The Language of Protest in Shakespeare, Blake, Whitman, Dickinson, Frost, and Rich: Exterior vs. Interior Life

Human beings possess several virtues that differentiate them from other creatures and can use them in ways that represent their perceptions of social order. Surprisingly, Oscar Wilde believes that disobedience is an original virtue of every human and that it is responsible for progress and development. While Wilde’s claim is not entirely accurate, it is largely valid as evidenced by the recent events across the world, including the US, that have led to positive outcomes in spite of being termed and perceived as acts of disobedience.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a tragic play about murder, betrayal, revenge, madness, and moral corruption. It touches upon philosophical ideas such as existentialism and relativism. Prince Hamlet frequently questions the meaning of life and the degrading of morals as he agonizes over his father’s murder, his mother’s incestuous infidelity, and what he should or shouldn’t do about it. At first, he is just depressed; still mourning the loss of his father as his mother marries his uncle. After he learns about the treachery of his uncle and the adultery of his mother, his already negative countenance declines further. He struggles with the task of killing Claudius, feeling burdened about having been asked to find a solution to a situation that was

Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare's most famous play. The play is about Prince Hamlet and his struggles with the new marriage of his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle and now stepfather, King Claudius about only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet has an encounter with his father, Old King Hamlet, in ghost form. His father accuses Claudius of killing him and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is infuriated by this news and then begins his thoughts on what to do to get revenge. Hamlet and Claudius are contrasting characters. They do share similarities, however, their profound differences are what divides them.Hamlet was portrayed as troubled, inactive, and impulsive at times. Hamlet is troubled by many things, but the main source of his problems come from the the death of his father. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter” (Act 1, Scene 2). In this scene, Hamlet is contemplating suicide, which is caused by the death of his father and the new marriage of Gertrude and King Claudius. This scene shows the extent of how troubled Hamlet is. Even though Hamlet’s father asked him to avenge his death, Hamlet is very slow to act on this throughout the play. “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act 3, Scene 3). This scene shows King Claudius praying, while Hamlet is behind him drawing his sword but decides not to kill

“To be, or not to be, that is the question,” (3.1.64). This famous line in William Shakespeare's Hamlet perfectly encapsulates Hamlet’s internal struggle throughout the play. Hamlet tells the story of the young prince of Denmark and his desire for revenge on the uncle, Claudius, who murdered his father. As is the case in many works of literature, Hamlet changes greatly throughout the play. However, because of his attempts to act insane, it can be difficult to precisely map the changes in Hamlet’s character. By carefully investigating his seven soliloquies, where he is alone and has no need to “put on an antic disposition,” one can understand and interpret how Hamlet’s character develops throughout the play.

Hamlet is a suspenseful play that introduces the topic of tragedy. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays anger, uncertainty, and obsession with death. Although Hamlet is unaware of it, these emotions cause the mishaps that occur throughout the play. These emotions combined with his unawareness are the leading basis for the tragic hero’s flaws. These flaws lead Hamlet not to be a bad man, but a regular form of imperfection that comes along with being human.

The play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare is about a guy named Hamlet going through a hard time in life, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother to his uncle. Throughout the play were are able to get a greater understanding of who Hamlet really is. The actions of Hamlet in Shakespeare's master piece “Hamlet” proves him to a revenge seeker, emotional, and crazy.

For example, it is not simply his reaction to his mother that drives that their relationship, but his skillful use of words and language. At one point, Hamlet recognizes his power with words and tells the audience, as if recognizing this to be. Unfortunately, Hamlet’s use of language does not always benefit him in this play by Shakespeare. Due to his brooding and introspective nature, he often wrangles with language to help him understand a reality where he has little control. Hamlet’s famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy questions the righteousness of life over death in moral terms and discusses the many possible reasons for either living or dying.is tragic flaw “I will speak daggers to her, but use none” (Shakespeare,1603, p.366). Overall, the power of language in Hamlet by William Shakespeare has had a direct impact on the tragic outcome of the play. The tragic ending was simply the culmination of the “poison in the ear” and destructive use of language and thinking that follows. For Hamlet, the immense power of language cannot be ignored. Furthermore, it is apparent that the reality, both for the reader and the central characters, is mutable and susceptible to the influence of manipulative words. Words from different characters could act as daggers, both on the reader as well as the

Shakespeare's main character Hamlet is a victim of both internal and external conflict. His conflict includes a physical nature as he goes about to avenge his father's death. Shakespeare translates further the idea of internal versus external conflict by giving it a physical nature. Shakespeare also uses soliloquies to emphasise Hamlets inner thoughts and conflict. This stands in contrast to the way he acts amongst others; with the intention of highlighting the inner turmoil he is experiencing. The infamous quote, "To be or not to be: that is the question: whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer…." (Act III, scene i, 58-90). It is during this soliloquy that

