Why Does Shakespeare Use Comic Relief In Hamlet

The dramatic importance of Ophelia’s funeral is that this is where Hamlet finally reveals his love for Ophelia. Hamlet says, “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers/Could not with all their quantity of love/Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?”(5.1.247-249). This is dramatic because, throughout the whole play, this was the only scene where he confesses that he loves Ophelia. In most of the play, he was mistreating and rude to Ophelia.

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

The gravedigger scene in act 5 scene 1 shows the most about how Hamlet feels about death. Hamlet refers to the skulls he finds belonging to other people and their past lives.

How does the use of comic relief best contrast the tragedy of Hamlet? In great works of literature a comic relief is used as contrast to a serious scene to intensify the overall tragic nature of the play or to relieve tension. As illustrated in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, intense scenes are joined with character’s banter and vacuous actions as to add a comic relief. In Hamlet, Polonius acts as a comic relief by his dull and windy personality, Hamlet uses his intelligence and his negativity toward the king and queen to create humor, while on the other hand Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are a comic relief by their senseless actions and naïve natures. Polonius, Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are all used as a comic relief to

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

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

The reason being that Hamlet can’t let go of what could have happened to his father even though he can get in big trouble if he kills the king. It’s showing how many people get affected by the anger and tension going around. A lot of people started to even want Hamlet dead because this built up anger he had was making him go crazy and people were noticing. A lot of people were killed that wouldn’t have been killed if hamlet hadn’t decided to go crazy and not let something that might have been

    Hamlet is a character that we love to read about and analyze. His character is so realistic, and he is so romantic and idealistic that it is hard not to like him. He is the typical young scholar facing the harsh reality of the real world. In this play, Hamlet has come to a time in his life where he has to see things as they really are. Hamlet is an initiation story. Mordecai Marcus states "some initiations take their protagonists across a threshold of maturity and understanding but leave them enmeshed in a struggle for certainty"(234).  And this is what happens to Hamlet.

Throughout Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, Hamlet’s emotions, actions, and thoughts cause much trouble during the play. Hamlet encounters stages of sarcasm, inanity, suicidal tendencies/self-deprecation, and procreation/indecision which develop not only his personality but the play itself. Hamlet uses sarcasm to express his emotions, pretends to be insane (ultimately leading him to become truly insane), self-deprecates throughout the play due to family events, and procrastinates because he is indecisive. Hamlet encounters many life-altering events throughout the play such as his uncle poisoning his father and quickly remarrying Hamlet’s mother, to accidentally killing Polonius thinking it was Claudius, all the way to debating upon: his own

Towards the end of the play, there are two scenes in the graveyard. One is when Hamlet picks up a skull, and the gravedigger tells him that the skull belonged to Yorick, the old king's jester. Hamlet tells Horatio that he knew Yorick, and then realizes what we all become after we die, dust. He then plays with the idea of life and death, and describes the finality of it. The gravedigger scene is the tragic conclusion of the play. The second scene of comedy in this scene is when the gravediggers argue whether Ophelia should be allowed to be

In the book Hamlet by Shakespeare, irony is used numerous times in order to give the reader insight on what is going on. As stated in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, irony is an action that is understood by the audience but not by the characters in the play. If this strategy were not included in this drama, it would take away the whole purpose. This play would consist of no suspense and would be extremely boring to the reader because the characters would know as much as the readers know. This allows for incite to what can happen in the future or what has happened in the past. The irony in this play ultimately revolves around Hamlet and his plan to achieve revenge with Claudius. From the play that Hamlet organizes

How does humor factor into a tragedy? Shakespeare knew the answer to this question and acted upon it quite frequently. Shakespeare has been known to write comedies and tragedies both but this does not qualify him at to not incorporate a little of each into each other. In the work of Hamlet there are many occasions where Shakespeare uses it for different effects. The main reason for the presence of humor within a tragedy is to keep the reader interested. Shakespeare uses many forms of humor including but not limiting wit, pun’s, and casual jokes. In the work of Hamlet, Hamlet is usually the character that Shakespeare chooses to bring out the humor in anything. He becomes a very

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.

The tragedy of Hamlet by William Shakespeare is about Hamlet going insane and reveals his madness through his actions and dialogue. Hamlet remains one of the most discussed literary characters of all time. This is most likely due to the complex nature of Hamlet as a character. In one scene, Hamlet appears happy, and then he is angry in another and melancholy in the next. Hamlet’s madness is a result of his father’s death which was supposedly by the hands of his uncle, Claudius. He has also discovered that this same uncle is marrying his mom. It is expected that Hamlet would be suffering from some emotional issues as result of these catastrophes. Shakespeare uses vivid language, metaphors, and imagery to highlight how Hamlet’s madness

Shakespearean plays are often known for their outstanding entertainment and classic comic conflict. In his masterwork, Hamlet, Shakespeare uses these aspects to serve his thematic purpose. He has used comedy throughout many of his historic plays, but in this play, comedy is the drawing point that makes it fun and entertaining, yet clear and intuitive. Generally, his tragedies are not seen as comical, but in reality, they are full of humor. However, these comic elements don’t simply serve to relieve tension; they have much significance to the play itself. The characters of Hamlet, Polonius, Osric, and the Gravediggers, prove to be very influential characters, and throughout the play, they are the individuals that