English Literature

Hamlet Essay

Discuss the following passage from Act III Scene I, exploring

Shakespeare’s use of language and its dramatic effects.

As chaos and supposed-rot spread around the state of Denmark like wild res, the audience nds
itself in the face of a game of lies and immersive trickery. The tragic hero Hamlet has been marked
as mad by the royal court. His closest allies, family and friends are all out trying to help him. To
reach for him, and pull the deadly Prince back from the brink of what they’ call “insanity.” No one
but the audience truly knows Hamlet’s path runs deeper than ever—with the antic-disposition he
cleverly took upon himself to cover his doubtful plans like a bittersweet shroud. Shakespeare
navigates the audience into an Act, or several, of dramatic manipulation—where deception plays
a grand role in the spiral of despair—letting the idea run as deep and damp as a hidden pit. And
no one suspects the wiser. After a discussion with the King and Queen, we see Polonius’ need to
prove himself burning brighter than ever. He o ers up his own daughter, the lovely Lady Ophelia,
as a puppet. A pawn. We witness him planning to use her—to “loose” her, in his own scandalous
language—in order to draw Hamlet’s attention. Shakespeare guides the audience through a
rollercoaster of twisted lies and pride. He intends to show them the exact wicked ways in which
Polonius’ love reaches out to his daughter. Meanwhile, the daft nobleman and King Claudius are
shown to be hiding behind the scenes as a reckoning is met between Hamlet and Ophelia; hoping
more than ever to witness if the Prince’s insanity as as true as his awaiting crown.

Shakespeare begins the soliloquy with one of the most famous lines in literature history, “To be, or
not to be: that is the question:”. Hamlet’s ominous question already predicts the drastic mood that
is soon to come. A mysterious, vague inquiry, one which lets the audience question what Hamlet
truly meant it about. It is depicting the Prince in his most indecisive state—letting the audience
catch a glimpse of Hamlet in a state of disorder and with no control over himself. Most likely due
to the entire storm of chaos raging around himself. Shakespeare underlining incredibly long
sentences into the Prince’s lines also prove how far he has spiralled from his former stable self.
The audience’s true question, however, is what Hamlet genuinely meant by this world-known
phrase. He might be questioning whether he should continue to be ‘insane’. He might be
questioning whether he should truly become the murderer that he planned to be by killing his
uncle. Or perhaps he might even be questioning his own will to live by this stage. Shakespeare’s
stirring pauses in between each lines may indicate any of the above. The writer’s usage of “mortal
coil” in the phrase, “When we have shu ed o this mortal coil” appears to dictate another of
Hamlet’s questioned desires to live. “Mortal coil” resembles esh, like an animal shedding o its
skin—in this case a human’s life being taken away, in turn revealing the otherworldly, ethereal soul
within. Shakespeare using the phrase, “The insolence of o ce”, indicates Hamlet’s irritated view
over the exhilarating body politics going on through the play. He appears to despise the ruling
order, thinking it as impertinent and contempt—perhaps even referencing to Claudius, the snake
himself. However, against all of his mysterious suggestions of passing to death, the audience can
indeed see how Hamlet does in fact fear what stands after life. Shakespeare’s addition of the line
“But that the dread of something after death, The undiscovere’d country from whose bourn No
traveller returns,” conveys that Hamlet had a grim impact from his encounter with his father’s
ghost—fearing he may perhaps end up like the wandering King himself. Through the critical
phrase, “Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,” the audience witnesses Hamlet’s dutiful
overthinking in play, as Shakespeare evokes the Prince’s fatal aw.
Forward, a moment before the Lady Ophelia enters the room and chaos erupts, the audience
views one last disquieting glimpse of the motif of rot and decay that has been explored
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throughout the play—in Shakespeare’s use of the corroding line, “And thus the native hue of
resolution Is sicklied o’er with the plan cast of thought”.

