hamlet essay

Depth within Shakespeare’s Hamlet Captivating, tragic, dramatic, illusive, enchanting, beguiling, obscurely profound, appalling, complex, enigmatic and ultimately thought provoking, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is anything but ordinary. The extensively engrossing plot of Hamlet is crafted through a strong sense of tone and enhanced with figurative language and individualized characterization. Through a exceedingly distinct and melodramatic tone, Shakespeare harmonizes his words in manner that fabricates a more captivating plot. From the onset of very first line spoken in the play, “Who’s there?”(1.1), a perplexing and eerie tone is evoked. This initial line induces the reader hungry to read further and additionally sheds a sense of wonder to the scene. The by standing and interacting characters within this scene are left astounded and confused, prompting the reader to feel similarly curious. The speculation of a ghost integrates into to the eerie tone of the play. The possible presence of a ghost implies that “something rotten in the state of Denmark”(1. 4. 89). This line articulates an element of foreshadowing, indicating something unpleasant in the near future. A sense of foreshadowing advances the dramatic tone of the piece, contributing suspense. Furthermore, the manner in which the characters speak also submit to the tone of the play. In Hamlet’s famous soliloquy he utters, “To die; to sleep; no more; and by sleep to say we end the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to”(3.1). In this grand show of a speech in which Hamlet is center stage, he seems to be nearly disturbed and undoubtedly distraught. This river of raw emotion flows into the tone as well, for when Hamlet speaks the breathlessness of that fictional room can seemingly be felt through Shakespeare’s words.
Figurative language infused within Hamlet enriches the play as a whole and creates a more illustrative storyline. In an immensely intense scene of the play, Hamlet cries