Of Behavior In William Blake's 'Clod And Pebble'

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Claudius ' type of behaviour can also be shown by Blake 's poem the 'Clod and Pebble '. The poem demonstrates different opinions on love expressed by the Clod and the Pebble who opposes him with a pessimistic view. The Pebble expresses that ‘Love seeketh only self to please ', conveying how love is a selfish emotion. In this way, the Pebble is shown to have a similar attitude to love as Claudius as he is prepared to let Gertrude die so that he does not expose his plot to kill Hamlet. Likewise, the Clod represents Gertrude and her supportive and optimistic outlook on love. The quote ‘Love seeketh not itself to please ' shows the Clods unselfish and passionate nature. Blake manages to juxtapose both the Clod and the Pebbles opinions of love …show more content…

By demanding that Hamlet avenges his death by killing Claudius, he has doomed Hamlet. The ghost first addresses Hamlet with a simple imperative sentence, ‘Mark me ' which demonstrates his authority over Hamlet. Hamlets submissive response ‘I will ' shows his love for what he believes to be his father by following its command. Shakespeare uses the apparition 's dominance to express Hamlets desire to serve his father by following his orders, conversely, it may also reveal Hamlets inability to act as he is instructed as to what he should do. These ideas are evident when the ghost takes advantage of Hamlet by questioning his loyalty with the conditional sentence ‘If thou didst ever thy dear father love… revenge his most unnatural murder. ' By concealing the dependent clause of the traitorous act of murdering the king by means of questioning Hamlet 's unwavering love through the main clause, it creates dichotomy which corrupts Hamlet 's mind. The ghost continues to persuade Hamlet through the use of repetition of the lexical choices ‘foul ' and ‘unnatural '. Ironically, the ghost is blinded by his selfish act to seek revenge that it is unaware that Hamlet must perform a ‘foul ' and ‘unnatural ' act in order to take revenge. Although Hamlet vows to take revenge, it 's evident that his more methodical approach restricts him from carrying out duty to his father, yet he is still unable to see that his …show more content…

This is apparent as Laertes disregards the implications of killing the king, whereas Hamlet is deterred by the fear of spending eternity in hell. Laertes ' duty to his father is also present in his sister Ophelia who displays love through her obedience to her father. Although she is a highly emotional character and appears to truly love Hamlet, once Polonius instructs her to ignore Hamlet 's affections she replies ‘I shall obey, my lord '. The declarative shows that there is no question that she will obey him, the lexical choice ‘my lord ' also displays further respect allowing Polonius to take a dominant stance. This demonstration of obedience is juxtaposed by Hamlets line ‘I shall in all my best obey you, madam '. Although it is equally respectful as shown by the use of the lexical choice ‘maddam ', he does not promise to fulfil his duty to his mother by showing complete compliance. Equally, the lexical choice ‘you ' is used as a second person pronoun which can show that Hamlet does not respect Claudius ' as he is unwilling to follow his instructions. Shakespeare uses both Laertes ' impulsive character and Ophelia 's emotional side to show Hamlet as a complex character, as much like a coin, he is both impulsive and emotional. This is the cause of his dichotomy as although he wants to act his thoughts refrain him from taking

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