Funny Bone In Hamlet

               The relationship between Claudius and Hamlet had many hidden meanings. The first time that Hamlet insults Claudius when someone else is around is when Claudius was supposed to help Hamlet cheer up. "A

During their conversation, Hamlet calls the old man a “fishmonger” and illogically answers the man’s questions. Still, many of Hamlet’s seemingly lunatic statements disguise pointed observations about Polonius’s conceit and old age. In fact, Polonius himself comments that while Hamlet is not of right mind, his words are often “pregnant” with meaning (II.ii.206).

She means a lot to him, but now she has rejected him (by returning his

Hamlet is however racked with indecision, and spends most of this scene subtly ridiculing Claudius anyway, though Hamlet is not yet sure of his guilt. For example, after the play has served its purpose and Claudius rises, calling for light, Hamlet makes a joke that the King is “frightened by false fire” (272), implying that the King is scared this may happen to him. The reader can envision the mocking tone from Hamlet’s verbal irony as he rejoices in finally proving the King’s guilt, at least to himself. Hamlet actually employs the same stylistic irony earlier, during a short exchange with Polonius, relating it back to his father’s murder. Polonius says, “I did enact Julius Caesar: I was killed i' the / Capitol; Brutus killed me” (105-6). To which Hamlet replies, “It was a brute part of him to kill so capital a calf / there” (107-8). This is symbolic of what Hamlet knows about his father’s death in that he relates Caesar’s innocent “calf-like” death to his father’s murder. This, along with pieces of his conversation with Ophelia, seem to be pieces in which he is talking to himself, so zealous about his plan with the play, that he is merely speaking aloud in riddles about what has been bothering him. He mentions to Ophelia, “how cheerfully my / mother looks, and my father

In the play Hamlet, Hamlet’s father has been killed, and Hamlet acts strange in order to find out if his uncle, Claudius is behind it. However, Polonius is trying to figure out why Hamlet seems odd. He waits for Hamlet to walk in the room and he goes up to talk to him. However, Hamlet only responds to him with puns.

In act 1 scene 2 of “Hamlet” the character Hamlet speaks his first soliloquy which reveals his innermost thoughts and feelings to the audience. In this soliloquy Hamlet’s unstable state of mind is evident as well as his feelings of despair about his father’s death and his disgust of his mother’s remarriage to his uncle Claudius. Hamlet’s hatred for his uncle is shown through harsh comparisons between Claudius and his late father. This soliloquy takes place after Claudius has begun his reign as king and has addressed the court for the first time but before Hamlet hears about the apparition that Horatio and the guards have seen. Hamlet’s character and personality are shown in this soliloquy through the use of classical imagery, diction and

With great power comes great responsibility. Although he would appear to replay "Who cares?" to this, Hamlet, one of literature 's most famous and powerful users of wit is actually using his wit to further his ambitious cause. Through the use of Hamlet 's wordplay, Shakespeare reveals the true nature of Hamlet 's inner self as well as his relationships with the other characters within the play.

Hamlet then is questioned of the whereabouts of the corpse of Polonius and Hamlet then replies, “At supper.'; Then Hamlet refers to the decomposition of the human body proving what he said was true in a comic sense. To prove the existence of tendency wit we have a scenario in which Hamlet and Polonius are judging the clouds. Hamlet shifts his view of the cloud from a camel to a weasel is a form of exaggerated comic accommodation, the opposite of tragic integrity (Snyder 112).

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.

If you were an uneducated person watching a play that you didn’t understand for hours, you would very easily become uninterested and bored very quickly. To make sure that didn’t happen Shakespeare put those humorous scenes in his play to catch the attention of those audience members. Humor is also used to heighten the sense of the major theme in the play. Death is the major theme in hamlet, with main characters dying at every turn. One of the funniest scenes in the drama is the gravedigger scene where they’re making fun of death. He had different types of comedy in this drama to fit the different type of people in his audience. It was already mentioned that his audiences contained anywhere from royalty to the highly educated to the uneducated peasants. So his jokes needed to vary, he had these super sophisticated jokes that you only understood if you were educated enough. He also would throw in sex jokes and double entendres for his lower class audience members. Example of these comedic scenes takes place all over the play. Act 2 scene 2 is where we see our first example of outright comedy, Polonius approaches hamlet and asks him if he recognizes him, and hamlet replies “Excellent well sir. You are a

