crystalprincess
Jun 8, 2008
Book Reports / Could someone proofread my essay on Juxtaposition in Hamlet [2]
Could someone proofread my essay and maybe suggest a couple more quotes???
Within Shakespeare's Hamlet, he uses the literary device of juxtaposition to achieve many purposes, such as to enhance moods in scenes and the characterisation of his characters. The characters Hamlet and Ophelia are an example of how Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to clearly characterize his characters. However, he not only juxtaposes the character against others but also to themselves in their speech. Moreover, in the gravedigger scene in Act 5, Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to enhance the theme and message of the scene.
Shakespeare uses much juxtaposition to personify his characters. These help to give the audience a greater understanding of the relationships of the characters both to themselves and to other characters in the play.
Ophelia and Hamlet are greatly juxtaposed against each other in Hamlet. Ophelia's role in the play is the foil to both Hamlet and to her brother Laetres. She is the catalyst, the means of their actions and she acts like a mirror and enable the audience to view them though a more heroic perspective. However, her character does not grow in the play, unlike Hamlet who grows and eventually achieves his purpose of an avenger, Ophelia becomes more and more marionette like, with Polonius (her father) holding the strings. This shows us also Ophelia's role as a women in the play, to be obedient,
Hamlet's feign of madness and talk about suicide, becomes Ophelia's reality as she falls into depression and madness until Hamlet kills her father and she eventually commits suicide, this re-establishes the theme of illusion versus reality in Hamlet. Ophelia's psychological presence and breakdown is necessary to allow Hamlet to overthrow his current characterization, which enables him to become the "tragic hero" at the end of the play.
Hamlet's and Ophelia's deaths are viewed differently, Ophelia's death is considered as a tragic misfortune, however Hamlet's death although also viewed as tragic is perceived as heroic.
Shakespeare allows us to see into the minds of the characters via their soliloquies and he has put much emphasis on the characters thoughts on how they work, this is strange as during that time it was a general rule of play writing that the characters should not exceed the plot. Not only are the characters juxtaposed against each other, but also to themselves in the speeches, but juxtaposition is mainly apparent in the soliloquies. In particular, Hamlets' soliloquies contain much juxtaposition.
In Hamlets 1st soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, occurs just after the wedding of his widowed mother and his uncle. He talks about the vile and incestuous wedding that has occurred, about suicide and about the rankness and corruption within Denmark and the world, describing the world as an unweeded garden. However, the juxtapositions give his speech greater meaning. He compares his late father (King Hamlet) to his once uncle now (step) father (Claudius), as "Hyperion to a satyr" (I.ii.142). Hyperion was the Greek titan who was the father of the sun, dawn, and moon. He had virtues of honour, integrity, and nobility. However, Satyrs are a Latin monster, beasts, which had a human torso, head and arms but the horns, tail and legs like a goat. They had negative qualities that were bestial like and included lasciviousness, overindulgence, and lust. Therefore, in Hamlets eyes he views his father as having possessed king like qualities, and Claudius as a beast who married his mother for lust, power and shows a great dislike to the behaviours that he participates in such as drinking. As he further goes on about Gertrude's' and Claudius's relationship, he goes on to say;
"My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules." (I.ii.154-55)
This not only tells the audience of Hamlet's deep detest over the marriage of his mother and uncle but furthermore about his lack of self-esteem/ self-worth.
Shakespeare uses the literary device of juxtaposition to enhance the moods and themes and representations of his scenes. Examples of this can be found in the Gravedigger Scene in V.i.
The scene opens with two gravediggers ("clowns") in a graveyard.
The graveyard contrasts to the gravedigger's speech and furthermore the gravediggers contrast against their own speech, both of these contrasts set the comical yet grave and eerie mood of the graveyard.
Some people say that incongruity is the basis of comedy and this is proved true in this scene. As the gravediggers or "clowns" as they are described in the stage directions, although they are described as rustic and "lowly" they discuss the matter of Ophelia's death in deep profound, theological sense. He states "Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation? "(V.i.1-2), in which Shakepeare uses salvation instead of damnation
and "Here lies the water; good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. (15-20).
In addition, the first gravediggers' sarcastic wit is rather like Hamlet's and by the banter between the two; we can see clearly they are evenly matched.
The first gravedigger not unlike Hamlet uses many puns in his speech.
"[Gravedigger] What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter?
[Other] The gallows maker for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
...
[Gravedigger] A gravemaker. The houses he makes last till doomsday" (V.i. 42-61)
The grave makers' humorous speech contrasts against the morbid setting of the graveyard and relieves the tension from Ophelia's death and the ever-increasing tension and complexity of the plot.
Shakespeare's Hamlet is filled with juxtapositions. All of the characters have foils and are juxtaposed not only against other characters, but also to themselves through their soliloquies. The themes are also juxtaposed against each other to give greater meaning to them and to introduce another theme, the theme of contrast.
Could someone proofread my essay and maybe suggest a couple more quotes???
