Preview

Hamlet: Syntax and Tone

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
320 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hamlet: Syntax and Tone
Hamlet: Syntax and Tone
The twelve lines between the Queen and Hamlet demonstrate a unique use of syntax and a specific tone. Beginning with the Queen’s first words in line 9 and ending with Hamlet’s in line 12, Hamlet’s responses mimic his mother’s in word choice and order, while offering opposite, but certainly insulting, meanings. For example, the Queen states “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended” only to be countered with Hamlet’s witty attack, “Mother, you have my father much offended”. The parallelism and repetition in these lines (and the two after) add emphasis to Hamlet’s harshness.
Also important to note is the formal and informal language contrast. While the Queen’s use of “thou”, “hast”, and “thy” are more traditional and imply authority and properness, Hamlet’s use of the simpler and less formal versions of these same words subtly undermines the power behind his mother’s statement.
The tone in this dialogue is one of rising emotional confliction between the Queen and Hamlet, and is best seen through the projected attitude of the Queen. Her beginning statements to Hamlet about offending Claudius reflect a tone of calm disappointment, but her frustration rises, marked by her pleading “come, come”. The exclamation she makes in line 13 displays her shock at Hamlet’s rudeness while the exclamation in line 21 reveals her sudden climax of fear. Undoubtedly, Hamlet also adds to the tone as his responses become increasingly deliberate. Making use of a skillful syntax to reveal conflict, Hamlet attacks his mother with witty statements, belittles her with rhetorical questions (“what’s the matter now?”), wishes he were not her son with exclamation (line 15), and finishes with a command to sit that he may “set us a glass where you may see the inmost part of you.”
In summary, the syntax utilizes parallelism, repetition, sarcastic and rhetorical questions, exclamations, and commands in order to highlight the tone of rising emotion and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Within the passage from Hamlet, Shakespeare uses diction, Imagery and metaphors in order to gravely convey the Ghost and Hamlet’s contempt for Claudius and the Queen.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hamlet Rhetorical Analysis

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In spite of the fact that the plot evokes the implication that it occurred between the close of 16th century and the start of the 17th century, Shakespeare’s Hamlet surpasses the constraints of time and muses upon both the primitive and contemporary man. In the late 16th century in England, people of all classes on the social echelon, with the exception of royals, were able to publicly eyewitness theatre. Audiences craved new plays to assuage their appetites. One of numerous dramatists that capitalized this abundance of opportunity was Shakespeare. Opposed to the modern time, audiences spectated the play to hear it rather than see it. The articulation of the lines and significance of how the story was recited was crucial…

    • 1632 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hamlet Book Report Hamlet

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The King and Queen both notice the attitude of Hamlet, causing Hamlet to be filled with disgust when his mother questions him about why his father’s death has affected him…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Read Act I of the play, then go to the assignment and list at least two examples for each of the language patterns you have found in Act I. Give the scene and line number where you find each example.…

    • 403 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From an audience-response perspective, Shakespeare intentionally leaves parts of the play vague. Ophelia’s unclear cause for death, Claudius’ supposed guilt, and Hamlet’s true desire for revenge and just some of the cases where Shakespeare leaves the specifics vague as to allow the audience to formulate their own interpretations. There are small hints regarding the truth behind Shakespeare’s intentions, such as when Gertrude claims that Ophelia’s death was an accident, while providing small details that make the audience ponder whether or not Gertrude witnessed Ophelia’s death and if her death was an accident as Gertrude claims. This leaves the audience questioning the validity of Gertrude’s claims and what really happened to Ophelia. Claudius proclaims his guilt for his brother’s murder; however he is hesitant to recant what he has done for fear of losing his possessions and power. Does Claudius actually feel guilty about murdering his brother since he had not repented for his murder? Hamlet seemingly has a desire to get vengeance for his father, yet he doesn’t act in the name of this revenge quest. It makes the audience question if Hamlet’s true goal is actually vengeance. If it is, why doesn’t he act on it? These questions Shakespeare intentionally leaves open for the audience to make their own interpretations. Through this unique writing style Shakespeare uses, he is allowing for the audience to formulate different, unique ideas regarding the…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    5 Stages of Grief Hamlet

    • 1396 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Though Hamlet does not go through the stage of denial, it is evident starting in act one, scene two, that the royal family is very much in denial of how much they should be affected by the loss of their king. This is seen through the royal ‘we’ that Queen Gertrude uses to display her and her new husband’s feelings to Hamlet while covering up their sadness with royal duties. “QUEEN GERTRUDE…

    • 1396 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hamlet's Paranoia

    • 2158 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Hamlet once saw his mother as the epitome of virtue. This image is dashed against the rocks when he finds her married, incestuously, to his uncle less than two months following his father’s death. Having only seen his mother with his father, Hamlet perceives that he has lost her after she marries Claudius. Hamlet has, “All his life he has believed in her, we may be sure, as such a son would” (Bradley, 98). Hamlet looks down upon his mother’s second marriage as disrespect to the memory of his father. Hamlet cries out “O, most wicked speed to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I. 2. 161-62). Now alone save for Horatio, Hamlet’s madness is left to grow unchecked.…

    • 2158 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the late king Hamlet appeared to his son,…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hamlet states ‘I will speak daggers to’ Gertrude. To what extent do you agree that Hamlet’s words are stronger than his actions?…