We can see the dramatic differences in Hamlet’s facial expression and tone of voice when he starts to talk about Claudius and his mother. Hamlet is revolted by him, he is “a mildewed ear/ Blasting his wholesome brother.” We can hear the disgust in Hamlet’s words as he describes his malevolent uncle and this shows the distorted relationship between them. Finally he turns to his mother. His words are full of deep hatred and utter contempt for her. He asks her how she could have replaced her perfect husband with this foul man: “Could you

While Hamlet and Polonius where both in the library Polonius approached Hamlet asking if he knew who he was Hamlet responded by saying, “You are a fishmonger”(2.2.166). Polonius took Hamlets bait not knowing that is was all apart of his plan to prove he is mentally off. Hamlet’s main reason to blatantly offend Polonius is to figure out if he was in on the murder of his dad. All while using an offensive wordplay to confuse Polonius. As the play goes on Hamlet becomes braver and braver with his offensive puns. While Hamlet’s play was being acted out King Claudius ask for the name of the play Hamlet replies saying, “The Mousetrap” (3.2.221). This Is a very risky thing to say, especially to King Claudius. King Claudius however was outwitted by one of Hamlet yet again. The reasoning for Hamlet to be so blunt is, he wanted King Claudius to figure out Hamlet knows he killed his father in cold blood. Hamlet doesn’t use offensive wordplay like he uses defensive wordplay. Hamlets wants to prove something when he uses offensive wordplay

Another instance where Polonius is a comic relief is when Hamlet is inviting the players into the castle. One player breaks into an emotional speech at Hamlets whim and Polonius interrupts with comments. “Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good accent and/ Good discretion.”(IIii,447-448). Polonius is trying to commend the speaker to hasten him. After the speech keeps going on Polonius rudely interrupts with “This is too long”(IIii,478). As the player recites a part of the speech he becomes emotional with color and Polonius points it out. “Look whe’e he has not turned his color and has/ Tears in’s eyes.-Prithee, no more.”(IIii,499-500). Polonius is rude and pokes fun at the emotional speaker. His actions contrast with the player’s tragic speech emphasizing sorrow aspects of his speech.

Susan Snyder once said that comedy is “the ground from which, or against which, tragedy develops… comedy and tragedy function as polar opposites, or as two sides of the same coin.” (Snyder. Print). The prototypical comic clash between blocking father and youthful beaus, which underlies the activities of numerous Shakespearean comedies, illuminates one strand of the activity of Hamlet: the relationship between Polonius, Ophelia and the Prince. Also unmistakable in different tragedies, such as Romeo and Juliet and

In scene 2, Claudius is aggressive and it becomes clear that he will be Hamlet’s chief rival. Claudius is quick to show dominance over young Hamlet, and Hamlet appears passive to this. Gertrude, (King Claudius’ wife) and Claudius want Hamlet to forget about his dead father, but Hamlet says his appearance, even in his all black clothing doesn’t reflect the amount of grief he feels. Claudius’ character is very clear in which he is calculating (he uses his words carefully.) He refers to Gertrude as ‘our sometime sister, now our Queen, the imperial jointress to this warlike state’, even though Gertrude was the wife of Hamlets father and Claudius’ very own brother. He addresses Hamlet and calls him ‘cousin Hamlet and my son’. Claudius is well aware of his decisions, his descriptive names for his family prove so, and he is also aware of what others may think of him and his actions. He accuses Hamlet of ‘impious stubbornness’ suggests that Hamlet is not good enough to be a King. This is a way of Claudius to excuse his behavior to take over his dead brother’s throne, a throne that belongs to Hamlet. To reinforce Claudius’ power over Hamlet, he calls him ‘my cousin and my son’. Hamlet views the relationship between his mother Gertrude and uncle