Hamlet Meaning Essay Example For Students

Hamlet Meaning Essay Within the play Hamlet there exists many puns and phrases, which have a doublemeaning. Little ploys on words which tend to add a bit of entertainment to thedialogue of the play. These forked tongue phrases are used by Shakespeare tocast an insight to the characters in the play to give them more depth andsubstance. However, most importantly these phrases cause the reader or audienceto think. They are able to show a double meaning that not all people would pickup on, which is the purpose of the comments. Little is known about Shakespeareslife, other than he was a great playwright whose works serve to meld literarycasts for ages to come. This was his occupation, he wrote and directed plays tobe performed. This was his sole form of income that we know of, it was his wayof putting the bread on the table. If people did not like what Shakespearewrote, then he would not earn any money. If the people didnt like what theysaw, he became the starving artist. Shakespeare wrote these dialogues in such amanner as to entertain both the Nobility, as well as the peasants. TheShakespearean theater is a physical manifestation of how Shakespeare catered tomore than one social class in his theatrical productions. These Shakespeareantheaters have a unique construction, which had specific seats for the wealthy,and likewise, a designated separate standing section for the peasants. Thisdefinite separation of the classes is also evident in Shakespeares writing, inas such that the nobility of the productions speak in poetic iambic pentameter,where as the peasants speak in ordinary prose. Perhaps Shakespeare incorporatedthese double meanings to the lines of his characters with the intent that only aselect amount of his audience were meant to hear it in either its doublemeaning, or its true meaning. However, even when the tragic hero Hamletswordplay is intentional. it is not always clear as to what purpose he uses it. To confuse or to clarify? Or to control his own uncensored thoughts? The energyand turmoil of his mind brings words thronging into speech, stretching,over-turning and contorting their implications. Sometimes Hamlet has to struggleto use the simplest words repeatedly, as he tries to force meaning to flow in asingle channel. To Ophelia, after he has encountered her in her loneliness,reading on a book, he repeats five times Get thee to anunnery, varying the phrase very little, simply reiterating what wasalready said by changing get to go. This well knownquote, to this day cannot be deciphered in its entirety, for nunnery is a placewhere nuns live, yet it is also a brothel. Hamlet seems to knowingly cast ashade of confusion into the minds of the audience or is it in fact claritywithin confusion. That is, the audience is able to better understand thethoughts and inner struggle of Hamlet via these conflicting terms. After Hamlethas visited his mother all alone in her closet and killed Polo nius,after she has begged him to speak no more, and after his fathersghost has reappeared, Hamlet repeats Good night five times, withstill fewer changes in the phrase than Get thee to a nunnery andthose among accompanying words only. So Hamlet seems to be struggling to containhis thoughts even by use of these simple words, rather than enforcing a singleand simple message as a first reading of the text might suggest; and the wordscome to bear deeper, more ironic or more blatant meanings. It is from thesephrases, which even manage to confuse the complex mind of Hamlet that we beginto get a glimpse into the intentions of Hamlets mind, and seeing just exactlythe way he ticks. Much of the dramatic action of this tragedy is within the headof Hamlet, and wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled,mocking nature of that mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love,as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishesfor consummation and a nnihilation within a world he perceives to be against him. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears,and also playing polite and sane. The narrative is a kind of mystery and chase,so that, underneath the various guises of his wordplay, we are made keenly awareof his inner dissatisfaction, and come to expect some resolution at the end ofthe tragedy, some unambiguous giving out which will report Hamletand his cause aright to the unsatisfied among the reader. Hamlet himself isaware of this expectation as the end approaches, and this still further whetsour anticipation for what is to become. A commonly recurring theme throughoutthe play is that of honesty. It is introduced in the beginning of the play andas the play continues, its use becomes more and more common, as well as more andmore ironic. This theme within the play itself is ironic, for as Marcellus saidSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark and this corruption wesee so exhibited in the play is far from honest. When Hamlet applies the wordhonest t o the main characters of the play, his use of becomes undeniably ironic,and much of the dark humor of the play derives from Hamlets wordplay. Poloniusmarks that though Hamlets insults seem to make no sense, yet there ismethod in t. In Act II, it is Polonius that is the first target ofHamlets irony of the use of honest. Hamlet calls him first afishmonger which it has many meanings, including the implicationthat Ophelia is a whore and Polonius is her pimp. And of course, Polonius hasemployed his daughter in his plot to discover the depth of Hamletsmadness. When Polonius says he is not a fishmonger, Hamlet repliesThen I would you were so honest a man. In other words, he wishesPolonius was as honest as a simple fish seller, or even more insulting, ashonest as the pimp