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Recommended: Hamlet as a comedy
A Portrayal of Humor Within the Tragedy of Hamlet
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 diverse character in this sense considering he can make a joke out of dead people and even people he kills. Rather a charming person in the face of unpleasant events.
To be able to understand humor, we must accept that we cannot understand all of it. Why something is funny is only determined by the reader and him or herself alone. The smile is the natural expression of the satisfaction that attends the success of any striving. Hamlet often finds humorous occasions especially after he has done something that affects another character. He takes the “inside joke'; to the limits and smiles upon the defeat of his enemies. This is especially true with the relationship between him and his father-by-marriage. Hamlet puts on the play so that he may have a reassurance that his true father was wrongfully killed by his uncle Claudius. Once the play had ended so abruptly Hamlet smiles upon the dismay of Claudius knowing that he has finally found the source of revenge. This is not so much humor in a good since but rather a cynical wit of Hamlet. Because of this sort of wit, Hamlet is considered to be a mentally sick person but Hamlet is however sane in his actions.
Hamlet is one to be labeled as a quite witty person. He is rather quick with his words and able to manipulate them is such a fashion to motivate the reader to seek more of this character. Wit becomes a part of him that shows itself more than ever. In a book by the name of The Psychology of Laughter and Comedy, it gives a description of two main species of wit. These are listed as harmless wit and tendency w...
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... be mad and Hamlet is really trying to convince her that he is not. He knew what he was saying he just meant for Hamlet to lie his head in her lap during the play.
Hamlet is a book that allows the mind to wander and come back again in time to laugh at the frequent moments of humor. Laughter is only as good as the joke being told and Hamlet along with all the other players hold a very important role in keeping the storyline important and alive. There is only one character that seems not to have any humor involved at all. This would be the ghost of Hamlet’s true father. He is very intent with his meanings and has only one mindset. This is to revenge his murder. This kind of an omnipresent being is almost impossible to portray as humorous because it is the one person or thing that contains the entire plot of the book. Hamlet is yet a tragedy but Shakespeare successfully brings humor through the grim walls of a tragedy and allows the reader to manipulate the scene any way he or she wishes. Humor can be manipulated as well with double meanings and different viewpoints upon what is “funny'; and what is not.
nbsp;   ; Humour plays a very significant part in the play as it allows Shakespeare creates a lot of contrasts and moods, as and when he wants to. In Romeo and Juliet, humour occurs in three forms. The first being, humour. by the use of puns, irony and jokes.
he is putting on an act. (I, v). Hamlet also tells his mother that he is
Humor was added to Hamlet by two major scenes, along with Hamlet's use of his antic-disposition. These two were: the scene between Hamlet and Polonius in the library, and the scene with the grave diggers (the clowns).
Much of the dramatic action of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet is within the head of the main character, Hamlet. His wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled, mocking, nature of his mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love, as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishes for consummation and annihilation. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears, and also polite badinage.
Shakespeare 's play "Hamlet" is about a complex protagonist, Hamlet, who faces adversity and is destined to murder the individual who killed his father. Hamlet is a character who although his actions and emotions may be one of an insane person, in the beginning of the book it is clear that Hamlet decides to fake madness in order for his plan to succeed in killing Claudius. Hamlet is sane because throughout the play he only acts crazy in front of certain people, to others he acts properly and displays proper prince like behavior who is able to cope with them without sounding crazy, and even after everything that has been going on in his life he is able to take revenge by killing his
Hamlet, a young prince preparing to become King of Denmark, cannot understand or cope with the catastrophes in his life. After his father dies, Hamlet is filled with confusion. However, when his father's ghost appears, the ghost explains that his brother, Hamlet's Uncle Claudius, murdered him. In awe of the supposed truth, Hamlet decides he must seek revenge and kill his uncle. This becomes his goal and sole purpose in life. However, it is more awkward for Hamlet because his uncle has now become his stepfather. He is in shock by his mother's hurried remarriage and is very confused and hurt by these circumstances. Along with these familial dysfunctions, Hamlet's love life is diminishing. It is an "emotional overload" for Hamlet (Fallon 40). The encounter with the ghost also understandably causes Hamlet great distress. From then on, his behavior is extremely out of context (Fallon 39). In Hamlet's first scene of the play, he does not like his mother's remarriage and even mentions his loss of interest in l...