Within Shakespeare's Hamlet, he uses the literary device of juxtaposition to achieve many purposes, such as to enhance moods in scenes and the characterisation of his characters. The characters Hamlet and Ophelia are an example of how Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to clearly characterize his characters. However, he not only juxtaposes the character against others but also to themselves in their speech. Moreover, in the gravedigger scene in Act 5, Shakespeare uses juxtaposition to enhance the theme and message of the scene.
Shakespeare uses much juxtaposition to personify his characters. These help to give the audience a greater understanding of the relationships of the characters both to themselves and to other characters in the play.
Ophelia and Hamlet are greatly juxtaposed against each other in Hamlet. Ophelia's role in the play is the foil to both Hamlet and to her brother Laetres. She is the catalyst, the means of their actions and she acts like a mirror and enable the audience to view them though a more heroic perspective. However, her character does not grow in the play, unlike Hamlet who grows and eventually achieves his purpose of an avenger, Ophelia becomes more and more marionette like, with Polonius (her father) holding the strings. This shows us also Ophelia's role as a women in the play, to be obedient,
Hamlet's feign of madness and talk about suicide, becomes Ophelia's reality as she falls into depression and madness until Hamlet kills her father and she eventually commits suicide, this re-establishes the theme of illusion versus reality in Hamlet. Ophelia's psychological presence and breakdown is necessary to allow Hamlet to overthrow his current characterization, which enables him to become the "tragic hero" at the end of the play.
Hamlet's and Ophelia's deaths are viewed differently, Ophelia's death is considered as a tragic misfortune, however Hamlet's death although also viewed as tragic is perceived as heroic.
Shakespeare allows us to see into the minds of the characters via their soliloquies and he has put much emphasis on the characters thoughts on how they work, this is strange as during that time it was a general rule of play writing that the characters should not exceed the plot. Not only are the characters juxtaposed against each other, but also to themselves in the speeches, but juxtaposition is mainly apparent in the soliloquies. In particular, Hamlets' soliloquies contain much juxtaposition.
In Hamlets 1st soliloquy in Act 1 Scene 2, occurs just after the wedding of his widowed mother and his uncle. He talks about the vile and incestuous wedding that has occurred, about suicide and about the rankness and corruption within Denmark and the world, describing the world as an unweeded garden. However, the juxtapositions give his speech greater meaning. He compares his late father (King Hamlet) to his once uncle now (step) father (Claudius), as "Hyperion to a satyr" (I.ii.142). Hyperion was the Greek titan who was the father of the sun, dawn, and moon. He had virtues of honour, integrity, and nobility. However, Satyrs are a Latin monster, beasts, which had a human torso, head and arms but the horns, tail and legs like a goat. They had negative qualities that were bestial like and included lasciviousness, overindulgence, and lust. Therefore, in Hamlets eyes he views his father as having possessed king like qualities, and Claudius as a beast who married his mother for lust, power and shows a great dislike to the behaviours that he participates in such as drinking. As he further goes on about Gertrude's' and Claudius's relationship, he goes on to say;
"My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules." (I.ii.154-55)
This not only tells the audience of Hamlet's deep detest over the marriage of his mother and uncle but furthermore about his lack of self-esteem/ self-worth.
Shakespeare uses the literary device of juxtaposition to enhance the moods and themes and representations of his scenes. Examples of this can be found in the Gravedigger Scene in V.i.
The scene opens with two gravediggers ("clowns") in a graveyard.
The graveyard contrasts to the gravedigger's speech and furthermore the gravediggers contrast against their own speech, both of these contrasts set the comical yet grave and eerie mood of the graveyard.
Some people say that incongruity is the basis of comedy and this is proved true in this scene. As the gravediggers or "clowns" as they are described in the stage directions, although they are described as rustic and "lowly" they discuss the matter of Ophelia's death in deep profound, theological sense. He states "Is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation? "(V.i.1-2), in which Shakepeare uses salvation instead of damnation
and "Here lies the water; good. Here stands the man; good. If the man go to this water and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes, mark you that. But if the water come to him and drown him, he drowns not himself; argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life. (15-20).
In addition, the first gravediggers' sarcastic wit is rather like Hamlet's and by the banter between the two; we can see clearly they are evenly matched.
The first gravedigger not unlike Hamlet uses many puns in his speech.
"[Gravedigger] What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright or the carpenter?
[Other] The gallows maker for that frame outlives a thousand tenants.
...
[Gravedigger] A gravemaker. The houses he makes last till doomsday" (V.i. 42-61)
The grave makers' humorous speech contrasts against the morbid setting of the graveyard and relieves the tension from Ophelia's death and the ever-increasing tension and complexity of the plot.
Shakespeare's Hamlet is filled with juxtapositions. All of the characters have foils and are juxtaposed not only against other characters, but also to themselves through their soliloquies. The themes are also juxtaposed against each other to give greater meaning to them and to introduce another theme, the theme of contrast.