Shakespeare's dramatic treatment of struggle is clear through Hamlet's inability to take action and carry out his duty to his father. Before avenging his father's death, Hamlet first puts on a play "to hold...the mirror up to nature," in an attempt to reinact the events of his fathers death and "catch the conscience of the king" to ensure that what the ghost has told him is true. While by arranging this play, Hamlet is in a sense taking some action by trying to ascertain the truth, Hamlet reproaches himself in a soliloquy for his lack of decisive action. Shakespeare's use of a soliloquy allows Hamlet to reveal his feelings and innermost thoughts to the audience and he admires one of the players' passion and emotion. Hamlet marvels at the

Hamlet’s character drastically develops over the first four acts of Hamlet, and his character development is most evident through the soliloquys he delivers throughout the play. The most character development can be seen from the first soliloquy, to the second, the third, the sixth, and the seventh and final soliloquy. Hamlet’s inner conflict with his thoughts and his actions are well analyzed in his soliloquys, as well as his struggles with life and death, and his very own existence. He begins the play wondering what purpose he has in life now that his father is dead and his mother has remarried to his uncle. After finding out foul play was involved in his father’s death, he is motivated by revenge. Finally, he wonders how he can enact his revenge while continuously overthinking and overanalyzing his actions.

In Hamlet's second soliloquy, Act 2, Scene 2, his speech moves through anger, self-condemnation and agonised self-accusation, impassioned fury and mocking self criticism, deep reflection and determination. He continuously points out his faults on how he cannot raise himself to adequate passion to avenge for his father's murder, he comments on how the actor showed grief for his lines, and how he cannot, even though he has great reason to. Hamlet's mood is far beyond normal and has gone into philosophical realms, continuously using metaphors to show his disgust and anguish for himself and his attitudes to the current affairs in the state of his own home.

The emotions form the very foundations of human nature. Thus through a dramatic treatment of the concepts of struggle and disillusionment SHakespeare is able to engage the concepts of struggle and disillusionment effectively with his audience. Furthermore, through his recognition of the emotionally straining ties which people endure with family relationships Shakespeare is able to engage effectively with his audience. The struggle of family within his play is developed immediately in the play through his very first soliloquy. In it Hamlet expresses his depression and negative feelings about christian values which have been in place as a result of his family/context, referring to God as “the Everlasting” and making the first hints of his suicidal tendencies within the play. Furthermore, during the soliloquy he also makes strong attacks on his family, comparing Gertrude to “a beast that wants discourse of reason” and Claudius to a “Satyr”. These comparisons towards animals as well as the negative connotations that are implied through the words “beast” and “satyr” allow the audience to recognise that Hamlet is in a state of frustration and feelings of savagery Hamlet connotes with his family.Hamletʼs strong feelings towards his family complications cause problematic tensions to form between him, his mother and his uncle. These tensions are carried throughout the play, in his soliloquy in act 3 he states, “Now could I drink hot blood” and “let me be cruel” when speaking of

Shakespeare has a way of creating stories that never lack storyline or action. Hamlet, especially, never has a dull moment, and it can be downright confusing to some. There’s love, there’s revenge, there’s secrets, and there’s plotting. It’s especially full of some of Shakespeare's more famous monologues, including the speech that quotes, “To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Hamlet is Shakespeare’s most famous work of tragedy. Throughout the play the title character, Hamlet, tends to seek revenge for his father’s death. Shakespeare achieved his work in Hamlet through his brilliant depiction of the hero’s struggle with two opposing forces that hunt Hamlet throughout the play: moral integrity and the need to avenge his father’s murder. When Hamlet sets his mind to revenge his fathers’ death, he is faced with many challenges that delay him from committing murder to his uncle Claudius, who killed Hamlets’ father, the former king. During this delay, he harms others with his actions by acting irrationally, threatening Gertrude, his mother, and by killing Polonius which led into the madness and death of Ophelia.

Like a bird in a gilded cage, wondering whether to fly free into the perilous wild or stay in its familiar and dismal environment, children in Shakespeare’s plays are trapped when it comes to living out their lives as they wish and sharing their opinions on the matters that concern them, rendering them helpless by the tough choices thrust upon them by their parents. Choices such as: to let their thoughts be known and be banished or to be silent and witness their life be radically changed, to die or live an undesirable life? Hamlet of Shakespeare’s Hamlet feels powerless when he discovers that his uncle is now his stepfather and has taken the over Hamlet’s rightful throne, this coupled with the fact that going against his uncle would result in a harsh punishment, leaves Hamlet utterly hopeless and unable to dissent. Hermia of A Midsummer Night’s Dream finds herself in a similar position, as her misogynistic father renders her helpless when he gives her the choice to spend her life with a man she does not love or death. To begin, in the play Hamlet, Hamlet feels powerless when it comes to his mother remarrying his uncle soon after his father dies. After hearing the news of his mother’s remarriage, he performs a diatribe that divulges his angry and saddened nature. During this rant, he is interrupted and suddenly stops speaking, saying he most be quiet in fear of retaliation. Specifically, when Hamlet is discrediting his mother in his tirade, he says, “She married. O, most