"But two months dead-- …my poor father’s body…why she married with my uncle, My father’s brother, but no more like my father…Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears…But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue" Hamlet painfully moans to himself. It is clear at the beginning of the play that Hamlet was suffering—emotionally. It hurt him to see his mother marry so soon after his father’s death and Hamlet felt alone since no one else seemed to feel his pain and be mourning with him. It’s safe to conclude that Hamlet had a commendable and upright relationship with his father whom he admired. Unless one was not as courageous or as confident as Hamlet, we would’ve complained and tried to ruin the marriage. Prince Hamlet on the other hand, showed heroic skills by putting others first. He kept his pain to himself and didn’t want to cause any difficulties with the townspeople or family.
In conclusion, a comic relief is used to relieve tension and to contrast serious scenes to increase the ultimate tragic nature of the play. Polonius uses his self absorbed dull personality to create humor in his scenes. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act as the fool by their tactless actions and dialogue, their lightheartedness makes the tragic parts of the play seem all the more tragic. And finally Hamlet uses his morbid humor to intensify scenes of sorrow while he also bitterly teases others to relieve tensions at times. The comic relief in Shakespeare’s Hamlet contrasts intense scenes as to make them more intense.
Humor in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night In Twelfth Night we see different types of humour. There is the witty
In Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark the main character Hamlet goes through a series of very unfortunate events throughout his life, and mostly negative things come out of them. During the beginning of the play we find out that Hamlet loses his father the King of Denmark. This causes a great depression to Hamlet. Soon after Hamlet becomes even more upset due to the fact that he finds out that his uncle Claudius will be marrying his mother Gertrude and be the new King of Denmark. This causes Hamlet to go crazy, insane, and mad. Over the course of the play Hamlets madness continues to build due to everything that happens between the beginning and the end. At the end Hamlet has gone completely and incredibly mad. This madness ends up breaking out of him and spread throughout the ending scene of the play.
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 influences several important aspects of his life including his relationships and the way he presents himself.
In life the border between sanity and madness is thin and undefined. At best it is
William Shakespere 's tragedy of Hamlet is a story of revenge and distress involving Hamlet Jr, the prince of Denmark. The plot of the play focuses on Hamlet 's quest to avenge his father 's death. Hamlet learns that his father did not die accidentally, as the public believed, and that his Uncle Claudius is the one who murdered his father. Claudius then hastily married Hamlet 's mother and became king. Hamlet is an archetypical example of a tragic hero. He starts out as a noble and virtuous character and then confronts challenges that expose his tragic flaws which lead to his downfall. Hamlet 's tragic flaws are making rash decisions as well as being overly contemplative.
Hamlet: one of the most analyzed tragic heroes in all of literature. Hamlet, the main character in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is conflicted throughout the whole play. He obsesses over avenging his father’s death, and this leads to rash, irresponsible actions that cause others to suffer, as well. He plans to kill Claudius, his uncle, for murdering his father and then marrying his mother. In an act of outrage, Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, the King’s assistant, instead. This creates even more problems because now someone else’s father is dead. Hamlet is somewhat of an inconsistent character; he’s different almost every time we see him. Hamlet displays characteristics of depression, irony, timidity, and being hurt.
Regardless of a person’s age or literary preference it is undeniable that William Shakespeare had a flair for composing dramatic tragedies. Tragedy is a powerful underlining theme which portrays the qualities of the human capacity. In one of Shakespeare’s most brilliant plays, Hamlet, tragedy is portrayed through the protagonist’s constant contemplation of suicide. Shakespeare often alludes to powerful images of death by using pathos and bereavement in life to be inconsequential. In the play, Hamlet, William Shakespeare produces a tragedy which illustrates the suggestion of suicide and the imagery of death as solutions to problems through Ophelia’s demise, the minor characters reflection upon death, and most importantly the protagonist Hamlet.