Allusions In Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Hamlet depicts the struggle of a graduate student after the sudden death of his father and marriage of his mother, Gertrude, to his uncle, Claudius. In his soliloquy, Hamlet discusses his inner turmoil over the knowledge that his uncle, who has assumed the throne of Denmark, is responsible for the death of his father. Shakespeare utilizes conventional literary techniques such as metaphor, allusion, and repetition alongside his traditional iambic pentameter in order to enhance the meaning of the passage and offer further characterization of his protagonist. Through the aforementioned various literary techniques, Shakespeare develops a tone of despair, which furthers Hamlet’s internal conflicts within the passage.

Iterative use of vivid and detailed imagery in a piece of literature is often a way of expressing a theme or concept in a literary work. This is the case in William Shakespeare"'"s Hamlet, a revenge tragedy that continually depicts the vibrant metaphors of manifesting corruption and festering disease in order to auger the impending calamities in the state of Denmark. Throughout Shakespeare"'"s play, there are successive images of deterioration, decay and death. These images are skilfully accomplished through the use of metaphors of rotting and dead gardens. Shakespeare wonderfully creates these metaphors that add great dimension to the play of Hamlet.

“To be, or not to be: that is the question” (Shakespeare 3.1.56). Audiences know Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a play that contains frequent meditations on suicide, yet despite suicide’s obvious religious connections, audiences do not often consider how religion as a whole functions within the play. This lack of awareness partially results from the subtlety of many of Hamlet’s religious elements. Through his religious references and the resulting emphasis on the gravity of the sins of murder and suicide, Shakespeare clarifies the contradictory attitude given to these sins and illuminates that the characters practice religion inconsistently and hypocritically because their concern is ultimately for their reputation in a Christian world rather than truly for their religion.

The direct quotation is used to compare the slight differences that Olivier’s version of Hamlet (1948) had. It is used to illustrate the points that were different.

Hamlet also compares himself to the demi god Hercules in Act 1 scene 2: "My father's brother- but no more like my father/ Than I to Hercules" (I, ii, 152-153). This mythological allusion is important because Hamlet is comparing himself to Hercules who is known as a strong warrior and earned a place on Mount Olympus with the gods. Hamlet is saying that his uncle is very much different than his father, like Hamlet is very much different than Hercules. Hercules is seen as a "superhero" of Greek mythology, which is a great difference of Hamlet because Hamlet is in no way seen as a "superhero" or someone to look up to. Hamlet

In Act 3 Scene 3, Claudius’s prayer includes his confessions and plea for forgiveness in killing his brother. Shakespeare includes a Biblical allusion that further supports Claudius’s concerns. He states that “it hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, a brother’s murder” (Act 3 Scene 3, Lines 38-39). Based on this statement, Claudius refers to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel in which Cain kills his brother. This further connects to Claudius’s current state as he reflects upon his vile wrongdoing of killing his brother.

Shakespeare’s choice of words and diction depicts images in the minds of people reading his plays. It is also what makes his writings well-known as they are still being read today. In Act 3 Scene 2 of Hamlet, Hamlet is speaking with Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, and the diction helps me decide how I am acting out my lines in the scene. The tone in the scene is distrust from Hamlet displayed by Shakespeare’s decision to make Hamlet keep saying the word sir to his friends which is considered unusual. I put emphasis on the word, sir, every time I say it in Hamlet’s lines.

As humans, we tend to over analyze every situation we encounter and reflect on the negative aspects. While enduring tragedies, some are blinded and feel as though taking their own life is the only choice they have. It has happened to the best of us, including Hamlet, a character in one of William Shakespeare’s plays. In the play, “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, there is a famous soliloquy given by Hamlet where he contemplates on the burdens of life and questions whether he should keep living or if he should end his life. Hamlet’s soliloquy grasped the audience’s attention and compassion through his use of figurative diction and parallelism, his use of logical arguments, and his credibility due to his personal tragedies. Ethan Hawke

Shakespeare’s use of literary devices supports the development of central ideas throughout the play Hamlet, literary devices such as foil, metaphor and repetition. The use of these literary devices further develops the central ideas of action vs. inaction and revenge.

As Shakespeare once wrote, the world is simply a giant human spectacle with a nonexistent offstage, no break away from the largely populated audience. In Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet, a wandering ghost who resembles the late king, calls the titular prince of Denmark to action, telling him to avenge the king's murder. Despite immediately agreeing to kill his uncle and the current king, Claudius, Hamlet does not fulfill his promise right away, instead deciding, "to put an antic disposition on" around the people at Elsinore (Shakespeare 1.5.192). As Mercer states, "almost anything [Hamlet] tries to do must draw attention to himself" and in so doing, Hamlet is responsible for his death because his knowledge of his father's death becomes obvious

In Hamlet, Shakespeare relies heavily on the use of Allusion, a reference to another work, often the reference of a character. He uses these allusions to emphasize what is important to Hamlet and develop his character as a tactician. While describing to the players how they must act he states that “I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant. It out-Herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.” (III.ii. 13-15). He alludes to Termagant and Herod in these lines, Herod was the one who was king of Judea when Jesus was born, and decreed that Jesus must be put to death because he did not want someone to take his reign. Herod was a very strong ruler who would rant and focus on unimportant things, such as Jesus taking over his physical throne, when that was never God’s plan.

William Shakespeare once quoted, “The power of fate hangs over the lives of all characters, and even controls the gods themselves.” Like every other educated man of his age, Shakespeare had learned about the Greek myths. Accordingly, Shakespeare uses the myths as a writing tool, to fully develop the characters in his own personal story, “Romeo and Juliet.” Back in Shakespeare’s day, people believed in multiple gods with different powers who would help the mere mortals, if they asked. In this lyrical sonnet, their consists of many allusions, or a reference to another piece of literature. In Shakespeare’s literary work, he uses gods to resemble sustained allusions for other characters in the play.

In the second act of Shakespeare's classic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, allusions are used in a highly significant amount to highlight and present plot, characterization, symbolism, and theme. Many allusions throughout the play refer to Greek and Roman myths and legends, along with biblical references too. During perhaps the most well known scene of the play—or even of Shakespeare's writing—referred to commonly as the balcony scene, there is a great amount of figurative language, and specifically allusions. At the beginning of the scene, Romeo left his friends and accidentally found himself underneath Juliet’s window. He silently admired and listened to her proclaim her love for him, to which he finally revealed himself and verbally reciprocated his love for her. Their subsequent conversation was an

Iterative use of vivid and detailed imagery in a piece of literature is often a way of expressing a theme or concept in a literary work. This is the case in William Shakespeare"'"s Hamlet, a revenge tragedy that continually depicts the vibrant metaphors of manifesting corruption and festering disease in order to auger the impending calamities in the state of Denmark. Throughout Shakespeare"'"s play, there are successive images of deterioration, decay and death. These images are skilfully accomplished through the use of metaphors of rotting and dead gardens. Shakespeare wonderfully creates these metaphors that add great dimension to the play of Hamlet.

In the play Hamlet, by playwright William Shakespeare, witty lines were included to reveal different elements throughout the play. Hamlet uses puns to reveal different elements throughout the play. For example, Hamlet uses puns to insult and confuse Polonius and Ophelia, so they continue to believe he is not mentally stable. Hamlet also used puns to reveal his anger towards multiple characters throughout the play, while trying to fulfill the Ghost’s instructions, which were to kill Claudius without causing unnecessary pain on Gertrude.