    • 1644 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article responds to the criticism leveled at John Russell Brown’s “Multiplicity of Meaning in the Last Moments of Hamlet,” particularly the charge of failure “to show how the wide range of meanings in the single last sentence was related to the whole of the play in performance” (275). This article insists that the Hamlet actor’s presence on stage and enactment of events provides the audience with a physical knowledge of Hamlet, void of the psychological dimension that ambiguous language camouflages. Hamlet’s wordplay is “an essential quality of his nature,” which remains intact during the process of his dying (275). While the original article’s dismissal of the “O, o, o, o” addition (present in the Folio after Hamlet’s last words) received negative responses from Dieter Mehl and Maurice Charney, this article argues that doubts of authenticity, authority, and dramatic effectiveness justify this decision. The physical death on stage and the verbal descriptions of Hamlet’s body also negate the need for a last-minute groan. Ultimately, the “stage reality” co-exists with words yet seems “beyond the reach of words”; hence, in Hamlet, Shakespeare created “a character who seems to carry within himself something unspoken and unexpressed . . . right up until the moment Hamlet dies” (285).…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    <br>Hamlet 's soliloquy has tremendous dramatic effect - as he is alone on the stage and is able to share his thoughts with the audience, it is an important method of displaying his feelings of ambiguity in this scene. When in the presence of the king and court, he is politely hostile - "Not so my lord," - but his first words are undoubtedly bitter; Hamlet informs his Uncle that he himself is "A little more than kin, and less than kind." When he…

    • 1651 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hamlet Literary Analysis

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet’s inner struggle to exact revenge on Claudius or not is his demise. His indecisiveness creates a path of destruction that takes many lives. Hamlet’s inner struggle is highlighted by his doubting of the ghost’s commands, his refusal to kill the king while during prayer (or attempted prayer), and his inability to kill Claudius bringing the ghost back a second time.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark, appears to have no genuine thoughts. She agrees with her husband each time he opens his mouth. While Hamlet continues to mourn over his father's death, the King asks, "How is it that the clouds still hang on you?" (I, ii, l. 66). The king implies that Hamlet should be over the recent death of his father. Gertrude echoes Claudius's statement remarking, "Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off,/ And let thing eye look like a friend on Denmark" (I, ii, 68-69). Gertrude lets both her husband, Claudius, and her son walk all over her throughout the play. Claudius is constantly telling his wife, "Come, away," dismissing her from a room as if she were an animal. When Polonius presents the King and Queen with his theory for Hamlet's madness, the Queen does not interject or protest. The King asks, "Do you think ‘tis this?" (II, ii, 151) and the Queen merely remarks, "It may be, very like" (II, ii, 152).…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare creates a rich emotional fabric in Hamlet's first soliloquy. From the first lines of the soliloquy, we can find such emotions as depression, disillusion, anger, and even the hatred and disgust for Hamlet's mother and uncle. The first line in the soliloquy shows us depression: "O! that this too too solid flesh would melt,/Thaw and resolve itself into a dew" (Shakespeare 42). Hamlet's depressive spirit is explained by that he is tired of life and wants to die. The reason for this is that all of the events, like King Hamlet's death or Claudius's marriage with Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, which happens with the Prince press on him. As for the being disillusion about the Queen, when she marries Claudius, Hamlet asks himself "why, she would hang on him,/As if increase of appetite had grown" (Shakespeare 42). Hamlet feels disillusioned about his mother because after two months when his father dead, she married Claudius. In Hamlet's opinion his mother betrayed his fathers love. Also Hamlet feels too angry with his uncle, so he compares Claudius with his father, who was "so excellent a king" and says about the new king "that was, to this,/Hyperion to a satyr" (Shakespeare 42). The young Prince can't understand how his uncle can be a better king than his father. Hamlet is angry with Claudius because that "satyr" married his mother and called Hamlet his son, without asking his opinion or wish. Hamlet is not only angry with his uncle, but also he hates Claudius: "My father's brother, …/within a month,/Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears/Had left the flushing in her galled eyes" (Shakespeare 44). Hamlet hates his uncle because Claudius seduced his mother. But the strongest emotion Hamlet has in my mind is disgust about his mother: "a beast, that wants discourse of reason" (Shakespeare 42). Young Hamlet thinks that his mother betrayed his father love while marrying Claudius. Also Prince thinks that his mother is like all other women, he…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Act 1 Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the audience is formally introduced to the thoughts and feelings of main character: Hamlet, through a soliloquy describing the current situation in Denmark. This includes the usage of mythical allusions, metaphors and tone to portray Hamlets feelings. The time between Hamlet’s fathers death and his mothers second marriage is demonstrated in the sentence, “But two months dead: nay not so much, not two.” For the rest of the time Hamlet speaks, he is very sarcastic and condescending towards the thought of his mother’s marriage. Hamlet compares his stepfather and his father using mythical allusions that creates solid imagery as to how Hamlet feels about these men. “So excellent a king, that was, to this/Hyperion, to a satyr,” this contrast elaborates on Hamlets disapproval of his mother’s new husband. Here he implies that he is a half-goat creature that is often mocked by society and that his father had the quality of one of the 12 Titans. Hamlet continues to allude to Greek mythology when he ironically calls his mother Niobe; implying that she shed so many tears for her deceased husband when in fact she did not seem too distraught at all. Finally, both of those literary devises contribute to the overall metaphor of Denmark being “an unweeded garden.” Without the leadership of King Hamlet and the chaos within the royal family, Elsinore will suffer. The kingdom has been spoiled and will soon be in ruins according to Hamlet. This can be inferred from Hamlet’s condescending and disapproving word choice. It is portrayed through this soliloquy that Hamlet is unhappy with how things are going in Denmark.…

    • 289 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays