The Imagery of Hamlet

A detailed Summary of The Imagery of Hamlet

Shakespeare's Hamlet uses imagery as a means to portray ideas that varies away from the normal representation of a thought. Shakespeare uses imagery as a vivid or figurative language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. Imagery permits the reader to reveal the author's intentions instead of hearing their descriptions. Learning the ideas makes this type of doubtfulness more powerful rather than being shown to the reader. The intensity of imagery used throughout the play is unmistakable.(Imagery)

Three important functions are used to show the performance of imagery in Hamlet. First, the main characters of the play are individualized. Second, major themes are announced and elaborated. Finally, it places images in the audience's mind by establishing the atmosphere of the play and it keeps the basic mood of the tragedy. The clarity in which Shakespeare uses imagery helps to define these functions, emphasizing what is really important to humanity.(Imagery of Hamlet)

A clear reoccurring pattern in the play's imagery is evident by the poisoned sword and cup. Hamlet's father being poisoned is a major symbol of the moral condition of Denmark. Just as Claudius poured the 'leporous distilment' into his sleepin

The feeling that the imagery in Hamlet portrays from the visual descriptions of disease, poison, and decay shows a world of horrible tragedy to the reader. Without describing the actions of important events, you would never get the real feel for the play.

Through both of these images pointed out, Hamlet focuses attention upon the guilt of his uncle and his mother. Later, the Prince declares sadly "this is th'imposthume of much wealth and peace, / That inward breaks, and shows no cause without / Why the man dies", when he perceives Fortinbras and his army en route to war in Poland. Sickness and disease are associated with many of the images used by Claudius, but they have a very different assumption. Ironically, the King compares his own physical well being and with that of his rule with the health of his kingdom. Hearing of Polonius's death, Claudius says that he should have had his mentally unsteady nephew locked up earlier; and while he is in the Queen's presence he misleadingly maintains "so much was our love / We would not understand what was most fit, / But like the owner of a foul disease, / To keep it from divulging, let it feed / Even on the pith of life." The king's son is sent to England by means of a medical saying "Disease desperate grown / By desperate appliance are relieved, / Or not at all ". The furious Claudius uses the language of a man suffering from a fever when the king is apostrophizing the English King and is ordering him to execute hamlet "Do it England for like the hectic in my blood he rages, / And thou must cure me." Through yet another sickness image, the King sums up the danger presented to himself by Hamlet's abrupt return "but to the quick of th'ulcer / Hamlet comes back." Just as others in Hamlet allude to sickness, Laertes refers to his anguish over his father's death as 'the very sickness in my heart' and the queen speak

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Approximate Word count = 1267
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels