thoughts of characters, but into the closest emotional touch with them too. Through this, the audiences therefore gain a closer relationship with Hamlet, and are absorbed by him because they are able to resonate with his circumstances, as he is faced with enduring truths of the human condition. Through these, the struggle and …show more content…

The struggle is suggested through the existential questions that Hamlet asks, suggesting a battle with his conscience. The symbol of the world is a motif throughout the play, being described as “flat”, “weary”, “distracted”, “out of frame”, “out of joint”, “out of time”, “rotten” and “rank”. Hamlet displays his struggle and disillusionment for the world by using metonymy and juxtaposition throughout his soliloquy. “Sea of troubles” and “thousand natural shocks” are alluded to in his speech in order to express his disillusionment, communicating a counterpointing between the divine or earthly and the profane. This idea is continues in “O that this too too sullied …” (Act 1 Scene 2), His speech is saturated with suggestions of rot and corruption, as seen in the basic usage of words like "rank" (138) and "gross" (138), and in the metaphor associating the world with "an unweeded garden" (137). Shakespeare uses juxtaposition and contrast to enhance these feelings of disgust, contempt and inadequacy. Hamlet displays disillusionment about women throughout the course of the play. This struggle to come to terms with his mother’s second marriage and disillusionment from the pure and angelic women is present from early on. In his first soliloquy, “O that this too too sullied …” (Act 1 Scene 2), Hamlet censures his mother’s moral weakness as a woman (146). His disillusionment is shown when Hamlet uses the image of the Garden of Eden being polluted by the

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