CONNOTATIVE ANALYSIS OF HAMLET

Now I am going to carry out the connotative analysis of Hamlet (act III, scene I).

You are in front of a monologue or a soliloquy that is a narrative form in which the reader has the feeling to listen to somebody's intimate words as if no one else could hear the speaker's voice. Therefore it takes the reader or listener directly into the speaker's most intimate thoughts.

Hamlet is speaking and he is making a reflection: it is a reflection on whether it is worth going on living or not. Hamlet is asking himself a lot of questions to evaluate the pros and cons of continuing one's existing or not. You can notice the use of "to be" and "not to be" instead of "to live" and "not to live". This choice is more effective: the verb "to be" evocates into the listener's mind a more general idea of existence and presence in this world.

The playwright goes straight to the point. He explains immediately that his problem is to make a decision. Shakespeare makes an intelligent use of punctaction: the use of colon. Its function is to make clear into the listener's mind the concept that the writer wants to communicate. Hamlet has to decide whether it is nobler to go on living and suffer mental contraddictions or to fight against the troubles of life and put an end to them.

The argumentation he makes is organized into a series of opposition so that the speaker can better weigh both possibilities.

So the first argumentation is: to passively accept suffering typical of life and destiny or to fight against the troubles in order to find a solution and end such troubles. The word "or", that is set in a strong position, makes clear the opposition of the two possibilities.

The contrasting argumentation which is in favour of dying is immediately expressed. "To die" is compared to "to sleep". There is a metaphor between "to die" and "to sleep". First of all because death is considered an eternal sleep. But also because when you sleep it seems as if you were putting an end to the heart-ache and also to overcome the thousand natural shocks. You have to deal these troubles during life because they are a consequence of your being made of flesh. Therefore, in this context, death is wished. Death is considered the painkiller because it ends most of the problems.

A further argumentation in favour of death is again linked to sleep because "to sleep", in Hamlet's words, means perchance "to dream". But he immediately says: there stands the problem. This because in that sleep, an eternal sleep, the human being comes across dreams but he doesn't know what such dreams may be like. Hamlet says that when death comes men and women can get ride of their mortal bodies so they can have a pause. As the matter of fact mortal body creates suffering.

So the argumentation in favour of life is the fear of an unknown world. This is the only reason why men and women bear all suffering during their life.

The word "for" (= because) introduces a series of causes of suffering: "the whips and scorns of time, the oppressor's wrong, the proud man contumely, the pangs of despised love, the law's delay, the insolence of office and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes". And he asks himself: who would bear all this suffering when he can end it with a bare bodkin?

Hamlet tells about a weary life but adds that people are afraid of death because they don't know what will happen. They will enter in an undiscovered country from whose no traveller returns: they are afraid of this, they are puzzled and they prefer to bear the ills and the suffering of life.

Hamlet admits that "conscience does make cowards of us all". He says that when a person starts to think then loses the native hue of resolution. A person changes idea and prefers to go on living. "And lose the name of action" means that a person is unable to act.