Hamlet insinuated he was. In this scene, Hamlet also usesthis ironic meaning of honesty against Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when hetells them I will not sort you with the rest of my servants, for, tospeak to you like an h onest man, I am most dreadfully attended. He seemsto mean that he cannot speak to them with honesty, because they themselves aredishonest in their intents. Honesty resonates as a theme in Hamlet becausenothing is, as it seems in Denmark. The King deceives the world and pretends alegitimacy he does not have; Hamlet deceives the court by feigning madness;Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern all try to deceive Hamlet into revealingwhy he is distraught, and no one knows what is truth and what is a lie. Theworld has not grown honest, as Rosencrantz claims, but dishonest, and no one wholives in it can keep his honesty pure from the corrupting air. Hamlet seems tobe the character that uses the majority of such puns and phrases in the play. History Individual Study EssayHe can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears,and also playing polite and sane. The narrative is a kind of mystery and chase,so that, underneath the various guises of his wordplay, we are made keenly awareof his inner dissatisfaction, and come to expect some resolution at the end ofthe tragedy, some unambiguous giving out which will report Hamletand his cause aright to the unsatisfied among the reader. Hamlet himself isaware of this expectation as the end approaches, and this still further whetsour anticipation for what is to become. A commonly recurring theme throughoutthe play is that of honesty. It is introduced in the beginning of the play andas the play continues, its use becomes more and more common, as well as more andmore ironic. This theme within the play itself is ironic, for as Marcellus saidSomething is rotten in the state of Denmark and this corruption wesee so exhibited in the play is far from honest. When Hamlet applies the wordhonest to the main characters of the play, his use of becomes undeniably ironic,and much of the dark humor of the play derives from Hamlets wordplay. Poloniusmarks that though Hamlets insults seem to make no sense, yet there ismethod in t. In Act II, it is Polonius that is the first target ofHamlets irony of the use of honest. Hamlet calls him first afishmonger which it has many meanings, including the implicationthat Ophelia is a whore and Polonius is her pimp. And of course, Polonius hasemployed his daughter in his plot to discover the depth of Hamletsmadness. When Polonius says he is not a fishmonger, Hamlet repliesThen I would you were so honest a man. In other words, he wishesPolonius was as honest as a simple fish seller, or even more insulting, ashonest as the pimp Hamlet insinuated he was. In this scene, Hamlet also usesthis ironic meaning of honesty against Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when hetells them I will not sort you with the rest of my servant s, for, tospeak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. He seemsto mean that he cannot speak to them with honesty, because they themselves aredishonest in their intents. Honesty resonates as a theme in Hamlet becausenothing is, as it seems in Denmark. The King deceives the world and pretends alegitimacy he does not have; Hamlet deceives the court by feigning madness;Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern all try to deceive Hamlet into revealingwhy he is distraught, and no one knows what is truth and what is a lie. Theworld has not grown honest, as Rosencrantz claims, but dishonest, and no one wholives in it can keep his honesty pure from the corrupting air. Hamlet seems tobe the character that uses the majority of such puns and phrases in the play. These phrases, which have double meaning, could represent the inner turmoil,which seems to be tearing Hamlet apart. By seeing a definite double meaning tomany phrases in the play, we are able to easily see that all is not as it shouldbe. Hamlets personality is thrown into chaos. He is in mourning the death ofhis father, and then his mother marries his uncle. He is enraged at her, and ontop of all of this he sees the ghost of his father commanding him to avenge hiswrongful murder. Yet, amongst all this turmoil, I believe that Hamlet was onlyplaying the part of being crazy. He speaks in riddles and plays on words inorder to create a certain suspicion about his sanity. This abnormal activitygives him the ability to sneak a few insults by without having to directlyconfront his enemies. It seems to be quite a bit worse if the person who wasinsulted isnt exactly sure whether or not they were just insulted. Hamlet isable to interject these insults without even the other character noticing, whichis the art of insult it is this unpredictability of action, this sporadic boutsof insanity and sanity, the inner turmoil brewing within Hamlet, which keeps theaudiences interest. Nobody is really sure whether or not Hamlet was insane. Many have theories and beliefs, but Shakespeare never came out and said hedefinitely is or definitely is not sane, he only hints. There are validarguments on either side, for Hamlet Himself said I am mad butnorth-northwest; that is he is only mad about one thing in particular. Thewordplay in Hamlet is a representation of the complexity of the minds of thecharacters that Shakespeare created. It is a depiction of the inner turmoilwithin a character struggling with sanity. However, more importantly it isnecessary to keep in mind that Shakespeare was a playwright and that the play onwords did one thing in particular, which is why Shakespeare lived to write somany plays, Hamlet, because of its wording is entertaining and that made all thedifference.