As Ophelia enters the room to have a fateful encounter with Hamlet, Shakespeare riles up the
audience with many poison-dipped honey-sweet techniques. As an example, he already sets the
mood of possible lies and deception through Ophelia’s simple usage of the formal word “Your”,
rather than the casual “Thy” as they usually greet—secretly implying the lady may well be
cautious and nervous. Additionally, through this very highlight Shakespeare explores the
possibilities that Ophelia is that formal so as to actually alert Hamlet to the wry fact that his uncle
and Polonius are watching. Ophelia’s presentation on the stage could establish many di erent
ways in which the Scene could go—as conveying her as dgeting or constantly moving will
illustrate the act of her perhaps trying to aid Hamlet. She might be glancing at a speci c direction
—close to the pair’s hiding place—in order to indicate to the Prince they are spying. Furthermore,
in Hamlet’s courteous reply the usage of the three “well” instead of a simple one was originally not
written by Shakespeare, but added on by actors to enhance the mood. Shakespeare illustrates
that Hamlet may well already know he’s being watched, through the uttered phrase, “I never gave
you aught,”—as he declines Ophelia’s returned gifts in possible awareness.
Ophelia’s line, “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind,” develops an air and aroma of
tension between the two. This is Ophelia saying that even the best gifts lose their meanings if the
givers withhold—clearly indicating Hamlet’s neglect of her. In the next four questions,
Shakespeare creates a jagged pace to fully convey how those two have drastically fallen apart—
that in the past they understood each other so clearly, and Ophelia could even have been
considered Hamlet’s intellectual equal. Yet now they cannot even properly converse. An
awkwardness hangs in the air. A true sign of miscommunication and detachment. Shakespeare
reinforcing Hamlet’s constant change of subject may be to hurt Ophelia back for the pain she
caused him by following with her father’s plans. Another subtle act to prove the Prince knows he
is being watched.

The true chaos begins after that, though. The usage of a forceful, bitter and verbal diatribe on
Ophelia brings forth Hamlet’s bubbling rage, and all the wrath he’s accumulated through the last
few days, to the surface. The audience witnesses Hamlet cursing all women as frail and weak. Yet
it is implied that his true anger is directed toward his traitorous mother, for marrying Claudius as
soon as her husband passed away—an act that could be considered foul. The mood is even
further pushed to its edge by the line, “I did love you once,” revealing that our tragic Prince no
longer feels the same love and a ection toward Ophelia as he once did. Shakespeare’s beautiful
usage of, “for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it,” is the nal drastic
breaking point—a strikingly powerful phrase that explores Hamlet’s drift from reality and all that is
good. It reveals that no virtue or morality from the righteous Ophelia can graft on to Hamlet’s
stock, his very core. It is another crafty indication from Shakespeare about the rot motif of
Denmark, and the body politics greedily swirling around the play. Hamlet’s anger grows, and so
too does his wicked o ence. It is portrayed clearly by the many times he further screams at
Ophelia to go to a nunnery. Shakespeare may have insinuated a di erent meaning of “nunnery”,
though. It being a slang for “brothel”—shockingly hinting that Hamlet thinks Ophelia is no better
than a damned prostitute in the same lines. Hamlet’s self-hatred is re ected out to the clear
surface as he provides the terri ed Ophelia with the many faults of him; “I could accuse me of
such things that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious; with more o ences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give
them shape, and time to act them in.” Such an in uential and terrifying line, traversing the
audience through the exact ways in which Hamlet thinks of himself, while still creating an aroma
of madness, cracked terror, and proverbial insanity. Hamlet seemed to reach the peak of his rage
where he proves he has nothing better to say about men than women, as established in, “We are
arrant knaves all; believe none of us.” Shakespeare increases the Prince’s awareness aspect of
the encounter by a suspicious, and sudden, ending question.

“Where’s your father?”

Ophelia absurdly lies in Hamlet’s face, breaking the last straw of trust and a ection that withered
between them into nothingness. The audience witnesses Ophelia calling out to the heavens,
evoking her distress and fear as she prays for Hamlet to be xed. Along with her showing she
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 nally truly thinks he has lost his mind. Shakespeare illustrating the phrase, “Let the doors be shut
upon him, that he may play the fool no where but in’s own house,” even calls out the theme of
deception arousing the scenario through the Prince. Hamlet proceeds to curse Ophelia and the
entire court, as a testament to his boiling wrath toward her being a pawn in her father’s wretched
hands. The many times through which Hamlet attempted to exit the room—perhaps to prevent
any more of his traitorous emotions from leaking—are neglected by his rumbling anger. Each and
every time until the last he said, “Farewell,” it appears he turns back and casts another part of his
corrupted soul’s spell onto Ophelia.

At long last Ophelia is left alone. Hamlet has nally left. Shakespeare’s compelling attribute of
Ophelia speaking out her own scared soliloquy alludes to the reality of Hamlet truly turning
against everything and everyone he knew. Shakespeare even manages to augment the what-
should-have-been-heroic Prince into a deranged, wicked and corrupted villain. He succeeded in
turning the tides of everything that was conveyed, the writer’s dramatic uses of crafty language
being capable of rotating even the audience against Hamlet. The nal employment of Ophelia’s
imagery in the line, “Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out
of tune and harsh;” bring up a mind-shaking fact to the play’s surface. She insinuates that it is
perhaps Hamlet himself that is the rotten thing in Denmark. That perhaps he is the source of all
the decay and chaos spreading throughout the crumbling state.
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